As you can see, there were also two more of the "Mini Munch" cucumbers, and the last of my "Modrava" Kohlrabi.
Whilst the Kohlrabi have been good from the growing point of view, they have not been so much of a success in the kitchen. Quite simply their taste has been too strong and unpleasantly "brassica-ey". I think if I grow Kohlrabi again it will be a green variety, which I think tend to be rather sweeter and milder.
More to our liking are the Carrots, which are now available in quantity - the biggest quantity I have ever grown, with three substantial rows of them in that big new raised bed of mine. They are beautifully sweet and tasty. I think the difference in taste between a fresh home-grown carrot and a stale shop-bought one is massive.
Pulling carrots is always a bit of a lucky dip affair. I judge the likely size of a carrot by the diameter of its visible crown, but what is down below often varies a lot. The short stubby one on the left of this photo looked OK at ground level, but it turned out to be only about two inches long. On the other hand the big "Autumn King" one in the center was so big that all the leaves came away as I tried to pull it up!
This week also saw me harvesting the first really good "Webbs Wonderful" lettuce. This is an Iceberg type, so it grows pretty big.
But of course it is only the heart that you eat. The big, coarse outer leaves are discarded, and you end up with a dense "cannonball" like this:
This would have been perfect for shredding, to serve with some tacos, or a burger maybe, but we had it as a Wedge Salad.
The Wedge Salad is something we first encountered on a trip to San Francisco many years ago. The lettuce is halved or quartered (cut into wedges) depending on how big it is, and chilled. Shortly before serving it is smothered in a creamy blue cheese sauce and topped with halved cherry tomatoes. Talking of which, these are the said cherry tomatoes...
Not a lot, but since they were the first ripe tomatoes of the year, very significant. And here is the salad I described:
Yum! This is the perfect accompaniment to steak and chips.
I picked one of the big "Elyburg" Lettuces:
You have probably seen me write about these before. I have found that three quarters of the leaves are not really edible - they are just too tough - and it is only the inner heart which is any good. Not impressed!
Finally for this week, another couple of Beetroot. These are "Baby Beet Action" from Marshalls.
We don't usually do anything fancy with beetroot. We just eat them plain boiled, preferably served still just warm.
********************************************************************************
I'm linking this post to Harvest Monday over on Daphne's Dandelions, where I'm sure you will find all manner of nice home-grown goodies being showcased.
