The weather forecast for this week is fabulous so I am a very happy gardener indeed! Hopefully it will speed along the growth of new and exciting crops. In the meantime my harvests were more of the same really.
Quite a few carrots – this bunch the kids munched while watching Octonauts.
I pulled out the last of the main bed broccoli plants, this came with it and I honestly can’t remember what happened to it. I’m thinking that maybe it went into a veggie fortified Nasi Goreng.
These spring onions, celery & coriander certainly did go into the Nasi Goreng.
I harvested quite a bit of beetroot this week. I really like this variety, its called Cylindrical and is a great shape for cooking with. The flavour’s fabulous as well. Here is some of it which was used in a beetroot & apple relish to go with Pork. In fact I harvested so much Beetroot this week that I also made a Beetroot & Date Chutney that I will post on later in the week.
I harvested quite a lot of herbs this week – most of which went straight into the pot. However in recognition of all the mint I ate and drank I have this series of shots (my Parsley has gone to seed and I have barely enough for the occasional nibble let along photos….).
First up Illegal Mint, or mint in a toy sprinkler (illegal because such things are banned under our current water restrictions). Also Girly Mint – self explanatory I think….
And finally this last series came about as a result of a post by Shaheen at Allotment to Kitchen . Not only had she come up with an interesting recipe for Kohlrabi fritters but she had photographed them on album covers! I know! Very cool! It did get me thinking that; a. I should grow some Kohlrabi to try those fritters and b. how much longer albums would come with covers so to speak. So in honour of Shaheen’s inspiration and what may well be a dying art here we have Mint on Album Covers (well actually these are CD covers but the point remains…).
If you know what any/all of them are then let me know and please feel free to bask in a self satisfied glow for the rest of the day.
For other fabulous harvests please rock on over to Daphne’s Dandelions.
I tried to grow the cylindrical beet once before because the ease of cutting seemed appealing, but for some reason I did not have success with that variety. It may have just been a bad year for beets for me and I really ought to give it another try.
Cut idea on the pictures of the mint with the album covers. No idea what the four are but the art work on albums can be quite beautiful.
I find the cylindrical grow well in this climate, in fact I generally have more success with them than some of the round varieties. I think beets can be quite variable from year to year so trying again isn’t a bad idea. I like album covers – I think that for many teenagers they are their first introduction to art so to speak – they certainly were mine so I think it would be a shame if they were lost forever.
Those beets are intriguing! They’re just long and skinny?! Nice! Do you have recipes you’re willing to share for your beet and apple relish or your beet and date chutney???
Yeah they are long and skinnyish – the bigger ones are about 3 inches across and about 6 inches long. I will post a chutney recipe later in the week. To make the relish I just grate 1 beetroot, 1 apple and cook them up with some vinegar and sugar (the amount varies to taste) and season with salt and pepper.
The musical mints are a mystery to me…
Lovely veggies, I like the idea of the long beets, perfect for slicing.
They are great for slicing and also very easy to cut into dice. I also think they cook more evenly than the fat round ones.
I’m intrigued by the cylindrical beetroot- I’m really going to have to give it a go.
Go on – glad I could introduce you to them.
Considering my second lot of beetroots are about the only thing currently succeeding in the garden, I’m loving the ideas for cooking with them that you are posting about. Keep them coming.
Another at a loss for the album covers. My lovely brother is my provider of all things musical – he gives me a selection of CDs each Christmas and birthday. They are often bands I’ve not been into before, but he knows how to pick CDs for me so I always love them. At the moment I’ve gone back to a few favourites from a few years ago – Mumford and Sons and the Cold War Kids (actually I’m enjoying their new album as well as an older one) as well as learning an appreciation of the Temper Trap.
I’d love to know what yours are.
I hadn’t heard of any of them so had a listen on YouTube – its funny I must be getting old because all reminded me of other artists – but I did enjoy all of them. The ones above are covers I like – not neccessarily my favourite albums. I tend to like indie and alternative country type things – my favourite band of all time was the GoBetweens – and as I type this I am feeling old….another big favourite is Willard Grant Conspiracy.
I have some success with cylindrical beetroot last spring, I agree it seems to be easier to grow than the round variety.
Hi Liz,
Trying to catch up on my blog reads and I come across your lovely post. Thank you so much for your kinds words and the link to my blog. I agree – designs of interesting album covers seems to be a dying art.
By the way, I’ve never grown cylindrical beetroots. I will have to next year. I also want to add I am really liking your beetroot and date chutney. I will have to keep that in mind for the future.
Thanks for the idea! I’m really looking forward to trying that chutney – it did taste fairly sweet during the cooking so I am a bit worried I’ve over done the sugar. We shall see…..