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Good
Value Vegetables
Straightaway let me say I dont dislike
vegetables, I hate them.Not all of them
but certainly the common types such as cabbage,
turnips, onions, brussels sprouts and lettuce.
The list of those which I do enjoy is shorter,
with potatoes,peas,beans and carrots hardly
enough to fill the page. To this meagre total
I will add some of the most fantastic, flavoursome
vegetables money can buy-or you can grow. Number
one has to be asparagus .If you havent
the taste for this vegetable it may be the result
of eating produce which wasnt fresh or
poor cooking in a busy restaurant.
Steamed and served piping hot with melted butter
it is a meal on its own.
A well drained, alkaline site, free of perennial
weeds is ideal Dig it over and add lots of farmyard
manure. Asparagus may be grown from seed but
planting 2 year old crowns will ensure quick
results. Plant in a 9 inch deep trench on a
mound of soil. Spread the roots and cover with
fine soil. The first year after planting allow
all the spears to develop into ferny stems.
Remove any red berries before they fall. As
the foliage turns yellow cut it down to within
2 inches of the ground. Mulch with seaweed in
spring. In the second year harvest a few spears
when they are 4-5 inches high. Cut 3 inches
below soil level. Stop havesting by mid June.
Male varieties will produce larger crops.
Then there is globe artichoke. I love this plant
.It makes a marvellous herbaceous plant with
bold, grey-green foliage and marvellous big,
thistle-like blue flowers. When the heads are
still green and before the flower head opens
harvest the artichoke. Run to the kitchen with
it, remove the outer layer of scales, wash and
boil in salted water for 30 mins. If you are
hungry suck the base of the scales, or, if you
have lots of globes just eat the fleshy base
plate (fond). Dont forget the butter.
Plant in light, well drained soil at least 3
ft apart. Mulch in early summer and feed every
fortnight. Camus de Bretagne and Vert de Laon
are the best varieties. Propagate by removing
off sets and planting up.
Call me fussy but there is more to life than
cabbage.
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