Labour of the month: June

This month's Labour of the Month is not so much hard work, but a reward for time well spent in March –

PPPs Labour for May is . . .

New Potatoes

If you think potatoes are just white starchy lumps
that are there to soak up the gravy – think again!
Freshly dug new potatoes are a gourmet treat worth waiting for;
forget supermarket bought 'new potatoes'
home-grown are in a different league altogether . . .

This is our potato bed in the vegetable garden – doing well but not quite ready to dig up yet; but along the side of the greenhouse I planted potatoes in large plastic pots . . .


The one on the far left has 'gone over' slightly and looks ready to harvest – Sharpe's Express, I decided to grow this because I remember my dad grew it in the 1960s – this has to be the new potato flavour etched on my memory.

I'd put some large stones in the base of the pot and covered them with a layer of home-made compost, on this I placed the seed potato and covered it with leaf mould from The Wild Wood (thank you Cottage Smallholder for this great tip). As the potato plant grew I topped up the leaf mould and layered it with grass clippings. You can see the mix has rotted down to a soft rich compost. By the way, do you like the label? It's cut from a slat of the old venetian blinds I removed from my studio – I now have an endless supply!

Looking good! Not a massive crop, but the quality and size is excellent and they just fall out of the compost so cleanly.

What better to go with new potatoes . . . freshly picked Crimson Flowered Broad Beans and Purple Podded Peas of course :-) And a snip of that Summer Savoury – the perfect herb to pair with beans of any variety.

All ready for cooking . . . you can cook the potatoes in their skins, but I just rub the papery skin off when I wash them; you can see the lovely fresh bright green of the beans – Crimson Flowered Broad Beans don't have that thick grey-green skin so they are tender and delicious with no need to skin them after cooking.

Celia
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Labour of the month: May

My Labour of the Month for PPPs this May was truly Herculean – and I forgot to take the 'before' shots, so you'll just have to take my word for it ;-)

PPPs Labour for May is . . .

Planting out the tomatoes

The day started quite sensibly – I cleared out the staging from one side of the greenhouse and swept the floor in readiness for the potted up tomatoes. I don't use grow-bags any more, pots are much better for tomatoes as they like to be planted deep – in fact I nip off the bottom two or three leaves and plant the lower 5cm of the stem below soil level, the plant will make extra roots and take up more water/nutrients.

So far so good.

Then I thought about where to put the outdoor tomatoes, it's best to keep them away from the potatoes as blight can be a problem later in the summer (if it ever rains – and it still hasn't!). I also need to keep the hens away from the tomatoes! so that rules out a large part of the main garden. In recent years I've grown tomatoes in pots in our courtyard, but it's shady and cool for half the day, so we don't get ripe tomatoes until late September. Cliff had suggested putting tomatoes in our front yard which gets full sun for most of the day – the best place is against a south-facing wall out of sight from the road and next to the outside water tap.

A brilliant solution! Except that the area is where we keep the dustbins and we've allowed nettles and ivy to run riot for at least three years – have you tried to pull up thick nettle root matting?
It took me hours labouring in the hot sunshine, I completely filled the council compostable-waste wheelie bin with nettle roots, and the result is this . . .

I put the pots of tomatoes into some old resin faux-lead planters that are far to manky to look good anywhere else, and I've left a few self-seeded perennials to give the area a casual 'tidy-but-not-too-tidy' air. (In case you're wondering, that large thing is a stable yard mounting block made from an old cistern filled with concrete – it's not going anywhere! but is useful for resting the watering can on while filling it with water.)

There are still lots of tomato plants left –

plenty for the gate-side stall . . .


It's my contribution to the Village Fete's plant stall, people don't want to buy tomato plants in late June so I sell them now and give the stall the money.



This year I'm only growing four varieties:

RED CHERRY – it's a cherry tomato and it's red (duh!)
I bought the seeds on our holiday to Tenerife in March, I wanted a bog-standard, good flavoured, easy to grow, cherry tomato; to graze on and to use in salads.

TIGERELLA – it's stripy!
For something a bit different.

LIGURIA – an Italian paste tomato
I bought the seeds years ago while on holiday in Italy – the packet was huge but tomato seeds stay viable for a long time. This is one of those big tomatoes you see on Italian market stalls, like a full sack gathered at the top; it's perfect for the topping on bruschetta – skinned, chopped and warmed with a little garlic and olive oil.

IMUR PRIOR BETA – you what?! exactly!
This was my choice from this year's Heritage Seed Library list, here is the description:
Indeterminate. Cordon. Donated by John Yeoman, this variety was selected from high altitude areas in the Chilean mountains and developed in Norway for growing in cooler regions. Also thought to be blight resistant*. The juicy red fruit have soft, smooth flesh and are slightly acidic in flavour. Let us know what you think**.

* mmmm? I think I'll put some in the vegetable garden and give that a test.
** Must remember to send feedback to the HSL.

Celia
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Labour of the month: April

My Labour of the Month for PPPs this April has to be garden related – this is the peak month for sowing and planting, that window of opportunity when the soil warms up, the hours of daylight lengthen and frosts are few and far between (and hopefully gone until late autumn).

April is traditionally the month of heavy showers, when the sky turns an inky grey and the rain pours down drenching the soil; then the sun comes out again and the air smells fresh and drops of water glisten on the leaves like diamonds . . . yeah OK I'm dreaming!

This April, have we actually had any rain at all? I've been trying to remember when it last rained and I can't recall even a short shower – did it perhaps rain a teeny bit on Mother's Day on the 3rd April? So the laborious labour of the month has to be . . .

Watering the garden

We have three large water-butts in the vegetable garden,
the one next to the greenhouse is almost empty
so I'm now using water from the two linked butts
which take water from the house roof.

Everyday there is more to water!
More seeds sown and plants getting larger
and needing potting-on.


The sunshine is gorgeous,
it's lovely to wander around in sandals
– but I would like some help with the watering!

If it rains on the parade on Friday
please can my garden have some too!


Celia
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Labour of the month: March

My Labour of the Month for PPPs in March is a ritual that for me marks the beginning of Spring and the season when I can walk out into the garden and harvest ingredients for lunch; and what's even nicer is that these ingredients reappear each year without any hard labour on my part.

Picking Hop Shoots

For a lunch-time omelette served with
a chive and bitter-cress side salad.

An established hop plant will send up
an abundant quantity of new shoots;
leave 5 or 6 strong shoots to grow up
the pole or support and snip off the others.

– don't waste them! they are as prized

as the first cut of English Asparagus;
the flavour of hop shoots isn't strong
but they have a slightly astringent bitterness
which is pleasantly refreshing.

Fresh green chives make pretty edging to
the vegetable beds – and there's more than
enough to use in the kitchen every day.

Here's a pesky little weed – Hairy Bitter-Cress,
pull it out before it fires its seeds all over the plot!
However it's not all bad, those young green leaves have
a great peppery kick to them, so they make a
lovely side salad to wake up the taste-buds.

Fry some sliced mushrooms;
add the washed hop-shoots to the pan
and cover until they wilt;
pour in lightly beaten eggs;
gently cook and stir until the egg sets.

Sprinkle with crumbled Wensleydale cheese,
season with ground mixed pepper and
finish off under a hot grill.

Wash the Bitter-Cress and chop the chives,
mingle them together.

When the top of the omelette is browned and bubbling
serve with the salad and some wholemeal bread.

Celia
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Labour of the month: February

We're more than half way through February, time for another Labour of the Month on PPPs – something that for me signifies the time of year in my garden or kitchen.

But first, I've been thinking . . . how do you see your garden? I mean, how do you picture it in your mind? Is it a series of photographs or a plan or diagram? For me a two dimensional representation seems inadequate, a garden is more than that, you need to see the garden in 3D and then add a 4th dimension – time.

I see the garden as music – a composition for a large orchestra with various movements and occasional solo parts for different instruments or voices, with sometimes a choir and complex ensemble crescendos (I wonder if this is a kind of synesthesia).

After the conductor/gardener has tapped her baton and settled the potatoes into trays to chit at the end of January, the opening notes of the overture start in February and I walk through the green door in the wall, into the vegetable garden – for me February means . . .

Sowing Broad Beans

I know that the gardening books will recommend
an autumn sowing direct into the soil outdoors
but this is how I do it and it works for me.

I carry with me seeds saved from last year's crop of Crimson Flowered Broad Beans – I've noticed that the pale green beans produce the deep red flowers, if the seeds are buff or darker brown then the flowers had cross pollinated with another variety and this year would produce white or dusky pink flowers.


A mixture of colours is nice, but I want to keep this heritage seed as true as possible, so I pick out the green beans to sow into pots of compost in my greenhouse. I plant three beans just below the soil surface in each pot (yes, I know that's cramped - but this method works in our garden) that's 90 beans planted – plenty for me and some to give as small plants to friends . . .


Now the music has begun – another season – another year – another orchestration!



Celia
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Labour of the month: January

I've always loved those medieval 'labours of the months' – tasks that mark the turning year; you know the sort of thing . . .

• January - Feasting
• February - Sitting by the fire
• March - Pruning trees, or digging
• April - Planting, enjoying the country or picking flowers
• May - Hawking, courtly love
• June - Hay harvest
• July - wheat harvest
• August - wheat threshing
• September - Grape harvest
• October - ploughing or sowing
• November - gathering acorns for pigs
• December - killing the pig, baking bread

All illustrated with pictures of stocky peasants toiling on the land and the occasional toff and his lady-love swanning around in a leafy grove. So I thought I'd blog a Labour of the Month through 2011 on PPPs – I may even evolve them into designs for prints or indeed a calendar; let's start with a culinary labour to mark the month of January . . .

Making Marmalade

After obtaining the prerequisite ingredient: Seville Oranges, I spent some time reading through all the recipes I could lay my hands on to settle upon the 'best' method; in the end I realised that Fiona the Cottage Smallholder had in fact done the groundwork and her recommendation for the best and simplest method was similar to that of my Mum and also St Delia of Norwich City – and that's good enough for me! You can find Fiona's recipe for Easy Seville Orange Marmalade here.





Not only was it easy peasy, it worked and I now have 20 (and a bit) jars of the best marmalade I've ever made!

Celia
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