February

Feb is here and the garden is cold. The rains prevail ( and more predicted this week) making the soil heavy and wet.

Today i went to the vegetable plot to see how things were, to breathe some air and generally be with nature a little. A little bit of weeding - mainly nettles and chickweed both of which are edible with medicinal properties. I quickly forgot about the medicinal properties of the nettles as i was stung a couple of times, and remembered the medicinal properties of an antidote in the form of dock leaves. There was a time when i made wine from nettle leaves, it was pretty foul tasting stuff but had a rather noted effect and a hell of a hangover.

At the plot the carrots required "thined-out", the process of taking out intermediary baby carrots (which are delicious raw or pan fried with a little butter) to let the others develope

Leeks are planted beside the carrots to ward off carrot fly in a style of complementary planting.

I lifted a couple of shaws of potatoes which look delicious, small tubers with little skin. Potatoes planted at the back-end of the season do not provide a large crop, however they have a flavour all of their own and are a gastranomic treat.

Radishes and sugar-snap peas along with fesh lettuce and curly endive leaves provide the salad which accompanied the paella today.

Tomorrows lunch will include some of the small cauliflowers cropped today. I will try them in some tempura batter along with the remaining sugar-snap peas.