MIDSUMMER

Week 19 - late-July: Broccoli bonanza

Life is accelerating apace down at the plot, inducing a slightly unsettling feeling of not being able to keep up with it all. But we’re doing pretty well, considering how busy life is all-round. Last night we were greeted by the startling appearance of the first globe artichoke in bloom—a plate-sized flush of shocking purple, revealing itself as the giant thistle that it is; what a sight! Several honeybees were writhing orgiastically in the pollen.

Our early-spring efforts to nourish the soil by digging in some good stinky muck have certainly paid off, especially in the brassica bed. Our first heads of broccoli, which always seem to be called Calabrese in gardening manuals, emerged quite suddenly this week, and I picked the first two last night. They’re enormous, yet still the florets are tightly clustered, unlike last year’s which were spindly and loose. Timing the broccoli harvest is tricky—you want to catch the first head at its peak, when it’s grown to its maximum size but before the tiny buds start to turn into flowers. After the main head is picked, the plant will continue to produce tender side-shooting florets, but you mustn’t let any of them bloom or the plant gives up production.

Some young pea pods have arrived at the mange-tout stage, and I couldn’t resist a little nibble. Unlike mange-tout proper, they are a little tough and bitter, intending to invest all the good flavour in the peas themselves. Some furry rice-grain sized runner beans are also on their way. Won’t be long now.

A few passers-by have been contributing their comments; one West-Indian fellow was very impressed with the look of our sweetcorn, and I must say the white corn in particular is sporting some extremely handsome foliage. A Moroccan man admired our artichokes and reminded me that in his home country they eat the leaves of the plant. I know that a sister plant, the cardoon, is grown especially for eating, but I might try some of our leaves on his suggestion. He asked if we had any extra seeds and I gave him a handful. A young Eastern European woman, dressed in a floor-length sequined skirt, black hair down to her bum and escorting a gaggle of children, stopped and said with a huge smile, “What a beautiful garden!” I do so love the community interface of our urban plot.

TIP OF THE WEEK: Don’t throw away the trunk-like stalk of the broccoli. Simply shave off the tougher “bark” on the outside and use the sweet, pale flesh inside, raw, steamed or stir-fried.

Seasonal Recipe: Broccoli Salad with Sugared Sunflower Seeds

Heat a non-stick frying pan over a moderate flame. Toss in 3 tbsp. raw sunflower seeds and sprinkle 2 teaspoons demerara sugar over them. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar melts and coats the seeds and they turn golden. Remove the sugared seeds to a plate to cool. Break them up a bit if they clump together. Wash about 300g broccoli and break into pieces. Place in a food processor and chop very finely. Alternatively, grate the broccoli on the coarse side of a grater into a bowl. Dress with fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, and season well with salt and pepper. Stir in the sugared seeds and serve. Serves 4

Week 18 - mid-July: Here come the courgettes…

Despite being battered and scuffed by last week’s hail storm, most of the veggie plants have recovered with flying colours. The runner beans are showing off a spray of fire-engine red blossom, and the peas are flowering in delicate white. The rainbow chard and spinach have war wounds but are still coming on strong. Some of the courgette foliage was nearly decimated and some tender fruits are full of craters, but they are starting to deliver the goods big time. I feel a canon of courgette recipes coming on, just like last year.

One lesson we didn’t learn from our experience last year was to leave more space between certain plants when planting out the seedlings. It’s a bit like that bad habit of hungrily putting too much spaghetti in the boiling pan, forgetting how it swells to massive portions. This is mainly the case with the brassicas, which grow into gigantic plants, and the pumpkins and courgettes, which have such voluminous and sprawling appendages that it’s now quite difficult to actually find the pickings amongst the slightly spiky greenery. A couple of specimens have already grown a foot long; beyond this they become watery and seedy, so I always try to catch them young, no more than about four or five inches. We might grow one monster though, and I’ll investigate a recipe I’ve heard of for making a simple moonshine. More on that in early autumn.

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