A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST
It’s been a difficult season weather-wise, with a cold spring followed by long dry periods which meant more watering in the veg garden. Despite this, the celeriac – usually a thirsty plant – has done really well. It’s a less common root vegetable but I really recommend growing it because it has a nut-like and faintly celery flavour. It’s great as a mash with potato or in slow cooked oven dishes.
We’ve had large crops of all types of beans – broad, runner and French – as well as beetroot, David’s favourite, though not one I’m so keen on!
Potatoes have done well with no blight. David grew the varieties “Charlotte” and “Arran Pilot”, but the blackbirds got all the green strawberries before we could net them!
The onion and garlic harvest has been very good and will last well into next year. It’s now time to plant next year’s garlic and we are trying out a new variety called “CaulkWight” from DT Brown Seeds. It’s a purple-skinned hardneck type which they describe as strong growing, easy to peel and doing particularly well in the UK climate.
You can either sow broad beans at the end of October or wait until spring. Salads can be planted under cover now – lamb’s lettuce being a useful winter crop – or why not try some of the oriental leaves like mizuma, komatsuna or mustard? Our most useful winter veg are leeks which take up very little room and can withstand frozen ground.