Monday 6 April 2015

Harvest Monday - greeny #2

Well, we've had a much calmer week weather-wise. After the incredible storms and wind for several days last week I was relieved to find minimal damage on my plot. A few things turned up that needed returning to their owners though!

I had a good day and a half on the plot this weekend, what with having two bank holidays, making 4 days off! I planted out the rest of my potatoes and sowed some beetroot and RainbowChard in between two rows of autumn broad beans. I also sowed some spring broad beans too. Plus, lots and lots of weeding (mainly couch grass, urgh).

At home, in pots and loo rolls I had a good sowing session on Friday - sweet corn (in the loo rolls for their long roots*), winter and summer squashes. I have a load of seeds on the sofa waiting to be sown too but haven't had chance yet.

*just to add that when growing in the ground, the corn roots are shallow, just below the soil. But I find if I grow them in pots the roots poke through the bottom quite quickly, and as they're not meant to like being disturbed when planted out, I can plant the whole loo roll out too because it will break down in the soil.

I've picked quite a lot of corn salad this week, it's growing quite fast now so I'm taking a whole plant at a time rather than just picking the biggest leaves off. Here's some with my homegrown fermented gherkins.
And some with homemade coleslaw (red &. White cabbage, grated carrot and vegan Mayo and cider vinegar) - (not homegrown coleslaw though)

I've picked more oriental greens (to go in noodle soup)

And forked out the rest of my leeks. These last ones weren't that big but as there's quite a few it added up to a reasonable amount to go in a soup.

I've left a few tiny ones in situ to flower and seed around. Though if you're properly saving seed I think it's good to leave your best as they'll then be more likely to produce quality seed too.

We treated ourselves to veggie curry pie from a local takeaway this weekend and to be healthy (ish) I added some purple sprouting broccoli on the side! Should still have a fair amount of PSB to come.

And I just realised there were a couple of non-green things too:

I used some sweetcorn from the freezer to add to a savoury pancake filling plus also a tub of tomato and courgette sauce. I tried to take a photo but it just looked like brown gloop (very tasty gloop though, with added kidney beans from a tin).
When saving my corn, i do it a bit long-winded and prise out each kernal with my fingers (after blanching and cooling rapidly) because my technique for cutting it off the cob is rubbish and I end up wasting lots otherwise.
And we used up the last tub of fruit concoction for the freezer. I'm gutted at this because I usually have a huge dollop on my museli every morning. I think I might just get some cooking apples and add a jar of one of my preserves to make a slightly less healthy version (because of the sugar in the preserve).

That's me for the week, back to work tomorrow, hope you've all enjoyed the holidays!

Linking in with HarvestMonday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

8 comments:

  1. I'm glad there was no damage to you plot...and how wonderful to have the opportunity to really get going on the garden this past weekend. The corn salad looks so fresh. I must give it another try - last time I tried to grow it I got zero germination.

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    1. Thanks Margaret, yes it was a relief that there was not too much damage. It's worth giving corn salad another go, it has a good flavour. For me it works best over winter, as in summer on my sandy allotment soil it runs to seed quickly before getting any decent leaves.

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  2. Those leeks might be small, but they look really good. And your corn salad looks great. I was looking at mine yesterday and it looks pretty sad. It overwintered just fine, but I wouldn't eat those leaves. I hope they start growing.

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    1. Thanks Daphne, it's a shame so many things are coming to and end, though it marks the beginning of new crops :)
      Your lettuces looked really good anyway, even if the corn salad doesn't get going.

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  3. I'm impressed with your dedication - removing the corn kernels one by one! Oh and I like the idea of "making the pies healthy" by adding broccoli - must try that myself...

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    1. Ha ha, thanks Mark. It doesn't take too long prising them out once you get the technique right, working along a row and I usually only have a few spare cobs to do it on.
      Surely adding green stuff makes any meal healthy ;)

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  4. Every little bit if fresh harvest us precious at this tome. We are also using fruit from the freezer,

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    1. Thanks sue, it's good to have some harvests at this time of year. This year I should have more freezer fruit because we've got a bigger freezer now, so I won't make as many preserves to use the fruit up at harvest time.

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