Swede "Ruby"

This time last year, my garden was mostly bare and devoid of veg, and I vowed to try harder to have more Winter veg in the future. This year, as well as my usual PSB, I have more Brussels Sprouts than ever (six plants), plenty of Parsnips, Leeks, and some Cabbages (though most of the latter have already finished). I also have some Swedes. [Note: in some parts of the world, these things are called Rutabagas, Swede Turnips, or simply Turnips / "Neeps".]

As far as I know, this is the first time I have tried growing Swedes. If I have grown them before it would have been a very long time ago (way before I started my blog), and it must have been unsuccessful, otherwise I would almost certainly have remembered it!

Swedes are cheap to buy in the shops, and occupy the ground for quite a long time so they have a low VSR (Value for Space Rating), and I wouldn't normally consider growing them, but this time I was determined to have my own "proper" Winter veg, and for me this has to include Swede! My Swede seeds (variety: Ruby") were sown on 10th May, and planted out into a raised bed as little seedlings on 7th June. I only had room for four of them. Here they are, protected by a forest of little sticks.

I was meticulous with watering during the Summer, and the Swedes seemed to grow reasonably well. After the Leeks growing alongside them suffered some damage at the hands (noses / paws, probably) of the foxes, I covered the whole bed with netting.

The netting didn't stop the slugs though, and despite the liberal application of slug-pellets, the Swedes suffered a fair bit of damage:

I think the damage to their leaves may have inhibited their growth, because from about late September onwards, the Swedes grew painfully slowly. I waited patiently (and in vain) for them to swell up. One of the four was very peculiar and despite developing two "crowns" it has not produced any meaningful root:

Finally, this week I decided that it was time to harvest the first of the Swedes. Even though it still didn't look very big, I had concluded that it had stopped growing. Leaving it in the ground any longer would probably only lead to it going woody, so up it came:

I wouldn't say it was a fine specimen, by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm reasonably pleased with it, since it is my first attempt. Honour has been satisfied!

After I had trimmed off the elongated stalk I was left with 600g of useable veg (though of course that is before peeling it).

This Swede is due to be eaten tomorrow, so I'll wait and see what it's like to eat before I decide whether to try again next year.

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P.S. Yesterday a couple of people said they thought that what I had described as slug damage on my Perpetual Spinach might actually have been caused by birds, so just to be on the safe side I have erected a defence mechanism around them, using flexible plastic Clematis Netting. It won't deter the small birds, but I reckon it will keep the pigeons off - and they are the most destructive type of bird:

Yes, the slugs are fine, thank you!

Since I'm not at work today, I managed to have a good look at the garden in daylight for a change. I see that the local slug population is well-fed and evidently thriving:

That is one of my Perpetual Spinach plants. The slugs are obviously partial to a bit of spinach, because many of the leaves have been stripped right down to the mid-rib:

Strangely enough, the slugs have gone for the bigger, outer leaves, and the nice fresh young ones in the crown of the plants are untouched. Very odd.

Nearby there are some Cabbage seedlings. Fortunately they don't seem to have been nearly so badly attacked.

There are some rather bigger cabbages in the next bed too, and they are OK as well, and beginning to form hearts.

The nearby endives are untouched. I never get slug damage on endives.

The other garden pests seem to have packed it in for the Winter. The Whitefly on the Brussels Sprouts are few and far between now, thank Goodness, and there seem to be very few aphids now. My PSB will be glad of that!

Hydrangeas

My little potted Hydrangea plant is already developing next years shoots:

I have deliberately not dead-headed the plant, because I have read that the old blooms help to protect the new shoots during the Winter. I'll cut them off in the Spring.

You can see why this type of Hydrangea is sometimes called the "Mop-head Hydrangea", can't you?

Actually, I think the old faded blooms have a certain stark beauty of their own:

New shoots are appearing in the crown of the plant as well as on the existing branches, so I'm hopeful that the plant will fill out a bit next year and become more bushy.

You'll notice that I have left some fallen leaves in the pot, rather than clearing them away, because I think this may also protect the plant's roots.

Maneesh

Last weekend we bought a copy of "Persiana" by Sabrina Ghayour:

As the sub-title informs us, this is a book of "Recipes from the Middle East and beyond". Many of you will know that I am strongly influenced by the cookery of Yotam Ottolenghi, and the style of cooking in Sabrina's book reminds me of this. Fortunately, Jane also loves eating and cooking this type of food. There are loads of recipes in the new book that we want to make as soon as possible!

Last Sunday we made a start. This is the first dish we chose - Lamb and Pistachio Patties.

To be honest, Jane did most of the cooking on this occasion, but my main contribution to the meal was to bake some bread. I chose to make "Maneesh", not from Persiana (which only includes two bread recipes), but from Paul Hollywood's "Bread". It is a classic Middle Eastern flatbread with a crispy crust and a soft interior. Most attractively of all, it is topped with a mix of Sesame seeds and Za'atar.

Uncharacteristically, I followed Paul's recipe! Well, almost. The only change I made was to alter the composition of the spice topping. I used a mixture of Sesame seeds, Fennel seeds, dried Thyme, dried Oregano and commercial Za'atar.

The bread is made in a fairly conventional way, mixing the dough; letting it rise; knocking it back; dividing it into pieces; flattening it into rough circles, and letting it rise a second time before baking. The spices are made up into a thick paste with olive oil, and spread onto the dough before the second rising.

In fact, the circles of dough look just like pizzas!

After cooking at high temperature (230C) for about 15 minutes, this is what you get:

We like our bread Well Done, so I gave it a couple of minutes more than the 15 recommended in the recipe. I think perhaps my dough may have been a bit thicker than Paul Hollywood intended.

This is what the bread looked like when cut:

Our bread was served as a starter, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip it in. The olive oil was one described as "fruity and pungent, with a strong peppery flavour". It went perfectly with the bread and its seedy topping. Lots of flavour in the crust, but also a soft inner crumb with which to mop up the oil.

To be honest, the crust was not as crispy as I would have liked. Being as dark as it was, it was very tasty, but it lacked "crackle". I know this is hard to achieve in an ordinary domestic oven. Next time I do this I will put a tin full of boiling water in the bottom of the oven, because I think the steam it produces helps with achieving the right texture on the crust.

Hellebores - some signs of growth

About this time last year I bought a pack of six mixed Hellebore plants for the bargain price of £9.99. They were tiny plug-plants and I realistically didn't expect them to flower in their first year. I'm hopeful though that this year I may get a couple of blooms. I have no experience with growing Hellebores, so I really don't know what to expect. I have however noticed how expensive mature Hellebore plants are to buy, so I'm guessing that they take quite a while to reach maturity.

One of the plug-plants was very weak right from the start and didn't survive, but I planted the others out during the Spring, in the border which hosts my Dogwoods and the Cotinus:

My research has told me that Hellebores tolerate shade during the Summer and bloom at a time when most other plants have few leaves, so I am hoping I have chosen a suitable spot. As you can see, they are currently well insulated by a layer of fallen leaves. Should those leaves remain where they are, or should I remove them? What do you think?

Most of the plants now have some significant new growth, which I am hoping will include flower buds.

As well as the original six plug-plants I also have some Hellebores from different sources. One is a rather larger plant which I bought in a Garden Centre. At the time it had a flower bud on it which looked as if it would open very soon. Unfortunately it never did. It just sat there doing nothing for weeks and weeks and eventually died back. This year the plant is well-established and will hopefully do better.

It definitely has a flower bud emerging, which with a bit of luck will actually open this time!

My third source of Hellebores has been some seeds sent to me by fellow blogger Elaine. After an extensive period of vernalisation a couple of them finally germinated and got established. They are now at about the same size as the plug-plants were when I got them.

Since they are still very tiny I have protected them with some sticks, to deter the cats / foxes / badgers from digging them up (vain hope!)

I really do hope the Hellebores do well (eventually), because a bit of colour in the garden during Winter would be most welcome. If they do flower you may rest assured that I will write about them again!

Harvest Monday - 8th December 2014

The opportunities for getting harvests from my garden are very much reduced now! This week I have not been able to contribute much to the menu; mostly salads, such as these radicchio and endive:

Actually I did also pick two other very small radicchio (seen at the bottom of the next photo), including one "Variegato di Castelfranco" (the speckled one). That particular type has been a disappointment this year. Very few of the seeds germinated, and the resultant plants were very small and weak. This may have been a problem with the one packet of seeds I bought, because in the past I have grown this variety successfully.

This small bowl of Landcress leaves was also included in the tally:

 

 As I described yesterday, we had a very sharp frost on Saturday, but Sunday was a lot milder. Just to illustrate the difference, here are two photos of the same endive plant, taken on two consecutive days:

 

 

The endives seems to have survived the frost OK. They seem to be all right if the frost is not prolonged. I imagine if we had very low temperatures for say 48 hours non-stop the plant would probably die.

 

At the weekend we ate a Middle Eastern meal, and in my opinion most Middle Eastern meals are incomplete without Parsley, so my garden contributed this:

  

Picked at the weekend, but not yet consumed, is this batch of Brussels Sprouts:

As before, they are not big, but they are nice and tight, and I'm sure they will be lovely and sweet.

I keep thinking that I won't be able to participate in Harvest Monday for a while, but there always seems to be something I can harvest. That's what I like! It is so rewarding to be able to get at least something from the garden all year round.

Why not drop by Daphne's Dandelions to see what other gardeners have been able to produce...