Field Grafting June update

This is the latest development in the apple grafting. Last night I untied the plastic binding joining the root stock and the scion and miraculously the new graft grows on the old stock.






And here is the position looking out towards the Long Mynd.

Latest prize

This is the sort of thing that makes gardening worthwhile, despite the disappointments, seeds that don't germinate, numerous pests reaching beloved plants first, poor summers etc etc. when the broad bean season arrives it is all wonderful.
This meal is only really possible if you grow them yourself, a great dish full of small and the tenderest beans, still raw, along with chopped up home-grown green peppers (with a pep to them), purple spring onions, cherry tomatoes, fresh thyme and chervil added with the dressing. Later I added the Feta cheese, a perfect balance with the beans (not in photo as I knew we couldn't wait to eat it all up.)

A thing of beauty!

More in the series of strange purple foods. This year, willing it to be a scorcher, I decided to grow aubergines, (poor deluded fool I am) but also, more sensibly for our climate here, I sowed some kohlrabi seeds too. Now I've nestled them into the asparagus bed, which I realise is a no no, but space is short.
Here is a picture of them to inspire great wonder.

Eat, eat, eat

We are what we eat - so make sure it's good.

This is rare cooked roast Belted Galloway rolled sirloin. The most crucial bit of kit is our meat thermometer as cooking time varies enormously from joint to joint. This time we cooked this piece (about 1.2kg) for 35 mins.
Today we had it with peppy rocket leaves from the garden in a horseradishy mayonnaise. I rarely get round to digging our horseradish up so am a great believer in the English Provender (80%) Hot Horseradish, not those scary jars with 20% HD in (and the rest made up with titanium dioxide to make it white. Titanium is fine in emulsion paint, but I don't really recommend eating the stuff.

Heaven on a plate

4th June, warm sunny day spent planting things out in the garden and rearranging spring flowers now gone over and replacing them with dahlia seedlings and Rudbeckias.

Then picked a wonderful mix of asparagus and our first sugar snap peas and the last of the leek spears. This is a secret which, for some reason, passes many people by. Don't compost your leeks when the flower spikes are forming, but eat them, they are tender and sweet and have a delicate flavour. I steam them with the asparagus for about 6 mins (testing for done-ness) 2 mins before they are ready add the sugar snap peas. Have a little butter melting on warmed plates, pitch the vegetables in a yummy heap into the butter (carefully counting out each to avoid a row). Savour just like that.