What are you harvesting today?

Bits and bobs from various places - Real Seeds, Seeds of Italy, Premier Seeds Direct, Nicky's Nursery. Makes postage expensive !

Mostly mentioned in this thread:

https://handmadelife.forumotion.net/t576-seed-banks-and-reliable-suppliers

First picking of winter salad leaves today. I could have started two weeks ago, but awful weather and other things stopped me getting around to it. A large mixing bowl full is now sitting on the kitchen table awaiting washing: lettuce, mizuna, claytonia, spinach, endive, rocket and lambs lettuce. Hooray, no more bought salad leaves.

I found some tomatoes in the greenhouse which I had forgotten about - I had left them in case they ripened, but hadn't paid them any attention, so it did give a sense of achievement to be eating tomatoes from the (unheated) greenhouse in December. They were Rio Grande plum tomatoes - they had survived the frosts and damp fogs we had had for a fortnight or so - the tomatoes were sweet but curiously crisp! It's amazing to think that in about a month's time I will be thinking about sowing an early variety for next season!

I'm not harvesting tomatoes, but before I ditched my old plants, I pulled off some side shoots. I rooted them in water, and now they are in pots in the conservatory. One even has some flowers! I am going to see if they will give me an early start next season , in addition to the seeds I will sow. If they grow too big in the conservatory, I can always take side shoot cuttings and start the process again.

Let us know how you get on - I've never thought of taking cuttings.

Good to see some experimentation going on

I am interested in overwinter salads and other things. I have never had much luck in my greenhouse - it gets cold and very damp, so I get lots of mould. Overwintering chillies is hit and miss, and sometimes results in overwintering aphids too. Is your greenhouse drier than mine I wonder; you are definitely not in a drier part of the country than me !

Most winter salads you don't, strictly speaking, need to protect at all. I usually grow them outside in cold frames. Can you not ventilate your greenhouse, CH? The protection from the worst of the elements will be sufficient - they don't need cossetting. Some form of protection ensures that the plants keep growing, albeit very slowly.

This year I have winter hardy lettuce, lambs lettuce, claytonia, winter hardy spinach, mizuna, rocket, and endive. The land cress didn't germinate (very old seed) so I've bought new for next season.

I think ventilation is part of the problem. I have just one rokf vent, which has an autovent thingy that opens when hot, so not at all in winter. At times I've wedged it open a little. But tge greenhouse is also used for overwintering things that resent being too cold. Still, my enthusiasm for salads is at a bit of a low in winter.

If vegetables are more scarce after Brexit, I'm hoping I won't need to put barbed wire around the six little spring cabbages I have in one of the raised beds to protect them from burglars! I will definitely experiment with growing some salad crops on windowsills or in the greenhouse, depending on how cold the weather is.

Well we are stuffed now. The much predicted queues on the M2, and at this rate no flights to/from the rest of Europe who understandably don't want our germs. Just as domestic veg production hits the low season.

But look on the bright side, a bumper brussel sprout crop this year

Don't you like brussels, Chilli?

Actually, I'm not a great fan of pretty much everything in the main course of a traditional Christmas dinner. I'm not that excited by simple roasts and IMHO the turkey is a bit bland prepared that way. Sprouts are a bit sulphurous. I like the roast potatoes and stuffing the best I think. And of course, the pudding

Hopefully the shops won't be too depleted. But we should be getting a turkey from the school farm again. Home grown veg are thin on the ground - the odd red cabbage and some kale left at the lotty.

...and you have to brave the mud to dig anything! I have two celeriac, two large leeks and some beetroot left in the ground, ahem, mud!

From the allotment today, a swede, two parsnips, the first of the purple sprouting and a small Romanesco cauliflower. Mixed salad leaves from the garden.

Chillies ! From a basket of fire plant overwintering in the conservatory. The red fruit against green foliage look quite festive for Christmas, and mostly dry on the plant if left.

Parsnips. Lots of them. I have found they freeze well, so decided to dig up most of what is on the allotment. That half of the plot is waiting for a mulch, so I can get that on a bit sooner.

I've never been able to grow parsnips without canker here.

Still have kale and purple sprouting broccoli - grown at the request of the allotment helping minions. Keeps them happy.

First rhubarb of the season picked yesterday evening and eaten for pud.

Ooh, lovely. I was going to pick a few stalks tonight but didn't have time to cook it so I didn't. I will aim for rhubarb crumble tomorrow.

Rhubarb is ready here too. I will pick some later mmmm.

I'm keeping the rhubarb secret for another few days. Other than that I have a bare allotment just waiting to be planted up. The high winds did for the PSB.

It would be very useful to pick some rhubarb as it is in the way! I've had to make a homemade barricade to keep the hens safe when they're allowed out next week (to keep them out from under our large tree, which does get a lot of bird poo under it), and I'm having to wait for our local poultry place to get some proper chicken fencing in. So I've constructed a fence which Heath Robinson would be proud of while I'm waiting, which involves having to squeeze past the rhubarb between the greenhouse and the raised bed.

My very first asparagus spear, the crowns being newly planted when we moved here. Just the one - steamed, and shared between the two of us with the rest of our dinner.

In London I would have been harvesting for at least a couple of weeks already. However, I have a couple of redundant, homemade (what else!) hoop frames, which will be converted into mini polytunnels for winter and next year's emerging growth.

Eta - oh and summer lettuce leaves. For the first time ever, I have managed a virtually seamless transition from picking winter salad leaves to summer leaves. Usually, I have a gap of several weeks. But the plants put in with the broad beans in a greenhouse planter have done me proud, the cold frame ones not too far behind, and those under fleece in the raised bed just coming good.

I bet that shared asparagus tasted good!

It did, Dandelion, though I hadn't expected it to. The earliest spears can be bitter, especially when the weather has been cold.