Super special salsola

Have you ever eaten samphire? It’s a plant well known to all good foragers out there, salty, succulent, delicious and, best of all, free.

Well, indulging in a little seed searching at the beginning of the year I came across salsola soda from The Real Seed Catalogue,* described as ‘a beautiful ‘candelabra’ shape and crisp, crunchy thin leaves.’ I just had to grow it. And making the case for it’s similarity to the wild samphire, and Ru’s own love for that, it was an easy step to persuading him that we should try our hand at cultivating it for our salad bags. So I’m trialling it at my Clissold site, admittedly in the smallest bed we have but still, we’re giving it a go.

Perhaps I’m writing this blog just a little late for those of you out there who might want to try it, as The Real Seed Catalogue is out of stock of the seeds until December but, just in case you are a member of our box scheme, that’s what those unusual leaves in your salad bags are. I sowed the seeds directly into the soil, as per the instructions on the packet, and sowed a tray at home too, just to keep an eye on their progress.

Having not planted them before, I gave the seeds our usual salad spacing to be safe, a trowel’s length between the plants and 20 cm between the rows, so that you can easily hoe out any weeds. The directly sown seeds grew much quicker than my home sown tray but it was good to know what they looked like as they poked up a spindly shoot and then developed their ‘leaves’. As the shoot grows it separates into many ‘pieces’ - the candelabra description is just perfect, take a look…

This week Ru and I discussed when would be best to harvest it. It was only later when I was weeding the bed, that I realised that they were ready to be picked. So I tried a technique of pinching out the inner tips to get a lovely little sprig. A small, exploratory harvest, to be sure, but one that gleaned great delight from Ru and the other apprentices when I arrived at Springfield, bearing my special leaves.

If you’re lucky enough to get some in your bag over the coming weeks, enjoy!

* The Real Seed Catalogue is an excellent source of vegetable seeds. Every keen gardener I have spoken to speaks of them with almost a reverent awe, as though they are their own secret supplier of all vegetables wonderful and unique. They are not strictly organic but many are heirloom varieties, grown for good taste and variety. The seeds come packaged with what feels like personal instructions to ensure that you get success with your sowings. And they encourage you to save your seeds, which is a far cry from most other seed companies who want you coming back for more, year after year. At the end of the day, you just know they are the real thing! Justifiable promotion ends…

Harvest feast!

Well! It’s September and there’s no time quite like September for celebrating the bounty of our garden. It’s the last month of this growing season (well, my growing season anyway) and Ru decided it was high time that we had a bit of a party, all centered round what we produce best - salad. We invited volunteers and Growing Community staff and with a little planning we had a lovely Sunday afternoon at Allens Gardens.

Here’s the salad which had pride of place…

And as, of course a harvest feast can’t really be a feast without the pumpkin, I whipped up a pate from the pumpkins we picked a few weeks ago. It was a bit of a challenge to come up with something vegan so Ru could enjoy it too, but I think I just about managed!

I roasted the pumpkin in the oven with just a little bit of olive oil, roughly chopped with their bright orange skin still on. While it was roasting, I fried up some onions with garlic, allowing them to go clear but not brown. Then, when the pumpkin was smelling delicious and was soft to the touch, I blended it all up together, adding just enough soya milk to make a smooth pate. Then into the serving bowl with finely chopped chives, thrown on with a flourish…simple.

And to wash it all down we made Lamb’s Wool, a spiced apple ale which Ru was determined to concoct as a novel way to use the crab apples which have ripening in the corner by the compost bins. Here he picks the apples in preparation.

To make the warm spicy drink, take a goodly amount of apples and bake them until soft in the oven. Once they are ready, heat the ale with ginger and nutmeg and sugar to taste. Mix it all up with the baked apples and strain. We added a sneaky tot of whiskey. Apparently the name comes from the whiteness of the roasted apples rather than the fluffy foamy bubbling reaction between the apples and the ale, as we had rather hopefully been expecting…still, a delicious way to use up all those crabs!