Harvest Monday - 22 June 2015

Latest post from MARKSVEGPLOT – a blog about food and gardening in England”

This past week saw me harvesting the first of my Strawberries.

I only have a few Strawberry plants, growing in some plastic crates, so I am never going to get a huge crop, but My Goodness they are nice! We ate this first half-dozen mixed in with some bought Raspberries and the contrast was very marked. The Raspberries had been refrigerated, which kills off some of the flavour, whereas the Strawberries were eaten about an hour after being picked, and had not been refrigerated. Their flavour was really intense.

This is another batch, picked a couple of days later:

Naturally, I have harvested more Lettuce this week (my plan is to keep doing so throughout the summer months). This one is a “Cervanek”, a very handsome lettuce:

It looks just like the picture on the packet! (These are seeds kindly sent to me by a blogger in the Czech Republic).

The Asparagus season is just about finished. Most of the spears coming up now are quite thin and spindly, which is an indication that the plants are getting tired (and who can blame them?). It’s tempting to keep on cropping, but the plants need a few months rest in order to regain their strength for next year. These four spears will therefore probably be the last ones I pick this year. You see them alongside the first head of Broccoli.

This is a piece of Broccoli from one of the “De Ciccio” plants. Unfortunately there was only one piece that was ready (the other plants are some days behind), so I just cut it down the middle and steamed it alongside the Asparagus.

Then there were these “Vales Emerald” potatoes.

This is them washed and ready for cooking:

In my opinion, this is the stage at which new potatoes should be harvested. These are First Earlies, not Maincrops, and they are not intended for long-term storage, so there’s not much point in leaving them until they get huge. Eat them young and tender, I say.

I’m linking this post to Harvest Monday, over on Daphne’s Dandelions….

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