Spade Work : From Plot to Plate

Edzell Blue

A busy, busy weekend with no time to photograph but I did harvest the first of my heritage potato varieties, Edzell Blue.

Though still in flower (Edzell is a second early) each plant yielded a decent crop of 'new potato' sized tubers, all in good health with a strong blue skin colour.

The books say it has dry floury flesh and 'successful boiling needs experience and care', a job that was given to test new cooks in Scotland. Some recommend you fry or bake them for best results.

Well, maybe it's because I harvested them early, but after 15 minutes boiling they were firm to the bite and didn't break up. Now I know I'm treading on dangerous ground here (there's not much bi-partisanship in the potato world between the flourists and waxists) but I can't say they've any particular culinary merit. I'd even say that floury potatoes are valued only as a  vehicle to soak up massive amounts of butter.

The distinctive skin colour of their name fades with boiling and the cooking water takes on a sickly green hue. Tossed in a bowl they look anaemic.

Served warm with a dressing of three parts olive oil, one part vinegar, some grain mustard, plenty of fresh mint, chive and a dash of honey, the talk was more about the dressing than the spuds - a bit like a restaurant review that goes on about the decor and ignores the food.

Room for it next year in the planting plan. Alas, no.

Dwarf Beans

Once I harvest Mr Bethell's Purple Podded peas and the Windsor broad beans (I'm saving these as a treat for my mother in law's visit later this week) I'll sow Beurre De Rocquencourt.

They are a dwarf bean (bush bean) described as 'productif et rustique'. Well I can vouch for the 'productif'. With the minimum of care, and not much water last year, the yield was good and the yellow pods remained stringless even though I left some on a little too long.

I will say that the leaves obscure the pods and you can get a prickly rash picking them (at least I did but it didn't last long) but the plant throws a lovely pink flower before setting. I direct sow them, four seeds to an area about the size of my fist (so not that big) about an inch deep and they do fine.

With the first peas and the broad beans pulled out I'll  have space to plant the San Marzano tomatoes, aubergine and chilli peppers. And this year I'm going to try some chicory Grumolo Verde, corn salad, chinese cabbage,Cavolo Cinese, from Seeds of Italy along with some late carrots Autumn King. Continuing with my interplanting I'll sow more rocket for pesto making, beets for their leaves and a few short lines of radish to pep up the salad bowl. Plus more of the Seeds of Italy salad mix. That's a real find.

Boysenberry

The boysenberry patch in the garden is our nature garden, er, overgrown in truth and is now really a bramble patch which you enter at your peril.

As you'd expect it's great for birds so the ripe fruits don't last long. A raspberry, blackberry, loganberry cross, it seems to thrive with little care - at least we've never looked after it.

Lessons From the Friary Fete Plant Sale

A great day last Sunday at the Friary Fete with the plant stall taking £427/$840. The weather held, the grounds were jam packed and maybe we'll top last years proceeds of £10,000/$19,700 for the day.

If you are running a charity plant stall here are a few lessons

- don't underprice, you're not a nursery but just because you're a charity people shouldn't (but often do) expect you to be cheap.

- where plants are donated you can afford to offer a deal. We'd some geraniums donated by a Chelsea Flower Show designer and these sold quickly at a fair price; people loved the provenance.

- everything in flower will sell, buyers want immediate impact, something to go by the front door or on the patio and in one case to decorate a grave. Pack the stall with marigolds, geranium, lavendar, anything with colour and in bloom.

- tomato plants sold out, we didn't have had enough courgette (zucchini) plants, people wanted basil and we had none, the fancy mints took ages to shift with everyone wanting a bog standard spearmint and we were left with what seemed like a prairie load of grasses. I'm not a Festuca fan anyway - no bloom, no stall appeal!

- don't want to carry anything home? Get the PA to announce, half an hour to go, that  the plant stall is open to any reasonable offers; stand back and wait for the rush.

Garlic Trials

I pulled my garlic crop a bit earlier this year than last. The leaves had started to yellow off as they do around now but then the stems started to get really manky with rust so out they came.

In their place I'm trying some late carrots - planted now to avoid the worst of carrot fly and maybe the residual garlic roots in the soil will discourage that pest as well.

About 150 heads are drying out in the summerhouse where I keep the windows open during the day to prevent them getting too hot and cooking.

The smallest belong to Red Toch, next Polish White and then a size up, German Extra Hardy with Thermidrome (pictured on table) the largest. 

I'd expected this as the Red Toch cloves were the smallest when I planted them last year (in November). The smaller the clove, the smaller the resulting head.

I'm  interested in finding out what they taste like and how they'll keep through the winter. Maybe all I'll be able to say is that they taste, well, garlicky. But some may be sweeter than others or store better or peel easier. We'll see.

What's a glitter ball go to do with drying garlic? Well nothing at all, just some kitschy fun as it flickers in candlelight at night.

Peas On Earth

"Heirloom vegetables are irresistible, not just for the poetry in their names but because these titles stand for real stories." Barbara Kingsolver Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A year of food life.

The heirloom peas I'm growing this year are Mr Bethell's Purple Podded and Alderman (also, I've read, called Tall Telephone).

Mr Bethell's Purple Podded (who was he I wonder?) stands about five foot high and has abundant flowers in a colour range of pink, chalk blue, white, mauve, and then developing dark purple pods.

I can't vouch for its culinary qualities as I've yet to harvest from it but on looks alone (and I don't normally plant vegetables for their looks) it'll be sown again next year.

At the other end of the scale is Alderman currently touching about seven foot tall and it continues to romp away. It's white flowers are not so remarkable but the large green pods contain the sweetest peas I've tasted in ages - straight from the pod, no chance the sugars will go starchy!

Now I'm wondering if Rebsie was successful in crossing Alderman with Mr Bethell's Purple Podded to produce a vigourous purple podded pea with the super sweetness of Alderman?

Mixed Lettuce

When I've grown lettuces in the past they often tasted bitter which I've wondered if it has anything to do with my soil. Tom Tumb was a notable exception. Maybe it was just the cos types I grew.

This year I've tried Misticanza Di Lattughe, a mixed lettuce seed pack from Seeds of Italy and it's definitely a repeater - excellent germination, quick gowing and thirteen varieties in the pack I bought, all loose leaf and suitable for cut and come again growing.

I've given one line two cuttings and I'll see if it grows back a third time. There's a chance it will go woody but even getting two cuttings makes for a fine yield.

There's some Rucola, rocket, peeking into the photo top left and that's from Seeds of Italy as well - another belter. So I've sown a long line to cut all at once and make into rocket pesto for freezing.

And the weed at bottom left - that just goes with the territory.

Growing to Eat

I do like gardening but it's growing to eat that I love.

So I'm often casting about the blogosphere looking for good recipes and bloggers who are interested in their food.

Check out Joanna's Food and read about how the shock of a heart attack jolted her into new eating habits. No 'woe is me' here just a desire to eat healthily and enjoyably.

Bountiful Broad Beans

Broad beans anyone?

This is the last of the winter sown Aquadulce Claudia which I've pulled to make way for sweet corn and butternut squash.

The spring sown variety, Windsor, have been in flower several weeks now but I'm still waiting for any beans from it. As they're taking up ground that I could put to corn, squash and winter vegetables I don't think I'll sow them again next year.

By now I've had my fill of broad beans. And the shelling. Some people like it but surely there are even worse ways of wasting your time?

You'll note the bean hound mooching by the wheelbarrow. He promptly puked copiously on the patio after scoring a bean and one pod while my wife was shelling them. I think he'll give them a miss next year as well.

Still, they were delicious in a salad with garlic and smoked bacon. They went down well with the neighbours too.

Sugar Snap Peas

The early summer crops are coming into their own now - mixed leaf salading, rocket, lollo rosso, mint, chive and the first of the sugar snap peas (Norli).

A small bowl but wonderfully crunchy and sweet.