All posts tagged red mizuna

If you only grow one thing

I returned from holiday to a garden with few crops. I knew that builders and gardening do not mix well, so I had left plenty space for the builders to expand into, thus severely curtailing my planting. However, before I left I sowed a large container (a plastic fish box salvaged from the beach years ago) with salad leaves. And now I am reaping the rewards:

A mixed crop

A mixed crop

Since I arrived home on Sunday evening I have had four meals containing leaves harvested from this box and there are plenty more to come. I chose to plant red mizuna and a red-leaved lettuce, plus there are a few self-seeded Claytonia in there. I can harvest exactly the amount I want, so my salads are always fresh.

If you want to start growing and only have a limited space, or worry that your skills are not up to it, get yourself a container and plant some seeds for salad leaves (you can buy a mixed packet). Choose cut-and-come-again varieties and you will have weeks of fresh food at a fraction of the cost of those plastic bags of mixed leaves you can buy in the supermarket. Plus the only packaging will be a seed packet or two and you won’t have unused food going to waste in your refrigerator.

This is why I garden – pesticide-free food, freshly harvested, no plastic bags, cheap and easy.

11 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on May 21, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in gardening and growing
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on May 21, 2015

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2015/05/21/if-you-only-grow-one-thing/

Our daily veg (and fruit)

So, here we are in the depths of winter and I realise that we are still managing to eat something home-grown at least once every day. Considering our small garden, I’m terribly pleased about this.

Aliss - star layer

Aliss – star layer

First, there is the fresh produce… currently we are getting an egg every day from Aliss (none from any of the others, but that’s not surprising from the two oldies). In addition, I’m able to go out into the garden and pick kale, broccoli leaves, blood-veined sorrel and a range of oriental leaves (my favourite in salads is red mizuna), or dig up some oca; plus a few chillies are finally ripening up in our very soggy greenhouse. There’s also still sage growing abundantly, which I love to use in stuffing. NB: all photos in this post were taken today (26 December 2013).

Red mizuna (mostly)

Red mizuna (mostly)

Second, we have stored produce. We still have many kilos of potatoes left: we’re currently eating Colleen, the last of our first earlies which have simply been stored in a cardboard box in the loft. We’ve got some of each of the other three varieties left – Valour, Milva and Mira – so those should keep us going for quite a while yet. Maybe next year I will manage to be completely self-sufficient in potatoes. Other stored produce that needed little or no processing are the winter squashes (two big ones left) and the dried beans (Czar runners), dried chillies (Lemon drop), poppy seeds and sunflower seeds.

Broccoli - not sprouting yet, but the leaves are good

Broccoli – not sprouting yet, but the leaves are good

Then we have things that needed some work to allow them to be stored: bottled apple, apple butter, frozen stewed apple* (does there seem to be a theme?); frozen stewed rhubarb; frozen raspberries and blackberries (the latter foraged rather than grown ourselves); frozen vegetable soups; frozen passata; and frozen chillies (Alberto Locoto, which don’t dry well because they are so fleshy).

I know that I couldn’t supply all our needs, but it is lovely to know that we eat food from our garden every day – food not doused in pesticides, not grown using chemical fertilisers, vegetables of heritage varieties, many from local producers or from saved seed and with very very few food miles. To me, that feels like a real triumph that I want to celebrate.

-oOo-

* OK, I confess this is all from the lovely Perkin… homegrown at High Bank rather than Chez Snail.

PS There’s a new square on the Masterpiece page, if you are interested.

11 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on December 26, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in gardening and growing
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on December 26, 2013

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2013/12/26/our-daily-veg-and-fruit/

Winter veg

A time of plenty... courgettes growing by a Boston winter squash

A time of plenty… courgettes growing alongside a yellow Boston winter squash

Yesterday brought beautiful August weather, with lots of sunshine and a breeze to keep the air fresh. It does feel like the end of summer, though, with the mornings a little cooler and a slightly different smell in the air. It’s a time of plenty in the garden… something to harvest every day. However, we also need to think about the future… we may be awash with fresh vegetables now, but things will be different in the winter. So, even as we harvest, we should also think about sowing. And that’s exactly what I did yesterday afternoon.

Newly planted seeds surrounded by abundant capsicums

Newly planted seeds surrounded by abundant capsicum growth

I sat in the garden with compost and seed trays and planted a range of vegetables that, I hope, will help us through the winter. In the seed trays I planted kale, spring onions, red mizuna, komatsuna, kai lan and namenia. I discovered that I had very few plant labels just before I started, so I cut strips from a plastic milk carton and wrote on the rough side – it seemed to work well. Next, I cleared the bolting lettuces out of the strawberry planter and fed these to the chickens. In their place I sprinkled seeds of Claytonia and a lettuce called ‘Winter Marvel’. I also potted up some sweet pepper and chili plants. as they seem to be growing really well and it looks like we have a late-season mountain of capsicums to look forward to.

I will be planting more seeds over the coming weeks, including coriander, rocket and several more varieties of oriental greens. If you want ideas about what to plant now, the best resource I know is the Garden Organic website. They have pages for ‘what to do in the garden this month‘ which include planting suggestions… do check it out, it’s great.

1 Comment
by The Snail of Happiness on August 19, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in food and cooking, gardening and growing
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on August 19, 2013

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2013/08/19/winter-veg/

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