organic vegetables

Every day someone asks me when is the best time to plant this, or that. Autumn is a very productive planting time, while the soil is still warm, and particularly here in the Highlands, so moist. I have planted a little kitchen garden at the shop and everything is jumping out of it’s skin with vigour after all the lovely rain. Currently we have a wide range of vegetable, herb and flower seedlings in stock – snowpeas, broccoli, various cauliflower varieties, Tuscan kale, beetroot, lettuce, leek, salad greens, rocket, silverbeet, English spinach, baby spinach along with French tarragon, thyme, curly parsley, Italian parsley, regular mint, Vietnamese mint, Moroccan mint, chocolate mint, fennel, chives, and various basil varieties. For the flower garden we have pansies galore, sweet william, sweet peas, lobelia, lisianthus, foxgloves, larkspur, violas, stock, primulas in various colours and lots more I can’t remember at this moment! We will soon also be stocking a wide variety of heirloom vegetable seeds, most certified organic, so you can try your hand at some of the old fashioned varieties which are generally tastier, hardier and often very decorative in the garden. In the meantime here’s a handy reference list for Autumn seed planting … courtesy of Eden Seeds. Happy gardening!

• Broad Beans

• Beetroot

• Broccoli

• Brussels Sprouts

• Cabbage

• Carrot

• Cauliflower

• Celery

• Celeriac

• Collards

• Kale

• Kohl Rabi

• Leek

• Lettuce

• Mustard Greens

• Onions

• Parsnip

• Peas

• Radish

• Salad Greens
* Mesclun Mix
* Corn Salad
* Edible Chrysanthemum
* Endive
* Mizuna
* Rocket
* Tatsoi
* Purslane
* Mountain Spinach

• Salsify

• Shallots

• Silverbeet

• Spinach

• Swede

• Turnip

• Asian Vegetables

• Herbs

For growers in the tropics and frost free sub-tropics, you can also benefit from planting:

• Broad Bean

• Bush Beans

• Climbing Beans

• Beetroot

• Broccoli

• Brussels Sprouts

• Cabbage

• Capsicum

• Carrot

• Cauliflower

• Celery

• Collards

• Maize/Sweet Corn

• Cucumber

• Eggplant

• Gourd

• Kale

• Kohl Rabi

• Leek

• Lettuce

• Okra

• Mustard Greens

• Pumpkin

• Radish

• Rockmelon

• Salad Greens
* Mesclun Mix
* Corn Salad
* Edible Chrysanthemum
* Endive
* Mizuna
* Rocket
* Tatsoi
* Purslane
* Kang Kong
* Shallots

• Silverbeet

• Spinach

• Squash

• Sunflower

• Tomato

• Watermelon

• Zucchini

• Asian Vegetables

• Herbs

In May this year, following a memorable visit to London’s Chelsea Flower Show, RHS Wisley, Hidcote, Daylesford and various theatre and gallery outings, we had lunch at Petersham Nurseries . It was impressive – simple, seasonal, perfectly prepared and presented. Paul and I ordered the asparagus starter – served simply with boiled eggs, a capsicum and chilli coulis and sprinkled with edibles. So fresh and full of flavour … truly delicious. Inspired, I came home and planted more asparagus in the garden. You have to wait for a few years to get a good crop, but once established your crowns will deliver daily delights each Spring for 20 years or more. There is nothing like the taste of those spears cut early in the morning and poached quickly for the breakfast plate. Just add butter. Don’t mess around with asparagus … it’s paradise just on its own if picked fresh. And then overnight, as if by magic, up they come again, little lovely fat spears waiting to be cut again the following day. I’ll never forget one year at Country Trader‘s very swanky Christmas party there were giant bowls of asparagus in the most extravagant display I’d ever seen … voluminous bunches accompanied by Hollandaise sauce. Dip, sip, dip, sip. Bollinger Champagne and fresh, warm asparagus … heaven!

So whether you’re growing your own or buying from the local Farmers Markets here’s what goes well with asparagus, as advised in Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion:

artichokes

bacon

breadcrumbs

butter

capers

chervil

chives

cream

eggs

gruyere cheese

ham

light soy sauce