I'm a big believer in the organic movement, not through any artsy-fartsy London fresh and wild outlook, but because I genuinely believe that we don't know the long term effects of the stuff that some of our farmers have been spraying on the land - and let's not even get me started on GM, because there really isn't any excuse to play god, anyway - enough politics - I'll write about that later. Let's get on to growing things; now even in my most optimistic moods I'm quite happy to confess 3 things:
There, now I've got that to one side we can get on with the fun bit - the growing, or at least my ramblings on what I have been growing and what I'm planning to over the next few months.
This Summer has been the first where I've been pretty much self-sufficient in terms of some of my most regular and favourite herbs: Basil, Thyme, Spring Onions, Chives and Sage - all grown from seed and I've been amazed at how they've thrived in the summer sunshine to provide me with an ample supply of fresh leaves that would have kept even the most prolific home cooks in business. Now don't scoff, I know it's only five but this is coming from a boy who up until now has killed everything - and I do mean everything, green that has ever had the misfortune to cross my threshold, so I regard this as a great success.
The Basil has been vivid green, triffidley prolific and so wonderfully aromatic it's graced so many sauces and salads I've lost count - I've written up a few of the best of these, and I intend to upload them as soon as time allows, the Thyme and the Sage have also been successful, the Thyme has complimented meat and veg alike and added a beautifully mellow herbal hit to anything that it's been thrown into the pan with - the Sage on the other hand has been successful in a different way, it's grown well, but as a 'live' herb it's not got the pungency of dried sage so I'm currently experimenting with various ways of drying it out - and at this stage I must say I've not yet found a reliable method of doing this:- but there's time!
That aside when I have used it 'green', as with the Thyme, it's added a wonderful mellow herbalness to some of the things I've prepared, especially the meatballs in my Pasticcio where breaking from godfather traditions I substituted veal mince (which I simply couldn't find) for equal quantities of Beef and Pork mince with a generous handful of my mellow Sage. Finally, the chives and spring onions, both of which have grown stupendously well and have been regularly dug up or snipped and liberally sprinkled in and over just about everything that requires that special something that only those two herbs can give and, much to my liking both have been slightly sharper than their supermarket cousins and that's before one even pauses to consider the extra level of crunch given by the sheer freshness of home-grown herbs.
Buoyed by these successes my thinking has been spurred on to bigger and better things for next season, and to be honest, with the great successes of this summer under my belt there's no stopping me: I may be limited on space, but with a few pots and a little more time I think I'll be able to raise a wider variety of herbs and maybe even a small crop of small fruits and veg - I'll certainly not be feeding myself all year round, not even a full month I wouldn't think - but I'm sure anything I do grow will taste a thousands times sweeter than anything available locally.
So what to grow, well with space and time and unfortunately landlord enforced aesthetics against me it'll have to be something that can be grown in containers, so I've been considering some of the following: On the veg front I'm considering Carrots, Peas, Beans and Perpetual Spinach - I know carrots would be the most limited crop, based on space alone, but I do think it'd be worthwhile giving it a try, I'm going to have to do my research to find if there are any 'stunted' varieties that'll grow short and fat due to my containerised limitations, but if that hurdle can be overcome I think I'd have enough to serve up some sweet, fresh, entirely organic carrots a few times a year.
The other things on the list are no-brainers really, peas and beans are both vertical growers, so with my space limitations they'd be perfect and (here I will be consulting that great resource: the-back-of-the-packet) if I can find a variety that's a heavy cropper it should provide a few good crops during the summer - now I've already heard that it's not worth growing peas because they're just as good frozen, but I'm going to ignore that advice because I'd like to discover just precisely how many meals you can actually get out of a pot full of peas.
I've also been considering fruits, and if truth be told it'll probably be Strawberries, so I'm not sure whether I'll grow from seed (and then have to wait a year or two for fruits) or whether I should cheat and find an organic source to find some youngish plants that are likely to give me a summer crop of strawberries for the days when only strawberries, cream and a good wine will do, elsewhere on the fruit front I think I'm probably going to have to make do with the local supply and possibly see if I can tempt my father into leaving the apple trees in his garden au-natural so I can safely take a crop from his trees next autumn.
Finally onto herbs - and here I really could run the gamut - definitely on the list for next year alongside the already thriving essential five are: Oregano, More Basil (perhaps a different variety), Mint, Parsley (this year bought as a plant from the supermarket - which it must be said turned out to be a disaster importing a nasty mite into my other herbs that required some urgent re-potting and some time outdoors!) and finally on a slightly larger scale Bay and perhaps a small rosemary bush - I'm also toying with the idea of some lovage and coriander, but we'll have to see... so that's what I've grown, and that's a sneak preview of what I'm intending to grow this coming season. It has to be confessed I'm such a bloody amateur when it comes to this green fingered lark it's just not funny, so any advice, pointers or fore-warnings of disasters will be very much appreciated to the usual address!