56
200 asparagus plants, and judicious winter
plantings, we never actually go hungry.
The variety of crops is, no doubt, lower than
the heady days of summer, but there’s still
variety. If anything, it’s more fun in the kitchen,
fi nding new ways with the staples. A turnip
pasty, perhaps? Our very own polenta from our
stone-ground corn? A spring risotto using
whatever is good on the day? Broad beans? (You
know you can eat the whole pod if you get them
at the right time, and cook them the right way.)
As the season ends, we get strong hints of
summer. A ripe strawberry or two. Peas, sugar
snaps, the fi rst glimpse of fat gooseberries,
though they’re still so sour they make your
whole body pucker.
The elder trees that adorn neighbours’ land,
however, are fat with umbels, ready for the
picking. The umbels are made up of hundreds of
tiny blossoms, each one sweetly scented.
We scale ladders and fi ll baskets with
elderfl owers, as many as we can in the short-
but-prolifi c season, ready to make a delightfully
fragrantcordialthatwilllast the summer long.Sat uma pum
These mid-season blood plums have
beautiful purple-red skins and
deliciously sweet flesh. Fruit ripen in
my garden from late spring to
mid-summer. I leave them on the tree
to fully ripen, both to maximise
flavour but also because they won’t
ripenoff the tree if picked
too early. They are
ready topick when fully coloured, they smell
plummy, and they’re just starting to
‘give’ when you touch the skin. Once
fruit is ripe, it doesn’t keep for more
than a few days, so eat straight from
the tree or stew, bottle, make into
jam, or one of my favourite preserves,
plum chutney. Alternatively use them
to make one of my family’s traditional
spring desserts, plum sponge.Gaic
These odoriferous bulbs are ready to
harvest when the older leaves die
back, leaving 4-6 green leaves. At this
point, pull back the dirt around a
couple of bulbs and check the size anddevelopment. If
the bulbs are big
and you’re
starting to feel
cloves under the skin,
then they will be ready to lift.
Don’t water for several days before
digging with a fork. Brush off excess
dirt. Don’t bang them against anything
to remove dirt or you’ll damage the
bulbs. Garlic can be eaten as green
garlic, straight after harvest, or cure
it by hanging in bunches of 6 bulbs in
an airy, dry position for up to 6 weeks.
In humid areas or for faster curing,
remove the roots and most of the
leaves first. Penny WoodwardHARVEST NOTES
The sweetly scented
blossoms of the elder tree.