I was pleased with this year's Christmas harvest - much of our Christmas dinner was allotment produce.
I was pleased with this year's Christmas harvest – much of our Christmas dinner was allotment produce. King Edward potatoes from the garage were roasted, Charlotte new potatoes from store were steamed. Greens took the form of braised leeks and, of course, the ubiquitous Brussels sprouts.
The young Brussels sprout plants were given to me way back in the summer by my colleague Steve, a keen veg grower. They were almost decimated by wave after wave of cabbage white caterpillars which have infested brassicas this summer. Steve’s almost perished in the onslaught. Mine, despite horrendous neglect, survived to produce some lovely sprouts – probably down to the fact that the weed growth masked the plants from the cabbage white butterflies' attentions. (However, I did lose every single calabrese plant to the voracious little blighters, so I haven’t had it all my way.)
Parsnips were a bit thin on the ground, due to a couple of disastrous sowings. It was breezy the first time I tried to sow the papery seeds and I think half of them blew away. The second sowing was drowned in steady, unremitting rain and probably rotted. Still, the few that did grow came up well. Thank goodness you only need a couple to go with Christmas dinner!
But what about red cabbage braised with apples? We had that last year, braised with apples — very nice it was too, but I wanted a change this year. Next year I’m planning on growing swede, so we can have mashed carrots and swede for Christmas lunch.
If I raised a few turkeys on the plot we'd have the whole dinner…
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