Tuesday 17 April 2018

Harvest Monday - PSB at last! And winter salads finishing

There's a lot of green this week, it's quite surprising. The winter salads are all starting to go to flower so it's time to pick most of them in bulk and let some go to seed.

Corn salad sows itself all over my allotment plot so there's masses to pick at the moment. The stems have started to elongate as it heads towards flowering. But the stems are still nice and soft, and I find it also makes them easier to harvest, as the upper leaves have less soil-splash on them. I cut the whole plant off just above soil level (to leave the roots in the ground to compost) and then simply cut off all the top leaves in one go. 


The winter purslane I sowed in August and planted out early autumn didn't do amazingly well on the allotment (but was excellent undercover in the lean-to greenhouse at home). It was time to clear the allotment plants and get a small harvest. With all the rain we've been having, there were plenty of tiny slugs at the base of the plants, so it was good to clear these onto the compost heap too. I've also cleared all the purslane from the lean-to because aphids had started to run-riot. Out on the plot the other day I did notice ladybirds becoming active so I'll have to coerce some home to munch on the aphids.
After getting severely munched by pigeons during the snowy weather (the mesh had come off), my purple sprouting broccoli has finally made a comeback, yes! It's funny because I've recently sowed this year's PSB which has germinated nicely. I think it's worth a year's wait to get this tasty harvest though. 
I harvested an even larger load of corn salad on Sunday. That'll probably be the last that I pick and the rest will go to flower. They have beautiful tiny white flowers. This all went into a big batch of pesto (with cashews).
And there was a second harvest of PSB as well.
We got the train up to Cromer on the north Norfolk Coast yesterday, and did a lovely circular walk. Right near the start of the walk, past an area of woodland, the wild garlic (ramsons) was looking delicious so we picked a few leaves (as far from the path as possible to avoid potential dog wee!)


We had a few leaves last night, mixed in with the corn salad pesto, and with extra toasted walnuts on top. I meant to steam some PSB too but forgot, so may have that with poached egg tonight.


We've been trying to get a few walks in recently because we're having a couple of days walking with Jan's mum at the end of the month and need to get our walking-legs in shape. Yesterday's walk via Felbrigg Hall (National Trust) was really lovely and really felt like an escape from our usual day-to-day activities.
Jan's fancy photo of the hall.


We did a bit of geocaching too, which was fun. There was a cache hidden at the base of this incredible beech tree.

And I found a new home for us. Maybe it's a bit draughty. 
At home, I've been gradually getting through the seed sowing. Most things are done now and germination is on the whole ok, phew, though I've still got beetroot to go. Then there'll be some things to sow a second crop of later, plus direct sow beans etc straight into the garden and allotment in May and June. My tomatoes are about half the size they were at the same time last year, the light has been so poor. But flowers are starting to appear on my Autumn-sown broad beans and on the fruit trees. Looks like I might get some plums this year, mmm.

Thanks for reading and sorry for being a bit sporadic with posts recently...life seems particularly busy at the moment! I'm linking in with
Harvest Monday, kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

9 comments:

  1. We are heading for North Norfolk at the end of this week - hope to visit Pensthorpe and then the North Norfolk Steam gala.

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  2. A year to get PSB! That's dedication and it must be some really good stuff. Winter Purslane is what we call Miner's Lettuce, it grows wild all over the place here (it's a native) and is one of the first wild edibles to appear after the winter rains finally arrive. It was easy pickings for the miners that came looking for gold in the 1850's, or so the story goes.

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    1. Hi Michelle, yep it's a while to wait for your PSB! But then again, I've been harvesting leeks that were sown a year ago too. I tend to grow them on in modules at home first so they're not taking up space on the allotment all that time. Ah yes, I've heard winter purslane called miner's lettuce. One of my sisters lives in Spain and they've been enjoying wild rocket recently, which grows all over the place, especially after rain.

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  3. What beautiful corn salad! I'd never heard of winter purslane before. It looks almost aquatic. We have regular purslane growing out of the sidewalk here, but I've never tried it. I'm curious now. I'll have to do a little purslane googling.

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    1. Hi Denver, thank you! I love corn salad when it goes to flower too, such pretty little flowers. This was the first year I've properly grown winter purslane, and have been quite impressed with it, so will definitely sow more at the end of the summer. Funnily enough I saw a really healthy plant of winter purslane growing at the edge of the pavement (sidewalk) recently but wasn't tempted by it due to all the dogs around here!

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  4. I wish I had corn salad self-sowing around here, your's is lovely! I can barely manage to get small amounts when I grow it. The PSB really does require dedication. I've found one that I can overwinter here and I'm anxious to try it.

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    1. Hi Dave, ah good luck with your PSB. Definitely worth it if you've got the space.

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  5. I love making different pestos; your corn salad and cashew one sounds delicious. I have never added cashews, so I shall have a go. Thanks for the heads up!

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    1. Thanks Kathy, yes the pesto is nice, but if left any longer to pick, the corn salad leaves start to get bitter. The cashews give it a creamy texture, lovely.

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