What to Do With a Glut of Veg from Your Kitchen Garden
Growing your own organic vegetables in a Kitchen Garden is not unlike the old waiting for a bus adage.
You wait for ages then all of a sudden they all come at once
Things are really coming together now
The old KG is really looking something like now, I’ve already had some broad beans and yesterday my first one of these but today saw me with a little selection so I thought I’d share with you my first ‘harvest’ as it were.
We’ve got a courgette, chard, tomatoes, and broad beans
Freshly Picked Organic Vegetables
Not a bad little haul I hope you’ll agree - but I’m far from self-sufficient though !
For my dinner tonight I did have to add: 2 Sweet potatoes, 3 carrots, 1 onion, 2 green peppers, half a head of broccoli, 4 sausages and garlic 
hmmmm
If you think I sound greedy (how dare you) then in mitigation the courgette was huge so I only had half !
I’ve tried to spread planting out this year in order to avoid getting too much of the same at once and I also intend to do some blanching and freeze some of my crop. As the sole proprietor here it’s easy to get overwhelmed with produce but this year, I hope, more judicious planting and my legendary appetite should ensure all is well !
I’ve just looked at the post I did earlier in the year as I actually prepared the ground and it’s incredible to look at the difference then and now as I look out of the window - a bit of effort from me and a lot from mother nature seems to have worked miracles
This really is the pinnacle of things KG related for me, going out amongst all the plants you’ve grown from seed, selecting your food for the evening meal and preparing it immediately is a real delight.
I was going to say it makes all the hard work worthwhile but I’ve never felt any part of my KG was anything other than a complete pleasure and delight.
As always my thanks go out to all those who helped and encouraged me to start growing my own vegetables - would you believe this is now my third year and makes up a large part of a happy, healthy and rounded life.
Organically Yours
Rod
Little Brother said,
August 5, 2009 @ 11:17 pm
Rod,
What a great selection! The chard looks sublime, might have to ‘borrow’ some. Don’t worry, it grows back!
Well grown sir
LB
Rod said,
August 6, 2009 @ 8:04 am
LB
If I hadn’t been so hungry I’d have entered it for a prize
I’ve previous years efforts at slug control to thank for it even surviving
Cheers
Rod
juli said,
August 8, 2009 @ 6:15 pm
Looks good! Wish I’d had the foresight to plant more variety like that. I stuck with the boring staple garden delights this year, and too many of each really - managed to get a full budweiser box of potatoes (nearest box to hand when I started pulling them up!) although I was really intirgued by the fact that I planted white potatoes (ends of potatoes I’d bought that had produced shoots) and a lot of the potatoes I dug up were red!
How easy was the chard to grow? I love the stuff but am a bit of a wimp when it comes to these things (and lazy) - I tend to grow stuff that will look after itself.
Rod said,
August 8, 2009 @ 7:20 pm
Juli,
I have grown a really large variety of stuff this year - not because of expertise etc simply because I want to give everything a go - see what happens.
This is the first chard I’ve grown and it was indeed easy enough to grow - I suspect the main problem would be slugs and snails but I’ve put in the hard yards on that front so seem to have won through.
Well played on the potatoes, one thing I’ve never grown at all - did you notice much difference in the taste from shop bought ?
Cheers
Rod
juli said,
August 8, 2009 @ 8:37 pm
Definitely a difference in the taste from shop bought potatoes - indeed shop bought potatoes now taste, in comparison, well, tasteless! The home grown potatoes have a much richer, earthy flavour, and yes, before anyone asks, that’s after the mud was washed off them.
Rod said,
August 9, 2009 @ 8:21 am
Juli,
thanks for that, I may give them a go. I didn’t this year as I don’t really eat them anymore (white carb’)
I wanted to grow sweet potatoes but it seems like a non-starter.
I find a huge difference in taste in my courgettes and leeks - very startling
Cheers
Rod