I can't believe that I've still not yet planted out everything (still got some climbing beans, corn, and late sown cucs and squash) but the harvest has begun. I dug out half my garlic harvest on Saturday--it started raining so I gave up--and brought it home to cure the heads and dehydrate the stalks/leaves for powder. As I stood at my kitchen sink for 20 minutes I thought: it must be summer now! Harvesting and preparing a large amount of veg from the garden or allotment is a near-daily task every year from summer until late autumn. (It still doesn't feel like summer though, with temps barely making it to 15C during the daytime.)
Every other day we are having small side salads from my first batch of lettuce, mostly recovered from its initial pigeon damage. I have a second sowing on the go--just need to get it transplanted. I'll plant it next to the first sowing, under the netting. I've also cooked some young nettle greens and young kohlrabi leaves, sauteed with onion/garlic/ginger/sesame oil, to go in our sushi wraps alongside the rice, cucumber/carrot and salmon. I've got some young kale too, not quite as leafy as the kohlrabi, but closing in on it.
The daughter has been watching our few strawberry plants like a hawk and pounces on them as soon as they are red; the son managed to get one, but she's had the rest. She's also found the first couple of red raspberries but I'm not too worried--no way she can monopolize that harvest, there's too many. The Morello cherries are ripening too but like last year have very few; I've left it and the other cherry trees unnetted and the birds can have them.
The broad beans at the allotment now have some excellent pods on them, just coming ready. They are always such a treat, as they're one of the very first fresh veg of spring and don't last long. Another early (but much longer lasting) veg is artichoke. It's such a lot of plant for such a little harvest, but the first ones are ready now and they should last all summer if I keep picking them. Which I do!
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