Raspberries, garlic and knobbly spuds
Posted: Tuesday 6 July, 2004
Things keep growing, whether we're ready for them or not.
Tonight I harvested another 1 1/2 pounds of raspberries, straight into the freezer for winter crumbles and pies. I also lifted all the garlic, 30-odd heads, which has reached a good size and will keep us going for a year. Just in time too I think, since 4 were damaged by some kind of mould or rot. They were disposed of, the rest are now in the garage to dry thoroughly.
I might have a go at pickling some this year - we only tried pickled garlic for the first time a few years ago at a fine establishment called the Jolly Sportsman in Sussex where we were on holiday, loved it and have always meant to try doing our own. Since there's plenty of vinegar left from last week's pickled eggs I've no excuses.
At the weekend we had 3 types of spuds with our Sunday dinner - the Red Duke of York earlies which we've been enjoying for a couple of weeks now; a couple of Desiree which were lifted out of pure curiousity to see how well they were doing; and last but definitely not least half a haulm's worth of Pink Fir Apple. These were a total experiment. On our way up the M6 from Oasis last year we stopped at a fantastic farm shop where apart from some wonderful cheeses like Stinking Bishop we bought a bag of Pink Fir Apple spuds. They look extremely strange, but have the most beautiful flavour and texture. Anyway, we kept a few tubers back and planted them in the spring and lo and behold it looks like we're going to have a bumper crop. Yum yum.
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Comments
Dan
Yeah, we have pretty much perfect growing conditions here for raspberries. But you grow tomatoes outside for heaven's sake! That makes me jealous :O)
T. Carter
You mean outside where they can be decimated by a freak hailstorm?
Dave
Whats your secret with Garlic then? Mine were really disappointing this year. Mostly they were far too small to be of any use, and several had rotted away.
Dan
Dunno Dave, I might just have been lucky. A few of the heads were showing signs of a white mould, so I probably lifted just in time. They're drying just fine though. They were planted in January, so no secret there. I do use raised beds though, so drainage might be the difference?
Dave
Hmm, could be. I grow mine on an allotment and it generally has pretty good drainage due to the vast number of stones in the soil. My soil isn't great quality though, perhaps I need to get some more manure into it. Thanks for replying though. I've just discovered this site and finding it an interesting read during my lunch hour!
Comments are now closed for this post.
evelin
Wednesday 7 July, 2004 at 6:47pm
Hey, we dug up our garlic over the weekend, too! Since we don't have much room, it is doing a first drying in the kitchen ... a little too much garlic for me, but Carter seems to like it!
Our raspberries are nothing like as prolific as yours ... nothing for a good while. Dang it.
I'm so jealous.