The Kitchen Garden Produce is Ramping up!

Since early in the year we’ve been eating a few things out of the kitchen garden, but this is when production seriously ramps up.

We had some cavolo nero kale back in winter and we’ve managed to keep the purple sprouting broccoli limping along. It’s desperately trying to go to seed now, but I just keep chopping it down.

We’ve had salad leaves for quite a while and rhubarb for breakfast for a good few weeks. The asparagus season is now at an end, we have to stop harvesting it this weekend. You should only cut it for six weeks, before letting it go to seed.

Broad Beans

Those beautiful, crimson, flowered broad beans that were sown last autumn are now ready. I’ve sat outside a few evenings podding them in the heat. A really relaxing job, although it does make your finger nails go black, which isn’t very attractive!

The first dish they went into was one of our weekly favourites, Salmon & Ginger Pasta. A simple but incredibly delicious dish, the only down side is that it uses three pans. Ok if you have a dishwasher!

Recipe coming soon.

Sugar-snaps

About a week ago we noticed the first few sugar-snaps, those first few don’t make it to the kitchen, they are just picked and eaten. As the week’s progressed though, with the benefit of of few heavy downpours, an odd one or two have turned into enough to pick and bring inside.

Many years ago I grew some peas but they are so time consuming to pod. The garden apprentice and I sat in the garden podding them, it took ages to get half a cup full. They were so delicious that we ended up eating them there in the garden. Well they were too nice to cook anyway.

The following year I grew mangetout, a variety called ‘Shiraz’ which I thought was a good enough reason to grow them in itself! As the name suggests they were purple, this is another tick for them as all red and purple foods are better for you, as they are full of antioxidants. The final reason to grow them is how easy they are to harvest. Pick them off the plant and job done, either eat raw or briefly cook.

I’ve been growing mangetout ‘Shiraz’ for a good few years now, but I also started growing sugarsnaps. They are in a different league of sweetness. Just as easy as any other peas to grow and again easy to harvest, so this year they are my only peas. I do miss the beautiful purple flowers of Shiraz thogh.

Purple Potatoes

After growing purple potatoes last year for the first time, I can’t imagine growing any other variety. The ‘new potato’ flavour reminds me of the potatoes my dad used to grow. Something I’ve not tasted for a long time.

They do look a bit strange at first, but we don’t think there’s anything wrong with dark purple beetroot so why not purple potatoes. Some have marbling inside them which actually looks really attractive. It reminds me of some kind of blackcurrant ice-cream.

I grow them in a tub, as the one time I planted them in the ground I was pulling potato plants up for years! When they are ready I don’t empty the tub, but instead just pull one plant at a time and have a furcal around with my gloved hand.

Gherkins

The gherkins have got off to a racing start, already about three foot high. Lot’s of beautiful yellow flowers have already been pollenated by the many bees in the greenhouse and we’ve made our first two jars of pickled gherkins.

I had to read my own blog recipe, ‘How to Pickle Gherkins – The quick & easy way‘, to refresh my memory. Anyway, they are as delicious as we remembered from last year.

Strawberries

The strawberry staircase, the garden apprentice constructed for me last year, is working very well. We had two strawberries last week but the heat of this week has really brought them on. Unfortunately Mr & Mrs Blackbird seem to think they are being grown for them, so as they ripen it’s a race to see who gets there first! We are going to have to construct some sort of cage for next year.

After seeing strawberry plants with pink flowers at a friends last year, I’ve managed to acquire a small plant. The strawberries taste the same but the flowers are so pretty.

Shallots

I’d not grown onions until the horrible events of 2020’s worldwide pandemic forced me into it. We use so many onions in our cooking that I couldn’t risk being without them. I’d not grown them before because they are reasonably cheap and I didn’t think the flavour would be that much different. The main difference was the sweetness, so I grew them again in 2021 and 2022.

This year though, I thought I’d have a change and grow shallots as they are quite a bit dearer to buy than onions. I’m over the moon with the results, they’ve produced so many and they are delicious. Apart from using them in cooking we have been slicing them very finely and soaking them in malt vinegar. These are delicious with many things but especially with cheese on toast, we fight over the last few in the dish.

Good job there are plenty more in the garden!