The Edible Garden..

I have spent a fair bit of time out in the garden today, mowing, strimming harvesting, hanging out numerous loads of washing, taking loads of pictures and generally just keeping busy and the garden tidy.

Here are some of the pictures taken from around the garden today : –

First of all we have the rogue sunflower, this beautiful big flower is the result of a seed falling out of the bird feeder and managing to land in a big flower pot, survive all winter and then germinate to produce this : -)

Next up is the final harvest of Peas for this year, we had these with our tea tonight, nothing went to waste as the chickens and rabbits got the remainder of the plants that I cleared from the garden…. theyre all stuffed full with pea leaves and stalks now 😉

Then I harvested some broad beans, this is the first year I have grown them and I love them, they will be back on the planting agenda for next year!   Still have one more harvest left then I will clear the area.

I found 1 solitary onion that had been left in from last year, I actually thought it was garlic, that was until I lifted it out of the ground, I accidentally pierced it a wee bit, so i’ll use it this week… Once I washed all the muck off it I hung it up to dry on the washing line 🙂

Can you spy the springer spaniels tail in the picture lol…. he managed to get in the act all the time!

Finally we dug up some potatoes… some of them were absolutely HUGE… and a couple of them were stinking and rotten for some reason, so we will be lifting the rest of them this week and having spuds for tea all week 🙂

How the Veggies are progressing…

A bit of a mixed reaction with the growing season so far… it started out great, lovely and warm, then it kinda went downhill after that.. its not been that sunny and it has rained a fair bit, and I think this has had an impact on the veggies growing both in the greenhouse and in the garden.

Here is an up to date report on some of the veggies growing in my garden..

First of all the peas… I have some planted straight into the garden and also some growing in a trough on the high wall..

Both were sown inside the greenhouse then planted out about 2 weeks apart, the result for both is that they have grown about 10 – 12 inches tall (not really that big), they have produced pea pods, but not that many of them, I’d be lucky if there was enough to serve up onto one plate let along freeze a bag of them so we could enjoy them in winter.. so verdict on the peas 1/10 really disappointed.

Now on to the tomatoes in the greenhouse… I have around 10 plants all seemingly doing well but not a lot of fruits, in fact I had to take 2 off the plant this morning as they had blossom end rot, I always remember my dad moaning about it when I lived at home, cursing the blossom end rot lol, now i’ve got it!

The micro tom tomatoes… I dont think I will be growing these again, for me, its a bit of a messy looking plant and the fruits are too close to the soil.

 

The Potatoes are doing really well (I think)!   Grown in big spud bags, they should be ready to harvest quite soon.

Next… the onions, I’m not sure if they are doing well or not to be honest, I would have expected them to be bigger than they are, but we shall wait and see what happens..

The Carrots seem to be doing ok, must get some weeding done this weekend before the weeds take over..

Courgettes… well they seem to be doing just grand, in full blom at the moment, here’s hoping I get fruit this year, last year they rotted away just after forming because it was soooo wet.

I have some flowers growing in the garden too, which are adding a lovely splash of colour….

 

 

 

White Prince Onions

I spent a lot of time out in the garden yesterday, and I managed to get around 70 of these wee onion sets into the middle raised bed, I thought I would give white onions a try this year and se how they go…  I was drawn to them because they have a strong and pronounced flavour, and I love cooking.  Looking forward to later on this year when I can use them in my dishes and see if there if you can taste the difference.

I bought them online from Marshalls Seeds and they are described as the following : –

“White Prince produces a heavy crop of semi-globe shaped bulbs with a very attractive shiny white skin and white flesh.

The flavour is strong and pronounced which is sure to make this a popular kitchen onion. White Prince is ready to harvest in early September and will store well into the new year.”

Roll on september 🙂

 

Trip to the Farm Shop…

This afternoon my daughter and I took a trip along to our local farm shop to buy our veggies for the coming week, the cows were outside today so we took a picture of them.

Inside the farm shop there was loads and loads of seasonal produce, we bought:-

Potatoes

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Carrots (normal ones)

Carrots (purple, yellow and light orange variety)

Green and Red Peppers

Ordinary Onions

Red Onions

Shallots

Flat Leafed Parsley

MacIntosh Red Apples

Purple Sprouting Brocolli

and my daughter wanted a pineapple so we bought one of those too :o)

We have friends coming round this evening so i’m heading into the kitchen to make a nice chicken curry, some pilaf rice and some naan bread.

I’m going to make some fresh tomato salsa too, its very yummy, recipe and pics to follow.

 Anyway… if anyone reading my blog is local (fife) here is the details of my local farm shop… its well worth a visit.   Nancy is really friendly, when I was chatting to her today she was telling me she cant believe how busy she is, the more people that buy local and boycott supermarkets the better… !!

Nancy Wishart

Bankhead Farm

Crombie

Fife.