It’s here! I returned from a week away to find my asparagus bed has leapt to attention and is at risk of growing into trees before I’ve had a harvest. It really is one of the “hurry up and wait” crops: you drum your fingers for weeks in impatience, … [Read more...]
Cherry blossom
The cherries are in gorgeous, blowsy blossom, and this means spring is advancing to late-spring with hints even of summer. Temperatures have reached the balmy figures, and the blossom is going fast. Just as our own blossoms are fading this year, … [Read more...]
A progression of rhubarb
Our colder than usual March here in East Anglia was good for primroses and daffodils, but the rhubarb on my village allotment used it as an excuse to tarry in hibernation. Where I would normally be harvesting the first stalks by now, I turn in … [Read more...]
Primula vulgaris: a common treasure
My English country garden is more abundant with the native, pale yellow primrose this year than I have ever known it. Suddenly the insignificant volunteer seedlings I half-remember seeing in unpromising places have plumped into blooming clumps that … [Read more...]
Edible equinox: early spring on a plate
It is cold here in rural Cambridgeshire, but undeniably spring. The snowdrops and crocuses are long gone and the daffodils are just entering their glory phase, with the best still to come. Primulas are in fancy dress, and violets are blooming in … [Read more...]
January’s citrus rituals I: marmalade
It's hot, sticky work, but someone's got to do it. It's January, and after a brief respite over New Year, during which I fully recovered from seasonal baking burnout (all that gingerbread!), I'm impatient to get on with things: things involving … [Read more...]