Finally got out into the garden again today - we've been meaning to do so since October, but then I was struck down with a pernicious virus (no voice for 3 weeks - hell for me, heaven for C!!), and then Life caught up with me (mostly trying to find out where I was at with all of my classes), then suddenly The Cold came, and the snow and then Christmas and New Year.
Christmas day was fantastic - a range of our home-grown produce on the table: our leeks sweated in butter and our garlic, baby roasted shallots (ours) and our fantastic King Edward's potatoes roasted extra crispy. Sadly the parsnips were immovable from their icy grave, so will have to be enjoyed later on. I also put some of the foraged Sloe and Bramley jelly into the gravy, and handed out bottles and jars of home made and foraged goodies: Plum chutney, hedgerow cordial, spiced apple jelly, quince and apple compote (admittedly the quinces were bought, but come September and everyone's offering me apples and I can't say no!!).
Northernmas was fantastic too - went up for 5 days and had a good chance to catch up with all the family. Brother in law P is beginning to show an interest in Veg growing - we gave them some seeds last spring and he grew some potatoes quite successfully - so this Christmas we gave him a copy of the RHS Grow Your Own Gardening year, a lovely book with step-by-step guidelines on what to do when. I also made some seed packets (found a natty tutorial to fold them online) and gave him access to my Seed Box - so fingers crossed he'll have some fun growing a few veg this summer.
Today, we finally went out - our leeks are still small and have gone a bit floppy but amazingly still seem to be growing, so we should get a few more meals from them - we have about 9 left.
We dug over the other half of the leek bed (where peas and carrots had been last year), and have finally put in the onion and garlic sets that I bought in November. My understanding is that the point of planting them in the autumn is to give them a chance to put down some roots over winter, so they should still be okay in January. The soil was lovely - still cold (of course) but soft and friable and almost as if it were waiting for all the life that will spring forth soon. I'm amazed to see that the rainbow chard is springing up again already, and we may be able to pick from it in the spring!! Hurrah!. We're hopeful that the very cold winter will have knocked out some of the nasty little beasties in the garden, or at least dampened their ardour somewhat.
I also potted up the root cuttings of Bocking 14 comfrey that I bought on eBay - the instructions warn you to choose your site carefully, so I shall have to find somewhere sensible to put them, and as it propagates by root, possibly not next to the veg patch. Fingers crossed, the comfrey should feed and nourish our vegetables and improve the quality of our compost.
Watched a lovely program of Nigel Slater's New Year Suppers the other night - he was comparing planning his veg plot to planning a summer holiday and I can see it - it's the same idea of mapping out what you want and then looking forwards to the sunnier days when you can enjoy the fruits of your labour. Can't wait!! C bought us a membership to the Heritage Seed Library for Christmas so we can pick our 6 varieties to grow. The catalogue is full of wonders and I'm fascinated with all the little stories of how they were rescued - best of all, the tale of two sisters whose brother had a particular variety of tomato. They thought they'd lost all the seed when it rotted and hadn't dried properly, but then later found 3 seeds in the bottom of their seed box. That the variety survived after that is amazing! I can't help but think that those 3 seedlings must have been so carefully guarded against plague and pestilence!
Time for a slice of tea and a cup of that rather good christmas cake, I think!
