Heirloom vegetables

Article by: Chris Beardshaw
Publish date: 5th March 2009

For anyone who grows vegetables and salad crops, whether expert or amateur, spring is a time of increasingly frenetic activity to ensure that no opportunity is missed to sow a crop. While a plethora of information is available, by far the best way of ensuring that no plant is overlooked is to keep a chart of your plants with the likely timing of sowing, growing and harvest against each. My grandfather used to nail a chalk board of lists on the door of the outside privy that conveniently overlooked the vegetable garden - that way, even when nature called, no opportunity was missed to perfect his crop rota. In the absence of such conveniences, keep a list or spreadsheet handy in the shed, glasshouse or kitchen.

Most important this month (March) is preparing the ground for sowing and growing. Well dug, warm, crumbly soil, enriched with plenty of organic matter and clear of last season's crop is the ideal, but no matter how keen our intentions, few of us achieve this perfection across the whole garden. I prefer to deal with small areas at a time, forking the ground through, removing weeds and creating a fine tilth. Don't fret if the entire plot isn't ready in one go, planting and sowing will wait. After digging rake, level and gently firm the ground. This is particularly important if you are growing brassicas that suffer from wind rock in loose soils. Finally, clear stones or debris.

Despite encouragement from suppliers and traditionalists, I don't load the garden with fertilisers this month for two reasons - the first is that most fertilisers applied now will have been washed from the soil prior to the plants actually requiring them. Secondly, I prefer to rely on organic matter dug in during the autumn months, such as manure, to lock nutrients into the soils and slowly break down and release them to the plants in spring. I then add fertilisers to the soil as the crops grow and require it. This is something I learnt at an early age on the allotments from aged growers who proclaimed that there was no point feeding a plant until it was growing.

As spring is characterised by fickle weather, it's worth trying to cheat the season a little to allow for earlier sowing and planting. In open ground the soil can be warmed by several degrees by covering with black polythene, secured down with pegs or stones. Granted, this hardly creates an aesthetic display but it does work and can mean that seeds are sown several weeks earlier than in unprotected ground. Similar results can, of course, be experienced by placing cloches over prepared ground. I have always found that the best results are to be gained from applying the cloche or polythene soon after ground preparation is completed and after a day of warm sunshine as residual heat becomes trapped in the soil. Avoid laying such protection after rains or frost as the resultant cold wet ground warms slowly. The reason for going to such lengths is that seeds will only germinate once soil temperatures achieve 5 - 6 degrees C. Sowing prior to this will mean seeds sit in the ground and become prone to fungal complaints, pests and diseases.

Seed catalogues are crammed with tasty offerings that promise bountiful crops, many celebrating the introduction of new and improved strains of familiar plants. While many of these are undoubtedly worth cultivating, I also love experimenting with curious and historic varieties that enrich and enliven the harvest. Top of the list for sowing now are the brassicas like Brussel sprouts, calabrese, red cabbage and summer cauliflowers. All these plants love ground into which good compost or manure has been added and it is often worth providing a little shade from netting when they are newly planted to allow them to become established.

Try cultivating Brussel sprout 'Rubine', a 1930's introduction and one in which the foliage and sprout remains a tempting claret colour even after cooking. I often opt for rapidly maturing varieties of the cabbage since they take so much space and time in the plot.

Great for cramped spaces is the Early Nantes cabbage, (not to be confused with Early Nantes carrots), an 1840's flat headed form that doesn't mind sitting cheek by jowl with its neighbours. Alternatively try Express, an oval headed form that is aptly named as it has proved to be the earliest to crop in my garden and has a proven pedigree as it's been in cultivation since the 1880's. For a real curiosity on the plate, sow a crop of Early White Sprouting, a form that exhibits exactly the same properties as its purple cousin but is flushed white. This plant is known to have been grown since the late 1700's and while a little less hardy than the purple, if it's sown now it will produce a sweet crop from November to February.

Also sown now are the root crops - turnips such as Jersey Navet produce lengthy, cylindrical roots of pure white flesh with a good sweet taste. They taste great when mashed with butter and crème fraîche. For a leafy alternative, try sowing a crop at half the recommended spacing. Use the thinning as leafy tops in salads. Any left over seeds can then be sown in cool summer for harvest next spring.

Members of the legume family are also keen to get in the ground, so allow space for peas and broad beans. Peas can be categorised either as 'Wrinkle Seeds', commonly called garden peas, that are less hardy and bred to be eaten fresh from the plant owing to their sweet taste. Alternatively there are 'Round Seeded', or Field Peas, hardier specimens grown for early crops and drying. Even given the hardy nature of the round pea, it's wise to protect early sown crops under cloches or fleece. You will then seize the advantage that the 'round peas' offer for prompt cropping. A multitude of round pea seeds are available from suppliers, but for me the old variety 'Hursts Kelvedon Wonder' excels as it provides particularly heavy crops even on difficult ground and on low growing plants requiring little or no support.

When it comes to broad beans, I love harvesting the tips of the plants for throwing into risotto. This is done after each plant has produced about 10 - 12 pods in early summer. For a splash of colour in the pot grow 'Purple' a handsome variety, the seeds of which turn rich shades when they mature. In the cottage garden try broad bean 'Crimson - flour'd' on which vibrant red flowers are held before green pods are produced.

While these decorative and curious vegetables contribute hugely to the pleasures of the garden, I'm not hankering after everything that's historic. Many old varieties fell out of favour simply because they weren't up to scratch, but others make a worthy supplement and alternative to the usual candidates in the vegetable garden.