Growing pea shoots

I remember a few years ago talking to a fellow allotmenteer about growing pea shoots. He couldn't get his head round the concept of sowing pea seeds and eating the shoots but not the peas. Much as I tried to explain that they make a very tasty salad he thought it was a waste of pea seeds. Pea seeds are grown for peas not leaves was his thinking.  But then he wasn't a salad person. He was a big guy who could lift a paving slab onto his shoulder and carry it without any effort from one end of his plot to the other and the top of his plot was up a steep mound. He was a steak or beefburger man and salad was just a thing that went on the side of the plate for decoration.

However, I love pea shoots in a salad, the intensity of flavour from those little shoots is amazing. Grown in the winter time, to munch on a pea shoot takes you back to the summer when you pick the first young peas and eat them straight from the pod.  They can be grown throughout the year are so easy to grow.

I started some off at the end of February on my kitchen windowsill using supermarket bought dried marrowfat peas. You can also use the seeds that get left over in the packets from your garden sowings. I grew them in recycled plastic food containers and added some multipurpose compost. Then I sowed the seeds quite thickly and covered with more compost. I was amazed at how quickly they grew.

Within a few days they had germinated and now into the second week they are ready for cutting. I cut just above a leaf about halfway down the stem. They will continue to grow and then I will get another cutting from them.

I think I probably sowed too many and just one container would have been enough. They grow so quickly that you can sow another lot a couple of weeks after the first to get a succession of them.

Obstacles to salad growing

With all the mad rush and busyness of Christmas, salad growing got a little bit forgotten in December.   So I'm a little bit behind now. Walking  round the garden last week when everything was covered in snow,  I could see that the mustard has finally given up. However I lifted the lid of the cold frame, (well I had to give it a good pull because it was frozen shut) and there underneath was a row of frilly salad leaves which I'd planted in the autumn, not very big, but looking fine.

On the kitchen windowsill is a tray of pea shoots which I sowed a few weeks ago. They are much slower to grow at this time of the year, but will soon be ready for cutting.

My plans were to start growing some beetroot, cabbage, kale, radish etc for micro leaves as I did last winter, see here. but recent events have put a stop to that for a while. Last week I slipped on the ice outside our gate and broke my right wrist. I had to have surgery to repair my wrist with plates and screws. I am now in plaster from my wrist to my elbow and it is likely to be several weeks before I can be back in action. My surgeon is aware that I garden and is anxious that I can resume my hobby as soon as possible. I am having to get used to working with my left hand and work at a slower pace, but I think I will be able to sow a few seeds in a tray soon. In the meantime I will try to be patient, read some gardening books and make plans for gardening in the Spring.

For more on the 52 Week Salad Challenge click here

Salad chat update

My salad growing has not been good in the last few weeks.  The seeds I've sown have not germinated or I suspect have been eaten by slugs early on. We've had so much rain, that when I have been able to get out into the garden there have been so many other things to see to that the salad has got neglected.

There are  still salad leaves for picking--red salad bowl, watercress, mustard and rocket. The rocket and mustard have flowered and look very pretty! I can't remember when I last bought any lettuce.                

 I haven't done well with the sowing of new salad leaves. In fact things were so bad that when I went to the garden centre the other week I bought a tray of salad leaves to plant in the hope that they would be strong enough to resist the slugs.  Well I planted them and they are still there so there's hope yet. They might do bettter than my own sowings.

In the cold frame the cucumbers produced some tiny fruit, but some were chewed at by the slugs. And after the heavy rain this week the plants looked so bad that I decided to give up and throw them out.

The good news is that we have a growhouse now at the allotment and I'm wondering if we might be able to grow some salad in there during the colder months. Also at the allotment the fennel we planted last month is looking good. Some of the beetroot we planted earlier in the year didn't get thinned out so we harvested them as baby beets and they were lovely in a salad.  There is plenty more beetroot both at the allotment and in the garden cold frame.

 In the next few weeks I shall be sowing some winter salad leaves and start sowing seed for microgreens and pea shoots again for the cooler months.

For more information on growing salad crops and recipes to try check out the 52 Week Salad Challenge posts on  veg plotting's blog

Salad news

I'm pleased that this month I've been able to cut more salad from seed shoots and even have a complete salad from things I've grown.

I'm loving the pea shoots. I have had two cuts from the first lot of shoots I grew and I know I will definitely have another cut from them yet. This first sowing was grown from a few mange tout seeds I had left from last year.  I was so impressed by their taste and the speed they grew that I bought a packet of dried marrow fat peas from the supermarket to sow another lot.  These are now just starting to sprout having sown them a week ago. I have also got basil seedlings on my kitchen windowsill and  some seeds of a mixed leaves 'gourmet garnish' micro greens from Johnsons which look quite interesting and are growing at an amazing rate.

I have now started growing salad for outside. I have some Little Gem lettuce and watercress  in seed trays and outside last week in my raised beds I sowed radish and rocket. I bought more lettuce seeds the other week and will soon be sowing Lolo Rosso, mixed leaves and spring onion in my raised beds outside and planting out the Little Gem and watercress.

I'm not all that well organised with my seed sowing, but this salad challenge has got me thinking more. So actually I feel I'm doing much better than in previous years.

For more information on the Salad Challenge click on these links:

http://vegplotting.blogspot.co.uk/p/52-week-salad-challenge.html

http://vegplotting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/salad-days-first-salad.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+VegPlotting+%28Veg+Plotting%29

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