Beetroot

A favourite vegetable; the sweet taste and the vivid colour of red beetroot cannot be beaten. Anything that looks so luscious and has such a dramatic effect on your outputs must be doing you good.

The picture shows a 'yellow' beetroot (Burpees Golden) as well. I must say we've had better coloured ones from the same, alleged, variety.

Our allotment neighbour Jacqui recalled a favourite meal that her mother cooked: Boiled ham served with beetroot fritters. Sounded good so I had a go. Boiled the beets first before rolling in flour, dipping in the batter and then deep frying. These went down well with a glass of wine whilst the rest of dinner (not boiled ham) was cooking. I think the otherwise bland looking 'yellow' beetroot came into their own cooked like this.

Courgettes

Is it possible to grow courgettes without producing too many? I think not. If you take your car to the allotment at this time of year, it is important to keep it locked if unattended, for even the shortest time. A moment's carelessness and you may return to find that some generous soul has dumped a load of courgettes in your car when you weren't looking.

My problem is made worse because I love the look of them and the variety available, so this year I am growing 6 different ones. The photograph shows them all: Summer crookneck, de Nice, Trieste White Half Long, Lebanese and Summer Ball.

Artichokes

The artichokes were badly affected by the bad winter and at one stage looked as if they were all dead. But I am pleased to report a pheonix like recovery.

Every year the early artichokes suffer from aphid infestation that can make the flowering heads unsightly and difficult to clean. This year they have been particularly badly hit. So I decided to crop the lot, trim them close to the heart and then pickle them.

After cooking them (see picture) I removed any tough material and the chokes. They were then put into jars with a few cloves of garlic, covered with sunflower oil, sealed and then boiled for 25 minutes. We look forward to trying them in a couple of weeks time.

Hopefully the plants will put up more flower stalks and we will have a bumper crop.

Felafel

We have now harvested all of the broad beans. What we haven't eaten has gone into the freezer as they freeze well.

Broad beans are one of my favourites for flavour and being the first of the new season's legume crop. Home grown broad beans cannot be beaten as invariably shop bought ones are way too old, starchy and tough.

Rosemary isn't fond of the flavour of these beans, except when they have been knocked up into felafel. We just love these and consider them far superior to felafel made with dried beans or chick peas. Take about 100g of beans per person whizz up with the usual felafel seasonings: onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, chilli, parsley, etc. Roll into small walnut size balls and chill for 30 minutes. Deep fry until brown. I usually do this 5 or 6 at a time in the wok to minimise the amount of oil. We serve this with minted yoghurt and salad.

Building up a head of steam ....

This is a great time for an allotment gardener as more and more summer veg come on stream.

We've been digging the potatoes for about a month now and have used up all of the 1st early Lady Christl. Due to a cock-up in the labelling department when the potatoes were planted I wasn't sure about which varieties were which. Imagine the delight when I dug up these fantastic looking Edzell Blue potatoes that I didn't even remember planting. Apart from the fabulous colour (that doesn't survive cooking) these were a good yield, free from slug damage and tasted good.

I planted out a row of cucumber with a favourite variety Wautoma (seeds from The Real Seed Co.) but slug damage caused an unsightly gap in the row. So I filled it with a plant bought from a nursery White Wonder and this is it. The ghostly pale colour and smooth skin made this a very handsome fruit. The skin was a little tough so I peeled it and then it was good eating.

We have also been eating the first courgettes, globe artichokes, gooseberries, blueberries and raspberries.