It may feel spring-like, but we’re still in the closing days of winter, and our diets should reflect that. Root vegetables are still ripe for harvesting, and we haven’t yet moved into spring or summer when we can start working with salad varieties.
However, there is still plenty of choice, and even if you’re buying your vegetables rather than picking your own, the following guide should help you to eat in season, and in doing so reduce your food miles and be kind to the environment.
Carrots are still at their height in the shops, but if you have any left in your plot you should be taking them out by now or they will soon start to rot in the ground. They may also be eaten as slugs and snails start to reappear after the winter.
Other traditional winter vegetables that are in season include broccoli and leeks. While you may still have some leeks in your plot, you will probably have finished your broccoli in autumn, and unless you blanched and stored some you’ll be into buying it from the market by now.
The earliest fruits of spring, ready to be picked and eaten, are radishes and spring onions (they didn’t get that name for nothing), both of which can be cut into salads.
In terms of fruit, you should still be using up any apples you picked in the autumn and put into cold storage, and blackberries you took from the hedgerows to freeze. Rhubarb will now be ready for picking which, despite being great in crumbles, won’t be appearing in the Blagger plot. Why? Because once it’s in there, it’s pretty much there for good, and we simply can’t justify the space its lazy large leaves take up.
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I think unless you loathe rhubarb, it is a mistake to omit it from your plot. The very fact that it will sit there without any appreciable work from you and produce a steady crop year after year is a reason for its inclusion! You can use it for crumbles, pies, puddings, fools, sorbets, ice creams, jams, wines, relishes etc etc but those lazy leaves can be useful (but the law doesn’t let me tell you why…..go google!)
Like your site though!
On your recommendation we thought we might give it a go. We’ve located a good spot for it close to the chickens and far enough away from the main body of the plot for it not to spread. Only trouble is, all the books we’ve read on the subject say you really need to get it in the ground during the autumn, so it looks like we may have missed our chance this year. Perhaps we can buy some crowns that have already been started off for transplanting.