Mayan Gold Potatoes

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Mayan Gold Potatoes

Well I have long finished my early and 2nd early potatoes and have started to harvest some of my main crops. This is not just because I want to eat my own potatoes rather than those I might buy in the shops but, also because I am worried about blight – always!

I have taken to growing, as my staple crop, varieties which are blight resistant ( that doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t get blight, just that they are less likely to – we must still keep an eye on them, especially in allotments where blight is more likely to be about as many of our neighbours will not treat the crop nor deal with the problem).

Of course, the potatoes I plant will not all be blight resistant, as I like to experiment with different varieties. This year I have tried out 3 new varieties - for me!  British Queen is, of course an old favourite and I’m waiting to see what she is like. However, I have also tried the much-lauded Purple Majesty. Not available as a seed potato, I bought a bag of them from Sainsburys – well a few bags really as I wanted to eat them as well seeing what they taste like. As they really are purple – all the way through, even when they are cooked (just imagine a plateful of purple mash beside your chop), it is quite disconcerting. I found them somewhat different in flavour from the one I was expecting (the shop ones, that is). Not unpleasant but, not brilliant either. The few I grew(and I have said this in a previous Blog, were okay as plants – not outstandingly healthy, but okay). So far I have only tried them boiled and mashed or oven cooked in a foil envelop with other vegetables, herbs and seasoning. They were fine – totally acceptable and with their reputation for being very healthy with their high antioxidant levels, I think I will grow a few of them again, perhaps with a bit more care and attention. I hope they will be available next season as proper seed potatoes.

I love potatoes and am always looking for a new or different variety which might live up to my childhood memories of what potatoes tasted like. Well, this year I found it ! Halleulia! Mayan Gold! I will quote here from their website ( www.mayanpotatoes.co.uk) –

Mayan Gold is unique. Other varieties simply don't have its rich, golden coloured flesh with the real taste of potatoes that we all remember from childhood. That's because Mayan Gold is the first Phureja (pronounced fur-ekka) variety to be made available in the UK, taking the potato industry by storm and winning plaudits from many of the UK's top chefs including Antony Worrall Thompson who uses the variety in his own restaurant.  Brought to the UK by Greenvale AP and the Scottish Crop Research Institute as part of the Commonwealth Breeding Programme, Mayan Gold has been bred from species found growing in the wilds of Peru, some of which are over 7000 years old. Whilst many of the more popular varieties available in the UK have been bred for appearance and yield, Mayan Gold retains all of the fantastic flavours and nutritional levels exhibited by the wild plant.

I have put, on my allotment spreadsheet, that I bought my seed potatoes from Thompson and Morgan and I do hope they will have them again next year. If not, I will just have to save a few for my own seed or look around for another supplier. I didn’t know if they were maincrop potatoes but chitted them along with my other varieties. They seem to be ready quite early so, I planted them at the same time as my 2nd Earlies in the middle of March.. I have harvested them now( mid-late July) as the plants look as though they have finished growing (and they were never the most robust nor lush plants I have grown anyway). However, the crop has been very heavy, each plant producing approx 1½ - 2 kilo of potatoes. I could compare them with the shape and size of a conference pear, some a bit smaller and some larger. Perhaps, if I had left them longer, they would have grown larger but – the blight threat is always there..

So far, I have tried them as mashed potatoes, spicy potato wedges, roasties and a couple of recipes of my own. The flavour is outstanding! They are a dry potato which will cook very quickly – really, I mean this!

Do try these recipes:- a couple of them are modified recipe ideas from the website:

Mayan Gold Potato Recipes

Mayan Gold Roast Potatoes
Ingredients: peeled Mayan Gold potatoes, olive oil, sea salt
• Cut the potatoes into even sized chunks and blanch in boiling water for 2 – 3 minutes.
• Shake the chunks gently in a colander to roughen their surfaces.

• Place the chunks on a roasting tin with high quality olive oil ( I heat the oil in the roasting tin, in the oven first, so that I am adding the potatoes to hot oil).
• Shake some sea salt over and bake in a hot oven - 220°C, gas mark 7 for 30 or 40 minutes, turning them occasionally until golden and crispy.
• (try also with chopped roughly chopped garlic and sprigs of rosemary).



Spicy Mayan Gold Wedges

Ingredients:
450g(1lb) fresh Mayan Gold potatoes
25g(1oz) butter and 3 tsp oil.
1 finely chopped onion
1 red chilli( de-seeded and sliced)
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
Little water
Fresh coriander leaves
• Melt the butter and the oil in a large pan.
• Add the onion and cook over a medium heat until soft but, not coloured.
• Add the chilli, coriander, turmeric and cumin.
• Cut the potatoes into wedges (wash but don’t peel) and add these to the pan.
• Toss well and fry for 2 minutes.
• Add a splash of water and a sprinkle of sea salt.
• Put in a hot oven - 200°C, gas mark 6 for 15 – 20 minutes, making sure all the water has evaporated.
• Put in a hot serving dish and scatter with fresh coriander and lemon wedges.

Mashed Mayan Gold Potatoes

Ingredients:
450g(1lb) Mayan Gold potatoes
25g(1oz) butter, a little milk, 1 – 2 Tblsp.
½ tsp. Wholegrain mustard
Freshly crushed black pepper and sea salt to taste
• Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks and steam the for 10 – 12 minutes ( this time can vary so, do watch the potatoes to make sure they don’t overcook and disintegrate.
• Heat the milk, then remove the potatoes from the heat and add the hot milk and butter. Mash well or put through a ricer.
• Add the mustard, salt and pepper to taste and mix in well. (Don’t use too much mustard or seasoning which might overpower the flavour of the potatoes).

Mayan Gold Potato and vegetable envelopes
Ingredients
450g (1lb) Mayan Gold potatoes - washed but not peeled
3 cloves of garlic - peeled and sliced
3 small tomatoes - cut into wedges
1 courgette sliced
A handful of Runner Beans and/or French Beans - washed and cut into suitable lengths
A small bunch of parsley, chopped roughly
A small handful of tarragon, lemon thyme and marjoram, washed and roughly chopped
Freshly crushed blackpepper and sea salt to taste
* Cut the potatoes into wedges or small chunks.
* Prepare 3 large squares of tinfoil ( greaseproof paper will work just as well), about 30 - 40cm ( if you want to add more vegetables you might find that you will need a larger square).
* Place the potatoes and the vegetables onto the middle of the tinfoil, add the garlic, herbs and the seasoning.
* Fold over the tinfoil and fold up the ends to ensure the 'envelop' is closed.
* Bake in a medium oven 180-200C, Gas mark 5 for 30 - 40 minutes.
Mayan Gold is a particularly dry potato. You might find that this recipe helps to keep the potato fairly moist.

The Summer Harvest - Tomatoes, Peppers, Chillies, Blackberries, Cooking apples and Recipes

The Summer Harvest

This is such a busy time of year. My intentions, when I go to my plot are:

• to spend some time maintaining the ground – weeding, strimming, pruning, etc.;

• to harvest crops which are ready;

• to water where necessary;

• to keep in touch with my allotment neighbours.

Well! I spend so much time watering, harvesting and chatting to my neighbours that I’m finding that the general maintenance is falling behind. Let’s face it:

- watering is essential for life;

- harvesting is essential for the satisfaction of having achieved;

- chatting is essential for the feel-good of life.

The maintenance will just have to be done as and when. I usually spend about 3 hours, 5 days a week on my plot. Occasionally this can extend to 5 hours and rarely- can reduce to 2 hours, depending on my reasons for going there. Really! If this is not enough to maintain my plot then – TOUGH!

I hope this doesn’t put prospective plot-holders off but, really – once a week with kids in tow who will not let you stay there to work will not result in a productive plot.

It is most important that we understand that ‘what we put in – we get out’, as my daughter put it so succinctly. But, this is not really what I want to talk about today:

Tomatoes – I’ve just harvested my first for this year – really too few to photograph and actually, well behind many others (including my son who has just started on the allotments experience – his were ripe three weeks or more ago!). This year, my firsts are Sultana – a small plum-shaped salad tomato from Dobies. Each year, following a suggestion from my daughter, I try something new, (this is not always successful but, new products and different varieties are always worth a shot if you have the time and space). The Sultanas – I picked all two of them which were ready were very delicious, though somewhat hard-skinned. I’m sure that is a positive in preventing –disease /blight maybe (give me time to research).

Don’t forget to keep removing the side shoots. These will re-grow and will keep coming up as your plant grows. Unless you are growing bush varieties, it is most important – very important – extremely important that you remove the side shoots as they appear (always, as the year progresses some side shoots will have escaped your notice. If this becomes apparent you must decide to leave them or remove them, depending on the amount of damage you might do the mother plant). If you don’t remove the side shoots you will find that you have hundreds of small green tomatoes of which, few ripen.

It is also very important to (as well as watering your plants regularly) feed your tomatoes. They are quite greedy feeders but, let’s face it, when we get it right they will continue to produce wonderful crops until the weather become too cold for them to do so. You can buy tomato plant food which is excellent though, last year, I decided to make my own organic food for my plants. I have a large bath tub on my plot which I filled with a mixture of nettles, comfrey and cow manure – topped up with water. This produced a thick black liquid that, I thought, was better diluted. This year I think it has been diluted enough with rainwater so am adding it to my plants neat – nothing has keeled over yet. Over-winter I will put the sludge out on my plot and start again.

Don’t forget that tomatoes can get blight – similar to potato blight. If you are growing outdoors you might want to look at ways of protecting your crop. In the past, I have used Bordeaux Mixture (essentially copper sulphate). This worked well and I believe was accepted by the Soil Association. However, it has now been removed from the market and I am growing all of my tomatoes in my poly-tunnel. If you have an organic solution for this problem (or even one which is not organic but is not too poisonous), please let me know and I will pass the information on.

Peppers/ chillies – these have been slow to establish this year and after a poor outdoor harvest last year I have dedicated a larger area of my poly-tunnel to this crop. I am amazed when I see tiny plants producing full sized peppers but, I do hope that they will grow a bit more and give me a better crop. That said, last year I had one particular plant, grown from a free packet of seed on a gardening magazine which I had bought – Sweet California – from a little plant, no more than 30cms high ( 12”), I had 8 full sized beautiful, ripe peppers. -perhaps I will be able to recreate that crop this year but, although my various pepper plants are looking hopeful, I don’t think it will be so spectacular.

Fruit – Blackberries and Cooking Apples

Blackberries are now ripening so, apart from just eating them straight from the briars we must think of ways to preserve them.

When I first took over my plot, half of it was overgrown with a very strong, invasive, 2 metre high bramble thicket. I spent a long time cutting back and digging out the roots which only mediocre success – I have been cutting out new young shoots ever since but, I’m winning. Of course, I was beguiled by an advertisement in my favourite seed and plant catalogue for a blackberry which produced amazing 2-3cm long fruits. Stupidly, I planted this about a metre from the door of my poly-tunnel. It established itself very quickly and started to fruit in its second year. It was quite good though, since I left childhood, I’ve not been a huge fan of blackberries. The fruits are nice enough but, the thorns are wicked.(I hate thorns and nettles!) This year, I find I have to hack my way into my tunnel about once a week as the plant is now putting out amazingly strong branches and side-shoots for next year’s crop. I can’t quite regret it, however, as it is also giving me a good crop of large succulent fruits and I now have to think what to do with them.

Fortunately, my Bramley apple trees – one at home and one on my plot – now in their third year with me, are looking excellent, with quite heavy crops. They are not totally ready to pick (they should come away from the tree easily when you take hold of them, without pulling) but, they are ready enough to use.
Do try:

Apple and Blackberry Pie

I can’t believe that my old college cookery book has no recipe for blackberry and apple pie. When I was a child this was definitely the dish I waited for all year. (well! apart from Christmas dinner!)We went out blackberry picking when I was very young – my mother said that I ate more than I picked. In wet years, I remember, the blackberries were full of maggots - well, each berry may have had its pet maggot but, I soon learned to ignore them in favour of the berries themselves. Blackberries are one of the real wild fruits available to us as the ‘brambles’ – the plants they come from are very hardy, deep-rooted, tenacious, so – are particularly difficult to eradicate. So, let’s make the most of them. (Don’t be put off by the reference to blackberry maggots, I haven’t seen a single one this year, in spite of the rain).

Ingredients – for a 1 litre ( 1½ - 2 pint) pie dish

2 good-sized cooking apples – Bramleys for preference

1 good sized punnet of blackberries( 1lb or 450 -500gm). The amount is not critical. The fruit must fit into your pie dish to fill it well.(the fruit will drop as it cooks)

3 Tblsp. sugar

Short crust pastry

150g plain flour (6oz)

75g margarine or butter (3oz)

Pinch salt

6 tsp cold water approx.(this amount may vary slightly depending on the weather and the flour you are using – you need the ingredients to bind together without being sticky).

Method

• Sieve the flour and salt into a baking bowl. Add the margarine and rub in with your finger tips to create a texture like fine breadcrumbs – don’t allow the mixture to become sticky.

• Add the water slowly to ensure the ingredients combine without becoming too soft.

• Knead gently to combine the ingredients for a short time – 1 minute.

Making the Pie
• Preheat the oven to 180°C, Mark 6 gas
• Peel, core and slice the apples and place half of them in the pie dish.
• Put in a layer of blackberries and a layer of the sugar.
• Repeat this process until the dish is full.
• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured board to ½ cm thick approx.(¼in)to the shape of the pie dish. Cut off a strip of pastry wide enough to go around the rim of the dish
• Wet the edges of the pie dish with water and apply the strip to the edges. Wet the top of the pastry strip with water.
• Put the pastry on top of the pie. Trim and seal the edges. Put a small slit on the top of the pie to allow the steam to escape.
• Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes then reduce the temperature and bake for a further 15 – 20 minutes to ensure the fruit is cooked. Don’t allow the pastry to burn
• When baked, sprinkle the top with a little caster sugar immediately and serve with cream, ice-cream or crème fraîche.
Try also:

Blackberry Jelly
Ingredients
Blackberries (the amount is, up-to-a point irrelevant, they must fit easily into your preserving pan)
Perhaps a little water to start the juicing process - ¼ - ½ litre if needed- depending on the amount of fruit..
Lemon juice
Sugar – depending on the amount of juice
A knob of butter
Method
1. Pick over the fruit to remove any leaves, etc.
2. Put in the preserving and over a very low heat, simmer gently until the fruit has broken down and is totally tender, (with the water if you feel it is necessary).
3. Strain though a jelly strainer.
4. Measure the amount of juice.
5. Allow 1 kilo (lb) sugar for each litre of juice (pt) – don’t mix up the quantities from metric and imperial measurement.
6. Put the fruit juice and the sugar into the preserving pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the lemon juice.
7. Bring to the boil in a preserving pan or a large saucepan to allow the preserve to come to a rolling boil.
8. When setting point has been reached, add the knob of butter and mix in well to reduce the amount of foam on the top of the preserve.
9. Pot, cover and label.

Blackberries can freeze easily, similar to raspberries – choose perfect, dry- if possible, fruits. Pack them gently into freezer tubs ( don’t squash them) and freeze.
On storage of cooking apples – more later.

Mid Summer - You Can Still Plant and Sow Seeds

Mid July – filling the empty spaces     

Well, whether or not you can still sow and plant depends very much on where you are in the country. I think I am very lucky in the UK in that I live in the South West and I believe that this is probably the best combination of weather conditions for the amateur grower. I really can’t say that about soil conditions and how they combine with the weather to provide excellent conditions depends very much on the season.

I could go on about this subject for a long time but, I think there are more dedicated people than I who can give you better information on the subject.

If you are interested in the science of growing and you can get hold of a copy, I really recommend – ‘Know and Grow Vegetables’ – P.J.Salter, J.K.A. Bleasdale, & others (from the national vegetable research station). Unfortunately, this book is now out of print and possibly some of the information is out of date but, what a wonderful source of information on growing. Do get hold of a copy if you can – it is still available second hand and maybe the authors would be inspired to rewrite if enough people wanted to buy it.

Today I want to discuss the use of the empty spaces now appearing on our plots as we harvest onions, peas, early and 2nd early potatoes. Well, my plot has these spaces so, I guess everyone else has them too. I suppose we could just shut down for the winter. Whoa there! This is July, the middle of summer and just because some of your crops have finished, been eaten or are now in the freezer, doesn’t mean that we can lie back and relax! Well, of course you can if you really want to.

We have a winter to face and more importantly, the lean months of spring. I think I am always planning ahead for the winter and the lean months, at the back of my mind. For the past two bitterly cold winters I have had to resort to the supermarkets to supply me with the vegetables I am now expecting to eat all time. Oh! The shame of it!

But, we can and should still plan ahead. There is a huge range of vegetable seeds and ‘plugs’ (very young plants grown by the major seed houses) which can still be planted out – most of them catering for the winter and ‘hungry gap- March/April’. If you want to go down this route, do consider what you really want and what you are likely to harvest in the winter months. These plugs are expensive so don’t buy them if you think you will not go out there in the bitterly cold weather to harvest them. But, it is good to know that there is a load of stuff you can still plant out and a smaller list of what can still be sown – depending on where you live.

The amazingly broad range of French Beans can still be sown – up to the end of July but, we are thinking about those beans which can be dried for use during the winter – and I do love them. I grow dwarf Borlotto and Yinyang beans and I had never had anyone coming back to me saying anything negative about them. They are also satisfyingly attractive on the shelf in glass storage jars.

You can, just about, get away with sowing French Beans for eating fresh now though, I would recommend sowing in pots in a green- house or poly tunnel after soaking overnight for best results. Try, Dwarf Purple Teepee – a favourite of mine which, this year, I left myself no space to plant. They are amazingly prolific so be sure to keep harvesting them, even if you can’t use them (compost, give to friends, sell, etc.) or they will stop producing. I have given the seeds to my son and I hope he’ll have success with them on his plot. I bought mine from Dobies but, lots of seed houses provide these. If you are looking for organic seeds, do try the Real Seed Catalogue – one of my favourite suppliers. By the way, bean and pea seeds will keep for a few years so, if you do have some over, think of using them next year.

It might still be possible to find young plants of sweetcorn – I believe it is too late to sow but you could still get a crop from them if you establish young plants now – have a look in your local garden centres. If you do, remember that they must be planted in square blocks, fairly close together to ensure the plants pollinate each other. My plants, and I have two different varieties planted side-by-side, seem to be producing the male and female flowers at different times. The plants are no more than 8ins (20cm) apart. I hope this is close enough as I have had poor results in the past from failed pollination. More later.

Of course, for me the basic and most important plant group for any season but, especially for winter and spring is the brassica family – cauliflowers, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, swede, etc.

It was not a good year for nurturing young plants from seed and I have been pushed to supplement my own with ‘bought-in’ plants. Dobies have provided a good service with excellent plants at the right times (and - NO! They don’t pay me to say this). You can probably still find lots of different brassicas for planting out now – definitely my favourites and most likely to provide for you during the winter and spring months – barring another particularly cold winter.

We can still sow seeds for a wide range of salad vegetables. Marshalls and Dobies sell an excellent range of salad leaves and I see that Dobies have eventually caught up with Lettuce – Winter Gem. Do try it. It will grow into late autumn and again in early spring and gives an excellent salad lettuce and one which can be cooked successfully.

I suppose carrots can still be sown though, in my experience the later the carrots are sown, the more likely

theyare to be attacked by carrot root-fly. I had high hopes for my carrots this year, having organised

with my daughter which ones were best for our different soil,types and which we had noticed more prone to

carrot rootfly. In my daughters experience the purple varieties were more affected and in my experience, the

white varieties were less likely to be attacked. I had also noticed that the earlier the crop the more likely

they were to escape attack. However, this year seems to have disproved all my expectations and

certainly those of the fans of growing carrots in raised beds. All of my carrot crops – whatever the variety,

colour or height of planting ( in my carrot box 1½ meters from the ground) have been attacked by carrot root-fly. So, I’m still looking and I haven’t yet had enough of a crop where I need to think about storing for the winter. I hope everyone else has had a much better result. Please let me know what you are doing.

If you have young plants of leeks, they could also still be planted out. Do cover them with fleece or

environmesh to keep the leek moths out.

If you really don’t fancy any of the crops for sowing or planting for the winter/lean months period, do think about a green manure, especially if you don’t have access to good animal manure – try ‘Mustard White’ from Dobies. It has to be said, I haven’t tried this. My ploy is to have all parts of my plot engaged in growing a crop I can eat or use. But, do remember that what you take out of the soil must be returned – one way or another.

This is also a good time to start thinking about next year – really, it is not so far away.

Summer vegetables - artichokes, courgettes, beans, potatoes(purple majesty)

Globe Artichokes, Courgettes, French Beans and Purple Potatoes
Summer vegetables – we wait all year for them and they last such a short time though, often providing us with a glut we’re not sure what to do with.

My globe artichokes plants have been providing me with about four each week – a few green and a few purple. This year there is no glut though, in the past, I have been known to give away bags full of them. Of the ten strong, well-established plants I had, only five survived the very harsh winter and of those, one is struggling. I think I’ve been lucky as I’ve heard other plot holders bemoaning the fact that they had lost all of theirs.

They are a bit if a fiddle to prepare but are well worth the effort as, like asparagus, they are definitely a luxury vegetable and are very expensive to buy. The tops of the outer leaves can be quite sharp so, I remove the tops with a pair of scissors before I tackle the inside leaves and the ‘choke’ – the fibrous inside part which would become the thistle-like flower if left. To remove it I use a noisette spoon (a metal melon baller), which has a sharp edge and is excellent for scooping out the unwanted choke.

Soak them in salted water for ten or fifteen to remove any aphids or earwigs (both of which are particularly partial to a meal of artichoke), then drop into boiling salted water. We prefer them cooked for 25-30 minutes until they are quite soft though, a shorter time is often recommended. Serve with lemon wedges, freshly ground black pepper and a chunk of butter. There isn’t a lot of flesh on them – a small soft piece at the bottom of each leaf to whet your appetite for when you reach the delicious heart.

Globe Artichokes are not related to Jerusalem Artichokes. They neither look nor taste similar. Jerusalem artichokes are a root vegetable (very easy to grow), and are related to sunflowers. They are not my favourite vegetable but they are very versatile and are a good, healthy substitute for potatoes.into marrows in two or three days. This year I’m trying yellow courgettes – F1 Orelia, which I bought from Dobies. I hadn’t planned to have just one plant but unfortunately, from five seeds, only one germinated. However, now the plant is growing it is proving very prolific – and delicious with a smooth creamy-textured flesh. A friend has given me another plant which has not yet produced any fruits. A small one has started to develop showing me that the fruits will be ball shaped but, whether these will be yellow, green or striped and tasty, I must wait to find out.

Courgettes - It is difficult to know how many courgette plants to grow. Two plants will easily provide enough for an average family, once they get going. Don’t leave them on the plant once they are ready as they will turn into marrows in two or three days. This year I’m trying yellow courgettes – F1 Orelia, which I bought from Dobies. I hadn’t planned to have just one plant but unfortunately, from five seeds, only one germinated. However, now the plant is growing it is proving very prolific – and delicious with a smooth creamy-textured flesh. A friend has given me another plant which has not yet produced any fruits. A small one has started to develop showing me that the fruits will be ball shaped but, whether these will be yellow, green or striped and tasty, I must wait to find out.

Runner beans, this year, have been good for few of our plot holders. My neighbour, whose runner beans are probably the best on the field, tells me he has sown and planted several times this spring with varying results. Something has been eating them – in this case it is not pigeons. It looks like caterpillar damage yet, there is no sign of the culprits. That said, his beans are way ahead of mine though, I certainly haven’t put as much effort into mine. This year I have grown Moonlight (from Dobies). Sown in pots on 8th April, they will be ready to start picking in a week’s time. I have also grown Enorma (also from Dobies) which I started sprouting on 22nd April. They are, disappointingly, much later and not exactly growing extravagantly.

However, my French beans, which are normally somewhat later than Runner beans are now being picked and enjoyed. This year Cobra ( Dobies), which I started to grow in pots indoors on 8th April. They are looking much healthier and more encouraging than the Runners. If you are growing them, don’t forget to pick them, at least, every other day, even if you don’t want them – compost them if necessary or give away. They will stop producing if you don’t.
Purple Majesty Potatoes – well this variety was lauded last year as being the next best thing to the elixir of life. Full of anti-oxidents and purple all the way through. They are even purple on the plate when cooked and mashed – somewhat disconcerting. The ones I tasted last year were from the supermarket and I found the flavour somewhat unexpected. This could, perhaps be good. It was certainly not unpleasant, just different.

I couldn’t get hold of seed potatoes of this variety as they were, apparently not available last autumn so, I just bought a packet of them from my local supermarket and chitted them. The plants really didn’t look the healthiest potato plants on my plot but, okay, they were not proper seed potatoes. They are supposed to be a main-crop potato but I found they had chitted quite early so, they were planted by 7th April. I only planted fourteen in a well-manured raised bed. Yesterday I harvested them, although I have previously given a few kilos here and there to other gardeners in the hope of some feedback. No-one has commented, so far. I decided to lift the rest of the crop as I needed the space they were occupying but, the crop seemed to be ready for lifting. Interestingly, the few potatoes which were exposed to the light showed no ‘green’ damage which would have rendered them unusable.

More later

Making Salads more Interesting

Making Salads more interesting

At this time of year, it is difficult to know what to talk about first:

 – the difficult weather conditions? But, then again the weather conditions can always be difficult, depending on how you choose to look at it.

-the gluts of some vegetables – well! There are always gluts, if we are lucky and plan our crops well – even in the springtime -the ‘Lean months’. (Our planning can be for nothing in a particularly cold bitter winter. Since I’ve started on my plot, only four and a half years ago, I have had one year when I was able to get through the winter into the next productive season without buying anything but mushrooms( which I don’t grow) and potatoes and onions which I just couldn’t grow enough of).

- the crops that are really good and seasonal right now  - salads, courgettes, beans, herbs.

- what has worked well this year and what has not? – planning for next year.

For this Blog I think I will talk about the crops that are seasonal right now –particularly salad vegetables. There has been just enough rain to ensure an excellent crop of a range of colourful lettuces or salad greens. Of course, there is not a huge amount of nutritional value in lettuces but, they provide a colourful, and variously textured base for the other ingredients. My preference in lettuce is for the chunkier/crispier types and I am still harvesting very early crops of Winter Gem which was excellent early in the year and is still going strong. Winter Gem is a variety of Cos (Romaine) lettuce which also has the advantage of being cookable.

I have a range of ‘pick-and-come-again’ salads which I bought from Marshalls Seeds (Italian Mix) last year. I sowed these in a raised bed on 24^th April. Now, they are way ahead of my ability to use them. Lettuce seed will keep for several years so don’t feel you have to use the whole packet at once.

I am sure that the crisp varieties like Webb’s Wonderful are excellent and when I am forced to buy lettuce from the shops I will go for the, as I am attracted by their crispness and that they will keep for a week in my fridge.  But, I do find them tasteless. I will go for Romaine every time.

The advantage of some of the softer lettuce is the range of shapes and colours –from green, purple and speckled oak leaf, vibrant green butterhead and the outstandingly rich colour of Really Red Deer’s Tongue. Now that is a beauty. If it were crispier, it would be perfect but, that is my taste.

When I was a little girl my mother served up salad four or five times a week as the main dinner in summer. How I hated it. This was a while ago in Northern Ireland, which was some years behind the culinary initiative of England. My mother was keen to serve fresh and wholesome food to her family and thought this was one way to do it. Of course, she was right, but, I was a growing girl and was looking for something more filling than lettuce.

This table does not give a comprehensive list of possible ingredients. But, it provides a range of ingredients and ideas to make an interesting salad-based meal on several days each week.

Making it tangy	Herbs for salads	Fruit	Adding crunch	The Protein
Chopped shallots Or scallions Chilli peanuts Potato salad Good dressing Pickled beetroot	Chervil sprigs Chopped mint Flat-leaved parsley Sliced sorrel leaves Coriander leaves Basil leaves Chives Watercress Rocket	Sliced oranges Cubes of apple Slices of kiwi Lemon wedges Strawberries Sliced pineapple Tomatoes – red, spriped, yellow.	Grated carrot Walnut pieces Celery Red apple slices Pumpkin seeds Radishes - sliced Fresh young peas Baby sweetcorn Sliced peppers Sliced summer cabbage hearts	-Boiled eggs -Grated cheese -chunky slices of -home-cooked gammon or ham - Falafel - Samosas - cold kidney beans - Slice of quiche - smoked salmon -grilled salmon or trout - any grilled meat - baked Camembert or Brie

The appearance of the salad is very important. Am I stating the obvious here? While there have been times when I really wanted a green salad with a squeeze of lemon (especially after travelling in a country where there are no fresh vegetables on offer), mostly I want to look at the salad nicely arranged or tossed with a good mixture of colour. The wide range of lettuces and salad leaves help to provide an appetising base.

Try this Potato Salad ( Irish Style)  - a favourite from my childhood and the saviour of many boring teatimes:

Ingredients

1 kg(2lb) potatoes – preferably not too waxy as you will need to mash them( leftover boiled potatoes are fine)

A bunch of scallions (spring onions) Or  1 – 2 medium red onions

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 – 6 Tblsp vinegar ( a sharp vinegar is better so I use malt vinegar and add to my taste which is for a fairly sharp taste)

Small bunch parsley – finely chopped

Method

·         Allow the potatoes to cool or use leftover, cold boiled potatoes. Then mash them well.

·         Add salt and pepper to taste.

·         Chop the scallions or red onion finely and stir into the potatoes.

·         Chop the parsley finely and add to the mixture.

·         Add vinegar to give the level of sharpness you like.

·         Arrange in a suitable serving dish and garnish with herb – chervil, mint, basil.

Note: - although I Iike parsley in this dish, I also enjoy chopped chervil, mint, coriander or basil. You might also like to try replacing the malt vinegar with balsamic vinegar, lime juice or lemon juice.
(Of course, in Ireland the default potato would almost always be a floury variety. You can make this dish with the more waxy potatoes like Charlotte but, the texture is so much better with floury potatoes)

I’m not a big fan of mayonnaise and even less of the old fashioned salad cream but I find French Dressing and even vinaigrette a bit too oily. So, I’ve developed my own which is much sharper and has less fat in it for the figure conscious people who also want some dressing on their salad. I haven’t given it a name so I’ll call it Marge’s Dressing. Do try it.

Marge’s Dressing for salad

2 Tblsp wine vinegar or cider vinegar

2 Tblsp good balsamic vinegar

2 Tblsp olive oil (of your choice) - I like Cretan when I can get hold of it.

¾ tsp whole-grain mustard

¾ tsp honey

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put all the ingredients into a small secure-lidded jar (I use an old relish jar). Give it a really good shake and serve in a small jug with the salad or use to toss through the salad.

Summer Harvesting - Peas, Onions, Garlic

Harvesting and Storing Peas, Onions, Garlic,

It’s the end of June and we are probably more than half way through our growing season, depending on whether or not you have a heated greenhouse or even a green house or a poly tunnel – like me!

While some crops have been a total failure for me this year, others have been a spectacular success.

Peas – Talking to one of my neighbours a few days ago, she laughingly said, ‘I see you grow peas by the Mohammed method’. She went on to say that her son used the same method with similar wonderful results.

Mohammed has been gardening on our Allotments Fields since the year Dot and is arguably one of, if not the best, grower in our Allotment Association. When I was chatting to him a couple of years ago, comparing, among other (many) things he was doing so successfully compared with my miserable crops, he looked at my peas rows ( well! Very intermittent rows) and effectively said that my methods were rubbish. Yet I had followed the instructions in various vegetable growing publications.

Prepare your row ( from me – a channel about 3” ( 6 – 7cm) deep, really it’s not critical), and about 2 – 3 “ wide( 5cm ).  For the width of my plot, about 4 – 5 metres, take three packets of seed and just throw them along it (making sure all the seeds are in the channel and are reasonably evenly spaced.

Well, okay, I thought, this is worth a try, certainly Mohammed’s crops were way better than mine so, last year I tried his method in a modest way. The results were just great and I had lots of peas to freeze for the winter.

This year I thought I’d do it properly. A fellow plot holder buys seed in bulk from Tucker’s Seeds in Devon (www.edwintucker.com  their site is still under construction but phone or write for a catalogue – Google it).  I bought a kilo of Hurst Green-Shaft from him for around £4 and I sowed all of them in 4 rows across my plot. I didn’t leave enough space between the rows as I really didn’t have room but, the crop has been amazing. Already I have had about 6 buckets full of peas and when podded have filled a drawer in my freezer. I have probably harvested about half of them.

When freezing, there is no need to blanch. Just pod, pack into suitable containers –boxes or bags, bung in the freezer and enjoy all winter. The only downside – podding is quite a lengthy process – put on a good film or watch your favourite TV programmes and you won’t notice the job being done.

It’s still not too late to sow seed for a late crop.

Onions – my autumn planted onion sets have definitely exceeded my expectations this year, especially considering the long dry spell we had during April and May. I didn’t water them ( I just don’t have the energy to water everything) and I’m hoping that this will have contributed to a high dry matter in the onions and will encourage them to keep. I have, so far, tied up 5 strings of onions with probably another 2 to go. The spring sown onions are still growing and may be good – or not. The same can’t be said for my shallots which are just not worth harvesting. I planted fewer garlic this year and while they have been good, I am now wondering if I have grown enough to see me through the next winter.

I have noticed, over the last couple of years that many of my plot neighbours are reporting ‘white rot’ in their onion crops. This is a serious fungal disease which, if it appears on your crops, will prevent you from growing any of the alliums ( onion family) for many years. It doesn’t travel like blight but can be transferred on implements, boots, etc so, where you walk on you plot (or others’) you are likely to spread it.

I feel that, although my onions have been most satisfactory this year, they are the crop which shows least difference to those you buy in the supermarket. Added to that, they are cheap to buy from the supermarket and are disease free. I have therefore, decided that I won’t grow them next year. While onions may not taste any different from those in the supermarket, other members of the allium family certainly do – especially garlic and leeks.

When onions and garlic have stopped growing, the top greenery will fold over. At this point, lift them and leave lying out for the top foliage to die back/ become brown and fairly crisp. At this point you can tie them in bunches or strings and store in a cool dry place. Don’t store them when any part of the plant is still wet. As I discovered to my cost – they will rot.