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Talkback: Top of the veg

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
Last summer I tried to grow carrots for the first time. I grew them in a large plant pot on the path, they grew to about finger size and then something upturned the pot and ate them but left their tops. Could it have been a badger as the pot was too heavy for a small animal.

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  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    kholrabi is far from being too bizarre to be taken seriously. Fast cropping, small (so good for tiny gardens, where many other brassicas aren't) and delicious. I've got my team hooked. You need to eat when they are somewhere between a golf and tennis ball. Peel, boil till tender, slice and smother with butter and a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard. Yummy.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    my memories of school cabbage are overcooked and the smell was disgusting. However gently stir fried with bacon and cashew nuts it is rather tasty and makes an easy meal.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Looking at Alys's Berryfields blog
    there is a lot of lunching going on - I'm surprised that any gardening gets done! Just because Kohlrabi can be delicious (and I must admit that my memories of eating it are dominated by weird German recipes involving vinegar) doesn't mean they don't look bizarre.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Nice to see Ms deThame looking after her diet ( Gardners' World Special BBC 2 30/Nov.) but why does she need a B***** great 4x4 to collect a few vegetables? The air we breath is just as important as the foods we eat. We can choose the foods we eat, but not the air we breath. Ms de Thame might set an example by driving something a little kinder to the environment.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    A generous bunch of lovage leaves will turn a hearty but dreary vegetable soup into something sensational - and dead classy. And the beauty of lovage is that it grows just about anywhere, even in my chalky soil. Decorative to look at it smells fantastic too, and freezes beautifully. I've only recently discovered it, and now that I have, I can't understand why it is so underused in British gardens and kitchens.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Love the idea of broad beans in a 'blankety bed!' Love the veg too, by far my favourite bean of all. Am trying 3 different varieties this year, with different sowing times. Aquadulce already making good growth, shall then try Express and Sutton.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Never mind about school dinners or the lingering smell of cabbage!! why are my carrots short and stumpy M Milner(beginner veggie gardener)
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Almost certainly because your ground is so hard and lumpy. In order to get long and perfect carrots need a sandy soil, if the carrot hits a stone or lump of hard clay it will either stop growing or divert around the obstruction.
    It is also possible, perhaps, that the variety is intended to be short and stumpy. All the same, I'm sure they tasted delicious.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Your reference to the vegetables spoiled by school cooks can also be associated to some of our parents 'over cooking' of veg. I challenge everyone to try again what was horrible as child, but not to overcook it. What you might find is that most veg does have a pleasant taste after all.

    I find it disappointing that with purple sprouting broccoli, as you start cooking it, very soon the purple is gone and it's back to green broccoli. May I suggest you try asparagus with a soft-boiled duck egg as a starter for a posh dinner party. They really do go well together.

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