N'er cast a clout

My dear old Grandma used to be very fond of the expression 'N'er cast a clout, til May is out'. It used to puzzle me as a child as to its meaning, but I did understand that it basically meant that even if the sun is shining, wait until the end of May to rely on the weather REALLY being nice.

April has crept up on me this year and today has been one of the most glorious days of sunshine so far this year. I thought of my Grandma as I threw off the winter cardigan and pottered around the garden with bare arms.

Well, I don't know if this good weather will last but I have taken the risk and planed a lot of new seeds today. I have planted directly into the ground, some Apollo Runner beans and Coriander Seed, as well as transplanting my Garden pea seedlings from their home in the greenhouse, to their new home ready to climb the netting and produce me a bumper crop again this year. It has worked out really well, as the pea seeds I put straight into the ground a few weeks ago are now above the soil and starting to develop, whereas the greenhouse ones are quite well established. This means I will have a succession of peas to enjoy.

I am surprised by the Snap Peas (Mange Tout). Last year I did really well but they seem slow to get going this year. I only got about 40% seedlings to the number of seeds I planted in the greenhouse. The ones I planted straight in the ground have been a wee bit more successful and I have about a 80% success getting seedlings. Last year, everyone was a success! I planted another 3 squares of Snap peas today in the hope that they will catch up?

So Grandma, if you are watching, please forgive the bare arms today and send me some more sunshine. The garden and I could really do with more of it!

Seeds Vs Plants?

I have to admit I was lured by 'off the peg' veggies today. After a visit to Histon & Impington Farmers Market, I decided that I'd be a bit of a cheat and buy some tomato plants. I enjoyed having different varieties last year and wanted to experiment with more again this summer. I didn't want to buy 4 or 5 different packets of seeds so I bought the plants at 80p each. I know its an expensive say of doing it but never mind.

In my own defense, I have set out some spinach seeds, basil seeds and sown some more peas and snap peas straight into the ground outside. Only thing I need to get now are some yellow and green courgette seeds..... off to garden centre!

Last of the Parsnips

Today I pulled up the last of my parsnips. After seeing the tops die back over the winter to show nothing on the surface, I noticed last week that I was seeing new shoots above the topsoil. I figured this meant that it was time to pull them up and have one last parsnip feast. It's weird how some of them were really large but others were diddy, almost like a baby carrot. I wonder if they were starting to go to seed? ....Well, they are out now!

An update on late summer crop from 2009!

Guess I was too busy to actually post anything, but thought I could just add a few shots of the successful crops we had late Summer 2009.Overgrown Courgettes after being babysat while we were on holiday!
The Cucumbers were a success and we will be doing these again this year.
Lettuce nested among the marigolds!
Pumpkins supported by tights to stop them snapping under the weight!
And then being cooked ready for Pumkin Pie...

Tom thought these giant courgettes were funny!

Springing up all over again

Well we are now officially into Spring 2010 and its that time again to think about planting for our veggie garden. We have been very lazy until now and have done very little in the garden. I knew we had a few sorry looking leeks still growing and perhaps some parsnips. I decided to dig for the parsnips today and was delighted to find three beds full of sumptuous parsnips. They have survived the winter and all the snow we have had, and so tonight we will eat roast parsnips.


I have been busy searching for other parsnip recipe ideas too as we have about another 18 parsnips still in the ground which will need using up in the next couple of weeks. Can you make Parsnip Curry I wonder?

Chris turned over the compost and helped me top up the raised beds today to get the soil ready for outside planting.

I have now also done my first seedling planting today. It was s glorious sunny day and the greenhouse was 30 degrees and lovely and warm. This inspired me to plant my first veggies of the season, the wonderful peas and mange tout.


Last summer we tried to grow cabbage, cauliflower and brussel sprouts, but they were attacked so badly by caterpillars, we never actually ate any of them. So, I have decided not to bother this year. We loved the peas and mange tout so much I will be double the amount I grow this year. Bring on the peas please Louise!

Wild Women do...

...and they don't regret it. I'm talking about Wild Food of course. Who can possibly not resist free food? Yesterday we went for a bike ride into Cambridge and on the way we kept seeing trees laden with green and red fruits. I know you have to be careful not to pick unknown fruits in case they are poisonous, but these just looked too edible to ignore. Finally curiosity got the better of me and I picked a small round cherry shaped fruit and had a nibble. It was sweet and sharp with a texture and taste like an apricot. I let the kids try a bit and they totally loved them. We grabbed a handful and went on our way. A few yards down the road we found a street with about 10 trees full of these fruits all in different colours, ranging from green, yellow with a red tinge, to a deep purple. Sure that these were some some of plum or damson, we filled up our lunchbox (having eaten the contents earlier!) and took them home for identification.

I discovered (I think...) that what we had were wild cherry plums! A bit of digging around on google told me that these small fruits are indeed edible and a bit of a of an old fashioned delicacy, popular in the Victorian times. I decided to opt for a wild plum jam using the small stash we carried home from the City and it made 4 pots of delicious jam which we all love. It seems that we are also very lucky in Histon and Impington as there are also many trees locally heavy with wild plums and my plan is to get a load of these babies and make a whole batch of jam to last us all winter!

Salad Days

Despite the awful weather so far in July, we have enjoyed some lovely salads from our Valmaine lettuce. This is a cut-and-come-again lettuce which is small and crisp rather like a cos. Served with our first harvest of spring onions and some fresh tomatoes, the salad was divine. Still waiting for the cucumber to get to a reasonable size and then that will get the chop and be added to our side salads.


I also harvested quite alot of our runner beans this weekend. Too many for us to eat and not wanting to live on them for the next 3 weeks, I decided to prepare, blanche and freeze some ready for the winter.



When my Dad came over a few days ago, he noticed that my Early Nantes Carrots were ready to be pulled up. Low and behold, he was right and we managed to get some really beautifully tasting carrots that were perefectly shaped, sized and no invasion by the dreaded carrotfly. Next time however I will definately use the wondermesh over my brasicas as I had to pull out my failed cauliflowers. The wondermesh is a microfine netting which allows sunshine and rain to get to the plants but not the insects. The biggest pest was the notorious Cabbage White Butterfly which ravaged my plants.