Not only did the start of Autumn bring shorter daylight hours and colder temperatures, but it also brought hail and fog! Fog I love, hail – not so much. Hail hurts, you know! Getting caught in a hailstorm out on the moors is no fun. None. It hurts and stings and causes bruising!
This change of weather got me into a harvest panic. Because I’m in the true countryside, that’s not very built up, I have the very utilitarian (but not the most posh) set up. I figure most of you will be able to relate to that! So, while I would very much love the gravel or stone walkways to my vegetable beds, what I have is grass and mud. The induced panic was relating to the mud. I had to find a time to harvest my crops when it would be dry enough so I wouldn’t be kneeling in pools of mud while digging up vegetables.
I timed it well enough and I harvested my carrots!
And, I decided to reap some of my nasturtium leaves. The whole plant is edible and I was in the mood for a fancy salad with some lettuce greens that I had in the fridge, mixed with raw carrot greens and raw nasturtium leaves. I picked quite a lot of the nasturtium stalks though, because I was in such a mood for veggies that I decided to have some leaves and young stalks done spinach style at dinner.
Let me tell you, the taste and heartiness of fresh greens and vegetables is really amazing. They are much sweeter and more rounded in flavour than any refrigerated produce you will find in the supermarket that hasn’t been freshly picked that day! Thank goodness we have our farmers’ markets and greengrocers that can provide fresher items. For those of us who can’t get to them, however, why don’t you try to grow something of your own (even in a pot) during the growing season next year. You’ll enjoy it, I promise!
I also harvested my experiment of growing garlic from grocery bought garlic bulbs. Now, I knew these would grow because of the nature of garlic, but I didn’t know how the bulb would form as they weren’t being grown from seed garlic. The result is fresh garlic, not full bulbs (which would have developed if they had been grown from seed garlic) but an expanded type of bulb from the original clove. They are not as pungent as one would expect from garlic, so while the experiment worked, I do think I prefer growing the crop from seed garlic. Growing garlic from store bought garlic bulbs would be a fun activity for young kids though!
