Drizzling today: 'cold, becoming clammier later' could have been the forecast. It was a bit like returning to the scene of a crime (I imagine) – who stole all the plants? Oh yes we did. Gulp. There is a lot of bare soil, more like a scene from February on the plot than July. Eating the last of the salad last night I felt a twinge of regret knowing it would be some time before we ate another allotment salad. To compound matters we even took out the broad beans. It didn't look like tying them up would give them any more vigour or hope to carry on, so out they came. Delicious though, sweet and almost creamy, steamed for 60 seconds in 1cm of mint-filled water, then covered in olive oil and finely chopped mint, bliss.
We compost the debris, and rake the soil, laying out new rills for sowing. Rocket, turkish rocket, mizuna, various lettuce and mixed salad. Somehow I have conspired to leave our 'national collection of chicory/endive seed' at home so will return there today. I have a winter dream of rows of plump crisp purple chicories covered in an icing of frost. For the past two years we've attempted to recreate a vision of the Italian Veneto in winter, but failed. Either they have been planted too late and are consequently too frail to withstand the colder months. Or we are too early and they bolt into an armada of blue chicory flowers. Anyone with ideas on healthy winter chicories/endives/radicchio, we'd love to hear?
