i grow and eat tons of kohl rabi, it makes a delicious oil based slaw, grate it along with carrot , fine sliced red onion , chopped parsley , lemon juice and a bit of zest, olive oil , salt and pepper,,,,, awesome with a bbq as a side, also great on in a bun with a burger for a real crunch
People laugh when I tell them one reason why I planted a food forest in my backyard. I have all the normal reasons, save on groceries, self sufficiency, etc..., but I have one or two more. I live in an extremely hot place. The average tree will lower the surrounding temperature as much as 8 degrees (Fahrenheit) , and the results are cumulative. Plant 2 trees, and the temperature decreases as much as 16 degrees, 3 trees= -24 degrees. My electric bill decreases drastically with every tree I plant, and I don't have to weed or worry about my neighbors spying on me. It's great!
@@Toomanycatz Check with your HOA first before planting anything. Mine won't let me plant food in the front yard and has a limit to the number of trees in the front yard. After that, it's just a matter of practice, knowing your soil type and knowing how much sunlight and moisture you get. Most land grant universities in America have a soil test that they will do for gardeners, and it usually costs about 20.00 Just request the kit from your local land grant university (and every state has to have at least one), and follow their instructions. After that, take a good look at how much food you eat (not what you want to be eating but what you actually do eat), and figure out what trees it comes from. Then plant those trees. Look into local gardening groups for more help. If you have any questions or problems, just ask. I'm here to help too.
I replaced all my hosta with different coloured Chard. I had people stopping me and asking me what kind of a tropical plant that was ... Yes, Chard is fantastic
Great video Huw.I eat turnips and celeriac instead of potatoes because they are both low carb, which helps tremendously with my diabetic diet. My turnips haven't grown well this year and I am missing them. I can not find turnips in the shops, let alone organic ones so feeling a bit left out at the mo, when the rest of the family are tucking in to their roast potatoes, chips etc. 😞 Being vegetarian, I eat all veg apart from Chard- I really don't like the 'earthy' taste of i. Are some varieties sweeter than others? happy gardening 🙂
I've got to put in some support for kale. The best way I know to have it, is the Dutch traditional 'kale and sausage' winter dish (boerenkool met worst), where you finely shred the de-ribbed kale leaves (curly and/or cavolo nero), boil them in the same pan as mashing potatoes (300g kale to a kg of potatoes works), drain it, mash it up with milk, butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg - and have that with smoked sausage and lots of mustard. Winter warming guaranteed!
very popular in Northern Germany as well, though I personally never liked it myself 😅 The kale is best to harvest after it has had it‘s first frost, at least that is what they do in Germany. Apparently it makes it sweeter or more palatable…
I like the new spin on a familiar format Huw! 2 weeks ago my mum brought me some onion and sjalot sets. She was adamant I could still plant them. I have to be honest and think that is a little too enthusiastic, but since my first crop is suffering quite badly from slug (!!) damage, I'm just going to give them a grow. I might get lucky, and if not, no harm done. It's a wild season anyway; loads of losses due to the weather and slugs, but on the other hand some of the best berry harvests in years. It's all about adapting and celebrating successes
My Polish friend made salad with kohlrabi raw. It is now my favourite veg to grow. Dressed with oil, lemon, salt and pepper on raw chopped cohlrabi is AMAZING as a side dish with hot or cold food.
Gonna make those nasturtium capers, thanks for that. Another good kale tip is to make pesto out of it with a load of garlic and toasted nuts, preferably pistachios or pine nuts, maybe with a little tarragon, scallion or chives
Haha somehow I’ve missed your meh about kale amongst the leek and potato propaganda 😂 I love Kale, but not if anyone else cooks it! Less than a minute in a hot pan moving constantly, seasoned or not is great but boiled, steamed or grilled 🤢 Dehydrated crisps are good too or super finely ribboned in the last 30 seconds of a stir fry 😋 but I’m guessing you’ve tried most of these 😅
Here to second that kale is usually served severely overcooked! The biggest blessing of growing your own kale is that you can harvest the leaves while they're still young and tender; if the stems are bigger than a pencil you completely missed the window. I do steam my kale, but only until it turns bright green and just barely starts to wilt, so it stays nice and sweet. If I stirfry it, I do it just like spinach: garlic first to flavor the oil (because even garlic can take longer to cook than the kale needs), then toss the kale through super quick, and out as soon as it softens!
I thought for a moment that was a glass of wine in your hand. 😉 best thing I did for my polytunnel this year was buy a solar powered watering kit that doesn't need mains water. I put guttering down one side of the tunnel & cut down a 205l barrel to fit under the spout. I then use a bucket to transfer the collected water into my IBC - takes less than a minute to transfer 100 litres.
Almost 100 F where I live. Probably still way too early for some of these. 😕 We barely get a spring or fall, sadly. It goes from 90+ F to 20 F almost overnight
I'm from Idaho, thanks for all the tips! I didn't think of putting beans around for filler. I love that idea! I'm inspired to plant more radishes and beets. Next year I'll try more lettuce varieties...maybe I can still do that in the fall. Pretty hot here now. Good day to you!
Hey neighbor, I’m in eastern Washington. Grand Rapids lettuce is the most heat-tolerant variety I have grown so far. I think several growers sell it so have a search around and order a packet to try. It’s a loose leaf that I grow a lot of and just harvest the outer leaves and keep it going.
Turnips - I planted them far too early this year (in April), and they all bolted. Although saying that, the bees at least are enjoying the flowers! Great episode by the way; now that I've harvested my garlic, I'm going to sow some carrots, beets and chard in their place.
I do enjoy turnip or swede mash but also cube, and roast in a little oil and maple syrup (same as carrots and parsnips 😋) I always steam for a little bit first to soften the veg, then roast 👌
Just brilliant advice.i have noticed that I get better results from midsummer sowings here in Ireland these days. September is almost always dry & warm .
Here's a senior style recipe for 'MASTER BUNNY 16th Hole Newport News Greens" Stroke 1. Cut the tops of the carrots YOU planted, leaving about 4 inches of green growth for the carrot root. Stroke 2: Gather enough tender carrot leaves to get at least 2 cups of the tender leaves which you pull off by hand, discarding the stalks. Stroke 3. Rinse off the carrot tops in clean water to avoid government chemical residue/tainted water hazard that YOU didn't spray onto your garden. Stroke 4: Slice off 2 to 3 TBSP of real butter and favorably drop the butter into a sautés pan. Stroke 5: When the butter is melted, toss in the carrot greens and sauté quite a bit until the greens look like well-done spinach. Stroke 6: Salt to taste or season to taste with Tabasco or soy sauce , then enjoy your MASTER BUNNY greens.
wow my mouth is watering. Im growing all my veg for my rabbits and cut the carrot tops to feed them leaving the carrots in the ground. I think the buns will now be sharing the carrot tops with me.
I really don't know why I keep trying to plant stuff in July in my garden... My temps are around 40C during the day and around 25C during the night. No matter how much I water, the air is so hot that nothing does well. It will stay like this until the middle of August, when it goes down to 30C. Officially, I am in zona 7a because of the average temp but averages mean nothing.
"one of the main things that you need to be doing at the moment, is thinking about watering.." Huw, if only. 😅 It's been the coldest, dullest summer in my lifetime, with no sign of change...tomato and courgette plants are dying, let alone fruiting, and even the blueberry bushes are getting their autumn colours. It's depressing 🙁
I would gladly give you half my dry heat. I haven't had rain in a month and the irrigation is suffering. Temperatures between 85 and 100, nothing but sun. Oh, I'm wrong. We sometimes have clouds that make you think rain is coming, but it never does.
@@CWorgen5732 Oh no, hoping you get some rain soon🤞That's tough, especially when the soil dry out so much. We had the warmest May on record! The coldest June in a decade (last year was the warmest June on record)...and July is looking to be one of (if not the) coldest on record too. This awful Climate Change. 😞So unpredictable, so hard to plan for.
Huw, I'm thinking it's about time for you to start a cooking show! This vid made my mouth water AND sparked my curiosity. I know nothing about how to eat beets, for example, and have no idea who Cole Robbie even is!
It‘s quite the staple in Northern and Central European cuisine. Can be eaten raw (as is or in a salad) or cooked, though I much prefer the raw stuff. Very fresh taste. You can apparently use the leaves also, though I‘ve never tried. My pet bunnies went wild for those leaves, when I was a child.
Kohlrabi is my top3 vegetable to grow, soo underrated but getting traction! Tough this year they are being decimated by some sort of small weevil, nappa cabbages, radishes - all gone. Not sure what to do! Will reseed some of them but time is ticking for the season
This is very timely! I was just wandering what to sew in July! I love the yellow butter beans but just gotta find a place to put them. They were not on my radar... exciting 🤭
Hello I like pour garden and gardening ,I know my question is not the today subject but if you want so can you give me the mesures of the beds and the path between them..thanks fromage France.
I would think it would be a good idea to sow lots of parsnips close together and don't thin too much. Given the seeds don't last and you need to buy new ones each year then you might as well use up the seeds as much as possible.
Over the past 20 yrs I've grown to love kale mainly because it grows well in my garden when much else doesn't. And it fills in the "hungry gap" beautifully with it's sprouts and when too much to eat I freeze the leaves to throw into soups...or fry up with garlic and oil :) Wish we could get potatoes not only outside the spring season but also determinate/indeterminate choices. Once I get a few I'll keep saving them Bought seed potatoes for first time in years and they didn't thrive...my own manage :) LOVE kohlrabi...unfortunately so do the slugs. They hide in the heat and come out in the middle of the night!
I agree! Kale is immense especially Black magic tuscan kale. I'm growing the tree kale this year. I'm hoping it will establish because the slugs are nazis this year apparently they have even eaten onion leaves this year... crazy
I grew some swedes and turnips a,few years back .Just wanted too see if they would grow in veggie patch at different home been in 7 years .I not the best veggie grower like my mum was and my amazing ex mum in law was too. Well planted swede and turnip seeds and wow yes I can grow them. I like swedes but turnips no. But I will still grow turnips for my boyfriend as he didn't have them in his garden . He puts them in soups . Black birds are being a pest here having too cover everything with nets and any thing else I bring home from our local tip . Think there,s a rat that likes chard um eaten down too the stem .So feeling a bit sad after all that work and for me having MS even harder too do. But as you said in other video what else you picked yesterday I did pick herbs ,celery sticks , 3 medium leeks ,the other chard the blackbird dug up,2 fat parsnips . Have been putting in heaps of seeds still mid winter here in South Australia. Night temps some -3.5 and frost .Just been sitting in front verandah room on the couch resting after busy week with a cuppa watching the third rainbow come out and low black rain cloud a bit of rain and then the sun comes out again . Birds flying about . Ummm contentment .Been watching your videos for ages and loving them thankyou sooo much .
How do you find your crops and harvest doing this year? Weather being extremely off the scale. We have just got an allotment, and because we are new to gardening and weather is depressing, I really worried about what to sow, and are we going to be able to harvest anything at all?
I’m trying to grow daikon radishes this year, I’m going to plant them tomorrow. I don’t like radishes but they look cool and I haven’t tried them. I’ll find someone to eat it if I don’t like them.
My cilantro went to seed as soon as I brought it home from the garden center so I'm hoping the seeds germinate this month so I have it fresh in the autumn
I'm north of Austin and I'm not planting almost anything he talked about for another month. Beginning of August I'll start some things under shade cloth for a fall harvest. Cilantro doesn't stand a chance for even longer. It just bolts for us. I tried in April. I put down coriander seed and kept it watered. Arugula/rocket came up. I guess there was seed left from when it went to seed and not it's gone to seed again. July and August are just brutal for us. I got shade cloth this year. Hoping it will help. Good luck!!!
I'm wondering is that amount of flowers in the tunnel around the veg functional/necessary? I sow some but wondering if I should up my planting amount for pests
I agree we need some cooking episodes! I'm constantly hunting for ideas on what to do with what comes out of my garden bc it's usually a bunch of one or two things all at once.
Have been trying to grow kohlrabi (purple skin ones) for last 3 years with not much success. They germinate ok and get lots of leaves but fail at bulbing up. Put lots of fish , blood and bone into the soil as well. Where am I going wrong?
I grow alsorts of kale, i use lot's ornamentally within flower beds as there is some beautiful varieties and they stand so well over winter. KX-1 is a nice variety for eating. The young leaves are as tender as lettuce and unlike spinach, it doesnt need cooking for iron absorption. I use the other varieties in place of spinach for cannelloni and spinach and feta pastries, minstrone, sausage fennel and kale casserole is nice too. And i agree with garlic butter transforming and adding flavours to any vegetable. Tarragon garlic butter is delicious over steamed carrots😋
