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LIVING FROM YOUR GARDEN By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe, Authors of ‘Your Garden in Spain’*
The cockerel has crowed and gone back to sleep again but it’s the signal to rise and write this months column before clearing some weeds and rotovating part of the vegetable plot for autumn plantings before the sun gets too hot. The soil should be good to work as it’s ten days since the last heavy and welcome rain. Also this years peanut crop needs digging up, washing and drying in the sun and then a low oven. There are still tomatoes, peppers , aubergines, rocket, chicory, Swiss chard, basil, purslane, sorrel, dandelions, leeks, beans, chives, carrots, radishes, and beetroots grown during the summer to harvest and onions and squash stored in the cellar but this is the time to grow other crops for autumn, winter and early spring eating. This month we will sow or plant ;a variety of green and red salad leaves, winter cabbages, kale and cauliflowers and some more broccoli – plantlets planted out in July are about to flower; an early garlic crop; some more carrots and radishes and some parsnips; and some replacement artichokes as the three year old plants are past their best; and the first row of broad beans. You may ask why grow all this. Well the answer is simple – we intend to continue to eat fresh wholesome naturally grown vegetables 365 days a year in an area where most local small holders have given up growing for the local shops and markets and the few that continue use copious amounts of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and fungicides. Luckily there are a few biological/organic growers of vegetables in Andulucia but insufficient to meet a growing interest in healthier eating . Further a fellow member of the Slow Food Association living in Diss Suffolk informed us that his town is now registered as one of the growing number of UK Slow Towns dedicated to maximising the purchase, sale, and use of local food products including vegetables by restaurants, school and elderly meal services, hospitals and the general public rather than shipping local produce to far away markets and importing some back plus other products from other parts of the UK and Europe and the rest of the world. The initiative was started by the Mayor and is now led and coordinated by a working group that includes representative consumers, growers, retailers, restaurateurs and councillors. Efforts are made to bring other organisations such as the Soil Association, Grow organic, the Allotment Association, gardening clubs and the Wholesome Food Association into the fold so that more and more of the produce is grown organically and naturally. Could that happen here? Is any town or village likely to take such a political initiative in the short term? We suspect that it would be wise to start growing more of your own fruit and vegetables now, plus a few edible animals and birds if you have the space. A start can be made by collecting edible snails from the garden and feeding them on rosemary leaves for a month before preparing them Asturian style for dinner. A healthy dish for all men of a certain age including the writer. On the vegetable front the easiest starts are to grow bean sprouts in the kitchen and a sack of wild mushrooms in the kitchen or garage. *Clodagh and Dick are in fact the authors of a trilogy of books all published since this time last year. The titles are Your garden in Spain –From planning to planting and maintenance, Growing healthy fruit in Spain – From strawberries to oranges and watermelons and Growing healthy vegetables in Spain – From sprouting seeds to giant pumpkins. You will find the books in local book shops, Carrefore??, some garden centres and inland British product shops. They can also be obtained from the publishers by phone 952-485838 or by mail order via www.gardeninginspain.com. © Clodagh and Dick Handscombe October 2007.
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