Talkback: My favourite harvest recipes

Gardeners' World Web User

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,im hungry sounds delicious........yummmy yummmmmmy yum.

Gardeners' World Web User

my husband and i have picked in the last 48hrs over 240 runner beans and we have still loads to go,as with our tomatoes they havent done well this year,someone in our allomentt said its because of the rain,,,this is our 1st year of growing our own and my it is hard work but now so worth it,everyone is doing there harvest,rasberries still doing well,next year might try different tomatoes to grow and see which ones grow best...trial and era i guess.

Gardeners' World Web User

We're harvesting at the Botanic Garden and get to take home anything we volunteers can use so, this year, as I am saving for my potager hard landscaping, I am making lots of goodies to freeze. I have already put a lot of courgettes away as ratatouille with my own tomatoes and onions and herbs and boxes and boxes of different soups as we grew lots of Mediterranean beans. Beetroot has been pickled in vinegar and I am looking forward to harvesting the black kale. With green,yellow,purple and pink and white borlotti beans you can guess I am having salads that are a feast for the eye as well as the stomach,too, Kate.

Gardeners' World Web User

what is a potager??? is it just a posh word for raised beds?

Gardeners' World Web User

potager means:
kitchen garden in french....
normally seperate space from main garden.....


so no its not just a posh word for raised beds.

Gardeners' World Web User

Have tryed sungold toms this year and they are lovely i think they the best i have done iv tryed lots of different ones in the past but i like these the best i have saved some seed from them so hope they are ok next year.

Gardeners' World Web User

Potager- not posh but very special. I've seen some beautiful ones. There is one in a vicarage garden in Gloucester which has a moon gate entrance! As my own grown fresh veg. are the mainstay of my diet and keep me healthy I think they deserve a lovely setting and , as I am now 83 and think the years I will want to do a lot of bending are limited , I am trying to make the work easier but still enjoyable so my potager will have a seat so I have somewhere to rest my tools other than the earth, and paths I can work from even in bad weather and, of course, raised beds.

Gardeners' World Web User

Growing watercress in the pond, I'm intrigued please explain more in another blog as I'd like to try it in mine.

Gardeners' World Web User

kathryn/brock - I don't think there's enough to say about it in a blog! About three years ago I rescued some frogs from a drain and made them a mini-pond using a tub trug (they now have a fancy tin bath). I wanted to add some plants for them to hide amongst. I scoured the local garden centres for pond plants and had no luck, and then found a half-dead watercress plant in a supermarket for 75p. As a temporary measure, I chucked the watercress in the pond, where it blossomed into a huge plant! The frogs loved it and one day I harvested a bit for my salad (I gave it a good clean!). It was delicious.

Now I always have a bit of watercress in the pond. It's not in a pot - it has adventitious roots, like ivy - so just finds its own way to the soil at the bottom of the tin bath, but also seems quite happy floating on the surface. If I ever get a bag of watercress in my veg box, and it goes off, I chuck it in the pond, where it grows me an extra crop. Watercress is supposed to be good for reducing growth of algae on ponds as well - apparently it absorbs a lot of excess nitrogen. Hmm, maybe I should blog about it!

Kate

Gardeners' World Web User

And it is countrywide, gardenedibles. At the flower show I attended last Saturday the entries for the flower section were down while the veg. were up. and the most frequent requests I get at the Botanic Garden are directions to the vegetables. Reminds me of "Dig for Victory" in the war.

Gardeners' World Web User

‎1.5kg Sweet potatoes, 4 white potatoes, 1.5 onions, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 cooking apples, 2 litres of water, salt, pepper, Mango Chutney, Fry garlic and onions, meanwhile peel apples, potaoes, Chop into roughly small pieces about 2-3 cm add to pan with all the water, bring to boil then simmer for about 35-45 mins. Mash the potatoes after this time and then add 4 Table spoons of Mango chutney, this will thicken it into a soup. Grate some nut meg and serve with a splash of cream. This can also be frozen. Mmmm