Monday 19 December 2016

Harvest Monday - winter harvests (yes there actually are some)

Well, I don't have any harvests as interesting as mushrooms this week but there's been a few bits and bobs.
First though, using up some stored previous harvests, I roasted up a small butternut squash (leaving just one more, along with some other veggies (celeriac, carrot, garlic, not homegrown). I just have one butternut left now, though it's a big 'un.
And whilst the oven was on, roasted some more of the sweet chestnuts we foraged back in November. I sliced them down the middle first, otherwise they'll explooode.
After about 20 - 30 mins or so
I've been using up the little beetroots I cooked last week, they've kept quite well in a bowl in the fridge. I like cheese and beetroot sarnies, with a bit of mustard. (One day I'll make my own mustard just like Dave at Our Happy Acres).
Today I popped to the allotment for an hour or so for a bit of a potter around, and started bagging up some of the piles of couch grass roots I've been weeding out. Normally I just add it to the compost heap and pull out any that's still alive when I sort the compost later but there's so much which has crept into the beds that it needs dealing with separately (it re-grows from even a tiny bit of root). I've got some old black bin liners and have doubled them up, bagging-up the roots to block out the light and hopefully kill them off.
 
Whilst I was there I lifted a few leeks (not too bad a size), taking alternate plants to allow the others space to bulk up a bit.
I also harvested some more Nero kale, which went into a noodle soup this evening
And I made a first picking of corn salad / lambs lettuce. There are blankets of it in several beds because I just let it seed around. Most of the plants are pretty small but there were some worth picking....very nice to have some fresh salad leaves and hopefully the first of many. One good thing about having such a thick covering of plants is that the soil doesn't splash up onto the leaves when it rains, but it does mean the individual plants will generally be smaller than ones growing on their own with no competition. But, the ones growing close together probably produce as many leaves (if not more) overall.

I'm looking forward to having some of these leaves in sandwiches tomorrow, yum.

 

That's me for now, thanks for reading and have a great Christmas if I don't hear from you before then :D

I'm linking in with Harvest Monday, kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

 

12 comments:

  1. We used one of our Crown Prince squashes and made rwo pumpkin pies, a tagine that made four servings and still had some to freeze. It was just a small one!

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  2. your bits and bobs are so much more interesting than what I have growing in my garden this time of year, just herbs now ....its your salad greens that have me really envious, homegrown tastes so much more superior.

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    1. Hi Shaheen, well, I'm always really impressed with your delicious cooking :)
      I forget to use herbs a lot of the time, which is silly really.

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    2. Happy New Year to you Lou x

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    3. Happy new year to you too Shaheen :D

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  3. Such beautiful corn salad! And great that it has self-sown like that. I didn't get around to sowing any this year, though I could still do some in the greenhouse this winter. It's too bad you aren't a bit closer or I would gladly share a jar of mustard with you. Hope you have a great Christmas!

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    1. Thanks Dave, I was looking around at the corn salad thinking 'hmm there's not much ready yet' but it's surprising how it adds up when you pick over different areas. I've put a small plastic tunnel over one patch to speed it up now as well.
      Aw thanks Dave, I'll just have to follow one of your recipes instead.

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  4. I love having corn salad volunteering all over the garden, it means that I don't have to remember to sow it! Your few bits and bobs added up to some nice harvests. Hope your Christmas is a very merry one!

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    1. Hi Michelle, exactly!.... and of course the corn salad does way better than anything I manually sow. The same goes for chard.

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  5. Nice harvests! Always fun to have a whole meal straight out of the garden in those grey winter months!

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    1. Thanks Lotte, there's definitely something particularly satisfying about winter harvests, especially when you think there's not much around then realise, hey, that's not bad.

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