Looking to the future with an eye on the past

Which sounds like a physical impossibility but I've been in training for my half marathon so am in peak condition...

Looking around the half (well, quarter) dug plot I see signs of emerging shoots everywhere despite the recent cold snap.  Pink noses of rhubarb are poking through the earth and there are signs that the Purple Sprouting Broccoli did not fail completely - the plants that managed to survive the winter and being eaten by birds and other beasts are bravely hinting at the purple joy to come.  The Autumn sown broad beans also seem to be boldly announcing the fact that spring is on its way.

Looking back over last year's entries I see that this time last year we were suffering from overly warm weather whereas now we are at the mercy of the Beast from the East (cold weather that is coming from Siberia) and snow is predicted for tonight and temperatures of around 0 degrees are predicted to last until Wednesday.

As I hunker down under the duvet and avoid the prospect of a long run, it seems the perfect time to review my best intentions and learnings from last year so I can try to avoid the pitfalls this year.

Starting with the old faithfuls, potatoes.  Last year my potatoes were planted on St Patrick's day (20th March). This year St Patrick's day is 10 days early so I might wait to plant them until Easter which is also early this year (30th March).  I still need to dig trenches (which were dug on 27/2 last year) and LABEL the varieties.

Overall jobs I need to do when I venture into the cold:
Mulch and manure
Plant garlic and onions (February is the last month to do this)
Clear up accumulated rubbish
Tie in raspberries
Weeding of perennials weeds

I have also reworked my planting plan to rotate the potatoes, onions and brassicas into new areas. This is tough when space is limited and some crops (eg onions and potatoes take up a pretty big amount of space)

As part of Lent I have toyed with giving up booze (fail fairly spectacularly at least once a week).  An alternative resolution is to use up all the frozen vegetables in the chest freezer by the time Easter comes. This means various bowls of green mush squatting in the fridge inducing guilt in me.  The trusty layers terrrine of vegetables bound together by egg in a loaf tin has been very useful in using up the old vegetables. 

The cauliflower was used up in the form of a cauliflower cheese (weightwatchers recipe but pimped up a bit with extra cheese - oops).

March is around the corner and then things will start really speeding up - with seed sowing and preparations.

Tasks to to in early March:
Sow broad beans - a little deeper than last year
Remember I had some good Jerusalem Artichoke recipes in March last year
Also try out a salsa verde with J Artichokes which tasted amazing at a restaurant we went to in north London - the sharp zing contrasted well with the earthy sweetness of the artichokes.

Deep breaths....

Invasion of the triffids/ giant artichokes

Well not triffids at all really. Just enormous Jerusalem artichokes. Maybe because they have been in the ground for a long time or were grown from good sized tubers. Whatever the reason, they are at least twice the size of the last 2 years (those are kitchen scissors by the way not teeny tiny scissors chosen to skew the scale).

Last weekend I cleared some snow away (along with some cat or fox 'gifts' - yuk) to unearth over 4kg of artichokes. And I still have more than twice that to harvest still. So I will have to be quite creative in using them up.

I first decided to use some of them as an alternative topping for a weight watchers fish pie. It worked brilliantly even if next time I would boil and slice them thinly rather than try to mash them which had mixed results.

I also shaved them with a cheese slice and layered them with garlic, creme fraiche and feta for a bake to go with a haggis we are eating to celebrate burns night.

Finally, I also made this great tray roast of Jerusalem Artichokes, chicken and lemon from Yotam Ottolenghi's fabulous book 'Jerusalem'. You can find a copy of the recipe here.  I omitted the tarragon and peppercorns and substituted preserved lemons for fresh ones as I have some I need to use up.

Along with the the haggis it is traditional to have 'neeps and tatties' - potatoes and swede (not turnips as one would logically assume). As luck would have it I still have a swede lurking I the garden as a refugee from the Christmas over catering experience. I mashed half of it and turned the other half into chips (Morrisons have a good recipe here). No potatoes as health kick is still ongoing.

I have also signed up to attend a local baking event in March. the theme is British Classics. I am currently debating between all time classics (scones/ shortbreads etc) OR savoury (game pie/ pasties) OR a historic slant (long lost puddings like Deptford pudding)).  I would do a Woolton pie except it was developed in the war as 'nutricious and economical'. Not sure I want to make my debut with a ration book creation...

December update

The end of the year is nearly here and I decided to inspect the damage caused by my neglect on the plot.

I was pleased to see that overall it was not too bad but in no way is the tidiness as good as Bernie’s which is dug and covered already. On my plot, a few hopeful weeds are clinging on and I need to tidy up generally. The manure I spread around the raspberries seems to be keeping weeds down but still needs hand weeding to get on top of any sneaky dandelions.

My own compost bins should be almost ready (she writes hopefully) and spreading that around once I've turned the soil should help nourish the earth and keep weeds down (unless it activates weed seeds that have been lurking in the compost). I can't see the likelihood of getting any help with that back breaking job.

I noticed we also had a massive pony poo delivery - I must nab a bit to mulch with. It should have rotted down by planting time. Not sure if I'll have time before Xmas though to transport it to the plot...

Mental note on general fertilisers: if you have rotted down root perennial weeds like bindweed and dandelions for fertiliser, don't forget and try to wash your hand in it at a later date. It is revoltingly stinky and it takes a lot of soap and hand gel to shift the lingering stench.

Looking around other plots, it looks like others seem to have put chard seedlings in. Too late for me. At least I have 3 PSB seedlings/ plants established. Admittedly this is a bad return on the 20 or so plug plants I started with but the way I see it these are strongest by natural selection.

I should have covered PSB as they have suffered pigeon damage. Maybe I’ll do it now (or after xmas) so they have time to recover in spring.

While it looks like rosemary is the only useable thing in the plot actually the Jerusalem artichoke is ready. I will leave in the ground until I’m able to use it as they go wrinkly quickly. Never the prettiest of veg, wrinkles don't enhance things.

I decided to try out a Jamie Oliver recipe:
2 handfuls of large Jerusalem artichokes or new potatoes
1 radicchio or treviso, outer leaves discarded (I left this out as I don’t like the bitterness)
3 little gem lettuces, leaves washed, dried and stalks removed
a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley or chervil, leaves picked and finely sliced
extra virgin olive oil
8 rashers thickly sliced smoked streaky bacon or pancetta
1 small red onion, peeled and finely sliced
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Scrub the Jerusalem artichokes and boil them in salted water until tender. Once cool, cut them in half and set aside. Wash and dry salad leaves in a salad spinner.
Cut your bacon into slices and fry it. Add the sliced onion and the Jerusalem artichokes. Fry on a medium heat until the bacon is golden and crisp, the onion is sticky and soft and the Jerusalem artichokes have sucked up all the flavours and turned crispy.
Divide half the contents between four plates, then add 5 tablespoons of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the pan, with a little pinch of salt and pepper. Mix everything together so the flavours improve and then pour immediately over the salad leaves waiting in the bowl. Toss lightly and quickly.

Incidentally the rosemary sprigs made pretty festive flourishes for the Christmas table

In other cooking news, I made Trucklements relish with shop bought beetroot and horseradish (bought in chapel market). Not quite in the grow your own spirit but delicious. You can find the recipe here

Review of the year

Well this year is pretty much acknowledged to have been a dreadful year. Bad weather affected most growers and combined with a heavy work schedule and a slightly slap dash confidence in my abilities, 2012 was my annus vebetablus horribilis.

It wasn't all doom and gloom:

• The fruit did well and raspberries and rhubarb were great
• My (bought) butternut squash plant worked well and yielded 5.5 squash (even if I did then let them go a touch mouldy)
• This was the first year I had success with Alliums and the yield was good as they were given an autumn head start
• Mixed success with broad beans - I wonder if I should leave them in longer as I have a harvest around May but then I read about their season being later in summer in cooking magazines so wonder if they are a result of successional sowing rather than a second flush from autumn sown plants.  My experiment for next year I suspect.

On the whole though, my plot under-performed with usual favourites failing me:

• Potato yields were tiny in comparison to previous years
• Tomatoes hardly even had enough fruit and even they didn't turn red before being feasted on by slugs
• Salad leaves never really got started (slugs again) - the only exception was rocket which is pretty much a weed
• Strawberries are probably in need of a move to refresh themselves
• Jerusalem artichokes, like potatoes, had a small harvest. Considering that they are near perennials I don't think moving them will help (and the place they are in is good as they don't over-shadow other plants) but I do think I need to water them more (both more often and just more water)

I did measure harvests (sort of) but the depressingly small amounts may have meant that I gave up in disgust this year.

Great expectations

OK, I admit it, I have been really lazy/ busy/ practical (delete as appropriate) and haven't been on the plot as often as I would like.  I mainly blame travel, bad weather and the fact there is precious little there to look at. I certainly don't blame myself (well, maybe a little bit).

When I find them (in an 'obvious' bag in the kitchen), I will plant autumn onion sets even though they are a little late and I should have done that in November. They will follow on from the Butternut Squash and go in the area cleared in front of the Jerusalem artichokes.  I bought them at the RHS show (which also had some funky late night drinks run by the Midnight Apothecary) along with garlic (Solent White variety and elephant) I reused some of mine from this year too.

I have also planned the location of my potatoes for next year which was pretty tough. I needed to avoid where they been before which narrows things down.  Especially as I put 2 lots in this year in different places and they take up a fair amount of space. The issue is I'll want to plant them around St Patrick's day (17 March) and the purple sprouting broccoli will be in full flow and the onions won't be out till June.

Luckily, looking at the plot recently, only a few seedlings of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli (PSB) have survived. This will create potato space and save us from eating PSB ad infinitum in spring. a bonus of failed seedlings I guess - silver lining etc.

Other things to consider now:

• Keep weeding
• Protect young brassicas from late cabbage White butterflies and pigeons love a brassica seedling. I clearly didn't do this enough as mine have struggled to fight off the attacks.  At this stage in the year it's probably more the birds than the butterflies that will be the problem (even the latest of late cabbasge whites must surely have gone 'home' by now)
• Cut back and divide mint if looking woody
• Start digging and cover with tarpaulin or sow green manure - think I'll leave that till spring.

My Butternut Squash (BNS) has been flourishing and we ended up with 5.5 squashes from one plant (5 normal plus one tiddler). unfortunately the bad weather and my impatience made me bring them into the house before they had cured. They developed mouldy patches alarmingly quickly so I have had to improvise BNS based recipes and stews to avoid some of my rare successful harvests this year going to waste.

For reference next year this is how you cure BNS without them going mouldy (hopefully):
1. Place butternut squash on a dry surface with good air circulation. Some gardeners may keep them outside provided the temperatures are at least above 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), but inside works just as well.
2. Wait. Butternut squash will take about 10 to 12 days to cure in 50 to 55 degree F temperatures. You can tell when the squash is cured if the skin is hard and not easily bruised. Properly cured butternut squash can last for several months.

Harvest festival

This is cheating slightly as the apples that are the main ingredient in this recipe were not grown in my garden but they were given to me by a colleague and it's a great way of using cooking apples. It's even a little healthy I like to think as it has yoghurt in.
Natalia's Apple tray bake cake
1 cup yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cooking apples, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix yoghurt with the bicarb of soda and then all the rest - the dough will look really sticky. Add the apples and add the cinnamon. should have more apples than dough. Pour into a brownie tin and cook for 160 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The second set of potatoes did OK but I only harvested 3.3kg from the 8 or so seed potatoes. In comparison with last year's haul 2012 has not been a stellar year. I suppose I could have left them in longer but the slugs had already got started on themand the top growth was less than perky looking.

I also harvested 950g of rhubarb which I was going to make apple and rhubarb jam but unfortunately I burnt the jam by leaving it on the heat too long while I was focussing on sterilising the jars. Now I have sterile jars but no jam. Damn.

I have 4 more beetroot which I roasted and will make beetroot houmous with using a Nigella recipe (below but with sesame seeds substituted for cumin which is verboten in our house because it's horrid) though I am also partial to a Beetroot horseradish dip where you combine 250g of beetroot with 2 tbsp of horseradish and 100 ml of creme fraiche or yoghurt and blitz in the processor.
Ingredients

• 400g Chickpeas in tin, drained.
• 2-4 fresh Beetroot, peeled & boiled until soft.
• 2-4 cloves Garlic, crushed or chopped
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 90ml Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon fine sesame seeds
• 1/4 Cup Tahini (optional)

Method

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and process till smooth.
2. If it is too thick, gently drizzle a little water into the mixture until just right 

As a final fling the yellow courgettes have done me proud (ish).  I gathered 2.5kg of yellow courgettes including one that got out of control -1.7kg alone.  I'm not sure yet what to do with these monsters (along with a gifted marrow). Thoughts on a postcard please.  Maybe Nigella's courgette and raisin pasta...

The butternut squash look promising and I planted some Charlotte seed potatoes by the Jerusalem artichokes as an experiment. Even if there is no sign of growth I will leave tehm in for an early start next spring. Broad beans were sown in the potato area and deep rooted weeds dug up (mainly). A productive session.

Back to school

It's the time of shiny pens and new exercise books for school kids (do they still have those smelly rubbers and pencils too?). For gardeners, it's also the start of a new year. This is when we lay the foundations for the growth we hope to see in the following year.  It might seem that by cutting down old growth and tidying up in general we are putting the plot to bed but, in fact, by digging up perennial weeds and spreading compost and covering the bare earth, you are preparing the ideal growing conditions for new plants (or plumping the earthy pillows to carry on the slightly over-stretched metaphor).

It's a time to review the performance from the last growing year to see what has worked well and not. That one is easy this year - most things didn't work very well at all.  Really the only successes were the rhubarb and the raspberries (whose lack of autumn raspberries indicate they are summer fruiting).  Even the usually prolific Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes suffered this year.

The second planting of potatoes are looking a little sorry for themselves and may have suffered blight as the tops are wilted and a bit brown.  There are minimal signs of any new courgettes after the 2 giant yellow ones.

Luckily I was given 2 enormous marrows which I have used in a Moroccan stew.  The grape leaves are still languishing in the fridge as on the day I was planning to make dolma we decided that we preferred lasagne.

The year is not over yet though - we are still able to plant. I will give early potatoes given another go (Charlotte), and I will also plant some bulbs for spring displays, sow broad beans, onion sets and garlic onto the plot.

With all this planning I need to think about crop rotation. My brassicas (mainly sprouting broccolis) are already in the beds where tomatoes and courgettes were before, so my main decision is what to grow where the potatoes, onions and garlic were.  I think I will put the onions and garlic in front of the Jerusalem artichokes. This isn't the case for me but if you plan to plant brassicas in land where potatoes were then you need to lime your plot once taking up the potatoes.