Waste Not, Want Not

15 April 2016:

The broad beans and red onions have now been planted out and covered with netting to protect them from the birds. We have a collection of small lengths of plastic piping which we have scrounged over the years from kindly plumbers (it’s very expensive to buy!). These can be pushed into the ground to make hoops over which we place the netting, held down with stones. The hoops prevent the plants getting tangled in the netting as they grow.

As usual, we had to move a few plants which were in the way.  Every year I try to hang on to my purple sprouting Broccoli and Cavelo Nero kale as long as possible, but every year my husband always needs the space. We transplanted a couple of plants – not the ideal thing to do but we took a big root ball and hopefully they will survive to feed us for a few more weeks.  The ones that have been devastated by the pigeons a few weeks ago, I stripped of their leaves and sprouting heads.  The heads will be eaten as vegetables but the leaves, I washed and placed in a plastic bag in the freezer.  Once frozen, they just shattered when pressed to produce tiny chips of kale and broccoli leaves which I will add to smoothies and soups.  I was quite pleased with myself as nothing went to waste.