Real vegetables

At this time of year, when the car needs scraping free of frost if you want to use it in the morning and warm coats are a must, it is hard to remember those summer days when there were real vegetables in the garden. Last year, we had sweetcorn growing and, it was wonderful – far better than the stuff you get in the shops, which has been picked days earlier. Baby beetroot with their subtly red-veined leaves, salad crops (tomatoes from your own vines are one of the best snacks ever) and green beans. Yummy!
But wintertime is when you’re supposed to do the dreaded digging. And, somehow, with frost on the ground, I find it hard to drag myself outside to do it. So, we now have a weed-covered vegetable patch that needs something doing to it before I can plant new veg in the spring. Which means I start thinking along the lines of carrots (so I don’t need to manure the ground!) and potatoes, and definitely more sweetcorn. The seed catalogues dropping through the door remind me to order seeds for next year, but I mustn’t forget the winter veg – there is still broccoli in the ground, and the trek outside to see whether it’s ready to pick yet is easy to forego in the winter. But those greens are wonderful when you do bring them in.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 2:57pm on 14 January 2005
Category: Food, Life, Musing, General