Broccoli side shoots and Thanks

Broccoli side shoots

This is my biggest broccoli harvest this winter. They are all side shoots. I harvested main heads while they were pretty small, as it was too cold and I didn’t know if they will survive. So it was better to harvest them smaller, than not to harvest them at all.

Now, when we have temperatures above 0C (at night), broccoli side shoots started to grow. And this is not the end of it, there will be more to come. It seems that side shoots make larger harvest than the main head. If anyone is wondering, this is variety Corvet (it was not written on my seed packet, but later I found out that it is an F1 variety).

All of this was used for a creamy pasta sauce: One chopped onion fry in some olive oil, add sliced mushrooms and cook until half done. Add salt and pepper. Add cooking cream, let it boil. Add broccoli and cook for 4 minutes – it is done. Broccoli looses most of the nutrients while cooking, so it is not recommended to cook it longer than 5 minutes. Cook some pasta (pipe rigate was my choice).

Thanks

First thanks goes to Diana for sending me a wonderful collection of seeds, all the way from Australia. She sent me:

Evening sun sunflower,
Hollyhock (white crushed silk),
Stock (astral)

Chinese Broccoli (kai laan)

I am looking forward to growing all these wonderful plants and I am also looking forward to next “Seed Week” hosted by her.

Second thanks (it is definitely not second by importance, but ladies go first) goes to Mark for the Chili Award. This is the true award and not a chain letter (which I try to avoid) and so I decided to accept it with great pleasure. Thank you Mark very much for giving this award to me.

Thank you both very much, it is so wonderful to have gardening friends all over the world! Now it seems that it is not such a big world after all!

In other news, more garden related,

- onion seedlings got their first haircut

- leek seedlings got their first haircut too

- From 10 artichoke seeds I sowed 15 days ago, so far only 3 sprouted. I will have to re-sow some more.

- Next to sow are peppers and eggplants – I think it is scheduled for this weekend

Bočni izdanci brokule

Ovo mi je do sada najveća berba brokule. Sve ovo su bočni izdanci. Glavice sam pobrala još dok su bile male, jer sam se bojala da će promrznuti. Sada kako su temperature iznad 0C noću, a danju i više, brokula je opet počela rasti. I ovo nije kraj, biti će još, ne znam još koliko, vjerojatno dok ne postane pretoplo. Ovo je Corvet sorta, nije pisalo na vrećici, ali izgleda da je to F1, pa se ne isplati skupljati sjeme.

Od ove brokule sam napravila kremasti umak za pastu. Propržiti jedan sitno sjeckani luk na malo maslinovog ulja, dodati narezane šampinjone. Kuhati dok nije polu gotovo, posoliti i popapriti. Zaliti sa vrhnjem za kuhanje. Kada prokuha, dodati brokulu i kuhati još 4 minute. Gotovo je. Zaliti umak preko paste (moj izbor je bio pipe rigate).

Od ostalih novosti:
Sav luk je proklijao i ošišala sam ga jer su se listovi počeli petljati i padati jedan preko drugoga. Šišam ga na nekih 4 cm visine. Poriluk također.
Od 10 sjemenki artičoka, samo su 3 proklijale, tako da ću morati posijati ih još.
Sljedeće što sijem je paprika i patliđan.

Overwintered kale / Kelj je prezimio

It is early February, but temperatures are high enough (and spring is close enough) so I can confirm that my kale has successfully overwintered in the greenhouse.

I was growing 3 varieties: Tuscan, Red Russian and Green Dwarfed Curled.

All three have shown to be very hardy and none of the plants (none of the leaves on the plants, to be exact) had suffered any frost damage. Pest damage is another issue. Caterpillars were very active in November, while temperatures were high, but only on Tuscan kale. They either don’t like other kale varieties or they didn’t find them. And then there were voles that destroyed few plants. I think that cats got them as none of my traps worked, but they are not there anymore.

I sowed kale in August, started harvesting it around November and didn’t stop harvesting it since then. It is a great vegetable to have around when nothing else seems to survive. Only mistake I made was not growing enough of it. This will be corrected next time.

Next time I will also have to grow a few plants outdoor in the garden, this will be the true test of their hardiness.

As we will have more daylight and as daily temperatures rise, kale will continue with growth, and hopefully in late spring will go to seed.

Having all this kale, and no kale recipes, I have made some of my own. I don’t have them written down, but just use what ever I have in the kitchen at that time.

The base for any of my recipes is sautéed kale on some olive oil and garlic (I never boil kale as it looses all the taste). I remove stems from the leaves and use stems in a soup, or in some meal where longer cooking is required. Stems are just too tough.

Once sautéed, I will sometimes add fried bacon or ham, sometimes mozzarella or feta. Served with pasta, rice, potatoes, gnocchi…

I also like adding kale to any of my bean recipes, or instead of beans. Kale omelet? Kale risotto?

It is very versatile vegetable and it that can be grown all year long. So it is surely becoming one of my favorite.

Tek je rana veljača, ali temperature su dovoljno visoke (a i proljeće je dovoljno blizu) da mogu sa sigurnošću reći da je kelj u plasteniku uspješno prezimio. Sijala sam 3 vrste: crni, crveni ruski i zeleni kovrčavi. Svi su se odlično držali cijelu zimu i niti jedan jedini list nije imao oštećenja od hladnoće i mraza. A bilo je niskih temperatura... Bilo je štete od gusjenica i voluharica. Na svu sreću, ne puno. Gusjenice su nestale čim je temperatura pala ispod nule, a mislim da su mace riješile problem s voluharicama.

Kelj sam sijala u kolovozu, a počela sam ga brati u studenom i brala sam ga otprilike svaka dva tjedna sve do danas. Brala sam ga tako rijetko jer sam ga htjela imati što duže vremena i vidjeti hoće li preživjeti zimu. Sljedeći put ću ga definitivno imati više, pa ću ga moći brati svaki tjedan. Također ću sljedeći put ostaviti par biljaka kelja i vani na otvorenom, tek toliko da vidim hoće li preživjeti i vanjske temperature.

Sad kako će biti vani toplije i dani će biti duži, kelj će nastaviti rasti, a očekujem da će negdje krajem proljeća krenuti u cvijet. Probati ću sačuvati sjeme, ali morati ću biti oprezna da čuvam sjeme samo od jedne vrste, jer se mogu međusobno oprašiti. Dakle, dozvoliti ću samo jednoj vrsti da ide u cvijet, a ostale ću počupati kada počnu cvjetati.

Ovaj lisnati kelj ja biljka kod koje se beru donji listovi, a u sredini njemu uvijek ratsu novi, nešto kao blitva (mislim da sam već jednom radila ovu usporedbu). Tako da se kontinuirano može brati i stalno je ima. 
Kako sam odjednom imala sav ovaj kelj, morala sam smisliti i neke recepte kako ga pripremiti. Zaista nisam ljubitelj variva, jer mislim da se u takvim jelima izgubi dosta okusa. Dakle, ja prvo odvojim listove od središnje stabljike koja je dosta tvrda. Stabljike poslije isjeckam na sitno i koristim u juhi ili u nekom jelu koje zahtjeva dulje kuhanje. Listove propirjam na maslinovom ulju i češnjaku nekih 10 o 15 minuta (poklopljeno). Na to poslije dodam ili preprženi špek ili šunku, ili mozzarellu il fetu... što se već nađe u frižideru. Nekad dodam malo paradajza, i eto umak za tijesto ili njoke. Nekad napravim kelj sa mahunama, prema nekom do recepata, ili izbacim mahune i upotrijebim samo kelj... mogućnosti su bezbrojne.

Lisnati kelj je povrće koje se može imati u vrtu cijelu godinu, stalno se može brati i vrlo je ukusan. Definitivno jedna od mojih dražih povrtnih biljaka.

Ailsae Criag exhibition onion / Ailsae Craig izložbeni luk

A week ago I received an offer from one of my readers (thanks Ljiljana), if I wanted some Ailsae Criag exhibition onion seeds. To be honest, I never heard of them before, but then I had a look into the link I’ve gotten with the e-mail and it was this. A giant 5kg onion? Of course I want it!

So, few days ago I got 15 little onion seeds. The instructions said that onions must be sowed around New years. The guy on the link sowed his even earlier. But I had no other option but to sow it instantly. Luckily it was a good day for sowing onions (according to the moon calendar). I hope this late sowing will be compensated by longer season that we have here, compared to UK (seeds are from UK, as well as the guy on the link that is growing them). Even if it won’t be a 5kg one, I will be happy with anything over 1kg.

I will definitely try to save some Ailsae Craig seeds next year.

So, the first seeds are in.

Prije tjedan dana dobila sam jednu divnu ponudu ako želim sjemenke Ailsae Craig luka za izložbe. Do tada nisam nikad niti čula za taj luk, ali onda sam pogledala na link koji je bio u mailu i vidjela ovo. Naravno da sam odmah prihvatila ponudu (hvala Ljiljana!!!), pa to su glavice luka od 5kg... OK, ja vjerojatno neću uzgojiti baš toliki luk, ali od kilu-dvije bi bilo sasvim zadovoljavajuće.

Tako mi je stiglo 15 sjemenčica luka koje sam odmah posijala, jer je baš taj dan bio povoljan za sijanje korjenastog povrća, prema Maria Thun mjesečevom kalendaru. Upute koje su došle sa sjemenčicama rekle su da bi se sijanje trebalo obaviti oko Nove godine, a i tip koji je na linku je svoje posijalo ranije. Tako da sam u startu u kašnjenju barem mjesec dana. Nadam se da će tih mjesec dana nekako nadoknaditi...

Sljedeće godine u proljeće ću vratiti luk u zemlju, tada bi trebao potjerati opet i korijen i listove. Te, druge godine bi trebao otići u cvijet i nadam se da ću onda imati i malo sjemena da ponovim ovaj eksperiment...

Harvest and garden work / Berba i radovi u vrtu

Harvest

It is end of January and my harvests never stopped, however they did slow down sometime in December when we had unbelievably low temperatures. And now with days being longer, harvests should increase in variety and volume. At least that is the plan.

This weekend’s harvest

Kale – I love it. It keeps on growing, frost can’t do it any damage. Only damage it suffered was from caterpillars earlier this winter and recently from voles.

Carrots, parsnips and kohlrabi

Unfortunately, voles decided that they like my greenhouse, it is warm and there is food. So they have been eating carrots and parsnips. I decided that it is time to pull them all out and save some for me. So this is final carrot / parsnip harvest for this winter.

Kohlrabies are starting to get woody on the bottom side of the bulb. I should harvest them soon. There are only few left and I will get those next weekend. Do you peel kohlrabies? I do, but I’m thinking that I can eat the skin too.

Salad greens

Mache, arugula and a few lettuce leaves.

I hope the vole problem will be resolved soon, as I have placed some mice glue around the holes and it should work first time they decide to go out.

Garden work

Since I have my big greenhouse, my old small one was left forgotten. Compared to the big one, this one is “the ugly duckling”. I feel so bad for ignoring it this whole winter. So, I decided to clean it up from weeds and use it this spring as a nursery for all seedlings (except for tomatoes and peppers which need to be started indoors).

This is “the before” picture. There is not a lot of weed, as soil was covered with cardboard. But the brick path in the middle is totally lost.

This is “the after” picture. Now I’m ready to start gardening here again. I have brought in some manure last summer, so it will be enough for the purpose of nursery. Inside the small greenhouse it is usually warmer then in the big one. Doors are here faced south, and it is a smaller area so it warms up faster.

Berba

Kraj je siječnja, a berbe nikad nisu stale. Kako je vanjski vrt bio gotov u 10 mjesecu, odmah je u 11 krenula berba u plasteniku. I evo traje cijelu zimu. Istina, zima još nije gotova, ali dani su duži i uskoro će biti i topliji. Berbe mogu sada samo ići na bolje, ja se barem tako nadam.

Ovotjedna berba je se sastoji od kelja, mrkve, pastrnjaka, korabica, matovilca, rukole i malo listova zelene salate.

Morala sam sve mrkve i pastrnjak izvaditi jer su se očito pojavile voluharice i počele grickati sve po malo – i mrkvu i pastrnjak i kelj, pa čak i blitvu.

U plasteniku je ostalo još par korabica, koje moram izvaditi sljedeći vikend jer su već počele otvrdnjavati s donje strane.

Radovi u vrtu

Od kad imam veliki plastenik, mali je skroz pao u zaborav. Apsolutno sam ga ignorirala cijelu zimu i nisam ništa sijala i sadila u njega. Baš me sada peče savjest, pa sam ga odlučila počistiti i pripremiti za proljeće. Od travnja ću ga koristiti kao rasadnik za flance koje ću poslije saditi po vrtu (uglavnom kupusnjače, cvijeće, krastavce...). Nije bilo previše korova, jer sam zemlju pokrila s kartonom. Malo sam s grabljama usitnila zemlju, očistila cigle na sredini i sad je i mali plastenik spreman za proljeće.

“Quick and dirty” French bean recipes / Brzi recepti s mahunama

If it takes 15 minutes of my time and less than 10 ingredients (including salt and pepper), for me it’s a “quick and dirty” meal.

All of my beans are blanched before frozen. So they usually take less time to cook after I unfreeze them.

1. Beans in red sauce

Sautee one chopped onion in some olive oil and add some salt. After a minute add

1. some chives,

2. sweet ground paprika (1 tea spoon),

3. some pepper and

4. some ground cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you like)

Sautee all above for 2-3 min. Add 0,50 kg of beans, 0,2l of tomato sauce and enough water to cook the beans. If beans are blanched then 10 minutes of cooking will be enough. If they are fresh, then it will take longer. When done, add 1 teaspoon of flour mixed in some water, so the sauce will thicken. Stir for half a minute and it’s done.

If I feel like it, I will grate some Gouda on beans and bake them in the oven for 15 minutes more.

I have done this recipe with peas; beans and kale; peas and kale; beans and chicken leftovers…

2. Beans in white dill sauce

Ingredients:

0,50kg of beans

4-5 table spoons flour

Few garlic cloves

0,7 l milk

Oil, dill, salt and pepper

If beans are fresh they need to be blanched first.

On some oil sauté chopped garlic and flour. Add beans, stir. Add milk (I add around 0,7l, but it depends on how thick you want the sauce), pepper and salt and a lot of dill (2 table spoons at least). Let it boil, if it’s too thick, add more milk. Cook for 10 minutes, until beans are done.

3. abschmalzen beans

abschmalzen = greased (german)

This one is very easy.

Cook beans in salted water until they are done. In a pan heat some oil and mix in bread crumbs. Strain beans and add to greased breadcrumbs. Stir carefully so you get breadcrumbs all over beans. Add salt and pepper. Be sure to have enough breadcrumbs.

Sve moje mahune su prvo blanširane, pa zaleđene. Tako kada ih kuham uglavnom trebaju puno kraće da buud gotove nego svježe mahune.

Mahune u crvenom umaku

Propržiti jedan luk na maslinovom ulju i posoliti da luk splasne. Dodati: malo kajenskog papra, crnog papra, jednu žličicu mljevene slatke paprike i malo vlasca. Pažljivo sa kajenskim i crnim paprom da ne bi bilo preljuto.

Pržiti par minuta.

Dodati 0,5kg mahuna, 0,2l paradajz umaka i dovoljno vode da se mahune mogu kuhati. Nakon 10-ak minuta (tada bi mahune već trebale biti gotove) dodati malo brašna rastopljenog u malo vode. Ovo je da bi se umak zgusnuo. Promiješati i to je gotovo.

Ako imam vremena, prebaciti ću sve u vatrostalnu posudu, naribati malo gaude i zapeči u pečnici 15 minuta.

Mahune u bijelom umaku od kopra

Sastojci:

0,5kg mahuna

4-5 jušnih žlica brašna

Nekoliko češnjeva češnjaka

0,7l mlijeka

Ulje, kopar, sol i papar

Ako su mahune svježe, treba ih prvo blanširati.

Na ulju propržiti usitnjeni češnjak i brašno. Dodati mahune i promiješati. Dodati mlijeko (ja dodam oko 0,7l, ali to ovisi koliko gust želite umak), sol, papar i dosta kopra (barem 2 jušne žlice). Neka prokuha, ako je pregusto, dodati još mlijeka. Kuhati dok se mahune ne skuhaju, oko 10 minuta.

Abschmalzen mahune (abšmalcane)

Skuhati mahune. U drugoj posudi propržiti krušne mrvice na ulju. Pomiješati mrvice i ocjeđene mahune, posoliti i popapriti.

Garden layout 2011 / Plan vrta 2011

This year’s garden layout will include 4 big garden beds and one small (behind the small greenhouse). I will also plant some vegetables in the greenhouses.

The plan is to make beds wider, and to make them permanent garden beds. So there will be no more soil tilling with a big tiller. I will have to invest in some bed frames. I believe that this will make big improvement in garden maintenance: weeding, space usage in beds, sowing, planting; I won’t have to manure all garden but only beds that need it…), as it is the case with my permanent garden beds in the greenhouse.

I will also do straw mulching (or hay, whatever I can find). It’s mostly to keep the soil from drying too fast. Unfortunately, straw mulching is not big help against the weeds. It would need very thick layer of straw for that.

This is this year’s layout.

Ovogodišnji plan vrta uključuje jedan veliki zahvat: pokušati ću imati trajne vrtne gredice. Na taj način ne bih više orala i frezala zemlju, nego je samo površinski obrađivala motičicom, grabljama i slično... Morati ću investirati u neke okvire za takve gredice. Mislim da će koristi ove izmjene biti velike: lakše plijevljenje, sijanje i presađivanje, bolja organizacija prostora. Nadalje, neću više morati gnojiti cijeli vrt, nego samo tamo gdje je potrebno. Neću morati pripremati cijeli vrt odjednom, nego gredicu po gredicu – kako mi treba..
Takve prednosti već sada vidim u plasteniku gdje su gredice već na neki način organizirane kao fiksne sa stazama između.

Gore je slika ovogodišnjeg plana. Imati ću 4 velike gredice (za sveku grupu povća po jednu) i jednu malu gredicu, iza malog plastenika. A i u plastenike ću posaditi malo povrća.

Weeding in the middle of winter / Plijevljenje u sred zime

This weekend our temperatures went up to 12C (54F), so it was warm enough to go out and do some gardening. Only garden work now is weeding in the greenhouse. If only I could have this much time for weeding my summer garden it would look perfect.
I think that these permanent garden beds I have in the greenhouse make a lot of difference in a sense of maintenance of the plants and soil.

This weeks harvest includes one purple kohlrabi, some kale (Tuscan, Curled and Red Russian), chard, mache, arugula two carrots and one parsnip. It is not much, but I’m trying to spread my winter harvests over a period of time, so I can have something fresh from the garden until end of February. At that time all plants should continue their growth.

I have mice in the greenhouse. They are not doing and big damage, except eating a few carrots, but mice holes are everywhere. I have invited neighbor’s cat to find them. Hopefully she will have a good mice harvest soon.

Konačno malo toplog i sunčanog vremena! Snijeg se otopio, a i zemlja. Sada više nije zaleđena, nego je blatnjava i nemoguće je hodati po vrtu. Tako da jedini vrtlarski posao je bio čupanje korova u plasteniku. Mislim da zbog ovih gredica od cigle i plijevljenje i održavanje je puno lakše i jednostavnije.

Kad bi barem imala toliko vremena u ljeto za plijevljenje, vrt bi bio besprijekoran.

U plasteniku ima dosta povrća za ubrati. Ali pokušavam nekako razvući berbe kroz cijelu zimu, obzirom da sada ništa ne raste, nego se može brati samo ono što je do sada naraslo. Berba je mala, ali razovrsna: korabica, dvije mrkve, pastrnjak, blitva, nekoliko vrsta kelja, rukola i matovilac.

U plasteniku sam primjetila dosta mišijih rupa, pa pretpostavljam da imam jednog ili više miševa koji se kriju negdje u zemlji. Pustila sam susjedovu mačku da ih nađe, nadam se da će biti uspješna!