Shallots & Seakale

Shallots

Following Monty Don’s advice in last year’s Gardener’s World, I have sown the last of my shallots in modules and taken them to the greenhouse.  I sowed some in the autumn, some in mid-winter, and the final batch now. All that remains is to watch what happens and judge which approach works best.

Sea Kale

Last week my wife & I prepared a new bed at the Orchard (although with the rumours in mind, with slightly less enthusiasm than normal). Although the ground appeared weedy and overgrown, there was a carpet mulch and inch or so down that I had covered the soil with 3 years ago. (It’s amazing how quickly weeds colonize the carpet when left unattended!) We pulled the carpet back to reveal excellent ssoil, virtually weed-free, decorated only by the odd rodent tunnel.  While turning it over we found a lot of tough nettle roots though. probably still viable, which took some effort to fork up. But apart from that it was in excellent shape and took just an hour or so to prepare.

I forked in som,e compost and planted out 5 seakale angers (interesting word “anger”– sometimes they are called “thongs” which conjours up far more pleasant images.). Although most of the gardening books mention seakale, it is hard to find in the garden centres or catalogues nowadays. I finally tracked down some at Marshalls Seeds.

Apparently it should be blanched and then braised like asparagus. Like asparagus too I have to wait 2 years before tasting. But it should provide something interesting during the spring hunger-gap. We’ll see.