One Frosty Morning....

Baby lambs surround us in the fields and I am delighted by them. Their first few days, when they are so wobbly and dependant is a magical time.  There is such a peace surrounding the new mums as they chew the cud in the evening sunshine, their lambs lying peacefully at their sides. Pastoral and idyllic. Then within days the fun begins! Growing sturdier and more vocal by the minute our lambs are now careering about like anything, playing 'King of the Castle' on the hummocks of grass and tearing about in much the same wild madness that kittens experience - play fighting, chasing and posturing. The mums look a bit less peaceful, slightly more ruffled, taking it in turns to 'watch over' the crowd of young hooligans....

Frost on cabbages - we had one very cold night last week and the Patch was covered in frost. The broad beans seemed as if they were playing musical statues, all growth stopped and held in limbo until the sun's warmth could be felt and they could return to forming their pods, white flowers undamaged. The sun was warm and the cabbages were so beautiful with the light behind them I could not stop taking photos...

Bronze tipped and crinkled leaves literally glowed in front of me...so beautiful.

This one is hearting up nicely! We have already had a couple of these Spring Hero cabbages, but as they grow their hearts they will be even sweeter. This is the time of year that I want cabbage, when there is less else to eat from the Patch.

The first spear of asparagus is poking through its mulch of manure and straw! What a sight. I planted ten crowns of Glinjim Asparagus last April and it was tantalising to see the shoots come up, turn into ferns and not be able to pick any! This year we will be allowed to pick a few for three weeks, next year for up to six weeks and the year after that for a full eight week season. I can't wait to taste them!

So beautiful with the melting frost still clinging to the rosy tip. I put down some slug pellets when I saw this...the little blighters live in the mulch and this is too precious a prize for them...

Meanwhile back in the cosy greenhouse the frost goes unnoticed....seedlings continue to thrive. Here is a Gros Vert de Laon artichoke getting sturdier by the minute. I have sown a whole lot more as germination has been a bit sporadic. I am looking for six seedlings of the three varieties, Gros Vert de Laon (an old French variety), Violetta di Chioggia (purple Italian) and Green Globe Improved. They probably won't all fruit so I want to have enough.
Within an hour the frost had disappeared and the sun shone all day. I am glad I caught its beauty with the camera.

Herbs and Salad

Borage is a beautiful herb with a blue flower which will attract bees and butterflies to the Patch. I am just about to thin and plant this out now along the edge of the Potato bed. I have sown lavender too - I want to grow wild herbs and flowers to bring in the pollinators!

Here is a tray of cornflowers that I have sown in the greenhouse. I will scatter more seed at the edge of the terraces when they are properly prepared but I wanted to put some in tubs too and get these off to an early start. Again, they should attract the bees...our neighbour has a beautiful hive of them just down the lane and so we often see honey bees here. 

Can't resist showing you these photos of my anemones which are growing in a trough on the deck. The colour is heavenly...though I am not sure how attractive they are to bees!

Purple and green basil are just germinating now. I have sown them early and will make another sowing directly into the greenhouse beds in May when the tomatoes and peppers and aubergines are planted into them. Basil will help to keep the aphids down and also I would have it there just so that I can smell that divine scent when I water the tomatoes. The smell of tomato and basil in a warm greenhouse is one of the most evocative and delightful things I love about growing things!

Tom Thumb lettuces are so quick to form into pretty florets of luscious green promise of delicious salad to come! They are such a useful lettuce as they fit into tiny spaces between brassicas in the Patch. And they are so beautiful too!

Green Oak Leaf Lettuce

Salad Rocket and Black Seeded Simpson

Cocarde
These three lettuces, Green Oak Leaf, Black Seeded Simpson and Cocarde together with Salad Rocket and Mustard Golden Streaks formed the basis of our winter salads in the greenhouse beds last year. I have sown them (sowing number 1 in early March) into the greenhouse again to get in a quick crop before the tomatoes take over. They are loose leaf cut and come again plants and are already big enough to harvest. I have made another sowing (number 2) this month to put out into the Patch. I will make sowing number 3 in about June to last us outside into the autumn and another one, sowing number 4 in August/September for the greenhouse over the winter. I will add to this selection (which I absolutely love and want to repeat) a red oak leaf, possibly Danyelle, or maybe Solix, or Red Salad Bowl....so hard to choose! [see Scrumptious Summer Salads (March)]

Outside I have just planted out Mizuna, Pak Choi and some single lettuces, Freckles ( lovely romaine lettuce) Lobjoits ( a cos), Rosemoor which is a lovely Red Batavian lettuce and noisette a green Batavian.

Freckles and Rosemoor ready for planting out

Out in the Patch - amongst the new brassicas...you can just see a Romanesco Broccoli seedling next to the spring cabbage leaf top left.

Parsnip and Beetroot germination -victory!

My experiment with soaking parsnip and beetroot seed has worked brilliantly! I described in my post in March how I have soaked the seeds and planted them into half loo roll holders and now I can report that the process has been successful so far. 

Boltardy beetroot (left) and Kohl Rabi (right) look so pretty in their loo roll pots - their red stalks glowing in the sunlight.  I will be planting them out into the patch now that they have had a good start. The advantage of this method is that you can plant a good row with no gaps. Though it is a bit fiddly and takes time at the sowing stage there is no thinning out to do once they are in the beds as you can plant them in their final spacing. I am just waiting for them to be big enough to split them up as I plant and not waste any precious seedlings. 

Parsnips are notoriously difficult to germinate and I am delighted with my experiment (see March) on damp kitchen roll. The seedlings came up almost at once both in the half loo roll holders and the extra ones in a pot of compost. Again I am just waiting for them to be a bit bigger and stronger and then I will be able to plant them out into their final spacing; no need to thin and no waste!

When I plant these out I will give them plenty of compost in the planting hole and handle them carefully, watering them in well and in their final spacing. I think once they have germinated parsnips are pretty straight forward. We have just finished the last parsnip from the damp sand store in our shed - it was a little wrinkly but still once peeled in great condition for a roasting with garlic, ginger and cummin in the oven. It is exactly a year ago that it was sown into the Patch; what a brilliant vegetable!

First Rhubarb...in a cake?

Here is the rhubarb crown as I planted it in the autumn last year. I got if from my parent's well established rhubarb which I have often cut stems from for my freezer. Now we took a part of the crown, dividing it carefully and I got it planted as soon as I got home. The leaves are wilting and I was concerned it would not make it but watered it well and hoped for the best. I put straw over it in the winter and as soon as the first signs of life showed put an upturned flowerpot over it to force the stems....hey presto! Last week I cut five first stems of beautiful pink tender rhubarb!

So what to do with it now? It was Good Friday...I needed something special for Easter and came across a recipe for a rhubarb and ginger cake. It was easy and delicious went down very well. It seemed symbolic somehow that what had looked like it was dead had been dormant all winter in its new surroundings and pushed its way up to the light just in time for Easter!

Here is the recipe: 

Rhubarb and ginger cake:

Ingredients

125g butter

1. 125g golden syrup
2. 100g black treacle
3. 125g unrefined light brown sugar
4. 50ml milk (don’t add if using gluten free)
5. 2 eggs
6. 50g crystallised ginger , finely chopped
7. 300g rhubarb, chopped
8. 300g self-raising flour mixed with 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tbsp ground ginger

1. Heat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Melt the butter in a pan with the golden syrup, black treacle and sugar.
2. Mix everything together and pour into a lined 1 lb loaf tin. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until cooked through.

Delicious with a lime and sugar drizzle - very moist and absolutely yummy!

It sank a little in the middle but it was cooked right through - the pieces of fresh rhubarb were sweet and tender - you do need all the golden syrup though..if you reduced the sugar the rhubarb would be very tart. If you like sticky dark gingerbread you will love this cake!

Here is another festive fresh easter cake. I still had some lime juice to use up so I made this Lime Drizzle cake with blueberries and raspberries. I only used raspberries (last year's from the freezer) as I didn't have any blueberries. I made it like a tray bake and cut it into twelve squares. It was very good. 

Here is the recipe:

Lime drizzle cake with blueberries and raspberries:

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

1. 225g softened butter , plus extra for greasing
2. 225g golden caster sugar
3. 4 medium eggs
4. 2 limes, grated zest and juice
5. 250g self-raising flour , sifted with a pinch of salt, plus extra flour
6. 25g ground almonds
7. 100g each blueberries and raspberries

FOR THE SYRUP

1. 8 tbsp lime juice (about 4 limes)
2. 1 lime, grated zest
3. 140g golden caster sugar

1. Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in square cake tin (not loose-based) with greaseproof paper and butter the paper. Set oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan oven 160C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour towards the end to prevent curdling. Beat in the lime zest, then fold in the flour and almonds. Fold in enough lime juice - about 3 tablespoons - to give you a good dropping consistency (the mixture should drop easily from the spoon when tapped).
3. Fold in three quarters of the blueberries and raspberries and turn into the prepared tin. Smooth the surface, then scatter the remaining fruit on top - it will sink as the cake rises.
4. Bake for about 1 hour (cover with foil if beginning to brown too much), or until firm to a gentle prod in the centre. A skewer pushed into the centre should be clean when removed.
5. Meanwhile make the syrup: put the lime juice, zest and sugar in a small saucepan. Put over a gentle heat and stir, without allowing to bubble. The sugar should dissolve a little. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick all over with a skewer then spoon the syrup over it. To store, cool before wrapping in paper and/or foil.
6. Carefully remove the cake from the tin, discard the lining paper and cut into 12 pieces to serve.

Happy Easter!

Lets go Oriental!

If you read my post about Summer Salad in March you will already know that I am doing research and expanding my ideas about salad...and included in that is what I am finding out about Oriental Greens. Somewhere between a salad and a brassica there is a huge variety out there which will add interest to any salad or stir fry.  It seems that they are wonderfully easy to grow, and best of all some will grow very well during the winter.  

Above is Mizuna which I have never grown before. Again it has germinated incredibly fast and the seedlings are a good size and are already out in the Patch. The feather leaves have a slightly mild mustard flavour and when picked young are a great addition to salad. When they are older they are best in stir fries. Mizuna is incredibly hardy - in Japan where it comes from it is grown all winter as a staple part of a winter diet. It is possible to grow it all year here too and I am adding it to my list of autumn sown salad greens for the winter.

For the first time I am growing Chinese Broccoli Kailaan and I am amazed at how quickly the seeds germinate and the seedlings grow. I have just planted the ones out into the Patch that I started only a month ago. Most of the tender stem broccoli that you buy in the supermarket are this variety and I love it steamed with a drizzle of oyster sauce.  It will be wonderful to be able to pick it when the Red Arrow purple sprouting is finished, great in summer stir fries and it should go on right into the Autumn.

It looks a little lonely right now but in a few weeks each seedling will be a bushy plant producing plenty of tender stems for me to pick.

Last year I grew only a very few Pak Choi. They were delicious and this year I am hoping to sow about five every three or four weeks so that we have a continuous supply. My first sowing this year (March) is now also out in the Patch - these oriental greens are dead fast!

Komatsuna is a Japanese green that I am going to grow in the winter. It is hardy enough to go through the cold season in the greenhouse beds and has big lush dark green leaves that taste  like spinach when they are young and like cabbage  as they get older with a hint of mustard. 


Another oriental green I want to try is Mustard Green in the Snow. This is a great plant for winter greens and has bigger leaves than most oriental greens and so it treated more like a vegetable than a salad. I love the name - it is so encouraging!
I grew a beautiful mustard in the greenhouse last year...Mustard Golden Streaks. From just a few plants we were able to pick a handful of feathery leaves for winter salads and it combined beautifully with salad rocket to give character and heat - it is a gentle and quite sweet mustard which remained tender enough for salad all winter.

  


Experimenting with oriental vegetables is an adventure. I am really enjoying learning about how to grow them and the great advantages they give us especially during the cold months. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes...

Delicious Kale

Last month I photographed my favourite recipe for Kale....wilted down with garlic, olive oil, red pepper, chilli, ginger and Soy or fish sauce. It is so good. I froze it over Christmas and it was such a relief after all those sprouts! Kale is just such a great veg to have over the winter. I will definitely be sowing some more in August - Red Russian is the most abundant and is delicious, but I love the dark Cavallo Nero and the beautiful purple curly leaves of Red Bor. They all taste superb. 

Yesterday I decided that as they were beginning to flower and get leggy - not bad after feeding us since the autumn last year - it was time to dig them up. First I stripped them of their remaining leaves and had to get out my huge preserving pan to make the kale stir fry above for the freezer..

We had a bucket load and it took some time to wash and strip the leaves from their stalks

The stripped tough stalks for the compost heap

Its surprisingly easy to run your fingers along the central stem of the leaf leaving the stalk...

You can eat the stalks when the leaves are young but not when they are older....it looks purple pretty but its too tough!

Wilted down for just a few minutes, cooled and packed into freezer bags..perfect. No waste and a spicy healthy dish to enjoy with rice, chickpeas, or curry straight from the freezer. Kale is delicious!

Sowing time - the joy of the Greenhouse

Greenhouse gardening! What a delight it is this year to have so much space to start things off. I don't know about you but at this time of year I am in a permanent daydream - what to sow next, when to plant out, which bed should they go in, are the beds dug over and ready for the new plants? There is so much to think out. I find that I steal down to the greenhouse first thing to check on things and water as the sun warms up the glass. It's like having a young family...the routine must go on...windows need to be opened and closed in the evening, the young seedlings must have enough water, enough room to grow. Why do some seeds just not germinate? Its like Christmas every time I see the little green shoots poking there way up through the compost...it always feels like a miracle after all that planning!


Planning. That is such a big part of gardening. Counting the weeks until the tender plants can go out without risk of frost, sowing them not too early however tempting it is. That is where the greenhouse has made such a difference. Its just more relaxing. When you are sowing seed on window sills and shelves its such a pressure when they germinate fast...what to do with a tomato plant which is already a foot tall and can't go out for another week? Because of the greenhouse and so much more space I have been able to sow and not worry too much...if the seeds don't germinate I have time to sow another batch. This happened to me this week with Sorrel..and artichokes...and some of the lettuces. 


I think you need to be a planner to grow a lot of vegetables in a smallish patch. It takes a lot of thought, a lot of research and experimenting and a fair bit of maths! All that working out how many plants to a row etc. 


The thing I love about my greenhouse is that I can start things off earlier, giving them a good safe start from  slugs, wind and the mice and plant out seedlings knowing that they will be in the right position.


Lets take a look.....

Brassicas are very rewarding. It seems amazing to me that you sow Purple Sprouting Broccoli in March or April and you know that you will be eating them this time next year. Here are from left to right, five of the summer variety Summer Purple, then five Red Arrow, ten Kailaan broccoli growing tall already and then ten Romanesco broccoli which has to be one of my favourites - the flavour is fantastic.  

A tomato seedling a few days old. I think it is Sungold. I always sow extra tomatoes as there can be a few failures along the way...they are mostly germinated now this year so I will have to decide how many to keep!

Musselborough Leeks will stand in their fibre pots until they are the width of a pencil and about eight inches tall. Then they will go out into the Patch...I need to find room for about a hundred of them as I use them all the time. I have about fifteen left still standing from last year and they are in brilliant condition seeing as how they have stood the whole winter. 

Another great plant to start off inside - perpetual spinach. I have a row in the patch that I planted last summer and which is ready for picking now.  There are a few gaps where the plants have not done as well as the others so I have sown these to bulk up the row and give us enough spinach to last us through to the autumn and into the winter - I will sow another lot in July so that we are 'perpetually' kept in spinach! Love it. 

Alongside the perpetual spinach will be the first sowing of Rainbow Chard. I am hoping that its time in the protection and warmth of the greenhouse will give it a good start. Can't wait to see the beautiful coloured stems!

At last the red veined sorrel is coming through...its been ages. I also sowed Sorrel Buckler Leaf which has not appeared yet. I love the fresh lemony zing that sorrel gives to salad. These seedlings are so pretty with their red veins already showing in their tiny leaves. 

Aubergine Moneymaker are all germinated now in pairs in their 3 inch pots. I will have to thin them to one per pot quite soon....always a difficult thing as its hard to throw away something you have nurtured.....

Oh dear what to do. These Brussel sprout seedlings are Wellington variety and they are doing fine. I vowed not to have too many this year as we don't really like them that much....but they are so easy to grow and are doing really well. I don't want them to take up precious room in the Patch as they need so much space...perhaps I will put them up on the terraces and risk the rabbits...

Broad Beans that I need to fill in the gaps in my Aquadulce Claudia rows planted in September last year. The freezing temperatures in the winter got to a few of them. I am hoping that these seedlings will race on and catch the outdoor ones up! 

The benefits of a greenhouse are enormous. The early start that it gives to the sowing programme has encouraged me no end. Soon when all the March sown seedlings can go out it there will be more space and it will take on a different role - that of housing tomatoes, chillies, peppers and aubergines during the summer months. It was worth all the work to fix and rebuild...I'm lovin' it.