Eating and preserving cabbage

Cabbage and poppies, July 2020

 I have two kinds of cabbage in my garden this summer:  a pointed red one and a ball-headed green one.  Both are mostly ready to harvest now, amounting to a dozen or so medium-sized heads.  

The reds have been the first for the chop;  I've been blanching and dehydrating the tougher green-purple outer leaves and making sauerkraut with the tender red inner leaves.  Those inner leaves have also been made into coleslaw and the outer have been cooked for several dinners too.  It's a great tasting cabbage and has not been too badly affected by caterpillars and slugs this summer (though the ducks may have helped on that score as they eat both).  I don't remember the variety though!  I just remember it's an F1, which I don't normally buy--but it was the only red cabbage in the £1 sale.

It will be on to the green cabbages next, again an F1 of unknown variety.  They have been a little more nibbled than the reds--I think the butterflies prefer the green brassica leaves to the red ones for laying eggs, or at least it seems so in my garden.  These green cabbage leaves are also more tender than the red variety I have.  Still, I will be dehydrating and hope to have a few big jars of sauerkraut by the end of the harvest.

I really need to get a packet of spring cabbage seeds;  for several years I've grown Pixie variety over winter and it has always withstood frost and chicken attacks to form good heads in spring/early summer.  I didn't get new seed last year and missed out on them this spring.  I better get it on the to-do list.

Looking ahead to winter and spring

Quince seedling in a container, July 2020

 Now that it's mid-August I'm starting to plan for winter and next spring in the veg garden.  I already have some things planted out which have a long growing season, like the purple sprouting broccoli and leeks, both of which should be ready next spring and I've about eight more purple broccoli not yet planted out.  I also have some red kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower for autumn and winter.  But I'm starting some more seeds now and into the next month too.

This week I've sown a tray each of green kale and red escarole--I've never tried growing escarole before, though I have some Belgian endive:  I think these are the same species or closely related. 

I also have some garlic from this year's harvest to plant out next month.  Along with this I'll sow some more cauliflower and peas for a spring harvest.  Though I've overwintered broad beans (and cauliflower), I've never tried with peas.  The purveyor from which I bought this variety writes that these ones can overwinter, so I will try--I'm moving away from regular peas and towards snap peas instead, so I'll use up this last packet and see how it goes and if it's worth saving seed from.  If I get any seed from it, that is.

I may be sowing some green manure seeds in the bare spots at the allotment too, mainly to keep down weeds, but also to improve the soil a bit.  Little by little I'm digging up the grassy sward which is my allotment, and I don't want it recolonized with any other undesirables.  Currently we're keeping the bare spots mulched with stable bedding (heavy on straw and light on manure)--also a good soil improvement for the long term.  I may try a comparison between the two methods in different parts of the allotment.

I don't currently have any broad bean seeds left, though I will probably put in one more seed order later in the year, from The Real Seed catalog;  they do some interesting varieties which the large companies don't offer.  I usually buy my seeds when they are on sale, which unfortunately this smaller company never does.  But I want the seeds badly enough to pay full price for them, including a packet of broad beans this year.

Whitecurrants at last

More pink than white

I don't even know how long I've had this whitecurrant bush, but I guess around five years;  this is the first year I've eaten any whitecurrants.  Hooray!  

...Though to be honest I'm not sure they were worth the wait.  Kind of sour, pretty seedy--and not enough of them to do anything but just eat them (a few at a time).

---

In other garden news, I've been picking blackberries, also in the Perennials section--though not intentionally planted ones.  They're weeds sown by birds and trying to take over;  I really don't want them growing in my garden, reaching out to claw me when I'm not looking.  Tasty berries though.  

And my four ducks are picking caterpillars off my cabbages and nasturtiums, or so the husband assures me--I have not witnessed it myself.  We made a corridor from their pond area to the veg patch and they are allowed in while supervised, but excluded from the wider garden in order to concentrate their efforts (on both veg patch and pond).

Calorie dense veg (I wish I had some)

Kale and broccoli for dinner, July 2020

While I'm not officially doing the Vegetable Challenge this year, I'm still trying to serve garden veg daily for dinner.  However, this has meant a lot of chard and kale recently.  Not that I'm complaining:  we like them both!  But I'm kind of missing those roots, zuccinis, beans and other calorie dense vegetables. 

The only roots we have are potatoes and a few onions--we're having potatoes once a week but the onions won't be ready till autumn I think.  I didn't bother sowing any root veg seeds at home, but I think I should have--normally I don't get much success from direct seeding because of slugs and bugs, but it appears that the slug population is much reduced this year:  possibly because the ducks had several weeks on the veg patch over winter.  I'll know for next spring--too late now.

As for zuccinis, yes I have a couple plants, and no they aren't doing much.  As usual.  I don't understand how everyone seems to drown in zuccini when I can barely keep my plants alive.  I doubt we'll be getting any of our own--hopefully people at the allotments are having better success, and will give me some of theirs.

Beans:  the first batch of plants at the allotment are all gone except one single vine, which is very small and sad.  The second batch, in a different place, is now starting to flower.  The beans at home have been flowering longer and have set a few beans, but none are big enough to eat yet.  I don't know why these ones are so late--I got them planted out mid-May and it's August now.  Hopefully hopefully hopefully we'll start eating them by the end of the week.  Hopefully.

Runner beans at home, July 2020