Welcome to our plot!

I'm Hazel, and in Nov 2006 my friend Jane and I took on a half plot at Hill Allotments, Sutton Coldfield - we want the satisfaction of growing and eating our own fruit and veg, and to improve our diet (and fitness!).

This is the story of what happened next...........

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Flowers, Decorative & Possibly Edible

It's been jolly cold all week, & yesterday was not only cold, but drizzly too, so I decided on an afternoon baking rather than gardening.

Today, however, the sun shone warmly, so armed with a list of things to do, & a handful of seed packets I headed to the Hill where I saw neighbour Jody busy with the hoe & we chatted in the sunshine as I weeded the front of the plot.

It's looking rather good, by fortuitous accident - a whole heap of last years annuals have self-seeded, so once I'd pulled out all the chickweed & bittercress there is quite a pretty display in the offing.

Then I sowed a row of CARROT (manchester table), RADISH (french breakfast) & LETTUCE (dazzle & mini green).

The spring cabbages are coming on well (from seedlings that Julie (second best plot) kindly gave me back in September) & I cut one for Jody in return for his offer of a some spare pepper plants & whilst we looked at the brassica bed, we considered the kale.

"What a shame it is that it has started to bolt", I said, looking at the long flower shoots, "it looks a bit like purple sprouting, but green. I wondered if I can eat the shoots?"

"Dunno," he said, then leaned over & snapped a flower head off & popped it in his mouth & ate it. He considered for a moment before nodding "yep, you can. It tastes like that cabbage you use for coleslaw."

Brilliant! I wasted no time in cutting all the sprouting stems, and had a portion for tea tonight. Admittedly I cooked the ends furthest from the flowers, but - boy - they were woody. I'll try again tomorrow with the tips to see if it is less like eating twigs.

Back at the plot, I planted out the PEAS (newick, neplus ultra, raisen cap & ezetha's) along with the ONION (hi-keeper) seedlings. I used these to fill in some gaps left from some of the sets not making it overwinter.

I was just earthing up the potatoes when returning allotmenteer Chris came over & we chatted about this & that - she's offered me some spare tomato plants, & asked if I wanted to go across in the week to collect. Fabulous!

With all the jobs done, I picked a huge armful of rhubarb and headed off home to get a batch of rhubarb wine underway.

3 comments:

  1. I like Jody's approach {grin}, and your flower bed looks great.

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  2. I find you can eat the tops of just about any bolting brassica. As you found, it's the stems that stick in the throat!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm fortunate to have a really nice bunch of allotment neighbours, Bilbo! More about that after a couple of wine making blog entries.

    Did I read that that the leaves go bitter after the plants have bolted, Flum? Will pick more kale leaves at the weekend to test!

    ReplyDelete

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