Taking The Scenic Route

Salade Niçoise

Hooray, beans are back on the menu. And these 'Early Risers' are so sweet and tender. I've written their praises before and I shall go on growing them forever. I can't keep up with all the lettuce which is starting to want to run to flower in this heat.
Still importing potatoes, olives and anchovies though.

Pottage Full Good

Now leeks are in season, for pottage full good,
That spareth the milch cow, and purgeth the blood.
Tusser in his 'Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie'


Leek Soup; Take a sheep's head, prepared by having had the hair and wool scalded off and the head split in two, take out the brains, and put the head in three quarts of boiling water, add twelve large leeks, cut up into pieces about two inches long, simmer the whole gently for four hours. Mix smoothly as much flour or ground rice as will make the soup tolerably thick, mix it with the soup, and continue stirring until the whole is well done. Season to taste and serve hot.
Our War-Time Kitchen Garden Tom Jerrold (1917)

Too Few Foot Candles

I've lifted all the garlic, which I got in trade from Patrick, after the rust had taken over and put an end to any more growth. The Red Toch (above) do look presentable but Metechi were all quite small and miserable so I will probably use whole bulbs in with roast potatoes etc rather than try to fiddle with peeling each clove. I'd like to blame the lack of sun here - but probably somebody has got a bumper crop to show me up to be just an inept farmer.

The Cupboard is Bare

Yesterday I pulled up the last leek. I guess that's it until sometime late October. The kale is all in flower now and we're down to two (rather large) squashes. But still a few potfuls of pink fir apple potatoes. Frank @ Hooting Yard sent me this link for Sydney Smith's A Recipe for Salad. A fine way to see out last year's spuds.


It's fate was risotto.

Spring Greens

St. Columba's Broth - Pick young stinging nettles before the end of June, when they are 4 or 5 inches high - one 'handful' for each person. Boil, drain, chop and return to pan with water and milk. Reheat, sprinkle in fine oatmeal or oats, stirring until thick.
Richard Mabey's Flora Britannica


Nettles, Sprouting Broccoli and Wild Garlic all ripe for the picking now.

Halcyon Days of Winter

The skies have been blue and daytime temperatures around 14° for the past week.
Unlike the lilies of the field, I have toiled AND I have sown and now I'm pooped. Two trays of leeks are now sat in the potting shed - Swiss Zermatt and Bleu de Solaise - about a week ahead of my start last year. Most of the beds are dug over and cleaned up and I'll get shallot and onion sets in tomorrow.
Happy days. And it's scientifically proven that playing in the dirt is good for your psyche. Read all about it if you haven't already.

Wildings

" I fear that he who walks over these fields a century hence will not know the pleasure of knocking off wild apples. Ah, poor man, there are many pleasures which he will not know."
H.D.Thoreau 'Wild Apples' 1862

Last Saturday I finally got the garlic set out which I got in a trade with Patrick @ Bifurcated Carrots - 'Red Toch' And 'Metechi'. Hopefully I wasn't too late getting them in? I'm planting out the three apples that I grafted back in the spring this weekend. They (2 William Crump and one nameless neighbour) have all grown away quite well I think.
My current project is to grow some from pips. They won't come true of course, the chance seedlings which spring from discarded cores may turn into anything, possibly with echoes from ancient ancestors. In each seed there are lost varieties and potential new ones. Which is what makes me so curious. The 'Reinette de Canada' is thought to be the ancestor of the 'Ribston Pippin'. 'Granny Smith' apparently grew on the compost heap of an Australian woman and 'Keswick Codlin' was found in the garden rubbish at Ulverston Castle. The varieties with words such as seedling or pippin as part of the name have occurred just so.
Well my plan is to grow the pips pictured below and in a few years hence I will plant them in some out of the way locations as I don't have the property to start an orchard. Guerrilla gardening . Once they're fruiting in about 5 or 6 years I'll publish a map of their whereabouts so that everyone can enjoy the results.

Porrophagus

It begins to feel like spring now, what with the potatoes quietly chitting in the potting shed and yesterday I sowed a tray of seeds. Leeks - Giant Zermatt and Siegfried - this year. Last year I grew over 100 well-endowed "Mr. Lyon's" (Thomas Etty Seeds) and should have half a dozen to leave to flower and set seed for next year. Oh yes, does anybody out there know when is a good time to plant out the beetroot that I want to grow on for seed?
I also started to make some headway with the pruning and coppicing that I've been neglecting. After about 3 hours of that it was time for a sit down and a nice cuppa tea.

The tea council has a counter on it's site which allows you to watch the 190,000,000 cups of tea a day being, well, knocked back by the look of it.