This year's allotment harvest has been, to use the techical term, pants. Well, I should qualify that - the soft fruit was pretty good, as were the shallots and onions were decent too.
I braved the heat to pop down the plot with the baby in the sling yesterday and drop off some kitchen waste on the compost heap, which is about all I can manage these days (as I've mentioned on here before, who knew babies were so time consuming). Parts of it now resemble a jungle, other bits aren't quite so overgrown. It's depressing, but there's always another year - and I've warned the council that my plot isn't at its best so I should have staved off a letter from them demanding I straighten up and fly right.
Anyway - as you can see from the picture that accompanies this post, all is not completely lost. Mysteriously, my little row of swedes - a vegetable I've failed to grow several years on the trot - has done rather well, as has a single white beetroot, which has turned into this cricket ball sized item. The little orange things in the middle aren't carrots (they were abysmal this year too) but a beetroot called Yellow Intermediate Mangel* - they're not ready yet, these are just ones I thinned out to leave more room for the others.
I have soup plans for the beetroot but am not sure what to do with the swede. Any suggestions?
*Yes, I did buy them solely because they have a cool name.
In our house we boil the suede (known in Scotland as neeps) mash them finely with boiled carrots (both boiled in the same pan) with plenty of butter and black pepper and have them with the Sunday roast.
Posted by: Gnome | August 12, 2007 at 05:18 PM
They are called rutabagas in the US.
My understanding is they can be cooked pretty much any way you would cook a turnip, and are generally boiled and mashed together with butter (like Gnome said).
I like turnips sauted in butter. This might work for these too, but I've never tried.
I grew them for the first time 3 years ago, but not since.
Posted by: Patrick | August 15, 2007 at 06:13 PM
Yep - swedes and carrots, boiled & mashed with lots and lots of salty butter and pepper.
All you need then is a haggis,
J
x
Posted by: SnapdragonJane | August 16, 2007 at 07:12 PM
would that in any way, be related to a Mangel Wurzel?
Posted by: Matron | August 17, 2007 at 07:27 PM
I believe that the French consider swede to be inedible to humans, and just cow food. I've recently been won over to swede by having it mashed, with some single cream and seasoned with nutmeg and black pepper. Thinly sliced in a gratin with potatoes is also nice and I speak as a converted swedophobe.
Posted by: HappyMouffe | August 17, 2007 at 07:55 PM