Self-sufficient. For a while at least

We are at that happy time of year when we are briefly self-sufficient in fruit and veg. It feels good and I feel that I made the right choice in keeping the lottie. There have been lots of times when I have struggled to keep up with things but I guess anything worthwhile requires a bit of effort.
Over the course of the year we have enjoyed lots of lovely things to eat. I'm sorry if this seems self-satisfied, but I couldn't resist a tally:

Grown in the garden:
Not just in the little patch shown in the photo here, but also in pots, in the back garden, in the ground and up trees and trellises too...
Apples - from our two traditional Lincolnshire heritage trees
Victoria Plums
Tomatoes - took ages to ripen but finally abundant
Beetroot
Courgettes
Spring onions - still going strong
Radishes
Salad leaves
Blackcurrants - just a few as I have just one young plant
Red cabbage
Chives
Strawberries - those the dog didn't eat!
Sugar-snap peas - grown in pots. A great success.
Herbs: mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme and basil.

From the lottie:
Potatoes
Onions - now all plaited and hanging in the garage
Garlic - ditto
Purple sprouting broccoli - just starting
White cabbage
Spinach
Raspberries
Fine green beans
Broad beans
Runner beans
Almost ripe: pumkins
And coming soon...sprouts.

Beanz Meanz Mine!

As is probably obvious from the lack of posts, I have been away on holiday. I returned at the weekend to an allotment groaning with produce.
Whilst we were away, kind neighbours watered tomato plants and salad leaves which are growing in my garden at home. I had also introduced them to the lottie and encouraged them to help themselves to anything they fancied whilst I was away, as the raspberries were at their peak, the beans were beginning to crop and the spinach just goes on and on. They assure me that they took all they wanted but even so I picked and either cooked or froze 2.7 kilos of French beans at the weekend. I also prepared and cooked a similar weight of runner beans. Since everyone tells me that these don’t freeze very well in their natural state I did these in a garlicky and well-reduced tomato sauce.
We ate some of the runner beans in sauce on Monday evening and they were lovely. They have also been delicious simply dressed in a very good extra virgin olive oil with sea salt and freshly-milled black pepper.
Alongside this epic beans marathon was 7 loads (and still counting) of post-holiday washing and finding all the uniforms etc for the kids to return to school on Monday.
All this, needless to say, took ages and I was busy complaining to anyone within earshot that I was feeling exhausted despite having had a lovely 2 week holiday. But this is my crop from my lottie. What am I doing it for, if not to be able to return home overflowing with organically-grown and freshly-picked food to put on the table? In the words of Mrs Doyle from Father Ted: “Maybe I like the agony”.

Practical as well as beautiful?

As mentioned in a previous post I have been attempting to incorporate veg in my garden at home - particularly those which benefit from more regular watering than is possible down at the plot. I have French Beans climing up a tree, and  my favourite red poppies sharing a large pot with some beautiful purple leaved Brussel Sprout plants kindly given to me by a friend.

There were some early wins and unexpected benefits from this approach. My initial attempts to grow strawberries in large pots in the back garden looked as though they were going to be disastrous when the dog developed a taste for the fruit. However, moving the pots into the front garden got over that problem and meant that the regular patrols by next door's cats kept the birds away. No need for a fruit cage there!

My garden is a reasonable size but not huge, so a regular veg plot was out of the question. It has been much more a case of thinking about what I can squeeze into the existing beds and borders - including the front garden. I hope my neighbours have been won around by my choice of cabbages in the front. I'm hopeless at marking and/or remembering exactly what I have planted but the cabbages in question have a beautiful grey-green leaf tinged with a deep pink. Delicately fringed with a row of spring onions which have done really well, and with two lovely pink roses behind (see the photo below) I think it has looked really pretty. If the neighbours still have doubts I will bring them round with gifts of the surplus cabbages which are now ready to lift.

Summer recipies for cabbage?

So keen was I to experiment with what would grow that I didn’t really stop to consider when they would mature, and what we would do with 12 enormous cabbages in the height of summer. But of course there is a limit to the amount of cabbage you want to eat in July and August. I have come up with a few summery recipies. It was lovely flash fried with olive oil then dressed with lemon juice and mint. And given the colour of this particular cabbage it makes a really pretty pink coleslaw. With two little girls what could be better? However, additional recipes for cabbage in summer would be gratefully received as I have another 10 cabbages to go!