Kitchen Garden Update

The hosepipe ban we were told they were not going to be put in force, came into force a couple of days after we were told they were not putting one in force, specifically it started at 1am last Saturday.  The greenhouse and hanging baskets are on a dripper timer and are therefore ‘legal’.  Everything else is taking an age to water.

Little and often seems to be the cropping thing at the moment.  Little might be nice re courgettes as there was a bit of a glut at the weekend.  All the more so with trombochino.  I picked fairly enthusiastically thinking I would do a tempura batter and deep fry them as a starter.  Theory was fine but the afternoon ran away with me and they ended up being roasted in the oven alongside a chicken.

The french beans are coming along, the runner beans not so much but the borlotti beans are looking good though I have yet to pick any of them.  Kholrabi, chard, sorrel and beetroot are ready to eat but not doing any real harm being left to it for now.  It is going to be a bumper tomato and squash year and the sweetcorn is also looking pretty healthy.  

The broad beans and peas have not been a rip roaring success this year.  Then again S doesn’t like broad beans and peas tend to be the gardener’s perk in this garden, to snack on raw, so as problems go it barely registers.  I think I just got the broad beans in the wrong place, possibly a bit too much competition from a pear tree and a gooseberry bush.  

The potato tops have had it so they are now maxxed out.  We have 10 x 26 litre pots left to get through and the later batch of carrots are looking really good though we still have a lot left to go at from the earlier pots started in the greenhouse which are providing a steady supply of baby sized carrots which are very tasty just a bit irritating, size wise, to clean.

I have, for my first year of growing, a very healthy, very large, pot of lovage so I am going to experiment with that in a couple of soup recipes, one from River Cottage with peas and one from a blog I recently stumbled across ‘Diary of a Country Girl’ with potatoes.  I need to stay away from that blog.  She has a really interesting selection of ice creams, done the proper way ie churned.  I am trying to resist investing in an ice cream maker as I simply do not have space for any more gadgets.  Plus my lazy, no churn, method, aside from rum and raisin, banana and choc chip and ginger, has a distinct theme to it, namely ‘soft fruit glut crop resolution’ and getting adventurous beyond that risks reinstating an issue I thought I had successfully reduced.

5 trays of lemon verbena went into the dehydrator at the weekend and are now housed in jar in the cupboard.  Another three of that and two of oregano went in this morning before work.  I reckon one more batch of lemon verbena and I will have enough to see me through winter.  I only drink so many tisanes and generally prefer them fresh in summer.  Oregano is my most used dried herb for cooking so more of that is seldom a bad idea.

We have had the first figs of the year and very nice they were too.  The blackberries are running away with themselves and I am not very enthusiastic.  There really are only so many we can eat.  I picked some easy to get to ones last weekend as a trade (along with a few stray red and white currants) for cherry plums from my mum.  She also picked the easy to get to ones.  I think this year cherry plums are to her what blackberries are to me.  They just sit there making one feel guilty

I did pick another colander full of easy to get to blackberries before work this morning, wondering why I was bothering.  As luck would have it my neighbour came round with two parcels he had taken delivery of for us.  Seemed like a fair exchange! 

Rhubarb has been hopeless this year and it is not going to recover now.  I think division and a good helping of manure is the way forward for that.

The first two lots of lettuce are steadily bolting and my succession planting seems, not for the first time, to have failed.  Still we have a few to go at and there are some seedlings in the greenhouse.  Cucumbers are looking potentially steady, cropping wise, for now.  I picked one this morning and I reckon I should have another on Sunday.  All is not lost on the salad front!

The cucumber ferment is ready to eat.  I just have to remember to do that.  The great water kefir project of 2024 became more like a pet than anything else.  It was the first thing I attended to when I came into the house and the last thing before I left it.  Actually getting round to drinking it just didn’t happen.  I already have Albus (sourdough starter) on the go for that.  He gets used more for discard pancakes than he does for bread.  They take rather less time.  The 36 hour process might be less of an endeavour if I spent more time at home.  Since I don’t, pancakes are likely to remain the first option.

This evening will be back to more watering, the slow way!