Spotlight on Aberglasney's vegetables
Aberglasney’s Head Gardener Joseph Atkin puts the spotlight on vegetables in his weekly column in the South Wales Evening Post -
Having talked about the herbs at Aberglasney last week, the vegetables deserve the same attention this week.
This year we have used almost all of our fresh produce in the restaurant.
So much so that there has been very little for sale, but the restaurant manager has been ever so happy with fresh produce literally on the door step.
It seems simple. There are fresh vegetables here and the kitchen is literally yards away, but getting the right sorts of produce at the right time is much more tricky than you would think.
Like the herbs, it's one thing growing them; it’s another to turn them into food.
This certainly is the case in the busy restaurant in Aberglasney with the lunch time rushes.
The same can be said at home where so often we grow the produce really well, but don’t get time to eat or prepare it.
The majority of our vegetables grew really well once they got over the spring drought but it’s the real eye-catchers and performers that not only grew well but also ate well that will be grown next year.
The same may be the case at home, although the public kitchen garden has aesthetics to think about.
Salad leaves - all of these have been extremely successful this year and this is as much down to the diligent picking of the cafe staff as the growing by the volunteers and gardeners.
All the usual salad crops were grown, including lettuce rocket and chicory.
Rocket was extremely popular and was always in short supply.
A major trick with this plant is to not let it get drought or starved when it's young as it loves to bolt.
It’s also a great crop for shady damp areas - both Italian and wild rocket did brilliantly both as a crop and an eater.
My favourite new discovery was Corn Salad Vit or Lamb's Lettuce Leaves (pictured above). They are very small dense plants that need to be sown very thinly but you can harvest all season and they are a very different salad leaf.
They have a great texture and are very good for us, but best picked before flowering.
Possibly my favourite leaf is Chard; in this case Rainbow Chard Mix, which comes in a variety of red, green, white and yellow stems. The picture above shows Rainbow Chard in white.
It looks great, can be harvested all season and has a multitude of uses.
Young leaves or leaves with the mid-rib removed are great in salads; the stems can be used like cabbage or the whole leaves treated like spinach.
The restaurant is particularly pleased with this crop as it has so many uses and is always readily available.
We have also grown black podded peas and normal peas, including sugar snap, which have been very successful although they do produce a very short glut of peas.
Again, these have gone down very well but only over a short time.
For easy growing good eating and great colour, two French beans, Purple Tepee (pictured above) and Rocquencourt have been excellent.
Both have given a good length of cropping on sturdy short plants and look great on the plate.
Weekly Tips
• We have really hard pruned and cropped the sweat peas to help them stay up and it has really increased the length of their season.
• Dead heading is so important now to keep the borders tidy and reduce autumn work.
• Hedge trimming needs to be done at the moment.
• Keep an eye on your fruit trees; ours are so heavy with fruit and the branches are snapping. This can be avoided by tying up the branches or removing poor fruit to reduce branches.
Website -
http://www.aberglasney.org/
Having talked about the herbs at Aberglasney last week, the vegetables deserve the same attention this week.
This year we have used almost all of our fresh produce in the restaurant.
So much so that there has been very little for sale, but the restaurant manager has been ever so happy with fresh produce literally on the door step.
It seems simple. There are fresh vegetables here and the kitchen is literally yards away, but getting the right sorts of produce at the right time is much more tricky than you would think.
Like the herbs, it's one thing growing them; it’s another to turn them into food.
This certainly is the case in the busy restaurant in Aberglasney with the lunch time rushes.
The same can be said at home where so often we grow the produce really well, but don’t get time to eat or prepare it.
The majority of our vegetables grew really well once they got over the spring drought but it’s the real eye-catchers and performers that not only grew well but also ate well that will be grown next year.
The same may be the case at home, although the public kitchen garden has aesthetics to think about.
Salad leaves - all of these have been extremely successful this year and this is as much down to the diligent picking of the cafe staff as the growing by the volunteers and gardeners.
All the usual salad crops were grown, including lettuce rocket and chicory.
Rocket was extremely popular and was always in short supply.
A major trick with this plant is to not let it get drought or starved when it's young as it loves to bolt.
It’s also a great crop for shady damp areas - both Italian and wild rocket did brilliantly both as a crop and an eater.
My favourite new discovery was Corn Salad Vit or Lamb's Lettuce Leaves (pictured above). They are very small dense plants that need to be sown very thinly but you can harvest all season and they are a very different salad leaf.
They have a great texture and are very good for us, but best picked before flowering.
Possibly my favourite leaf is Chard; in this case Rainbow Chard Mix, which comes in a variety of red, green, white and yellow stems. The picture above shows Rainbow Chard in white.
It looks great, can be harvested all season and has a multitude of uses.
Young leaves or leaves with the mid-rib removed are great in salads; the stems can be used like cabbage or the whole leaves treated like spinach.
The restaurant is particularly pleased with this crop as it has so many uses and is always readily available.
We have also grown black podded peas and normal peas, including sugar snap, which have been very successful although they do produce a very short glut of peas.
Again, these have gone down very well but only over a short time.
For easy growing good eating and great colour, two French beans, Purple Tepee (pictured above) and Rocquencourt have been excellent.
Both have given a good length of cropping on sturdy short plants and look great on the plate.
Weekly Tips
• We have really hard pruned and cropped the sweat peas to help them stay up and it has really increased the length of their season.
• Dead heading is so important now to keep the borders tidy and reduce autumn work.
• Hedge trimming needs to be done at the moment.
• Keep an eye on your fruit trees; ours are so heavy with fruit and the branches are snapping. This can be avoided by tying up the branches or removing poor fruit to reduce branches.
Website -
http://www.aberglasney.org/
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