Friday, August 24, 2007

Food! (Fantastically fresh and free- except for the hard graft & seeds!)


I’m enjoying this time of year the most, as we are now eating produce from the plot. This is how it looked in August last year- just to spur on all you 'newbies' out there!


Venison Wellington stuffed with garlic & shallot duxelle, served with roast potatoes, climbing beans, peas and braised red cabbage. The veg for this meal was all home produced, but can’t take the credit for the carrots, venison or the pastry that made the ‘Wellington’.


All very much enjoyed & appreciated by HWDD and me!


Sadly the beans loose their pretty pink markings when steamed.

The slugs are still attacking most things including the beetroots-Urggggh!


The peas have picked up after a shaky start and a battering by the wind & rain.


These are spuds from just one plant and don’t seem to have been affected by blight. I’ve still got 45 plants still to dig up!


I spotted these little beasts on the sprouts so took off the netting and ‘dispatched’ all I found. Please don’t tell me they are some rare species- I just want sprouts for Christmas dinner!


Whilst on my knees, I noticed that the stems on the curly kale looked so pretty and velvety!


Although I said I wouldn’t grow any sweet peas this year- after last years mammoth effort for our wedding, I relented and sowed seed saved from last years plants. We gave away seed with our ‘thank you’ letters and everyone who has grown them has reported a distinct lack of pink & lilac blooms!


The leeks & parsnips are doing well. Note to self to grow more of these next year!


I’ve now finally got round to hanging up the onions & garlic in the shed in some old (clean) tights kindly sent by mum.



We are now eating the first of the tomatoes from the garden greenhouse- 2x red variety and 2x yellow from friend Karen. Can’t remember the names but they taste much better than shop bought ones!

I’ll finish with some shots of the garden:



This Echinacea plant was bought with 8 others from B&Q as bare roots in spring. The slugs just love them- this is now the only survivor of the nine!

7 comments:

lilymarlene said...

That is all looking magnificent!!!!! Thanks for the long update.

NB. You may already have considered this. You might want to take the tops off your spuds if you see any going brown. The spuds will be ok left in the ground, and you wont risk getting blight if you do that.

She Who Digs said...

Thanks for the advice! The only tops left on are on the Sarpo Mira, which are still green and healthy. They were free from T&M, so not complaining! SWD

this is my patch said...

Your onions look great, you need lots as they are so essential for cooking, because of space in my garden I haven’t been able to grow them yet; I would love to grow potatoes on a large scale, I have also had to sacrifice these this year. I have managed to allot some space for leeks, mine are at about the same stage as yours; my parsnips are looking good although I did slip up last year and left a few in for too long and they went woody. Keep tabs on those caterpillars otherwise yours will be the same as mine, looking like lace curtains!

Greenmantle said...

Sarpo Mira were specifically bred in Hungary to be blight resistant. so it's interesting to see that they are demonstrating this for you.

Best GM

Anonymous said...

That picture of your onions has totally blown me away. What a fabulous crop you've produced this year. The ghastly contrast with mine (thanks, downy mildew) is painful...

Chris - Morbidly Obese Midget said...

What a tasty dinner! Was great to come back and see how you've go on and find out about He Who Fishes.

I too am jealous of your onions. The slugs got mine and tag teamed with moss to completely kill them before they got any bigger than salad onion size... :(

Christina said...

BEAUTIFUL harvest photos. Thank you for sharing them with us.

I've never grown onions before--in my climate it is too hot in the summer for them and it takes some searchig to find winter (short-day) varieties--but your image of your harvest has inspired me! Wow!