Some prep work in the garden

The spring weather here in London has, shall we say, been a little mixed! In the past week we have had bright sunshine, cold northerly winds, hail, snow, rain, thunder and frogs. OK we didn't have the frogs although there are some tadpoles up at the allotment centre!

Given that the weather has been a bit better this weekend and I have broad bean, runner bean and courgette seeds germinating in the shed I thought I had better get started and prep the vegetable bed.

As usual you turn your back for a couple of days and all the weeds wake up and try and take over!

The Before Picture

As you can see there are plenty of dandelions which I wanted to dig up before they seeded themselves everywhere. Amongst them were horsetails and bindweed as well as the dried stalks of the Jerusalem artichokes of last year.

Two hours of hard digging later (spread over two days)...

That Looks Better!

Now all I have to do is the same with the much larger bed. It helped that the soil was moist - when it gets dry it sets hard being London clay based.

Of course I was supervised by two of our cats...

Fitz - The handsome one!

Latte - Who had been rolling in the dust!

Tara - or She Who Must be Obeyed / Evil Mistress of Darkness / The Vomiting One was asleep upstairs and only came out when the work was done!

Hopefully the weather will be good next weekend so we can get out and do the other bed. Otherwise by the time we come back from holiday we will be facing fully grown triffids!

Ealing Farmers' Market Harvest & What to Grow

It's been a while since I wrote anything here. I've not stopped cooking - no sir - nor eating! Partially in the winter both Liz and I crave comfort food and I fall back onto the staples that I've already written about; stews, casseroles, roasts and so forth. Now that the grey, but mild, Winter seems to be passing and Spring is in the air with blossom on the trees and daffodils flowering thoughts turn to what to grow in the garden and a walk around the Farmers' Market in Ealing is a more attractive prospect as rain won't be trickling down my neck.

So on a sunny Saturday morning we took up our reusable grocery bags and visited the market. First up was a pair of red mullet from the fish stall. They had some nice looking crabs, mussels, oysters and clams as well but shellfish doesn't agree with me (apart from scallops for some reason which I love). Mackerel, fresh and smoked, monkfish, hake and gurnard also looked good on the ice. I chose the mullet because I'd never cooked with it before and it looked good and fresh so two of those were filleted and popped in my bag.

Next up was a cheese stall where Liz chose, after much sampling, a piece of Wife of Bath, a mild creamy semi-hard cheese. Bread next, a loaf of fig sour-dough, crusty and not too dense, an inspiration for my next baking session perhaps.

Two meat stalls, both from the Chilterns to the north-west of London supplied us with a rolled venison shoulder, some sausages (hickory smoked and Lincolnshire varieties), a kilo of beef shin (possibly the best cut for slow cooking) and a pheasant pie.

Some purple sprouting broccoli, winter purslane and land cress from the vegetable stall along with two punnets of  mixed tomatoes (red, yellow, green, striped and deep purple) from the Isle of Wight (stretching the local aspect of the market there me-thinks!) would provide an accompaniment to the pheasant pie and the fish later. Last up a mixed half kilo of apples; Egmont Russets, Braeburns and the wonderfully named D'arcy Spice to see us through the week.

After a lunch of pie, salad and apple at home we strolled down our street to the where the local allotment centre was having their Spring Show. I had no idea there were so many types of daffodil! From pure white to deepest golden yellow. From simple trumpets to frilly doubles. From single large blooms to multiple small ones there must have been at least thirty on display!

Cakes, jams, marmalades, sausage rolls and handicrafts were also on display for judging all crammed into the church hall. We bought some seeds from the HAAGA (Horsenden Allotments And Garden Association) stall and trundled home with a copy of the show schedule where Liz seemed quite keen for me to enter one of the classes in the Summer Show.

As to what to grow this year in the garden. The same as usual for the most part. Runner and broad beans, tomatoes (several kinds), Jerusalem artichokes (mainly because once you have them you can't get rid of them!). Courgettes, herbs, rhubarb (already 15-20cm tall and may be ready for harvest soon), apples and salad greens. If I see something interesting in the garden centre later this month I may stretch this list a bit more but let's see. 

Harvest 2013

Compared to last year I've had a bumper harvest. Not the best ever but good quality and quantity of most of the crops. All are grown outside, tomatoes and peppers against the back wall of the house for warmth and shelter, the rest in the vegetable beds at the other end of the garden.

Tomatoes: This year I grew a selection of varieties which I bought from one of our local garden centres. All varieties did well, my favourite was a medium sized striped plum type which had a wonderfully rich sweet and sour flavour. The red and yellow cherry varieties have both cropped well and with good flavour. There is also a self seeded round variety that hasn't ripened yet - with nights drawing in I can see a green tomato recipe in my future.

Bell Peppers: These have produced a handful of fruit each and are currently green. Have a feeling they may remain so as the days get shorter and cooler.

Chillies: Very little fruit if any. May have to try again next time in the greenhouse or indoors.

Apples: Both trees did well this year. The Egremont Russet did suffer some damage from birds and bugs but the flavour from those that survived was very good. The other tree, which we think is a Cox, produced a very heavy crop of crisp, juicy and flavoursome fruit.

Victoria Plum: The tree is far too large for the garden and produces an enormous amount of fruit. Too much for us to eat but this year I've stewed them with vanilla sugar and frozen them for the winter as well as scoffing them straight from the tree, wonderful flavour.

Courgettes: Yellow and green round ones this year - they cropped well (three plants have kept us in courgettes for the whole season) but had a tendency to get too large very quickly. Good flavour and texture though.

Runner Beans: Good crop this year, enough to freeze, with good flavour. No idea what the variety is as I have been saving and planting my own seed for so long I've forgotten where the seeds came from!

Leaks: Early days as I won't harvest these for some time but they are looking good.

Jerusalem Artichokes: Good grief these will take over the world (if they aren't strangled by bindweed first) if I'm not careful. Just about to flower and not yet ready for harvesting. Should keep me going (and f***ing) well into the new year. Must be disciplined enough to harvest them all or they will keep spreading!

Blackberries: These are just wild brambles and we have to hack them back to get into the shed. High humidity at the wrong time meant that the 'crop' spoiled quickly and so very little ended up in the freezer.

Rhubarb: Excellent crop again, plenty in the freezer for stewing in the winter.

I'll probably grow the same next year, I need new planters for the tomatoes and I must push back the approaching artichoke apocalypse or I may never see the far end of the garden again. The shed needs painting with a preservative and new felt on the roof. Shrubs in the front half of the garden need cutting back as  does the eucalyptus tree. 

A Quick And Easy Spring Chicken Pasta Dish

At last the sun has come out and we can start getting the garden together. So far leeks and beetroot have gone in the small bed and Jerusalem Artichokes are thriving in the main bed. No luck with beans so far so have started a third set in the planters by the house. After a heavy day of weeding, pruning. mowing and planting we needed something quick yet hearty and tasty for tea.

Ingredients
2 Chicken Breasts - skin removed and cubed 
1 onion finely chopped or a leek
8 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 bunch of asparagus trimmed
Knob of butter and a little olive oil
1 bay leaf
A few sage leaves chopped
1 small handful of frozen (or fresh) peas
1 clove garlic crushed
150ml milk
Splash of white wine (optional)
1 tablespoon of plain flour


Fry the onion in the butter and oil with the bay leaf until the onion has softened. Add the chicken, garlic, sage and mushrooms and fry for a few minutes until the chicken takes on a bit of colour.Add the flour and stir it into the mix (add the wine if using) then add the milk and stir to form a sauce (add a little more milk if the sauce looks a bit thick). Add the asparagus and the peas, cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until the chicken and asparagus are cooked through). Season to taste.

Serve with a bowl of drained pasta.

The Awesome Courgette Monster

You turn your back on the garden for 5 minutes and suddenly everything starts to crop. I have already harvested half a dozen round yellow courgettes (each the size of a tennis ball) and the same of long green ones. Then I found hiding under the mixed salad leaves a whopper of a green courgette.

An Assortment of Courgettes

I'll probably make this into a vegetable curry at the weekend Most of the yellow ones have already been claimed by the wife to take into work for her boss or to give to our neighbours. I have been able to roast some with red onions, peppers and tomatoes and served them with herby couscous and fried hallumi cheese and they were very tasty. Good texture, quite firm and tasty. Broad beans, planted late, are just about ready. Interestingly they have not been attacked by blackfly instead slugs have been eating the leaves. The mixed salad leaves are doing well and the runner and french beans are flowering nicely. Jerusalem artichokes are taller than me and the sweetcorn is shooting up. Onions, beetroot and leeks are filling out nicely so I should be cropping all the way through to Christmas.

What's Growing?

I've just about filled the two vegetable beds with the plants for this year. Some I've grown from seed, some are perennials and some I've bought from the local allotment association (HAAGA) and from Ryton Organic Gardens. This year I'll be growing in the vegetable beds:

• Rhubarb - found this in the garden when we moved in many years ago buried under all the rubbish left by the previous owners. Not so good this year as the weather has been very dry.
• Jerusalem Artichokes - planted a few tubers a couple of years ago and now have a small forest of plants. Great for soups or roasted with beef or chicken.
• Courgettes - Two different types this year; a yellow globe type and a more standard green one.
• French, Broad and Runner beans - Heritage seeds from Ryton, it will be interesting to see how they taste.
• Onions - grown from sets from HAAGA
• Leeks - Heritage plants from Ryton, these will see me into winter
• Salad Greens - a mixed set of leaves

Bean Poles in place - annoyed cat in foreground

In planters:

• Aubergines - small lilac globes some being grow in the greenhouse and some in the sunnier area by the greenhouse.
• Tomatoes - Several heritage types from Ryton including one called Giant Green Sausage growing on the patio in large, deep planters.
• Herbs - several types of mint, sage, hyssop, rosemary, bay and lime balm.

Trees:

• Two apples - an old Cox type (was in the garden when we arrived) and a Egmount Russet - my favourite apple.
• Victoria Plum - far too large for our garden because of the rootstock it is on but it produces buckets of juicy flavourful fruit every year. Plenty for me and plenty for the birds!

Jerusalem Artichokes at the front centre

Hopefully we will have the perfect mix of sunny warm days and warm wet nights this summer and a bumper crop of goodies!

The First and the Last

Tonight's supper contained the last of last year's crop and the first of this year's. I made a chilli with last year's dried borlotti beans followed with a bowl of plums, nectarines and the first of this year's blackberries. Yum.

Xmas Lunch

Glad that the snow has gone and the ice has melted - it made digging the vegetables for lunch a lot easier! Couldn't find many potatoes - not surprising as I hadn't planted any this year but there were still some that had self seeded from last year. Instead I harvested some Jerusalem Artichokes instead. Pearly white and of a good size I will roast these with the turkey. I also picked a trug full of Brussels Sprouts and pulled a trio of leaks from the heavy soil as accompaniments to the turkey. The turkey (crown only) has had lemony garlic butter and bay leaves stuffed under the skin and the juice of the lemon over the top before streaky bacon was applied.

Bread and cranberry sauces are now being produced (I like to add orange juice, orange zest and star anise to the latter giving it a warm mulled wine sort of feel).