I’m having a small Blackberry disaster. I got very excited when I saw the first Blackberries ripening and couldn’t wait to try them. Quite a few ripened at the same time and one was so ripe it dropped off the plant! So I knew it was time to start picking them.

They were so plump and juicy, and very big too. I picked a good handful of them and trotted off into the house to show them to under-gardener. Then I tasted one… um… that must have been an off one. Try another. Err…nope this one doesn’t taste good either. In fact, none of them tasted good. Not good at all. I wouldn’t say they tasted bad, no not bad, they just tasted of nothing. Yes, that was it, nothing! And, let’s face it, in reference to Blackberries, ‘nothing’ is not a good look.

I’m completely thrown. Why would my perfectly gorgeous Blackberries taste of nothing? Why, why would they do that to me? I mean, it’s not like I’ve got my jam-making equipment at the ready or anything!

I’ve wracked my brains. Is it lack of sun? Bad pollination? Rubbish variety (Bramble)? Just the way cultivated Blackberries taste? I’m clutching at straws now. The big question - should I give it another year or should I dig the blighter up and buy another, better-tasting one instead?

Anyone? Anyone?

I took this photo today. The Cabbages on the left are coming up for ready for harvest. The ones on the right were planted a little later.

This photo I took when the Cabbage seedlings were being planted back at the beginning of April. You can just about see the Peas pushing through the soil on the left hand side too. What a difference.

When should you fold over the tops of your Onions to encourage them to start to ripen in readiness for pulling? Well, the answer is, when they start to do it themselves anyway. Once the bulbs are big enough and the tops are heavy then the plants will naturally start to bow their tops over. You can give them a helping hand by doing it for them and creating neat rows rather than messy beds.

When you do decide to bow the tops over make sure to do it gently and if you have more than one row bend the heads in different directions to get as much sunlight to the bulbs as possible. Remember the intention here is to ripen the bulbs and encourage the tops to dry out.

Once the leaves have dried out and you can pull the bulbs easily from the soil then your onions are ready for storing.

One of the easiest vegetables to grow is Mangetout. It’s also one of those vegetables that, if you grow it yourself, will taste completely different than anything you will buy at the supermarket. There’s no hint of bitterness or aftertaste which can be the downfall of shop-bought Mangetout. I think it tastes almost exactly as sweet as freshly podded Peas but has the advantage of being bigger and crunchier than a bowl of Peas.

Brilliant with fresh humous. At this time of year you’ll be harvesting at least a bowlful everyday from a modest clutch of plants. I wouldn’t be without it. Next year, I need a taller support though. I always forget how big the plants are and they end up trailing on the ground after they have scaled my woefully inadequate Pea-sticks.

I just bought a little piece of gardening history. The best thing about it is that I didn’t know how interesting it was when I bought it. It’s the Ryder’s Vegetable and Flower Seed Book for 1948. That’s a seed catalogue to you and I. Beautiful ain’t it?

I just love the faded colour in the illustrations and the typography used in the logo. What a find?

I didn’t really think much about the date on the cover ‘1948′ when I bought it. I just thought, oh that’s a nice vintage seed catalogue. But when I read the welcome message on the opening page I realised that, of course, it’s only three year’s after the second world war and gardeners are still ‘digging to live’.
Here’s what it said:

“On the 6th August, 1947, the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. C. R. Attlee, pronounced in the House of Commons… ‘We must produce a great deal more of our food at home to replace imports which we can no longer afford to buy….’
Subsequent events have given added prominence to this warning, and the sorry fact exists that in this 1948 season, running into three years after the cessation of the second world war, we of these old and historic islands must literally ‘DIG to LIVE’.
Everything that can be won from the soil must be of value to the Nation and none more valuable at such a time than fresh vegetable foodstuffs.”

This is pretty cool in itself but then I did some err… digging around to see if Ryder’s seed merchants still exist. I don’t think they do because I found a house for sale in St Albans on ‘Ryder Seeds Mews, built on the former site of Ryder’s seed merchants’.

But, I did find some information on Samuel Ryder, the guy who founded Ryder’s seeds in the 1890’s. He has a wikipedia entry and it turns out that he was the first person to start selling ‘garden seeds in penny packets’. Apparently he built a successful business on the concept and became very rich. Later, he developed an interest in golf and started a little golfing tournament called… wait for it… The Ryder Cup.

I know! Crazy. What a fascinating story? I must say, I’m hooked. I think collecting vintage seed catalogues is my new mini-obsession. Alongside vegetable gardening of course.

Yesterday, I picked my first Peas. Most of them were delicious. However, there was the odd pod or two that didn’t quite taste as good as the rest. But why? The answer is I’d left them on the plant just a tad too long.

What you’re looking for is Peas that are round and green (as above).

What you’re not looking for is Peas that are square-ish and pale green (as below).

These Peas have been left too long on the plant. They have out-grown their pod and the taste has started to decline. They don’t taste quite as sweet as the round, green Peas. Some people would describe them as ‘mealy’, which just means that they have a thicker texture than younger Peas and they don’t go ‘pop’ in your mouth like the others will.

You can tell the difference before you open the pod. The old pods will feel fuller and there will be a slight difference in colour on the outside of the pods. The top pod in the photo above is the older one and you can see that it’s slightly lighter in colour than the bottom one. They might also start to curve and develop a pronounced texture on the outside of the pod if left a very long time.

Pick them regularly to avoid this. Sometimes only one or two pods a day will be ready but you can either eat them as they come or freeze them until you have enough to use. Either way is fab.

But if your Peas have gone too far don’t despair. You can still use them in soups etc.

Here’s your next photo mission. Take a photo of your favourite summer pairings. It has to be something you grew (edible of course) paired with your favourite accompaniment. As you can see I like to settle down on my deck, in the evening, with a massive bowl of Strawberries and a glass of chilled rosé. Ahhh!

But you don’t have to go for Strawberries and wine, you could choose New Potatoes with Mint, Salmon with Dill, or even Radish with Yoghurt - whatever floats your boat.

Send your photos to gill [at] carsonified [dot] com and I’ll make a post of the best photos. I might even choose a winner this time!

Ever since I watched the Victorian Kitchen Garden DVD I have had a micro obsession with White Currants. No Victorian garden would have been without its White Currant bush and so in my quest to copy the Victorian’s (albeit on a tiny scale) I planted a bush the year before last.

It didn’t do much in its first year. But this year it has produced a good handful of currants. I snipped them off as soon as they were ripe (before the birds could have a go) and this is what I harvested. It’s best to take the whole sprig rather than try to harvest every currant.

Now, the big question is what do you do with them. I don’t have enough to make jam, which seems to be the stock answer for ‘what to do with White Currants’. I must admit I couldn’t find that many recipes online. This Red, White Currant and Cherry Fool sounds quite nice but I don’t have any cherries. Anyone got any other ideas?

The tanginess level of a White Currant is about the same as a Gooseberry so I guess I could try some Gooseberry recipes. Or chuck em in with some of my Strawberries and go for Summer Pudding.

Okay, so maybe this recipe doesn’t strictly use anything that I actually grew. But I’m including it here for three reasons; firstly, because there aren’t many recipes online specifically for baby biscuits (normal biscuits with tons of sugar in them, yes, but baby biscuits well not really). Secondly, I’m fed up of spending money on Organix biscuits that are just as easy to make at home (nothing against Organix, some of their stuff is really nice). And thirdly, I took some nice photos of them that I wanted to share with you.

I put the recipe together using a normal Gingerbread Man recipe but I’ve reduced the sugar, exchanged most of the Golden Syrup for honey and added orange juice to replace some of the sweetness. You might think that 100g of sugar is still quite a bit for a baby but this recipe makes at least 25 - 30 biscuits and when you taste them you’ll see that they’re not sweet at all. So here goes…

Gingerbread Biscuits for Babies

Makes around 25 biscuits

Preheat oven to 190 degrees (gas mark 5)

Ingredients:

• 350g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons ground Ginger
• 100g unsalted butter
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon Golden Syrup
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger in a bowl.
2. Rub in the butter to make fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar.

3. Add the honey, golden syrup, beaten egg and orange juice.
4. Bind together and knead on a floured surface until smooth. You can chill it in the fridge at this point if it’s too sticky.
5. Roll out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut out biscuits and place of a buttered baking sheet.
6. Bake in the oven for 8-10 mins. Keep an eye on them as they will burn quickly and become too hard.

*Remember, because the biscuits contain honey they shouldn’t be given to infants under one.

Happy eating!

After the disappointment of the last few days I thought I would cheer myself up with a sweet little summer treat - yep, hold the front page, the Strawberries are ready!

There’s nothing quite like that first taste of juicy, sweet, slightly warm but oh so ripe Strawberry. And there’s only one way to enjoy it - stuff it in your mouth and eat it as quickly as possible. As demonstrated by my lovely assistant.

Now, if only I could get away with eating like that…hmmm.