Look back at last season

Mid January is here and with it comes proper winter at last, we had a dusting of snow last night and temperatures are below zero. Soon I’ll start planning in earnest for the layout of the kitchen garden, and getting the first seeds, like chillis and more winter salad leaves, started off in the mini greenhouse.

So now seems like a good time to look back at the autumn and winter, and the harvest from the very first season of the kitchen garden. The Pumpkin ‘Munchkin’ produced a good crop despite their late start. They have a sweet, nutty taste and provided the base for some nice healthy meals in the autumn. One of the recipes I created used the pumpkins, plus thyme and rocket from the garden, to create a rich tasting but simple autumn meal:

3 good sized Pumpkin ‘Munchkin’, cut into cubes (or a Butternut squash works well as a substitute)

Large bunch of thyme

200g cubed pancetta or bacon

100g feta cheese

Handful of pinenuts, toasted lightly in the oven for 3 – 4 mins

Large handful of rocket and/or mixed winter salad leaves

Extra Virgin olive oil

Heat the oven to 200c. Add a good dash of olive oil to a large roasting tray, spread the thyme out over this, and add the cubed pumpkin. Roast for 35 – 40 mins, tossing frequently to ensure the pumpkin gets nicely coated in thyme leaves. In the mean time fry the pancetta or bacon, draining any excess fat. When the pumpkin is browned, add the pancetta, crumbled feta, toasted pine nuts and leaves – and serve immediately. (Serves 2)

The pumpkins look beautifully ornamental, too. I still have some in a bowl in the kitchen in January, they keep like this for at least 6 months and the colour just gets deeper. I harvested some very ‘mini’ ones from the top of the plant – which Eddie Jordan the hamster was happy to eat!

Once the Pumpkin plants were past their best, I removed these and put in the Cavalo ‘Nero’ kale plants which I had raised from seed in May, and potted up. Brassica plants like these love wood ash in the soil, which helps raise potassium levels and raise the pH, so I added some from the woodburner, around the base of the plants. Before this starts sounding a bit posh – it was the ash from old oak lathes that my builder fiance brought home from a job he was working on! Bonfire ash would be ideal for this, too.

The kale has been adding goodness to my meals and smoothies since early November, growth has slowed a little and plants are looking bare now, so I’m giving it a rest to regenerate – and I’ll plant more in the spring! The rocket and various salad leaves grew quickly and plentifully in the mild weather that lasted til the end of the year, and were used in lots of different meals – including on Christmas day. I provided the starters for the family Christmas dinner, I made crab pots with layers of avocado, red onion and mango – garnished with rocket and mixed leaves.

Now that the weather has turned cold, I’ve put horticultural fleece over the salads to keep the frost off, and to keep them in a little microclimate that will hopefully encourage them to keep growing steadily, now that the days are beginning lengthen. I’m also growing some flowers for our wedding later this year. I sowed white antirrhinums in the spring, and have been raising them in pots. They aren’t frost hardy so I’m now keeping them under cover – but got some beautiful flowers from them right into December. I’ll cut them back soon and give them a good feed in the spring, so by July there should be plenty of new blooms for the wedding.

Seasonal salads

One of my big plans for next year is a vertical garden, along a sunny wall, to grow salads and herbs. We moved in this July, so at present the ‘kitchen garden’ is just a single hand-built wooden trough with a trellis, on the back wall of our house. However, I plan to get the most out of this little space. I had some Pumpkin ‘Munchkin’ plants which I’d started off at our previous place, so I trained these up the trellis, and planted up the trough below with mixed summer lettuces.

As we move into autumn, I have sown different varieties of winter salad in patches around the base of the lettuces. These will come up as the lettuces are taken out, one by one. These hardy varieties are perfect to sow at this time of year – the cooler, shorter days will mean they don’t bolt (run up to seed and become inedible) too quickly. I used an ancient packet of Rocket, plus Hardy Mustard Mix and Komotsuna (Mustard Spinach) from http://www.sarahraven.com which will give a lovely spicy flavour to autumn salads. I used to think of Sarah Raven as a bit of ‘yummy mummy’ brand – but I find myself going back for seeds time and time again. Her beautiful catalougues are always worth a read if you want ideas for combinations, the seeds themsleves are fairly reasonably priced and reliable, and she stocks the best range of new and unusual varieties that I have found.

Two weeks on, and the Mustard and Komotsuna seedlings are now coming up strongly. I removed the tatty lower leaves from the pumpkin plants to make sure enough light gets to them, so they don’t become leggy. The Rocket is also doing ok, not bad for a packed of seeds I bought in probably 2008! If you have old seeds laying about, I always think its worth sowing them and seeing what happens – some can remain viable for years, especially if you keep them in a cool, dark place and an airtight container – I use an old jar.

In another couple of weeks, I can start harvesting cut-and-come-again leaves from these, and they will continue to grow right into the winter. I’ll sow some more too, to fill up the gaps that become available when the last of the summer lettuces come out, to ensure I have a constant supply of different leaves.

In the meantime, I’ll still be able to use some of them. I tend to sow seeds quite thickly, and thin them out to the required distance. The tiny seedlings make a perfect addition to salads – freshly sprouted seedlings are packed full of nutrients, and taste delicious. Today I used some of the thinned seedlings to top a zingy seasonal salad, using some of the summer lettuce leaves as a base, with pickled beetroot, feta cheese, crushed hazlenuts, fresh pomegranate seeds, orange zest and figs on top.

About

This blog is here to document how I am setting up a kitchen garden from scratch, in an urban setting.

Having trained in horticulture some years ago, gardening is now a passion in my spare time. Now that I finally have a garden of my own, I’ll be fitting 10 years of ideas and inspiration into a small space. My plans for the garden include a vertical planting wall for herbs and salads, and a raised bed for larger veg – as well as a woodland border and hot coloured gravel border in the garden. I’ll also be growing flowers for my wedding.

My other passion is food. I’ve always been a foodie, but increasingly I have been moving towards clean eating – creating fresh, healthy meals that look and taste amazing – and I’ve been seeing and feeling the benefits.

Read my blog posts for healthy recipes using what I’ve grown in the garden, and tips for how to grow your own food, even in the smallest of spaces.