Top of the bill this week are the first of my Spring Onions:
I'm very proud of these onions, because they are the first Spring Onions I have grown that have reached a respectable size. My various earlier attempts had not met with a huge amount of success. They key thing I did differently this year was to treat them as a "proper" crop in their own right, not trying to squeeze them in amongst other things. They have therefore had a lot more light, and this has helped them to size-up quite nicely. Lesson learned!
I am not going to pick these onions in big bunches, but rather in ones and two, as and when we need them, and I'm sure they will continue to grow bigger if they are given the chance.
The French Beans are providing us with a decent handful of beans every few days. These ones are my old faithful "Cobra", with just one of the Czech "Konstantin" ones separated out in the foreground, for purposes of visibility. It's much flatter than the "Cobra" ones. I don't see many of the "Konstantin" pods forming yet, so I hope they will improve.
I pulled a couple of carrots, just to see how big they were. I judged them big enough to begin harvesting.
Unfortunately they are evidently not all going to be perfect specimens. I put these two in a simplified "Sayur Lodeh" Indonesian-style mixed vegetable dish, along with some of the French beans and some cabbage, but I will confess that both Jane and I did nibble a couple of pieces raw. They were very tasty and very crisp. I think home-grown carrots fresh from the soil are some of the best vegetables you could find, and incomparably better than shop-bought ones that have been kept in cold storage for months!
Another first of the year this week - tomatoes:
Because we have had so little sunshine this Summer, the tomatoes have taken an age to ripen. I picked the batch in the photo a little under-ripe, because we had some rain and I know that rain after a dry spell often causes tomatoes to split. I really didn't want to lose them after such a long wait! The tomatoes in the pic are mostly "Maskotka", with just two of "Montello". The latter are in the 12-o-clock position in the basket, either side of a tiny Maskotka. They don't look much different, do they?
We have had family visitors staying with us this past weekend, and it was nice to be able to serve up a meal that included home-grown veg - in this case potatoes, cabbage and carrots.
These are the potatoes, another batch of "Nicola":
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| "Nicola" |
In the hurly-burly of a house full of grandchildren I didn't remember to weigh them, but it looks as if this was probably the biggest yield yet from one pot. There are a few quite large tubers there.
This is the cabbage. It's a "Greyhound" one. It wasn't huge, but nice and firm. Certainly enough to feed four adults, with some left over for bubble and squeak.
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| "Greyhound" |
The carrots, I must confess, were a bit of a disappointment in terms of their looks. All of them except one were forked or "wonky" in some way. Fortunately this doesn't affect their taste or texture, but it does make them a challenge to prepare. This batch are all of the variety "Kelly". I hope the other types produce more uniform roots!
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| "Kelly" |
I'm linking my post to Harvest Monday, hosted as ever by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
I was under the impression that forked carrots were either due to stones and hard lumps within the soil or just the nutrients were too high. I'm always reading not to grow carrots in beds that have been manured within the last year or two. A decent harvest though, a carrot is a carrot no matter what shape and they look very tasty :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the harvest! I am hanging for this very wet winter here to clear off and start planning for our summer crop.
ReplyDeleteLovely harvest Mark! I have pulled some tiny carrots which are very sweet but way too small to cook! I have also harvested some of my Stupice tomatoes which are very large and ripe in the greenhouse. Sadly they taste awful. Don't know what I've done wrong there!
ReplyDeleteWhy have spring onions become si challenging when I remember them as so easy I grow. I too,am a raw carrot nibbled and we also often have them grated raw.
ReplyDeleteThat 1st harvest basket is truly something of beauty!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the spring onions! I learned my lesson on "squeezing in" crops when it came to radishes, which was actually something that YOU taught me! Sometimes it works, but more often than not I think veg benefit from their own dedicated spot.
Very nice harvest Mark. That cabbage is a nice specimen!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos...veggie still life. I think folks who have only eaten store bought are amazed. Who knows how long they have been stored, flavor and nutrition leeching out under the best of conditions.Are you planning to replant those onion roots? Some people claim a second smaller crop.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos...veggie still life. I think folks who have only eaten store bought are amazed. Who knows how long they have been stored, flavor and nutrition leeching out under the best of conditions.Are you planning to replant those onion roots? Some people claim a second smaller crop.
ReplyDeleteHomegrown spring onions are so nice to have. Like you say, you can harvest them on an as-needed basis to have fresh scallions. Wonky or not, I bet those carrots did taste good. I didn't grow any this year, since I've not been having good luck with them here.
ReplyDeleteGreat crop there Mark, my carrots are little stumpy things, difficult to clean, but worth the perseverance. My pesky squirrels have dug up some of my spring onions so just sowed some more. Yours look so good.
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