Despite the weather being decidedly wet and blustery, then freezing and blustery, then very wet again, I'm pleased that I've managed to get outside for short periods without getting soaked through. Most days I have been able to harvest something from the annual vegetable beds to use in the kitchen. So, here are my five most harvested foods for January 2018.
1. Leeks I grew three different varieties of leeks this year, to give us some security should one variety go too seed too soon. There are Autumn Mammoth, American Flag and one other variety, sadly, I can't remember the variety and unlike me, I didn't record it in my gardening journal.
2. Parsnips These were grown from organic seed, the variety is Tender and True. This year I spaced the seeds much further apart than I have done in the past, giving fewer roots of a much better size. You can see very clearly on these roots where the growth changes after a few inches of nice straight growing; that's where the wood chip and compost growing medium in the raised bed meets the dreadfully poor soil that was in the field when we moved in. Hopefully this will improve year upon year as the topsoil is rebuilt.
3. Purple Sprouting Broccoli I grew two varieties of purple sprouting broccoli this year in the hope that one would be ready to be harvested earlier than the other and that's exactly what has happened - hooray! We've been enjoying the purple sprouting broccoli for almost eight weeks and the second bed, the seed packet informs me, should be ready to harvest in February and March.
4. Fresh Herbs The bronze fennel has braved the weather and the fresh growth is now around eight inches high, certainly enough to pick a little to add to dishes like omelettes and sauces. The thyme and marjoram which I have growing under cloches, looks fairly scruffy and ragged, but I'm harvesting a little at a time from them. The evergreen herbs like rosemary and bay add their warming presence to dishes and the sage, although looking very weather beaten, is still just about useable.
5. Cabbages and Kale We have plenty of Cavello di Nero kale, January King and Savoy cabbages as well as spring greens. Other than the Savoys, I've grown most of these brassicas to give to the birds, as an additional green during the winter months while the grass has stopped growing. We eat just a little kale as we are not fans, but I enjoy Savoy cabbage on a regular basis. I think the key to enjoying brassicas is to find the way to cook them so that you enjoy them. I dislike soggy cabbage, while friends of mine won't touch it if it still has a crispiness or bite.
What an amazing experience this project has been! 50 days ago I set myself a target of harvesting, processing and storing at least 5lbs of food a day. Whether it was something grown in our garden, meat birds or something foraged. My target was to store 250lbs of food in 50 days, but by the end of the first week it became obvious that I would achieve that volume of harvest fairly easily and quickly, so I increased the target to 500lbs. And, shortly after the midway point I realised that I could increase my target once again. Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined that this plot could yield so much food in such a short space of time. I have, in fact, harvested more than the list below, because for the purpose of my 50 Days of Harvest project, I didn't include any food that we harvested to consume that day and it didn't include anything harvested prior to the start date. I will, in due course, calculate the total amount that has been harvested from our smallholding this year, but for today, I am celebrating that I have been able to harvest such a fabulous amount in seven weeks and a day. Here's today's vlog, or if you can't view it on your device, you can watch it on YouTube here
The harvest included 317 lbs apples (cooking apples and eating apples) 85 lbs winter squashes 22 lbs beetroot 30 lbs dwarf beans 44 lbs courgettes 57 lbs tomatoes 3 lbs cucumber 9 lbs plums 48 lbs runner beans 8 lbs savoy cabbage 31 lbs borlotti beans (net weight) 9 lbs blackberries 75 lbs chicken and duck 16 lbs raspberries 19 lbs sweetcorn 3 lbs Greek gigantes beans 23 lbs pears 1 lb parsnips. Our cupboards are filled with jars of apple sauce, plum sauce, green tomato chutney and raspberry jam. Demi-Johns are filled with country wines nicely fermenting away, the freezers are filled to bursting with produce and our hearts are filled with joy. The whole project can be found on YouTube here
It seems that this has been a very good year for growing food in our garden. Hopefully this is a result of us improving the soil in the raised beds and an indication of things to come, that year by year the yield will increase as we enrich and enhance the soil.
I've been picking blackberries, not only from the hedgerows of the fields surrounding us, but from the brambles that are quietly but steadily invading our garden.The area immediately outside our boundary is not being cut back by the farmer using the fields, this is a nuisance on one level because the weeds are growing very well and are now about four feet high and their seeds are blowing and dropping into our garden and chicken field, on the otherhand, it is supplying us with an amazing crop of blackberries. Now if I could just find a way to eat thistles, we'd be completely sorted!
The elderberry tree is now starting to look purple, the birds are gorging themselves on ripening berries and I have started to pick as many berries as I can reach. I'm putting them straight into the freezer and, when I have enough, I will make some more elderberry wine. I'm also going to make elderberry syrup as I hear it is soothing for sore throats and the other symptoms of winter colds.
The mirabelle plums are almost ready, one or two show the deep rich yellow of ripeness and I'm watching daily as the others turn from green to pale yellow to a darker, softer, buttery yellow.These too will be going into the freezer until I am ready to use them. Last year's crop were used to make some mirabelle plum and red grape wine which turned out to be a great success (unlike the elderflower wine that I made last year which is disgusting!). Today's vlog continues the harvesting theme, if you can't view it on your device from this blog, you can watch it on YouTube here.
As the summer gives way to autumn, the focus of my day seems to have shifted from outdoors to the kitchen. Gathering food from the garden and preparing it for the freezer, canning, making preserves, meals and drinks takes up increasing amounts of time. I'm not a bad cook, as domestic cooks go. A bit basic maybe, nothing modern or fancy, but as what we want is wholesome, hearty or comfort food, I can do that pretty well. I'm now facing the new challenge of preserving all the vegetables that I've grown for using throughout the winter. Obviously some will stay in the ground, winter cabbages, parsnips and leaks can be lifted as and when we need them, but others like the softer leafy greens and celery will need to be brought in or they will just turn to mush in the frosts. Because I have grown so many vegetables that I haven't tried growing before, I've had to look up when they need harvesting or whether they can stay in the ground and also find out the best ways to preserve them.
I've frozen a large number of rainbow chard stems, chopped into two to three inch lengths which will be added to stews, roasted or tossed into a stir-fry. Neither Mr J nor I are very keen on the leaves of chard and while I have frozen a few servings of chard leaves, most of them were given to the chickens as I picked the stems.
The celery (Red Soup variety) will be cut this week, then chopped and frozen to add it's warming effect to meals throughout the winter. I don't like celery in salads, but I do like it braised, made into a soup or added in small quantities to dishes that are cooked gently over a long period, but most of all I like it roasted in a tray filled with a mixture of vegetables with fresh herbs and plenty of garlic.
Every day I have managed to prepare and freeze some vegetables and fruit. I've decided that even if I don't get to make syrups and wine immediately as long as the raw produce is frozen I can spend time in the kitchen once everything is gathered and make them at a later date.
The tomato fruits on the plants in the greenhouse continue to ripen and every few of days I've been bringing in a couple of handfuls of semi-ripe tomatoes.They are left in the warmth of the kitchen to ripen more and then I'm cutting them in half and freezing them. These will be a welcome addition to breakfasts in the colder winter months. The purple French beans from a late sowing of seeds have yielded about 5lbs and there are still more to come. I planted a few seeds on 31st July in the hope that the plants might grow enough to provide a small crop, but it didn't matter if we didn't get any beans as the plants would fix some nitrogen into the soil following the onion crops that were in those particular raised beds. Having such a good crop from this late sowing feels like a bonus blessing.
Earlier in the week I noticed that one bed in which I've recently planted some purple kale also has lots of small purple leaved seedlings popping up all over it. I thought perhaps that it was red orach as there is a plant nearby, but yesterday I realised that these colourful little leaves are actually a purple oak leaf lettuce. I had forgotten that I had broad cast some seeds from a plant that had gone to seed (and now I think about it, I did the same with a tasty green leaf lettuce somewhere in the garden, I will need to go and look for seedlings). I will cover the bed with fleece to keep the warmth in the soil and hopefully we will have some baby lettuce leaf salad before too long. I have gathered some fresh herbs and frozen the leaves whole, so that during the winter months when the herbs have died back I will still be able to use them in cooking. Each type of herb is in its own bag in the freezer. I keep them all in a small cardboard box so that I don't have to hunt around in the freezer looking for them.
Out in the garden I'm continuing to lay cardboard and make new raised beds, it's become quite slow going as there is so much to do in the kitchen. I've repositioned some strawberry runners that were growing in long grass in a corner behind the stables. They now have plenty of space in a more open position in the food forest and I've planted another blueberry there too.
The Australorp chicks are growing fast now and their petrol black feathers are growing with a delightful sheen. They are so soft to the touch and very friendly. It won't be too long before I need to make the decision about which ones to keep for breeding and which to dispatch for the freezer. There are eight chicks and I am certain that two are pullets and two are cockerels, the other four I am not sure about! So hopefully in the next few weeks it will be become clear what gender they are and I will be able to make a proper decision. Of the four hybrid chicks that hatched at the same time, two are cockerels and one of the pullets is bantam size. Typically, the two cockerels which we won't be keeping have beautiful colouring while the pullets are white with scruffy black splashes. No matter, they will still provide us with eggs next year. Yesterday (Sunday) we had sunshine for most of the day and the forecast is for fine weather for the next week. I am delighted to have this last touch of warmth before autumn and winter arrive.
Today we will be taking one more walk along the hedgerows to pick the late ripening blackberries, they have been particularly good this year, not only have there been masses of berries but they have been large, juicy and sweet. We've already enjoyed blackberry and apple crumbles, blackberry Eton mess, I've made jams and frozen pounds of berries to make syrup and wine from. I want to make the most of this foraged harvest as not only is it free food, but there is such an abundance of it this year. But before we head out to the fields to pick blackberries, I think it must be time for a cuppa! If you'd like to receive my blog posts direct to your inbox just enter your email address in the box below and follow the instructions. You'll probably need to confirm by clicking a link in your email inbox and then you will receive my blog each time a new entry is published. You can, of course, cancel your subscription at any time.
