The Greedy Gardener

Today is St George’s Day and with it the first properly warm day of the year. I’m sitting outside in the garden in a t shirt and the temperature is 18C. Despite that, there is no sign yet of any asparagus coming up on the allotment. St George’s Day traditionally marks the start of the short English asparagus season but this year’s is well behind.
These celandines in my garden should have been over weeks ago but are only just showing their faces. I love these little wildflowers and don’t mind their habit of seeding themselves as they’re such a welcome bit of colour early in the year.

Finally some decent weather so much activity in the garden and on the allotment this weekend. Polytunnel weeded and watered, salad, peas, parsley and coriander sown, potatoes planted and compost heaps turned. The greenhouse at home is already busting with seedlings and bedroom windowsills filling up with propagators.

Spent most of Saturday and Sunday outside, sun on my back, surrounded by birdsong. Spring has finally sprung.

Purple sprouting broccoli

The last of last year’s planting is performing very well and filling the gap between winter and spring crops. I still have some improvements to make, but now have a proper supply of of fresh vegetables every day of the year. The recent very cold weather, snow and strong winds have battered most of the leaves beyond pleasant eating, but the chickens love them. After I’ve cut this central head, many more side shoots will be ready in a few weeks time.

I’ll be serving this later alongside some wild garlic and mushroom risotto. It’s very satisfying to be eating a meal that includes so much home produce even at this lean time of year.

Cheese and wild garlic scones

Whilst there’s not much growing in the garden this time of the year, it’s one of the best time for foraging as tender spring greens are beginning to appear. My favourite and luckily one of the most abundant is wild garlic, that grows in damp woodlands and along shady riverbanks all over the UK. It’s similar to the north American plant known as ramps and its old English name ramsons is obviously linked. Unlike across the Atlantic, over here we eat the green leaves and not the small bulbs, which is presumably why it’s becoming quite rare and even protected in some parts of America whilst in the UK it grows all over the place.

I love the stuff and try and eat as much as I can during its short season, such as soup and risotto, or just added to a salad. These scones are something I dreamed up cycling home on a chilly damp day.

Ingredients

• 8oz / 250g self raising flour
• 2oz / 50g butter
• 1oz / 25g strong cheddar, grated
• small bunch of wild garlic, chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 fl oz / 100ml milk

Rub the butter into the flour and mix in the cheese and garlic. Mix the egg and milk together and gradually add to the mixture, kneading gently with your fingers until you have a soft dough. Keep a little of the liquid aside for later.

Roll out on a floured surface to about 3/4 inch or 2cm thick and cut into rounds using a 2 inch / 5 cm cutter. Brush the tops with the remaining milk and egg mixture. Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C / gas mark 7 for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, but try and eat them while they’re still warm with plenty of butter.

So that’s it then, the last squash of last summer done and dusted. I’ve been growing Crown Prince squash for the past couple of years and they are the absolute best for flavour, texture and keeping abilities - this 5lb monster was harvested in September and was still in perfect condition today, nearly eight months later. I made this recipe for a warming, golden curry with coconut, lime and ginger from Nigel Slater. I’ve also made this with chickpeas and keep meaning to try it with fish. I made it today with tinned tomatoes instead of fresh and usually skip the mint as I find it one flavour too many. Sorry Nigel.

Filling the hungry gap

This time of year is a mixed one for vegetable gardeners, with lots of sowing, planting and preparation but very little to actually eat. This year’s hungry gap is especially lean, as last year’s harvest was so poor and the winter’s stores are all but gone. We have a few pounds of onions and a small bunch of garlic hanging in the garage, there’s a few tubs of raspberries and blackcurrants in the freezer and have just cut into the last squash. The remaining potatoes sprouted beyond use a few weeks ago and I dug the last leeks on Monday.

There are a few very welcome greens still on the allotment, such as this purple sprouting broccoli, but even this suffered in the recent snow as it was so heavy, the plants got knocked over flat. I’ve been cutting this for over a month now and it keeps putting out these tasty little side shoots so I’m hoping it will keep going until the asparagus shows itself.

Jacob sheep and lambs near Alvechurch, Worcestershire

I have a soft spot for Jacob sheep; I love their coats of many colours and once had a pair of hand knitted socks made from several different shades of their wool. Seeing these this afternoon was a cheery moment on an otherwise very grey day.

I had a meeting in Bromsgrove this morning and having nothing pressing to get back for, decided to get the train there and cycle the 17 miles home. I took what should have been a pleasant potter through some delightful lanes and villages but the weather is still cold and damp so it was a bit of a struggle at times. It was so grey and overcast that the celandines that are beginning to emerge along the lanes and hedgerows were all tightly closed. Heading up and out of the Severn valley, there were still patches of snow on shady banks and hedgerows. The NCN55 cycle route that follows the old Roman road of Icknield Street to the outskirts of Birmingham must have been impassable for days, its deeply cut lane filled with drifting snow.

Spring postponed

These beautiful purple hellebores have managed to flower despite having nearly a foot of snow land on them just as the buds were beginning to emerge. After the snow melted, they were completely squashed flat. Last year’s leaves are looking pretty rough and are still laid on the ground, but the flowers are struggling upwards.

Last pizza of the night

We braved the unseasonably cold weather and cranked up the earth oven for pizzas last night. We had our inaugural pizza session a few nights ago, a slightly hysterical and slap dash but atmospheric event, with the first pizza going in way after dark and the last topping going on several hours and bottles of wine later. We’ve been hosting the delightful Catalan theatre company A Tres Bandes whilst they’ve been in Birmingham for a residency and they and a few other friends were our enthusiastic guinea pigs. Things got a bit chaotic in the elegant but inadequate candlelight and subzero temperatures, but the pizzas were a triumph.

Our second session was a bit more organised, helped by starting in daylight and with a few refinements to our set up. The oven was fired for three hours to a temperature sufficient to completely destroy the oven thermometer I rashly put inside. Twelve pizzas were cooked in the heat from the one firing - had we wanted to do more, we could have raked out the ash and renewed the fire briefly.

Both evenings were great fun and everybody enjoyed themselves, adults and kids. Even so, as I shivered in the frosty garden in my warmest fleece and wooly hat, I looked forward to a more leisurely pizza bake on a warm afternoon with a nice cold beer.