Grow Crazy Things ….

‘Grow crazy things’, was the advice from someone on the Gardeners’ Question Time team some years ago when asked what vegetables the questioner should grow. 

We’ve never been good at growing vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, peas …. they all develop into grotesque shapes, stunted and deformed. It’s not that I want ‘perfect’ veggies, but these have been so far away from their glossy seed catalogue images we’ve just lost heart. 

But then there’s the indestructible Triffid-like courgette. We manage these and now we’re in the honeymoon period of enjoying our first crop this year. It won’t last we know, but for now we enjoy a delicious courgette, pea and mint soup. 

More exciting is the artichoke - our ‘crazy vegetable’. On holidays in France we fell in love with these gorgeous members of the thistle family, and realising that they were rare visitors to local greengrocers, we decided - against the odds - to cultivate our own.  

Years later, they’re still here, providing us with summer luxury. We eat them hot, tearing off the leaves and dipping them in butter before the delicate surgical removal of the choke from the delicious heart, discounting the cold-with-vinaigrette tradition.  

So harvesting and cooking is the limit of today’s activity. That and watching a tense but disappointing Lions game. Friends bring cake and flowers, and G does the weekly shop. I still feel drained and I’ve yet to look at any journals, but thank you once again for all your lovely comments, stars and hearts.