What are you harvesting today?

Ooh, bonus CH!

I didn't exactly harvest anything today, but we did eat some carrots that were harvested some time ago. 15 months ago, to be precise. They been languishing in the fridge since I pulled them up. I'd get them out from time to time and look at them, all curly and twisted, and think oh I'll deal with them another day. They were still in perfect condition, and tasted excellent in our beef stew this evening.

15 months in the fridge!!
I know home grown things last well but I wouldn't expect that. My carrots stay in the ground (I have been out with a pick on ********* Day before now to get some for dinner). They lasted right through to April this year. I find that the slugs will decimate some but leave the others untouched.
I've started on the Brussel sprouts - they're very big & very sweet so I'm pleased with them as they had no attention whatsoever, just a butterfly net cage over them.

Salad leaves and ... asparagus Not many spears yet, but enough for a side dish tonight.

Hmm, asparagus envy CH. Can't even see mine yet.

I gave mine a good layer of compost and manure ... seems it was just the tonic needed !

Not exactly exciting, but the spring cabbage in our garden is ready, and quite delicious. I love those pointy headed cabbages, and they're fairly delicate in flavour at the moment.

What is your timing, Dandelion, to get spring cabbages now? When do you sow? I did manage them a couple of years ago but they needed to do quite a bit of growing in the spring & I certainly didn't have them as early as this. I'm hopeless getting cabbages for the right time - I usually seem to have a glut in the summer when I don't particularly want them.

I sow them in August, in the second half of the month, using varieties like Greyhound. I grow them on in modules, and plant out before the weather gets too cold (October usually). They over winter looking quite small and weedy: the trick is not to feed them before the winter because you don't want any lush tender growth which will make them vulnerable to frost. I usually put something high in nitrogen around them in February (it was chicken manure pellets this year) then as the weather improves they sprint away and make lots of growth. I love the fact that you don't have to protect them against cabbage whites, unless you intend to leave them in the ground until late spring, but you do need to protect against slugs and pigeons (you do in our neck of the woods anyway!)

freebird wrote:Hmm, asparagus envy CH. Can't even see mine yet.

Perhaps I wasn't looking properly as I harvested the first two spears yesterday!

Yay!!

Oh wow. Summer is here at last. I noticed a half red one or two last weekend, I'll have to go and looks again, but you have certainly beat me to it with a bowlful Ploshkin !

I have had 5 mini cucumbers so far (Cuicino, a lovely variety). We had some in a salad with spinach baby leaf and lettuce - I sowed those in a seed tray months ago in the greenhouse, took a couple of cuttings off them, then planted out the remains in the garden in a shady spot - it has grown back well.

What I have got for tonight is a very nice bushy green row of coriander. I'm going to use some to garnish a tomato rasam - and Indian soup with tomato, lemon, chilli, mustard seeds, curry leaves etc. I'm crossing my fingers that I can barbecue some kofte (meatballs) with coriander at the weekend, weather permitting. Better to use coriander young - it always bolts in my free draining garden soil. But then it will provide coriander seed ...

Ah, they are out of the greenhouse CH. I gave up trying to grow them outside here years ago and the final straw was when my ducks ate all the red ones & bit off all the green ones. I grow everbearers in hanging baskets in the GH.

Ooh, Ploshkin, how lovely! Mine are outside, I've never grown strawberries before. There is one that is three quarters red. I hope nothing steals it. My gooseberries usually get pilfered before I can pick them - even though netted.
I have an outbreak of spinach - the chickens like it. Well, so do I but you can only use so much.

I've had about a dozen strawberries from my homemade, outside strawberry tower. I presume there is a picture Ploshkin, but I've been waiting about 15 mins now and still not appearing - does that mean you've eaten all the strawberries now?

I can't compete in the strawberry stakes - most of my plants got trashed by someone's cat over the winter. Two plants have survived, and one had the grand total of three berries on it! I picked them before they were totally ripe, as I was determined not to let the wildlife have them, and they ripened nicely on the windowsill. Not much you can do with three berries, but they certainly gave a good strawberry 'hit' when eaten!!

I picked a good bowl of strawberries last night.   These are the ones that volunteered themselves to me, coming througn the fence from the plot next door as runners into my potato bed.  I moved them into a new bed in the autumn - they are doing well, and look much healthier than the old ones.

Tonight it will be warm broad bean and feta salad - the first harvest of broad beans, and they look really good. Though it will have to be bought tomatoes for a little bit longer - the first of them are just starting to take on a bit of a blush of colour on the side facing the sun.

Ha ha - I like the thought of the strawberries coming through from next door. I can almost hear the theme from The Great Escape!!

Mrs C-H picked off more broad beans today - enough that we have started freezing them already, though we had some with kleftiko for dinner - very nice they are when still small and fresh.

My broad beans appear to be covered with extra protein, in the form of heavy blackfly. Have been reading that aphid attacks are more typical in a dry spring and summer. (And I did remember to pinch out the growing tips!)

You are not alone by any means Dandelion ! I've got aphid problems too. The beans in the garden are not too bad, being overwintered the blackfly on the tops make little effect on the beans themselves down below. But the spring planted ones are covered, around the flowers where it is hard to do anything about them without damaging the flowers. I've tried insecticidal soft soap, with little effect, and a blast with the hose with only temporary reduction in infestation. I'm reluctant to use anything more harsh.

I noticed this morning that the little blighters are on some of the outdoor tomatoes too. They are on the French climbing beans, even sunflowers. I think that the mild winters we've been having don't help to keep the numbers down.

I've had my first cucumber out of the greenhouse.
I'm wondering if I will see any courgettes this year. I put my plants out & the nights have just been so cold. While we were away the temperature dropped below zero yet again for at least one night and the courgette & squash plants looked pretty miserable & hadn't attempted to grow at all. I have covered them with some fleece & they seem to be getting going a bit at last but we have cold nights forecast again for this week.

Chilli-head wrote:You are not alone by any means Dandelion !  I've got aphid problems too.  The beans in the garden are not too bad, being overwintered the blackfly on the tops make little effect on the beans themselves down below.  But the spring planted ones are covered, around the flowers where it is hard to do anything about them without damaging the flowers.  I've tried insecticidal soft soap, with little effect, and a blast with the hose with only temporary reduction in infestation.  I'm reluctant to use anything more harsh.

I noticed this morning that the little blighters are on some of the outdoor tomatoes too.  They are on the French climbing beans, even sunflowers.  I think that the mild winters we've been having don't help to keep the numbers down.

WE NEED RAIN (that'll learn 'em!!!)

I nipped out in the evening a picked a pound of jostaberries. It's the first time since I planted the bush that it's had anything like a decent harvest, and I was a bit worried that the birds might strip the fruit. Actually so far they seem to have ignored it, but that's the kind of thing you say just before you discover it's completely bare! I made two small jars of jam, and I'm pleased with the taste. It definitely does taste like a cross between blackcurrant and gooseberry.

I've never tried jostaberries - sound intriguing. I've been picking dark red gooseberries - for some reason the birds have left them alone this year, I don't usually get the opportunity to pick them red. They are sweet enough to eat straight from the bush.
I've also picked some green & have some gooseberry & elderflower ice cream in the making.

Ploshkin wrote:
I've also picked some green & have some gooseberry & elderflower ice cream in the making.

That sounds scrumptious!

Dandelion wrote:

Ploshkin wrote:
I've also picked some green & have some gooseberry & elderflower ice cream in the making.

That sounds scrumptious!

Certainly does!  I had some fabulous fresh-picked-raspberry ice-cream made b my sister when I went to visit during the week. Must not give in and get an ice-cream maker, though, as I'd indulge far too often.

Today I picked Broad beans, gooseberries, blueberries and I pulled up a small garlic clove from the sprouting-in-the-kitchen ones that I planted at the same time as some that I bought from the GC.