Penellype's 2015 Edible Garden Challenge

[Scarlet]

There are some things I won't bother with again (one is chard, which I really didn't like very much).

How did you cook it? We love it here

[roitelet]

I treat the leaves as I would spinach. Wash them melt a little butter in a pan and cook the leaves in just the water that remains on the leaves. Haven't got the hang of cooking the stalks yet but they make good compost.

[Penellype]

I cooked it like spinach, basically just wilting the leaves in a hot pan with a little butter. I found it tough and stringy and lacking the flavour of spinach, which is one of my favourite vegetables. I tried chard in salads too - again didn't find it exciting at all.

[Penellype]

One almost ripe tomato Garden Pearl picked yesterday, just in case blight strikes. This appears to be one on its own which must have been pollinated when everything else on the truss was not, as none of the other fruits are turning red yet. It should be ready to eat in the next couple of days, so I can count it now as it will definitely be eaten.

Total varieties so far = 85.

[Penellype]

Not all plain sailing!

It may seem that I keep rattling off varieties with monotonous regularity, but its not always quite so simple. This is what happened when I decided that after the strawberries were finished I could grow some salad leaves in the fruit cage, which is covered with insect mesh.



From left to right, Choy Sum, Pak Choi, Mibuna and Komatsuna. Not a single leaf is edible and the plants are clearly dying. The culprit? TWO varieties of flea beetle - one a larger grey sort which is sluggish enough to be caught in tweezers and appears to be there in large numbers, the other the tiny black one with yellow bars on its wings which jumps at the slightest provocation. No idea where they came from as I have never had a problem with flea beetles before. Dousing the tray with diatomaceous earth, which is supposed to kill insects on contact, has had no visible effect.

So much for that plan

[Penellype]

Another variety of tomato ripe enough to be picked yesterday, although again I haven't eaten it straight away. This time it is Sweet Aperitif. I have now eaten the Garden Pearl harvested earlier this week.

Total varieties so far = 86

[Penellype]

Today is the turn of Tomato Totem - again a red tomato that is not quite ready to eat. This variety is a full month later than last year, although it does have the excuse that the plants were put outside at the start of June, whereas the one that produced the early fruit last year was kept indoors until mid June (by which time it was too big to easily plant out, hence putting them out earlier this year).

Total varieties so far = 87

[Penellype]

2 new varieties of lettuce today - Relic and Valmaine. Both are cut and come again varieties (red and green) and I'm hoping the plants on the spare room windowsill will give me leaves until Christmas.

Total varieties so far = 89

[Penellype]

My poor little dwarf apple tree has had problems this year, with what I think is bitter pit affecting most of the fruits. It has also been badly attacked by aphids which are still there, being farmed by ants. I found a brave ladybird trying to eat the aphids yesterday, but it was being attacked on all sides by the ants.

Anyway a while ago, while trying to do something near the tree, I clumsily managed to knock off 2 of the few remaining apples, which I brought indoors and put in my fruit bowl on the off-chance they would ripen. They seemed ripe today so I had a look inside. One had bitter pit and was not edible, but the other was unaffected and nearly ripe, so I ate it cooked with a bit of sugar. I'm a little more hopeful now that I might get another apple or 2 off the tree this year.

Total varieties so far = 90

[Penellype]

First pod of Geisha peas eaten today, straight off the plant. The experiment with growing these in a bucket to reduce slug damage has paid off with more pods on bigger plants with bigger pods than from the same number of seeds last year.

Total varieties so far = 91.

[Penellype]

The first 2 ripe autumn raspberries (Allgold) today. Plenty more on the way

Total varieties so far = 92.

[Bigmallly]

Only 8 to go Pene.

[Penellype]

I know . I have 5 "certainties" (barring wholesale disaster - these are carrots and potatoes that could be harvested now, plus runner beans that will be ready in a few days) and 2 varieties of tomato that I hope will ripen before the blight appears. I haven't yet tried the amaranth seeds (microleaves) that I bought the other day, and there are a couple of other things waiting in the wings to act as "reserves" if the worst happens, so I am pretty confident.

Once I get to target I will go through what I have grown and split it up into categories such as main crops, salads, flavourings, experiments, failures etc and see how I have really done!

[Penellype]

Decided to have a check on the carrots today having finished the tub of Marion that I've been eating.



Left to right:
Nantes Frubund Fastcrop sown in March
Nantes Frubund Fastcrop sown in May
Nantes 2 sown in May
Autumn King sown in April (!)

The Autumn King was sown rather more thickly than the others as it was old seed and I expected poor germination. I think either the fact that a lot of seeds germinated or the fact that the seed was old (or both) might be responsible for the more than somewhat disappointing size. As all the carrots are edible, this gives me 2 new varieties - Nantes 2 and Autumn King.

Total varieties so far = 94

[Penellype]

One semi-ripe Roma VF tomato brought indoors to ripen today. This will take a few daysto be ready to eat yet, but unless it shrivels up and dies it can count towards the 100.

Total varieties so far = 95.