Cabbages, lettuces, leeks and flowers

Last week was a kimchi week, with about 10 cabbages all ready at once;  the variety is Dutchman (an F1) which I bought last year in the £1 sale, and I grew them at both the allotment and home.  They are a lovely, quick growing sweetheart type--most of them no more than 3# in weight (a few smaller, one actually much bigger).  I've made somewhere in the vicinity of 10 L of kimchi.  I'm not out of cabbage yet, and I'm also not quite out of big jars--but I've got no room in the fridge and the kitchen counter is also pretty full.  I eat kimchi pretty much every day with my eggs and bacon at breakfast, and sometimes with lunch or dinner too;  I'm not worried about having too much as it will keep for several months or longer--but I may need to rethink my food storage space.

I've now picked most of the lettuces and cabbages (to the left), June 2025

Actually I was going to sow even more cabbage seed last week in the hopes of a second harvest but it turns out I don't have any more.  I have four small Savoy seedlings which I've planted them in the gaps in the bed above where the lettuces and cabbages have gone;  however one has seemingly expired from the heat/dry and the other three don't look very promising either--it was old seed and not many sprouted.  I will turn instead to pak choi, which I definitely have seed for;  however, it too doesn't like hot dry conditions so I will probably wait at least another week to sow (it did finally rain again on Sunday but we're forecast another heatwave this week).

I finally got to the end of the first batch of butterhead lettuces, but have planted out another batch, seen below with leeks.  It's actually kind of amazing how fast it has grown;  I protected it with those wire trays at first but the lettuces outgrew them and the birds started pecking the leaves poking out;  I've now put up some bird netting and canes and it is looking a lot less tattered.  There is still some curly oakleaf lettuce about--and I've just pricked out the newest batch of these into a tray, for hopefully planting out at the end of the month.

These Lyon leeks have grown since this picture, as have the lettuces (under the wire, front left), June 2025

When I planted out the leeks, their tray had some unexpected calendula in it so I just planted them all out together.  This bed borders my patio and also has some wallflowers at the front of it, to flower next spring;  I grew a few other flowers from seed this spring, including:  zinnia and French marigold, lupin, echinacea, verbena, aquilegia and perennial sweet pea.  Most of these have already been planted out in the wider garden but I wanted the wallflowers close to the house so we could still enjoy them from the kitchen (when it's too miserable to go out);  the rest of my new flowers bloom in later spring/summer.

The Vegetable Challenge has begun

The makings of a salad, June 2025

Official start date:  21 June, 2025.  Official end date:  21 January 2026.  

Rules:

• No vegetables to be bought during the Challenge--with the exception of onions.  
• "Salad" fruits such as cucumber/tomatoes/etc, are allowed but highly discouraged and will be noted.  No restriction on non-salad fruits (apples, bananas, etc).  
• Vegetables obtained for free, i.e., gifts/trades/foraged/etc are allowed, so long as no money is exchanged.  Vegetables bought before the start of the Challenge are allowed.

Greyhound cabbage nearly ready (butterhead lettuce past ready!), June 2025

My last Challenge unofficially lasted seven months, but only officially reached the six month mark;  I am setting it for seven months again--hoping to extend it longer actually--but will leave seven months as the goal.  I feel this should be achievable--and I hope eight months or even the full 12 will be too.  I will do my best to keep on growing and preserving up to and beyond the official end date.

Packing it in: cucumber at the very back, then courgette, cabbage and lettuce;  spring onion at the bottom left, June 2025

I think I could have started this Challenge a lot earlier this year actually--we've been eating garden/allotment veg almost exclusively, barring some seasonal produce bought crazy cheap (£0.09 per kilo?!) at Christmas and Easter, which we mainly either froze or fermented for later use.  I'm now freezing and fermenting my own seasonal produce too.  Let's go!

Cherries and also not cherries

(The Vegetable Challenge has restarted!  More details next week!) 

It turns out I've not been getting many Kordia cherries or Czar plums off my trees for the past several years because of a pair of pigeons.  They were witnessed in the spring, methodically stripping both buds and young leaves from my trees, meaning hardly any fruits formed at all.  These are wood pigeons (we don't currently have any feral pigeons around);  one of the neighbors has been known to shoot them with an air rifle in his own garden--but in this case I would have been quite happy to shoot them myself!  They're too big for netting:  I don't know if I can protect my trees in the future.

Hiding the few cherries that survived the pigeons, June 2025

Only a few Kordia cherries, but at least they're perfect underneath their cloth napkin, June 2025

On the other hand, my little Morello cherry tree produced a good amount of cherries this year, maybe because the branches are much smaller/thinner (wood pigeons are pretty big birds) and the tree itself is very close to the house.  I fully netted it a little while ago and have been picking red cherries and freezing them this past week.

Already picked a freezer bag of Morello cherries, June 2025

I can only assume the pigeons treated my small Stella cherry tree the same way they did the Kordia as it also has very little fruit.  Its top has died back and it's suffering from aphids in a bad way;  I don't know if it'll survive.  My plum tree, just around the corner (seen a little bit in the top right corner), had a couple years of bad aphids which I think the local sparrows eventually sorted it out;  this tree isn't visible from the house (unlike almost all of my other fruit trees) so I don't know if the birds are helping it this year or not.  While every ladybug and/or larva I find goes onto this tree, other than that, my policy is to not intervene.  I focus on setting up healthy conditions for my little garden ecosystem, a la permaculture;  it's up to the ecosystem to sort out its own details.  If I lose this tree, I can console myself with the thought that it only cost me £4 or £5, and I do have another healthy tree.

Sad Stella cherry tree, June 2025

As an aside:  there are a lot of wild cherry trees at our local country park just a few streets away;  some are pretty sour but others are quite nice.  Just much too small to preserve in any way:  good for eating and spitting out the pits.  At least we've been able to eat cherries this year, one way or another.

Full speed ahead!

Three pounds, seven ounces! June 2025

I thought my first cauliflower was massive, but the one above was a full pound more;  I went on a cauliflower marathon over the weekend where I picked and processed them all (eight in total):  most went into the freezer, heads and greens.  I also made almost 3 L* of sauerkraut with the stems:  I shredded these in my food processor, making quick work of them.  The son also cooked most of one head into cauliflower cheese for dinner:  delicious.

In fact I have so much veg all of a sudden, it feels like I'm in autumn harvest already and it's not even summer solstice yet!  I'm desperately trying to keep up with the lettuces (I'm passing them out at work, even) and the snap peas are suddenly covered, as are the artichokes.  The broad beans too, though these aren't cut and come again like the peas and artichokes--once they're gone, they're gone.

It's also raspberry, strawberry and gooseberry time!  I've started a freezer bag of the gooseberries as we have quite a lot, but the kids are eating up the other two as they pick them.  Also got some redcurrants and blackcurrants;  the daughter (age 5) is taking care of the reds but it's up to me to pick the blacks, something I haven't gotten around to for a couple years in a row:  I need to be on the ball this year.

Right now we're eating what can't be preserved--mainly lettuce and artichokes--and I'm freezing, fermenting and drying what I can:  cauliflower/leaves of course, broad beans, snap peas, some herbs (for winter use), gooseberries.  I'm going to have a chat with the husband about starting the Vegetable Challenge, though I may slightly update the rules (this is my own challenge and I get to set the rules after all).  The only veg he's been buying recently are onions.  I think it may be time. 

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Besides harvesting, I'm actually still sowing some seed for late summer/autumn planting:  spring onions, cauliflower, cabbage.  Although the big push is in spring, I don't stop the seeds until around August/September.  Just planted out my third batch of spring onions (been eating the first, still waiting on the second to grow a bit bigger), and I've pricked out my third batch of lettuce too.  I'll be planting all these out as other crops finish later on in summer.

*Both metric and imperial?  I'd prefer 100% metric but my old-fashioned kitchen scales have imperial weights, whereas all my containers are measured in metric.  Work with what you have, right?

On the menu, June 2025

I'm overflowing with lettuce in my kitchen garden!  Three out of four people in our household like it (and the fourth still eats it) so not a bad situation to be in.  I'm trying to pick a lettuce a day, but as they are getting bigger and bigger (!) I'm having to split some over two days.  Unlike many veg, there's really no way to preserve lettuce:  just keep eating it.  The daughter in particular likes making lettuce wraps at dinner;  the son made us some Mexican style minced beef the other day and after she ate all her lettuce she even pilfered the rest of mine to keep wrapping.

Speaking of bigger, my second cauliflower was just as big as the first;  we're eating the greens as well:  two meals from the head, at least three from the greens, maybe even four.  I may have to put some to freeze, as they are all about ready now (nine huge ones).  Though after a fun trip to the pick-your-own strawberry farm at the weekend, we don't have a lot of freezer space!  I'm sure they'd be good fermented too, the heads at least.

I decided to bring the chickens back home from the allotment;  I wanted to plant their yard with a few more squash plants.  I sowed these seeds back in April and had all but given up on them, but suddenly I have five now emerging in the last week.  I did about two dozen pots at the same time;  when only two or three came up, I sowed some more seed (from a different squash, but of the same lineage) which all came up promptly.  These are the ones already growing at the allotment:  transplanted into what were the broccoli and garlic beds (and I gave another eight away to colleagues).  I'm out of room everywhere else but there is prime growing space in the chicken yard:  let's get it planted.

And it's the start of the broad beans;  these are always a special treat:  they are one of the first veg of substance (aka not a leaf!) and have such a short harvest period.  I used to pick the young pods to eat whole, but these days I'm picking them in the more traditional manner: mature, shelled for the large beans.  

Another one just coming ready are my artichokes;  these will keep producing all summer as long as I keep picking them.  Actually I'm planning on digging them out (in winter) to transplant to the very back of the allotment;  they are near the front, but take up a lot of room;  I want that valuable real estate for other things next year.  The very back of my allotment isn't cultivated, nor has it been since I took in on--it's got a lot of nettles, brambles and some pallets and other detritus.  Not good for annual vegetables, but the artichokes won't mind.  I've mentioned before that we like eating them, they're a reliable constant harvest, they're no maintenance, but: they take up so much room for such a tiny harvest.  Really, they would be the perfect vegetable but for that one drawback.

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A colleague asked me a few weeks ago what I was cooking for dinner (there are four of us in our team, all married women, all looking after husbands/families).  I said we were having lettuce and broccoli with pork chops, which she thought a strange combination.  "I've never hear of lettuce with broccoli!"  But when you grow your own you eat whatever's ready, whether it pairs together or not.  Though I personally like lettuce and broccoli together, I mean don't you?

The end of the hungry gap, June 2025

My first cauliflower of the year, May 2025

I picked this beautiful 2.5# cauliflower at the weekend from my kitchen garden;  I have ten plants still growing, hopefully to get just as big (the plants are all huge).  They overwintered in one of the beds nearest the house;  it's about time to start seed for next spring's cauliflowers.  I also want to replant the bed as soon as possible with either leeks (ready to transplant now) or beets (from seed).  I need to get my leeks in as soon as I can, and I have three beds near harvest now:  cauliflowers, broad beans and new potatoes;  the first to finish gets the leeks and everywhere else gets the beets.

I got my garlic at the allotment harvested a few days ago: 112 bulbs.  All but two are a good size and some are absolutely massive.  I washed them, trimmed off the stems and put the bulbs in trays to dry on my patio.  The biggest 12 bulbs will be broken up and the cloves replanted in September or October;  I've been saving and replanting my own garlic for many years now, fully self sufficient in it.  I even still have a small amount of frozen chopped garlic from last June's harvest:  it lasted me all year long.  With this small bed cleared, I mulched and replanted immediately with another five squash.

In addition to the curing the garlic bulbs, I decided to ferment the stems too:  I trimmed away the outer leaves, chopped the tender part of the stems and filled two big jars with them.  1.8 L of just a plain brine (salt and water); and 3.3 L of a water kimchi brine with salt, ginger, fish sauce and gochugaru (Korean chili flakes).  Both jars are bubbling happily on my countertop, waiting for a space in the fridge.

What's more, I'm picking lettuce pretty much every day now:  red and green oakleaf as cut and come again, and butterheads one by one.   Also picking my first spring onions as chives (that is, cutting off the tops to let them regrow);  these are tasty with the lettuce, and also on my scrambled eggs in the morning.

It's so nice to have something fresh, and the anticipation of more very soon.  Hungry gap over? 

A change in the weather, still planting, hoping for fruit

It rained at last!  My plants all grew about an inch overnight I think, and my rain barrels filled up again.  Although now I'm wondering if that was our "summer" and it's going to be cool and wet from now on--not an uncommon occurrence.   

There was a very slight and unexpected frost at the allotment last week, touching just four of my zucchini plants.  Everything else:  tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, and the other four zucs were absolutely fine.  And the zucs are all planted near each other, right at the center of the allotment so it's a puzzle to me how only those four got it.  One plant was a goner but the other three may recover;  though if I do lose them all, I still have another four in the kitchen garden and have just planted out two more at the allotment.  I'm hoping it'll be another zucchini summer.  Though I need the weather to cooperate...

I cleared away all of the old purple sprouting broccoli at last and the son helped me fully sheet mulch over the bed so I could replant immediately:  six squash and five sweetcorn.  I am hoping to get at least six more squash (though I actually have around 12 more plants left) when I pull up the garlic--probably this weekend. I wish the broad beans were a little more forward so I could replant there too--they are right between the two other beds.  However, they're only just forming their first little pods so I probably won't be clearing them away for another few weeks at the earliest.  I'll still have time to replant the bed, but probably not with squash.

The daughter picked our first two strawberries of the year, which does seem pretty early (mid May).  I'm trying to remember if the ten plants I put down this spring are everbearing strawbs or not (I only remember thinking I ought to choose those, not if I actually did).  The first berries came from one of our older plants, and there are lots of little green ones forming, on both old and new plants.  I was lucky to get one bite of the smaller berry--the daughter is five and has quick fingers and a very persuasive manner!

Did I mention that both my apple trees flowered and set fruit this spring?  Since I've had them (pre-blog but not by a lot), both have produced biennially;  last year was an on year so I was expecting an off year for 2025 but it's an on year again, hooray!  Has the biennial tendency stopped now they're older?  Or is it just a freak accident of timing and they'll go back to their normal ways next year?