The Trug gets an airing

The hungry gap of late winter/early spring is over.  Doc lifted down the Trugs from the top of the cupboards in the utility room and we are making the most of the first harvests of the season.

We have had brilliant parsley which has brightened up our cooking over the last month or so.  It over-wintered successfully both in the greenhouse and in a raised bed outside.  However, it is now well and truly upstaged by the asparagus, which is poking through the soil triumphantly.  

Last year, the asparagus crop was disappointing and plagued with asparagus beetle.  However, with due diligence (repeatedly squashing the little critters) and a judicious spreading of manure as soon as the spears had finished cropping, we have seen greater success this season.   We have enjoyed two meals so far (poached eggs, hollandaise sauce and asparagus) and there are loads more spears to come.  The price of such a delicacy is smelly wee (the side effect of eating asparagus!) but who cares? 

The second star of the trug is forced rhubarb.  We only have one forcer and have now decided that we need another one so that next year we can enjoy more of these pink, luscious, sweet stems.  I have lightly poached the rhubarb with stem ginger and only a scattering of sugar.  Doc made Birds custard and we could have easily eaten two bowlfuls each.  

The rest of the rhubarb crowns are growing well and we will soon be cropping those too. But we will have to leave the forced crown to rest for the remainder of the season because forcing saps the plant’s strength.  Each year we choose a different crown to force.

In the greenhouse, I sowed plastic ‘grape’ containers with cut-and-come-again salad leaves and they are now producing fresh, tender leaves.  We now have a carton on the kitchen table with some scissors.  The snippings liven up salads and sandwiches.  We love the peppery salad mixes the best.

This is just the start of the fruit and vegetable season. With radish seedlings emerging from the soil and strawberry plants starting to flower, there is lots more to come.  Doc planted out the mangetout plants and they are already scrambling up the obelisks.  This year we remembered to put holly branches around them to deter the pesky mice and bold pheasants.

There are flowers on one or two of the tomato plants in the greenhouse.  I don’t know whether to remove them and allow the plants to grow bigger or leave them and see how early the fruits develop.  Decisions, decisions!  I shall nibble another lettuce leaf and think about it.