Onions

Just as I was running out of space the onions were ready for harvesting. By far the best and largest were the yellow onions - the white and red were small in comparison. I also lifted the elephant garlic which, while not exhibition size, was big. I have left the garlic and shallots in the ground in the hope they will get better. Who knows?

I have slow cooked the onion in readiness for a caramelised onion tart. Meanwhile the elephant garlic was trimmed, wrapped in foil and roasted in the oven.

The onion, along with some griddled courgettes, made a healthy and delicious topping for a pizza.

The rest of the onions and garlic are drying in the sun but in a sheltered place as there are storms predicted.

Most plants have been coping well in the drought and hot weather we have been having. I gave the seedlings and potatoes a good drenching with a bucket to make sure the establish well. I also sowed two varieties of courgette - yellow and golf ball size. I sowed straight into the ground which is new thing for me so I hope the do well. I also managed to harvest a tiny 200g of potatoes as I was transplanting the Christmas potatoes in the front garden. More than enough for a little potato salad.

I have to cut the raspberry canes down as they are obstructing the path. This is a real shame as they are just starting to fruit. I just didn't expect them to go this wild. Maybe retying some wires will control them long enough to allow me to harvest the fruit?

Potato feasts

We are snowed under by potatoes.  Once again I forgot that we tend to prefer rice and pasta to potatoes.

After sorting the good unblemished potatoes by type and storing them in breathable canvas bags in the dark to stop them from turning green or sprouting I turned to the rejects.

These were either mainly scabby or damaged by a stray fork when lifting them though it also included some of the mystery spuds that popped up unasked for.

I prepared roast potatoes for freezing (par boil and freeze on a baking sheet to stop them from freezing in a clump) and pseudo oven chips (cut and bake until slightly turning colour - remember to use oil to prevent sticking which is something I forgot and resulted in a bit of a mess). I still had tiny potatoes that I didn't want to compost for fear of them reseeding but that were too small to peel. With these I made a potato salad loosely based on Lucas Hollweg's excellent German potato salad recipe from his recipe book 'Good Things to Eat'. I didn't remove the skins because it was too fiddly and I thought the fibre was good for me but I did crush them to allow the sauce to penetrate them and infuse them with flavour.  I used  my own puny garlic but supplemented with more.

Serves 4

- 750g waxy new potatoes, evenly sized
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- ½ tsp sugar
- 50ml mild olive oil (not extra virgin) - think I only used the olive oil (health again)
- 50ml vegetable oil
- 1 bunch of chives, chopped - I substituted with a clove of garlic and chopped shallot

Boil the potatoes in salted water for about 20 minutes until soft. Drain and leave to cool. Meanwhile, make the dressing by mixing together the dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, sugar and some salt and pepper in a bowl. Gradually beat in the oils. Mix with the crushed potatoes and leave for an hour or two for the flavours to become acquainted. Scatter chives over the top and dig in.

Since my trip to Germany I am also searching for my mother in law's version which seems to involve cream, pork fat and mustard and very slow cooking the potatoes.

Spud-not-alike

I have a mystery. I planted Charlotte seed potatoes on the plot and have recently started harvesting them. That's not the mystery, hang on. I also got a 'free' patio potato planting set. I have previously had no luck with these at all (getting fewer potatoes back than I planted). This year however when I dug down deep enough i got a decent amount of salad sized potatoes. Which is how Charlotte potatoes are supposed to be. Now back to the mystery. This photo only shows the half of it. Why have my plot charlottes turned out to be such monsters?
More room and time to grow?
Richer soil?
Magic?

Who knows but it will be hard to make a dainty summer potato salad with them!

1st March 2012 Addendum: reading back over my posts I realised that I planted the patio Charlottes later than the plot ones (as late as 29 April) so that explains the smaller size. The plot Charlottes were planted 6 March so almost 2 months ahead of the patio plants. Harvesting everything at 14 July meant the potatoes on the plot had over 18 weeks to mature while the patio plants took 10 weeks to mature - that would explain the difference. It also suggests I can start harvesting earlier I guess or stagger planting - in an ideal world I would have two rows for each variety one planted in early march and one end April to spread the harvest.