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.
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?
