Very Local Food in the making

Spring so far has been frightfully, frightfully busy. In line with the practise of eating as much local produce as possible, I've been creating a kitchen garden so that I can grow my own vegetables. You can't get more local than that! And ecological concerns aside, isn’t there something wonderfully smugly self-satisfying about being able to say “Oh, I just got that out of my garden an hour ago.”?

Given that I started with a blackberry patch, I'm rather pleased with my progress so far (although if I never see another blackberry root again, it won't be a moment too soon!). It works out at about 62 square foot of soil, as well as the mountain of containers I acquired from the Pound Store (don’t you just love those places – almost total garden outfitting in under £20).

Here are the 'before' and 'after' shots (there's still a little left to do, but I'm going to make part of that land into a wildflower meadow and construct some cold-frames in autumn on the other half):

So far I'm busily sowing indoors; my windowsills converted into factories covered with black propagation trays. No little green leaves sprouting yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

The only vegetable planted in the garden currently is a couple of thongs of English Horseradish. They won't be harvestable until next year, but when they are. . . oooh, fresh horseradish! I've only had it a couple of times but it is divine (and bears as much resemblance to the tinned stuff as diamonds do to zircons).

About a third of the seeds I've bought are organic, and about 90% of the seeds are heirloom varieties. For you non-gardeners out there (don't worry, I had to look it up too!) this means seeds can be harvested from the plants you grow, and can be used to produce next year’s crop and the will come back ‘true to type’ i.e. the same as their parent plant. A lot of the modern hybrids do poorly at this – and that isn’t counting the rapacious and unethical practise by [words deleted for extreme obscenity] corporations such as Monsanto who genetically engineer seeds to be sterile.

This means hopefully less outlay for me on seeds next year. I tried to buy unusual, old heirloom or rare varieties that are difficult to come by commercially from food outlets, even at the independent grocers I frequent. Although I must admit I couldn’t go past the Baby Savoy Cabbage (fantasises briefly about tender little cabbages, thick cream and cubes of fried bacon. Mmmm.).

This weekend will be spent planting the early season potatoes – the Red Duke of York and Sharpes Express. I had great fun finding coloured potatoes, my prize acquisition being a kilo of Shetland Black, and 10 tubers each of Edzell Blue and Arran Victory. Shetland Black, as the name suggests, is dark blue/black-skinned with creamy flesh and an inner blue ring; supposed to be buttery, very tasty and floury. They were once grown as a commercial crop in the Shetland Islands, but have become increasingly rare. The Edzell Blue has a blue-purple skin and is another old Scottish potato, very floury and tasty. The Arran Victory date from WWI, is a beautiful shade of blue with a very white skin and also touted for its taste. I’m planting the potatoes in containers, to hopefully avoid eelworm and blight. I now know more about potato pests and diseases than I ever expected – or indeed, wanted – to know. The tubers will be smaller, but who doesn’t adore new, freshly dug up, small potatoes? I just hope their taste lives up to the romance of their names!

Other plans for the weekend are to start the salad greens. Radish, spinach, rocket, lettuces, bok choi – my black thumb notwithstanding, my mind is swimming with visions of little leaf salads, lightly dressed in tarragon vinegar and walnut oil, eaten on the sunny patio and accompanied by home-made lemonade. Ah, what bliss that will be. . .