I began to jot down this put up concerning the numerous explanation why this has been a very tough yr for rising.
However after reflecting on the truth that we’ve nonetheless picked loads of tasty meals, this appeared a little bit of a detrimental method to start posting once more after the summer time break! So, as a substitute, this put up celebrates the few issues that have grown nicely this yr – and I’ll write concerning the challenges one other time.
Including up the harvests from my container backyard in July and August I discover that we picked:-
- 36 completely different crops in July (full checklist under), weighing a complete 5.3kg, together with 1214 grams lettuce, 795 grams spring onions and 274 grams peas.
- 23 completely different crops over 2 weeks in August (we had been away for the opposite 2 weeks), weighing 4.1kg, together with 1.57kg Courgettes / zucchini; 1.55kg French beans, and 562g spring onions.
In different phrases, we ate about 1 kg of top of the range contemporary dwelling grown meals (largely salads and herbs plus just a few veg) every week in July. And about 2kg every week (for the time we had been right here) throughout August.
It makes me so completely satisfied to have the ability to decide all this contemporary, natural meals for my household from the entrance yard. And it does make an actual distinction to our everyday meals, too. We eat dwelling grown salad with a mixture of leaves and herbs almost each day, and freshly picked natural veg most evenings. We’re additionally capable of eat a extra various vary of vegetation as a lot of what we develop is just not available within the retailers.
If you happen to look down on the lists of harvests under, you’ll see I develop fairly just a few completely different salad leaves. These can work very well in city container gardening as a result of they’re extremely productive in little or no area. They’re additionally nutritious and costly to purchase. Fortunately, additionally they nonetheless grew nicely within the chilly and moist months we’ve simply had!
One salad leaf I’ve somewhat uncared for to develop a lot over time is endive / chicory. Partly as a result of I’ve not identified the best way to use the bitter tasting leaves. However after getting an electronic mail from Very important seeds in Devon singing their praises, I made a decision to offer them one other do that yr. I sowed them in early July and so they’ve grown sturdy and nicely.
Blended chicories and endive develop nicely in a container. I’m harvesting by choosing the outer leaves – and in addition thinning the vegetation out as they develop.
Tips on how to use them? In addition to including small quantities to blended salads, I attempted this traditional recipe that pairs the leaves with apple, blue cheese and walnut.
- Giant handful of chicory leaves, shredded.
- One apple or pear, cored, and reduce into small cubes (I used an apple from the tree in our entrance yard).
- Handful of evenly toasted walnuts
- A small handful of chives or child spring onions, chopped (non-compulsory)
- A couple of small cubes of blue cheese (I used gorgonzola)
- Salad dressing made with cider vinegar, olive oil, just a little mustard, and a lump of blue cheese, whizzed along with a stick blender.
Merely combine the above collectively earlier than serving.
It’s a scrumptious mixture of textures and flavours, with the bitterness of the chicory completely complementing the sweetness of the apple. I can positively really feel myself turning into a convert to chicories and endives. If you happen to can suggest some other recipes that use this leaf, do please let me know.
Listed below are the July and August harvests particulars in full (the fruit harvest is a fraction of regular for causes I am going to clarify one other time!):-
July
- Lettuce: 1214 g
- Spring onions: 795 g
- Sunflower shoots: 409 g
- Pea shoots: 304 g
- Mangetout: 291 g
- Peas: 274 g
- Plums: 243 (the primary plums the tree has produced!)
- French beans: 201 g
- Courgette: 187 g
- Radish shoots: 178 g
- Basil: 141 g
- Raspberries: 136 g
- Marigold flower: 105 g
- Blackberries: 97 g
- NZ Spinach: 93 g
- Raspberry: 79 g
- Mint: 76 g
- Nasturtium leaves: 64 g
- Sorrel: 49 g
- Broccoli microgreens: 36 g
- Nasturtium flowers: 35 g
- Orach microgreens: 34 g
- Rocket: 33 g
- Kale microgreens: 33 g
- Sage: 32 g
- Blueberry: 25 g
- Land cress: 22 g
- Marjoram: 22 g
- Oregano: 21 g
- Watercress: 19 g
- Day lily flowers: 12 g
- Rosemary: 12 g
- Chives: 9 g
- Lovage: 6 g
- Coriander: 6 g
- Lemon verbena: 3 g
- Society garlic flowers: 1 g
August
- French beans 1556g
- Spring onions 562g
- Courgettes 420g
- Tomatoes 382g (proving very sluggish to ripen this yr)
- Runner beans 365g
- Rocket 305g
- Lettuce 179g
- Tomato 123g
- Chicory 103g
- Coriander 89g
- Sorrel 33g
- Basil 32g
- Rosemary 32g
- Crimson Russian kale 29g
- Mint 28g
- Thyme 12g
- Oregano 8g
- Nasturtium leaves 5g
- Marjoram 4g
- Salsola 4g
- Summer time purslane 4
- Edible flowers 3
- Scot’s lovage 3
- Bay 2