ALL ABOUT FOOD.. THE FOOD WE EAT THAT SHE GROWS.

It's still winter.. she has to remind herself of this fact every time she looks or thinks about vegetable seeds and planting them. 

Since she received the propagator, growing from seed is much easier. 

But you can plant seeds too early and there's nothing worse for a young plant to be lolling about indoors getting 'leggier' by the minute.

She has 'Sun Tunnels', she bought them fifteen years ago and they've certainly earned their keep, for when she plants out seedlings, she puts a sun tunnel over them and opens up the vents.

A lot of the newcomers at the plots don't believe the old timers when they are told this but our last frost date is June 9th! 

She's worked out a schedule, checked her supply of our favourite vegetable seeds, there's no point in growing something that you won't eat, is there?

She found last year that a variety of bush French beans she planted gave a much higher yield than the climbing variety, plus they kept on producing delicious little skinny folk until the first frost.  

Tereza's father gave her a wonderful gift last summer of a small bag of beans, they came from his mother's garden high in the Bulgarian mountains, they germinated in a flash!

She calls them 'Bulgarian Speedy Beans', they grew into tall plants that produced a huge growth of runner beans and we now have a huge glass jar full of them, minus the ones that we have eaten over the past few months.

Some of the beans we ate fresh off the vine, some she brought home and steamed, we ate them with olive oil, garlic and seasoning. But most she left to dry on the vine and then harvested them after a hard frost.

They're beautiful, no two beans are identical, the coloured ones are either dark brown with black markings or pinkish brown with black markings, the pale ones we call 'blanc hiver', which means winter white.

'Turkish' Cucumbers are something we grew for the first time last year, they are grown throughout the Middle East and are very sweet. She gave a bag to our Lebanese friend who immediately opened her fridge and took out hummus and labneh.

"Oh, how delicious, fresh and sweet, Green Valley have good Middle Eastern vegetables but nothing can beat a freshly picked cucumber" said Myra.

We don't grow aubergines aka egg plant, peppers, potatoes or tomatoes. She used to but since she became allergic to the Nightshade family, there is no point in growing them and she doesn't grow sweet corn either for corn kicks off arthritis which she has in her right hand.

Corn, dairy and wheat are acknowledged to be major triggers for arthritis, so if you have it anywhere in your body, try cutting it out of your diet for a month or two and see how you body reacts.

Once in a while, she can get away with a minute amount of dairy, which she eats in cheese and an equally minute amount of wheat as in a small Italian pastry but two slices of delicious toast make her knuckles on her right hand throb and swell.. quite alarmingly! 

So she doesn't grow corn and there's another reason she doesn't, for Mr. & Mrs. Rat are very partial to sweet corn!

The following is a list of what she will grow this year, except for the globe artichokes which she grew and planted out last year.

It does not include the soft fruit bushes, plants and trees that she has planted: strawberries, apples, cherries both sour and sweet, pears, plums, green gages, gooseberries, black, red and white currants, black grapes and last but certainly not least, three varieties of figs.

Brassicas, chard, kale, lots of different types of lettuce, cauliflower, chillies, several varieties of beans, gourds, small 'Turkish' cucumbers, globe artichokes, courgettes aka zucchini, garlic, onions, shallots, spring onions, spinach, mizuna, rocket and land cress, lots of herbs, chives, at least three varieties of peas, chicory, endive, pak choi, choi sum, Japanese spicy leaves, pumpkins and squash, beetroot, radishes.

It's a lot of work but wouldn't you rather eat food that you know has been grown with zero chemicals.

And we've two friends who are neighbours who love our vegetables and roses! Oh yes, she grows lots of those and has just planted another, a glorious 'Kronenbourg' and she wants to plant more 'Pinks' aka carnations this year for she loves their fragrance.

Now you know why she gardens and what we eat.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 6th, 2018.