The Vegetable Patch Mark 2

[MereDintofPandiculation]

A continuation of the thread for those of us growing edibles, to share triumphs and failures, swap expertise and solve problems

Is it a grain like quinoa? Amaranth and quinoa are both in the same family, Amaranthaceae, but different genera. Amaranth is Amaranthus, quinoa as a Chenopodium, like Good King Henry, Aztec broccoli and Magentaspreen.

Can't beat a good spreadsheet

Will Amaranth grow in the UK? I need to do lots of reading but it sounds fascinating.

Yes, Amaranth will grow in the UK. Another species of Amaranth, A. caudatus, is the garden flower Love Lies Bleeding.

Any ideas for a grape glut, other than wine which I’m no good at? We use them on cereal, I make a grape cake, and I suppose I could make jam (along with the fig jam since I also have a fig glut). Other ideas for using lots of grapes would be welcome.

Can you dehydrate grapes? Well obvs you can but is that a possibility? Grapes in ice cubes?

I wondered about sultanas but in a damp English autumn the energy demands would be prohibitive.

I”d rather not take up any more deepfreeze space. I’d probably have to buy a third deepfreeze, the storage one is already full of strawberries, raspberries, tayberries and mulberries

I suppose I could try grape cordial and save £2.50 a week on elderflower cordial.

We have a few bunches, they have pips which I am saving and sowing straight into a pot...we are eating them as grapes!

So lovely and sweet.

I dehydrate raspberries and pears in my oven for freezer capacity reasons. I did a load of pears yesterday, they were in at 70 c for about 6 or 7 hours. I've just checked my smart meter and it added at most 50p compared to our normal usage, probably less as we also had the tumble dryer on.

I've had a quick Google and found this recipe for dehydrating grapes in your oven www.seriouseats.com/oven-dried-grapes-raisins-recipe#:~:text=Directions,4%20hours%20(see%20note) . 4 hours at 110 c doesn't seem that bad in terms of energy usage?

Thanks @CrabbyCat I could try that with apples

Just to update from the last thread:
14/15 fruit trees look as though they are fully recovered from the drought.
Number 15 is just still with us, so I'm hopeful.
The unidentified tree we bought produced one tiny apple, smaller than a snooker ball, which DH chomped and pronounced an eater.

I have completed an L shaped raised bed (named Floyd) in the poly tunnel frame, all from free bricks and blocks, from Freecycle. The horse poo is in and I am awaiting topsoil.
The final arm of the U will be completed this week, as I have got another lot of bricks to pick up from Freecycle.
I had some old paperwork to burn/shred and DH came up with the spiffing wheeze of lining the bottom of the raised beds with it, much less hassle!

I have had about 12 raspberries from the one in a pot, a carrier bag full of huge onions from George and still got loads of cabbages and broccoli in John. Netting them really worked well, as they are un chewed, unlike the un netted spare broccoli in Ringo, which has been ravaged and is full of holes.
None of my garlic seems to have survived, so I will start off some more in Floyd.

We had to do something about the pumpkins in Sebastian, as they had left the building and were making for the horses' field next door.
I now have a ton of composted vine and about four decent sized green pumpkins, which I am assiduously placing in the sun indoors, hoping for ripening. If not, I have found some green pumpkin recipes.
i don't know how many are still growing, it's a jungle out there.

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Weirdly someone posted a video about it just 6 hours ago...

@Giggorata what's growing in Paul?

@AlisonDonut thanks for the video. I always wonder when I see new stuff 'what does it taste like?' and then shortly after I'm usually buying seeds 😂 So will be interesting to know how you get on with these next year!

The last of our spuds, dug them up the other day. 😀

Hahaha 🤣

I'll probably hate it!!!

I have forced myself in the last few years to really try new things, especially that can be kept for winter food, and really try them.

For example, I grew tomatillos in the UK but never really tasted them. I would cook them in stews and stuff but was always a bit 'meh' about just biting into them and trying them. But if I want to be as self sufficient over here, I need to expand so I tried them raw and they are amazing.

I've also tried in the UK to make stuff such as refried beans and it never really worked. Possibly because working full time, I was also making all our bread from scratch each week, and never sat down and looked at the best ways to use other stuff. But last week, I made refried beans with the home grown, cooked and frozen beans I saved a few weeks ago, and they were awesome.

Spinach is one for me. I once bought 3 varieties and sowed about 40 seeds of each in October. I moved a few into the greenhouse when the tomatoes were gone and by heck, I was harvesting spinach in droves all winter. I'd go on a Saturday and harvest every green I had - spinach, claytonia, winter lettuces - a huge bagful. And anything else, onions, beets etc that were left over but ready. And I'd wash the whole lot, and make a huge 2 day soup on the saturday and put the rest in the fridge. We'd also then have some in whatever veg I cooked for Sunday lunch. So that was Saturday through to Moday sorted. Then I'd make noodles on Tuesday, a curry on Wednesday and put the rest into a pasta sauce on Thursday and then it was friday which was Pizza day and then Saturday again so harvested another huge bag full. Greens all week long.

People don't realise that you can cook lettuce.

I also by then branched out into other crops, so for example Celtuce. A lettuce bred for the stem. So you can grow these all winter, and harvest in the spring when the stem is thick and it absorbs flavour and bulks up curries, stir fries etc. Bulks stuff out whilst you are waiting for courgettes.

That's definitely something I need to work on, making more use of the things I grow. Sometimes it's hard when you're working, harvesting and you're the only person in the household who can cook.

And you've reminded me I need to sow more spinach! Although it's only me and the hens who eat it. What's a good recipe for spinach soup?! I could freeze it for work. (I don't eat meat)

I love spinach but DH hates it.
I wasn't sure about growing it because I didn't like loads getting wasted by going all horrible in the fridge, so now I keep a big bag of washed spinach in the freezer and chop bits off into casseroles and similar dishes.
That way he doesn't mind (doesn’t notice) it.

It is completely different from shop bought if you grow it.

I often think the thought of spinach is what puts people off but it is such a fantastic green in the middle of winter. That and claytonia. Add a few leaves of plantain from the lawn and that's a nutrient boost in one meal.

@AlisonDonut Plantain is a vegetable? Claytonia? Please tell me exactly what you do here. I really want to learn.

Plantain the weed is a vegetable. And yes claytonia is also called miner's lettuce.

I just let plantain grow if it starts growing in the beds, my OH will try to weed it out but I use it if I need it. Claytonia I let self seed everywhere as it grows where it wants to grow.

There are loads of videos about wild edibles, I have made jars of dandelion honey in the part which is just dandelion heads picked, washed and boiled in water and then strained, and mixed with the same volume of canning sugar and made into a jelly. It was bloody lovely.

Dandelion honey?! I'm up for that! What does it taste like @AlisonDonut? Sweet obviously but what else? Never heard of it! 🤯

It tastes like honey!

Okay so that's another for the list. Wonder if you can buy dandelion seeds... for a clean supply! 😂

Buckshorn plantain (Plantago coronopus) is sold as Minutina or Erba Stella, thanks @AlisonDonut for confirming other species of Plantago are also edible. Do you use ribwort plantain or greater plantain?

Chiltern Seeds sell dandelion. Dandelions are weird things, they go in for apomixis, ie setting seed without pollination so that the seed is genetically identical to the parent. So every time there is a mutation, it’s passed to all the offspring, and a new “microspecies” is born - I think there’s about 70 of them. You have to be at the anal end of botanists to get into identifying them all, but I believe there’s a Facebook group devoted to identifying them.

Chiltern Seeds sell dandelion.

I'm so tempted to grow a whole raised bed of dandelions next year for honey. On the allotment, just to see the faces of the older guys down there. Especially the grumpy one that grunts at me when I try and say hello 😂😂