The Vegetable Patch

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Now bookbook has sadly left us, and stirred into action by @DobbleDobble, I think it’s time to start a general thread for those of us who try to grow edible produce, fruit, veg, herbs, to share successes, failures, questions and answers

Hello all. First post!

I’m growing a variety of stuff - runner and French beans, leeks, red onions, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, peas, rhubarb, courgettes, cucumbers, chillis aubergines and maybe peppers. Also have apples, red and black currants, and gooseberries. Redid my strawberries this year with limited success, and had a disaster with my raspberries - plant that did so well last year shrivelled up!

But. I have a glut problem. Already! Picked the red currants - 2.5 kg. I still have some from last year in the freezer. Any ideas would be really welcome!

oh - the the poster with the dodgy plum tree? I have one too. More dead than alive and no idea what to do with it!

Is it ok to pick blackcurrants before they turn black? I seem to have something (moth) attacking them as soon as they turn black. I want to make jam with them so is it ok if they are not quite ripe?

Small harvests every other day now. Mainly strawberries, courgettes and beets. All potatoes are up now and the ground is ready for spinach to be planted.

Any idea what to do with beets? I only ever have them in salads. Wondering if I can attempt to pickle them

@greenerfingers you can oven roast beets with other veg - very nice that way.
We sometimes oven roast & sprinkle on a bit of balsamic vinegar at the end & roast for a few more minutes.
You can use it in cakes/brownies but I'm not that keen on it - you can definitely taste it.
Shred it into salads, or boil & use in salads.
I quite fancy making beetroot hummus.

@APurpleSquirrel is that shredding the beet raw into salad? I think mine are nearly ready and fancy the idea of roast beet 😋

Yes, shredded raw - goes well with shredded carrot too.
Roasted beetroot is lovely - it pairs really well with cumin.

Oh that's a good shout, I love roasted cumin cauli!

My first time growing kohlrabi and they are currently about two inches across. When's the best size to harvest? I'm hoping they taste as good as some I had years ago in a veg box.

@FranticHare there are loads of things you can do with redcurrants. The least hassle one is redcurrant jelly as you don't have to destalk the redcurrants for it, you don't have to sort through to remove any that are properly ripe yet either, and it has plenty of pectin so getting it to set it easy. You can use redcurrant jelly with meat, in gravy or casseroles or braised cabbage, and it also very nice as a jam layer in a chocolate cake.

Some recipes I do that use quite a lot of redcurrants per recipe are flapjack (lindyscakes.co.uk/2016/08/04/recipe-for-moist-and-delicious-blackcurrant-flapjack-squares/ which I do with redcurrants as well), pavlova / meringue cakes (www.kitchenstories.com/en/recipes/red-currant-meringue-cake) and crumble cakes (daysofjay.com/2020/08/08/red-currant-crumble-cake/). I usually do it with blackcurrants not redcurrants but this summer drizzle cake is good too (www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/summer-fruit-drizzle-cake).

@CrabbyCat Thank you very much! I’ve so far made some cordial (I really like it, kids not bothered, so that’s a win!) and just finished making some redcurrant sorbet with elderflower. Tangy I think is a good description! Not good just after you’ve brushed your teeth! But reckon it would be good with a sweet choc cake or something.

Think I still have enough to make some jelly (was resisting it, but will use loads and I do like red currant jelly) and at least one other of your suggestions, if not a couple. It looks like in a week I’ll have a glut of black currants. Daughter requested black currant ice cream - but very tempted by your cake suggestion for those too!

The courgettes are starting to set too - 1 plant is too many and for some stupid reason I have 3. Eeek! But do have some plans for those… As long as I keep on top of picking them before turn into monsters!

Remember you can also eat the leaves of beet. Don’t harvest until you pull the beets (the leaves are needed to build up the beet). Smallest leaves in salad, larger leaves cooked like spinach

I have a glut problem. Already! Picked the red currants - 2.5 kg. I still have some from last year in the freezer. Any ideas would be really welcome!
Topping for cereal. Jam or jelly. Redcurrant syrup as topping for ice cream or yogurt. Red currant jelly to accompany poultry instead of cranberry. Mix with other berries for summer pudding or anything else requiring summer fruits

I have some courgettes set but no sign of male flowers so expect they won't come to anything.

Redcurrants will be picked this weekend. Strawberries seem really late, I've had a couple but the rest are miles off. French beans are just starting to flower, I'll probably set some more this weekend to keep the beans coming through the season. They freeze so well you can never have too many imo.

@MereDintofPandiculation Thank you! I had a good crop last year I never really dealt with, and this year the bush has done so well I’m drowning in the little red things! Nice problem to have - I’m sure there will be a few disasters over the year!

Harvested some loganberries on Wednesday & again today, plus some calendula flowers to dry & infuse in oil for making homemade soap & salve. Gooseberries seem nearly ready too.

Well, based on tonight’s harvest and all this talk of gluts, I googled courgette strawberry recipe, and came up with this courgette and strawberry cake.

I wasnt tempted and stuck to the conventional option of serving the courgettes with salmon and following up with strawberries with yogurt and shortbread.

Identification help please! We know they’re edible, if not much more!

Grew on something similar to raspberry canes, turn black when they’re ripe. They are about 2cm long? They were planted with the raspberries, and are ripening about now. Taste a bit like raspberries? Not as sweet as a blackberry - but maybe because they were picked a bit early…

Any ideas? The owner of the garden has sadly passed away so unable to ask!

@FranticHare looks like one of the crosses - so could be a tayberry, loganberry etc.

Boysenberry is my guess as I’ve got a bush in my garden .

They look as if they’re ripe when black, so not loganberry which are ripe when dark red. Ditto tayberry if I’m right that what I planted 30 years ago was tayberry. It’s even longer since I’ve grown boysenberry, so sure Dobble is right. But there are a lot of blackberry/raspberry hybrids.

Do with them everything you’d do with raspberries or blackberries. Really nice frozen to add to cereal midwinter.

I can id the plate if that's any help? 😁

@tizwozliz 🤣🤣🤣

@MereDintofPandiculation @DobbleDobble Looking it up, it does look like a boysenberry. Thank you.! Very nice flavour - very nice on breakfast cereals!

portmerion? Characteristic border.

Portmeirion Botanic Garden - Iris

@FranticHare I've got a tayberry, a loganberry and a boysenberry. As well as the colour, the boysenberry is the only one where I'd describe the canes as being like a raspberry. The loganberry and tayberry have much much longer canes, they are closer to a blackberry in how they grow