The big thaw happened this week with daytime temperatures jumping from -7C to 13C pretty much overnight. Bonkers or what? The ground is easy to work again just in time to harvest some Christmas dinner veg, but it certainly didn’t feel very Christmassy today in the heavy rain. It has rained quite heavily since Monday with strong winds at times, the ground around the allotment site is quickly becoming a quagmire.
I pulled some parsnips which will be sweeter after the frost, despite the softer ground I still had a bit of a fight to get some of them out due to the length of the roots. I guess the summer drought forced them to go even deeper looking for water. Of course, there’s the usual oddity amongst them and I accidentally snapped the biggest one (far right) during the mud wrestle.
The winter cabbages are looking great and the Brussels sprouts a bit pathetic, but I have some to harvest so mustn’t grumble!
No carrots to show, the voles have eaten them all. Grrr. But look….the broad beans have been spared. For now.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Allotment Haven 
Looks like a fabulous harvest to me! Plan to get my sprouts from the allotment on Saturday, all being well. Happy Christmas to you!! xx
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Thanks Anne : ) I won’t have much time on Saturday so today it was! I hope the weather is kinder to you, I got soaked! xx
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Your Brussels sprouts are not so bad and your cabbage and parsnips are beautiful.
Happy Christmas to you!
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The sprouts are much smaller than they look in the photos, I’m happy to have any at all.
Have fun this Christmas x
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Your soil looks really nice!
It’s taken me some effort to work parsnips into our menus, now that we have we love them even though they often look a bit like Harry Potter’s Mandrake!
Great winter veg!
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Ah thanks, rotted chicken manure really helps! Ha ha that’s brilliant I love anything Harry Potter, have you ever grown celeriac? They look SO much like Mandrakes!
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We grow oodles of celeriac! It winters very well and we make salads and use the stalks and root in savory veg pies, soups, etc… I use our kitchen mandolin on the finest setting for a coriander slaw that’s become a hit in the household.
The “recipe” more or less is:
– 3-4 handfuls of the base veg. If it is a tough leaf or root vegetable chop it finely (with celeriac I use the finest setting so the output is thinner than matchsticks)
– 2-4 green onions depending on size… maybe 1/3 cup
– Mayo (we make ours since we have a lot of fresh eggs, and I use lime juice as the acid – enough to coat the veg well… 3-4 tbsp? 1/4 cup
– whole coriander seed tbsp or more if you like it, coarsely ground – we use a mortar and pestle
– clove of garlic minced
– zest of one lime
– 1 large fresh Serrano pepper seeds and all fine dice- pickled jalapeños work well too but I use two
– cilantro handful stems fine chopped leaves coarsely chopped
– small carrot, grated (if you’ve got it.
– tbsp lime juice
– salt tsp or to taste
My wife dehydrated our leek greens last year and ground them. Onion powder but better. I’ll often toss a good dash on the slaw too.
I think that’s more or less it.
Let it sit for 5-15 minutes depending on the ruggedness of your chosen veg.
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Perfect use for celeriac, thanks so much for your recipe.
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You did well considering the roller-coaster weather through the year. Shame about the carrots.
Thanks, and for you too. xx
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It has certainly been a tricky year, thanks Flighty xx
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A good haul that will taste all the better for the effort to retrieve them. Enjoy!
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I can never get cabbage to grow in my garden that gloriously! Despite efforts to repel slugs and earwigs, they always get to them and the heads end up looking like a ball of lacework.
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Oh that’s a shame about your cabbages, slugs can be a problem here too, have you tried using wool pellets or mats? I have been very lucky so far with growing them, I used to shy away from trying but glad I gave them a go. Fine netting is a must to stop pigeons stripping the seedlings down to stalks, later on in the year butterflies lay eggs.
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