And this weekend, it's Jerusalem artichokes

3 hours over at the plot today after trimming the garlic I harvested a couple of weeks ago. The most successful type based on the number and size of the bulbs that emerged seemed to be the Germidour. Don't know about the taste yet. Overall, there were maybe a few more larger bulbs that I have managed in previous years but still too many small ones for my liking.

While at the plot I planted out 4 courgette (One Ball), 3 pumpkin, 20 sugarsnap pea and 20 sweetcorn plants. Better late than never. The cucurbits have gone into the ground vacated by the first early spuds.

I saw some nice fellow plotters over at the site today and I managed to give away 8 artichokes. Result! I was thinking about the dozen sitting in the fridge at home waiting to be deal with. Well, while writing this, they are trimmed and being boiled. I am trying a different trimming method than last year. Last year, I pulled off most of the petals, cut up the heart and removed the choke before cooking. This year, I am trying the, hopefully less wasteful, method of trimming the spiky petal ends with scissors and boiling the hearts whole. I'll cool them and remove the petals and chokes later (having a nibble of the petals while I go). I am a bit sceptical but I'll report back. There are lots of different instructions around. After cutting the 20 chokes so far, there are probably at least another dozen to harvest.

Back to the kitchen...

I have mostly been eating Elephant Garlic

Not like me to get writing a blog post this early on a Sunday morning but I am in that kind of mood. I am a bit hungover but can't sleep in cos I am too excited about the plot today. I have purchased a cordless grass strimmer and cannot wait to take it over and to chop down the tall grass and nettles so I can actually see the beds. And possibly where the rabbits are getting through the fence at the bottom. I have been trying to keep on top of the couch grass immediately surrounding the beds with shears but I just can't.

A couple of weeks ago I sowed loads of seeds and pretty much all of them are up and about. These include (from memory): basil, yardlong beans, sugarsnap peas, courgettes, pumpkin, sweetcorn, squash, chervil (from saved seed), hyssop, borage, Swiss chard, pak choi and cucumber. I am late with all of these but perhaps if I get them planted out this week there may be a chance of a good harvest. I thinned out the seedlings a few days ago.

Thursday was all about Elephant Garlic. I worked at home and didn't know what to have for a quick lunch. In the end, I roasted up the garlic I harvested last weekend and mixed half of it with soft cheese and plenty of seasoning. I spread this on crackers and had it with soup. It was brilliant. I had the other half with spagetti and tomatoes in the evening. That was good too. I will definitely grow that again. Out of the 5 bulbs I planted, 4 came good. I guess the other one rotted off. A couple of them had some very small bulbs around the outside of the main cloves. I set them aside in case they were useful. A brief spot of Internet research suggests that these can be planted up. Apparently, in the first year these will form a single bulb, like a single large clove, and in the second year that bulb will divide up into cloves. I wonder if that is how the farms propagate them. I guess it might be because they are sold as large single cloves. Not sure when to plant them up though: now or in the Autumn.

Right. Enough typing. Time to get strimming.

Garlic, anyone?

Quick note to mention that I harvested the garlic this evening. I have tied the stems up in different sets according to variety so I may do a taste test at some point. At the very least, I'll compare them for size and quantity for future reference.

I also did some weeding, a drop in the ocean, and watered the parsnip bed. It might have been my imagination but I thought I saw a single seedling in one of the stations.

An awful thing happened on Plot 35 earlier in the week. I went over there earlier in the week just to do a quick check and I saw that a snake had got caught up in some of netting and died in the heat. I feel awful about it. I untangled it and then buried it. I mentioned it to one of my fellow plotters and he said that at least it showed that there are those nice snakes around and that our plots provide a habitat of some kind. Not sure what can be done to prevent the same thing happening again though - netting is necessary to keep the rabbits and pigeons of the brassicas.

I did also manage to harvest a single cauliflower (no improvement on last year), 4 globe artichokes, a handful of blackcurrants and some second early spuds.

And I am currently considering the purchase of a cordless strimmer. Ummm...