Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: ruud on April 30, 2004, 22:21:50
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I got my first two cauliflowers from the allotment,i planted them last year and they stayed all winter outside.Everyone here said to me it cant be done but i have done it..Tomorrow i am having my own growned cauliflower on my plate with a nice currysauce on top of it.Bon appetite.
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There you go then ruud, that's excellent. don't know about curry sauce tho I like curry but usually have cheese sauce with caulis. Enjoy!
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Excellent Ruud, altho I don't think I would want curried cauli! :P My radishes are already bulbing up and some of my lettuce look edible to me. Tis great isn't it. I get all excited when I pick herbs from my garden, don't think I will be able to cope with the excitement when I start picking from the lottie!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Wicker cheesesauce is oke for me,that is the way my children likes cauliflower.
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Oh, yes - curry - Madhur Jaffrey style!! = Tim
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stir fried with mustard seeds- yum. I miss caulis but this soil is just too light.
Stephan.
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Sounds great with curry, makes me think of alu ghobi (spelling?) which was one of my favorite dishes while in India. Potato-cauliflower curry, only too bad that they cook all veggies to death there.
Fantastic that your cauli survived the winter, I'm going to tell the old-timers at our lottie complex about this. Harvesting cauliflower in April!
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We had our first harvest out of the garden at the weekend - I copied Monty and thinned my radishes and there were enough to add to our salad. Delicous - tiny but so very peppery. mmmm.
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Hi Ruud, glad you are enjoying your cauli. Try the seeds called Galleon for winter cauli. I have been using them for a couple of years now, the seeds need sowing about now and then the plants stand over winter producing big heads from April to May, very very tasty
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Bugger! So another packet of seeds I have to acquire!! Cauli is this houses most fave veg (not mine I hasten to add) and a crop than can stand all winter is a must have!
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Thanks alan,i will try to get some seeds from them.The cauliflower i used was called walcheren winter that is a really dutch variaty.So e.j another one to buy,i have also a green and a purple variaty cauliflower.Just want to see those faces of my kids when i arrived home with a green or a violet purple one.
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I am growing purple ones also Ruud, they are called Grafitti. Next year I want to have a go at growing things that aren't the expected colours, so purple sprouts, purple brocolli, yellow beetroots, purple spuds, etc... That should entertain the kids! ;D
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Try tracking down orange cauliflower seeds EJ- that should really interest the kids! Which reminds me- this may be of interest to some:
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1870987
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Kings at http://ecom.kingsseeds.com/ (http://ecom.kingsseeds.com/) do Marmalade: "A delightful pale orange coloured curd that retains its colour even after cooking. Sow from late April to mid May for cutting August to early October"
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EJ - by 'stand all winter' doesn't he mean that they grow over the winter & are only ready in the spring?? = Tim
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Stop! More seeds!! Tis an affliction my seed collecting habit!!
Okay, defo getting orange and purple caulis for next year, and I know what you mean Tim, I did mean something that can be left in the ground growing all through the winter is good for the soul, and good for the soil, and good for the weeds! Plus, my leeks and snips will need someone to talk to during those cold winter days that I am not there to chat to them. ;D
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EJ
I hope you mean bad for the weeds.
It could also be good for the pigeons if you don't net them (the plants that is).
You have also revealed a gap in the market place and an, as yet, unexplored area of companion planting - no catalogue seems to mention how chatty plants are. If you can identify the ones that are (the overwintering ones), they should be desirable. One could imaging conversely that chattiness is not desirable in summer growing veg as the allotment could become quite a noisy spot (rather like trains arre now with everyone using their mobile phones)
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Yes Phil, I do mean bad for the weeds, and I know what you mean about the *$%&#*#^&$ pigeons!
I find the winter veg much friendlier than the summer veg as it has much more time on its leaves to grow, where as the summer veg is in such a rush to get mature. My leeks and snips will be close by so they won't have to shout and of course the sprouts will tower above them and keep an eye on them, making sure they don't get out of hand. ;D ;D ;D ;) ;) ;)
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EJ/Phil - ;D I like that - chatty veg!
I'm sure I'm read somewhere that slugs don't like eating purple things - so purple caulis are better than normal.
Trouble is - caulis are one of only three veg that I don't like.
I may, however, have to try the purple carrots T&M are bringing out for next year.
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I have a problem with T&M and the veg that they "introduce" - the potato was "exclusive" to them a couple of years ago, when my Potato Day had been selling it for 2 years!
There are plenty of old purple carrots around, the Heritage Seed Library has Afghan Purple and a google search will reveal lots of of them (mainly from the States)
Phil
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I'm picking radish and lettuce, all from this years seeds. Spuds are too tall to cover any further. Lots of strawberry flowers out.
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Hi everybody,went to my allotment and harvest my first iceberg lettuce,some curled endive,paksoi and tatsoi and some springonions,it is great to have your own greengrociers.
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Lucky you in Holland, nothing remotely ready in our plot yet. Lots of green berries, strawberry flowers, the spring onions are only showing their first thin leaves and the lettuces are only starting to stiffen up and put on a few more leaves - tho the first lot have been planted out a couple of weeks now. Still you must be a good 500 miles further south so our turn will come ;)
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I haven't harvested anything yet. I think by next week the first lettuces will be ready. Green strawberries on the plants and the fall sown aqua dulce broadbeans are about 10 cm long, we put the nets over both today. I saw the first of the black birds that come in groups and can ruin a whole broadbean patch in one night.
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Still picking at the Fristina, which has been standing since October, Spicy Salad, chard - that's it. Other than ratatouille & peppers from the freezer. Must try harder!! = Tim
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Like Tim I have chard and some loose leaf lettuce of various sorts + herbs. We have just had the first courgettes from the greenhouse and the cucumbers are nearly there. And a strawberry!
Jeremy
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I've been eating earth - by mistake of course - as I frantically dig beds and plant things ridiculously late (my onions grown from seed went out on Monday night!)
Ten x
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db - so when did you sow the courgettes & cus?? And is it a heated house? And you have to hand pollinate the former??
Only recently dared to put mine out into a cold house. = Tim
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Tim, too early :) -without checking I think it was probably March sometime (maybe even Feb). The greenhouse isn't heated (or even insulated this year) -the problem at the moment for the cucumbers is too much heat. B****r, just remembered I forgot to open it up this morning and the supplier only sent me one autovent instead of the 2 I ordered :'(
I used the scientific method of "they've got too big for the windowsill -they'd better go in the greenhouse' to determine planting out times.
The courgette doesn't need to be pollinated (by me anyway), I got it from the Organic Gardening Catalogue to quote them :
"A unique variety which can pollinate itself meaning that it can produce fruit early in the season and in cool weather. This also makes it ideal for growing under cloches . Beautiful glossy dark green fruits. "
Pauline Pears was quoted in the catalogue as growing it in her greenhouse, so I thought I'd try it, so far so good -although I think they will probably get too big.
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Picked my first crop of first early potatoes yesterday!! WHOPEE!! They were lovely smothered in butter and cooked with mint ;D
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db - so NOW he tells me!! Partenon. Too late , I'll have to hand pollinate mine.
If you want s/p french beans, Hunter does it's own thing. = Tim
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Purple carrots - got mine from Tuckers. They have a different purple variety on offer in 2004 to the one in the 2003 catalogue.
First harvest - my son decided it was time to pull one of my overwintered red onions. It had started to bulb up. It was rather tasty raw ;D
Two varieties of overwintered broad beans are doing rather nicely, and shouldn't be too long before harvesting ;D (on the overwintering veg front, bought some more broad bean seeds and some peas).
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I've been eating earth - by mistake of course - as I frantically dig beds and plant things ridiculously late (my onions grown from seed went out on Monday night!)
Ten x
Tenuse,
I have also grown my onions from seed but am not sure if they are big enough to plant out.
How big are yours? (in the nicest possible way of course ;D ;D)
Debs
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Mine have got three true leaves which is when my book says to plant them out! (The seed packet says April!)
they are not very big, but I can see a difference in the colour of the bulb-to-be - I suppose you could describe them as half the size of a shop-bought spring onion?
I went up to check on them last night and they are all looking pleased with themselves.
However I pricked them out into paper pots a month or so ago and I have planted them pot and all so that they don't have another check, if you transplant yours and have to take them out of their pot they will probably have a brief "pause" before they start to grow again.
Ten x
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With any luck, this weekend fresh broad beans! Lekker met gebakken spekkies (tasty with fried out bacon bits). Got to teach you guys some Dutch you know.
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Can taste it from here! = Tim
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i harvested my first ever veggie - lettuces. 4 sorts. yippee
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My first chinese cabbage is this week harvest ready.They form a nice shaped head all by them self,do have to ask with variaty it is.
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Vermont is reputedly inhabited by unreformed tree huggers. At the risk of sounding like an unreformed tree hugger I harvested my first 'wild ' collected snack today- the tops off some Chenopodium album (Good King Henry in the U.K.?/Fat Hen over here). Black aphid free! I have to wonder why this is no longer considered a crop?
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This is my first harvest this year. It shouldn't be under edibles but we were talking harvest, right?
These are very common flowers but I don't know the English names for some of them. Especially the white and lavender ones, we call them damast flowers and they smell so sweet.
(http://img55.photobucket.com/albums/v168/fergina/volkstuin/DSC00017_resize.jpg)
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Beautiful flowers Ina.
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Lovely - but v difficult!
Could be candytuft, but isn't - could be chives, but aren't? - could be a lupin? - nearly ragged robin, but isn't? = Tim
PS That camera is doing you proud!
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Yes Tim, there are a couple of lupine and some chives and some false valerian but it's the white and lavender ones I wonder about and the dark pink ones. I'll have to try the dictionary.
Even with my totally clogged up 'cold' nose I can smell them.
Yessssssssss, one is Ragged Robin and the others are Hesperis matronalis (if that means something to you). A very easy plant and blooming all over the lottie at the moment.
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Ina,i see some gillyflower<koekoeksbloem> isnt it?
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Yes Ruud, it's the dag koekoeksbloem, I looked it up and it said Ragged Robin not gillyflower. Maybe it's the same thing.
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Google references tell me that gillyflower is a common name given to various plants in the dianthus (Caryophyllaceae) family. Ragged Robin is a common name for Lychnis flos-cuculi which is in this family. They probably are the same, ina.
Hesperia matronalis is called dames rocket in English, or, rather U.S. English, so is not that different from your word for it. It is an invasive over here and is flowering everywhere presently.
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Don't you just love the different common names for flowers? I often wonder where certain names came from and why they were given. Next time I have a bunch of flowers from the lottie I will put them on the non-edibles and see what we can come up with.
So far we have:
Ragged robin or gillyflower, in Holland it's called the day coo-coo flower (dagskoekoeksbloem).
Dames rocket we call the damask flower (damastbloem) or night violet (nachtviool).
Also in the vase was the Centranthus ruber, the Dutch common names for this are false valerian (valse valeriaan), red valerian (rode valeriaan) en red spur flower (rode spoorbloem). Does anyone know the English common name for this one?
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Strange i have looked it upeither,must be a different dictionary or gillyflower is the american name for it.
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Ah well if we are talking about the FREE harvest, I have already made nettle soup (in April) and harvested my first morel!
Ten x
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Just realised I can put something on this thread at last - made rhubarb crumble from my first picking (pulling?) of the year. Lovely. :D
Before it we had a quiche which had lots of last years leeks (chopped and frozen) so maybe still counts. ::)
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Broad beans - Aquadulce sown last November in a all glass cold frame placed over them in the garden. First picking yesterday!
As a comparison I planned 12 in the frame, 12 just outside it, 12 in modules in the frame - to plant out later, and 12 in modules in a frost free greenhouse.
The ones in the garden are podding up now to follow the ones in the frame.
Those in modules did spectacularly and rapidly out grew their containers
Phil
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Lettuce, radish, broadbeans and leeks! Then of course there is basil, oregano, mint and parsley. How cool is this allotment lark!! Plus, my kohl rabi are about the size of tennis balls, so another week or so and we will start on them, and my onions are getting huge, so I shan't have to buy anymore of those from the supermarket! I wonder what my garlic is like under ground as my onions are so big....tempted to dig one up and have a look.
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EJ
Leeks is cheating unless you have grown them this year!!!
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Try a garlic, Emma & eat it green if it's not ripe - if you've got plenty - lovely! What sort are they, to be ready this early?? = Tim
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Picked a ripe strawberry last night on plants outside in 3" pots in the garden awaiting shipment to the lottie....just the one strawberry mind you. :D
Broad beans are looking good .... got my eye on those for Thursday's dinner!
AC
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Harvest today a nice bucket full of strawberries,sow at the same time that it dont take long before i can take my first red currents.They colour already.
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we pulled a garlic on friday (ivory) and it has got a big bulb and you can see the cloves forming inside it, tasted great now though!!
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Oh, Ruud, a big bucket of strawberries :o - I was going to report that I had my first two really ripe really big strwaberries!! Lovely they were too ;D regular pickings of lettuce elaves tho - and flowers. I'm happy.
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I have harvest my first sugarsnaps,now a need some carrots to make a fine dish