Recently I've been picking a few sprigs of purple sprouting broccoli (PSB) every now and then, growing from a plant I've had going for a couple of years. I didn't need the spot where it was growing, so left it to do the do....actually I might have moved it to this position at some point, I can't quite remember. Anyway, it's now putting out more shoots so I got a reasonable picking. It's a bit ahead of the PSB plants I sowed in spring last year, which are just starting to form a central head, which once picked, will start producing side shoots too.
It's no surprise that I've picked more corn salad
It doesn't look so appetising when they all get dumped in the bowl for washing!
But after a rinse and pinching off of the lower leaves, I can't wait to get stuck in. I need to start clearing some of the beds which have corn salad growing in (to plant-out onion sets etc) but luckily there's plenty all over the place.
Some slightly unusual 'greens' were the side shoots growing from the stem of the cabbage plant I harvested last week. I try and leave leafy plants in the ground as long as possible after harvesting the main crop, as they quite often give a second or third smaller harvest.
We had these tonight, chopped up with some leftover homemade potato wedges, and scrambled egg. One of the potatoes was actually from the allotment - Jan was helping me the other day, weeding around the leeks, when she rooted out a massive potato that I'd missed (my early potatoes were grown here, before the leeks). It's funny how you always miss some, despite trying to be thorough.
As a non-edible harvest, I pollarded the buddliea in the front garden, which produces lots of long, straight stems each year. Trimming off all the leaves and side-branches from each stem makes a handy source of support sticks. I was going to take an 'after' photo but it started raining heavily. This is in the back garden where I trimmed them all, after passing them over the back fence (we have no gate). Luckily no one was walking down the alley whilst I passed them over the fence -it looked like I was dumping them!
My tomato seedlings started to germinate just six days after sowing, and have come on even more since this pic a few days ago. The aubergines have peeped out today too, but the peppers are no show yet (they normally take longer than the rest).
On a completely unrelated topic, Jan and I had a day out in London last week, which was our Christmas present to each other (rather than just getting more 'things'). We went to the Science Museum to see the Robots exhibition (two for one tickets as we travelled by train). It was awesome, taking you through the early history from clockwork through to state of the art models. Here are just a few of the (too) many photos I took....
Very early 'false' limbs
Influencing popular culture
Replica of Maria from the film Metropolis
An actual T-800 from Terminator: Salvation
Early robot - reminiscent of the Tin Man
Apparently it's very difficult to mimic human walking ability
This robot was looking at me, eep
And for any fans of the TV show 'Humans', here's Gemma Chan's robot head, scarily realistic
There were lots of interactive features too, so loads for everyone to do and enjoy, even if not a self-confessed sci-fi geek like me. We also went to Adventures in Moominland at the South Bank Centre, a whizz around the National Portrait Gallery and walked about 11 miles, via Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament and along the south bank to Tower Bridge. Phew, what a day.
So that's a bit (a lot) of a diversion off-topic but thought I'd share anyway! Thanks for getting through this far, I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
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Watch those buddleia stakes, we have used them in the past and they have rooted. You could end up with a row of shrubs like us.
ReplyDeleteHi sue, thanks for the warning, hehe, yep that's *almost* happened to me before but I noticed the new leaves growing and just kept rubbing them off, which seemed to do the trick.
DeleteOh - corn salad...I've purchased seeds and will be giving it a try this year. Oh boy, those pics at the museum are awesome. I still remember the 1st time I saw Metropolis - after all these years and with all the hi-tech in movies nowadays, that one is still, to me, one of the most unforgettable.
ReplyDeleteHi Margaret - good luck with the corn salad.
DeleteThe exhibition was excellent, my pics don't do it justice. I haven't actually seen metropolis - one of those classics I really need to see!
Likes like the corn salad really did clean up nice! And I always miss a few potatoes (and sweet potatoes). Too often I find then with a digging fork! I've eaten more than a few taters with parts missing - or holes in them.
ReplyDeleteThe robot display looks like something I would have enjoyed. I don't guess they had the Robot from the Lost In Space Tv show. I don't even know if it was even shown over there, but it was popular when I was growing up. It looks like they might have had Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet though (yep I'm a sci-fi fan).
Hi Dave, yeah Jan actually found the potato with her fork! But luckily it was big enough that a little bit of damage didn't matter.
DeleteYes we definitely had Lost in Space over here, I watched it repeated in the 80s, along with Land of the Giants, brilliant. Robby wasn't in the exhibition sadly, I would've liked to have seen him. Nice to know you're another fellow sci-fi fan :)
That corn salad - I am definitely going to have to try that some year. It's so great how you make use of natural products for staking and such. I have thick stalks from sunflower plants that have lasted several years.
ReplyDeleteHi Susie, yes there's loads of good reasons to use natural products, especially products you can grow yourself to keep a closed loop and not have to bring in resources from outside. It's cheaper too, which is a bonus. Ah, good use of sunflower stalks, they go really hard I think.
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