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| wild garlic in my back garden |
Now that April's there,
Robert Browning, 1812-1889
April is known as a "cruel month", not least because it is rather lean in terms of seasonal British produce. Stores of British fruit and vegetables are coming to an end and the new crops of vegetables are not up to maximum strength yet. Fortunately spring greens are beginning to appear, such as lettuce and watercress as well as spinach and broccoli, so it’s not all doom and gloom. I have just discovered a whole load of wild garlic in my garden, which makes me very happy, as you can imagine. I shall be making soup in the very near future.
We seem to have good and bad days; a capricious month of bright sunshine and grey clouds. Last week, it was t-shirt weather and I got slightly sunburned. Today, the sky is grey and I am wearing layers! It may be the time of the proverbial "April showers", but spring is most definitely here and the garden is coming to life. There are still warming winter stews to cook as well as satisfying soups. And since Easter is around the corner, an excuse for lots of cakes and hot cross buns (as if you needed much of an excuse!)
vegetables, herbs and wild greens:
artichokes (Jerusalem), asparagus, basil, broccoli (purple sprouting), cabbages (various green varieties), carrots, cauliflower, chard, chicory, chives, dandelions, dill, endive, fat hen, greens (spring and winter), hop shoots, jersey royal new potatoes, kale, leeks, lettuces and salad leaves, meadowsweet, mint, morel mushrooms, nettles, onions, parsley, potatoes (main crop), radishes, rosemary, samphire, sea kale, sea spinach, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, watercress, wild chervil (aka cow parsley), wild garlic (ransoms), wild rocket
fruit and nuts:
bramley apples, rhubarb
meat and game:
beef, chicken, pork, rabbit, spring lamb, turkey, wood pigeon
fish and shellfish:
cockles, cod, coley, conger eel, crab (brown and cock), dab, dover sole, haddock, john dory, lemon sole, lobster, mackerel, mussels, oysters, pollack, prawns, salmon (wild), scallops, sea bass, sea trout, shrimp, whelks, whitebait
4 comments:
oh YES... wild garlic.. thank the lord!
hrrrm, I take it you don't have cats? Mine have chewed their way through my (normal) garlic.
Looks REALLY pretty!
Dom - am going to be making all sorts of goodies. There is masses of this stuff . . . I've only been living here for about a year and I didn't notice it last year! Doh!
Fiona - I am so lucky that my elderly cat is a creature of very picky tastes. And fortunately it's not for wild garlic!
Looking at that list is making me hungry as I think of all the recipe possibilities! Bought some lovely scallops today - very excited to cook them. Also looking forward to the Jerseys.
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