Asparagus, Potatoes
and Cucurbits
Growing Places Blog - May 2014
The asparagus and new potato harvest is in full swing!
Asparagus is a fascinating plant- it’s a perennial which means it
comes up every year. An asparagus bed, once established, will
produce for up to 20 years. It has a very short season, only 6-8
weeks, so enjoy English asparagus now. Asparagus is a member of
the lily family and its ferns are used in flower arranging.
Sarah Harley, Growing Places Enterprise Team
Member, is a top asparagus harvester. Her tips
are to cut asparagus every day to enjoy it at its
best. Sarah recommends and loves hollandaise
sauce with it.
Asparagus was first brought to this country by
the Romans. So when somebody says, ‘What
did the Romans ever do for us?’ You know what
the answer is!
Now the potatoes have been lifted, we will put in a different crop
‘in rotation’. The system of rotating crops is essential to ensure the
fertility of the soil and the prevention of build-up of soil based
pests. We have’ Turnip’ Townsend b.1674, aka Charles 2nd
Viscount Townsend, that most famous son of Norfolk, to thank for
this.
Growing Places Blog - May 2014
If crops had been grown in the same fields each
year for millennia, the soil would lose fertility and
harvests would decline. Fields were then left
fallow (not planted). The system Townsend used
had a rotation of 4 different crops and is now common practice,
keeping the soil fertile and in constant production.
The Cucurbits have arrived at Growing Places! A family of 845
species of food and ornamental plants. A truly global vegetable
grown in all countries of the world! We are busy sowing butternut
squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. But I don’t think we will get
anywhere near the UK record for pumpkin, a whopping 1,504lb
(682kg), a true monster, gaining about 35lb (15.9kg) per day in
weight over six weeks!
Looking forward to the next blog when our runner beans will be up
and running!
The Potato Team looking happy just after harvesting 120kg
of Potatoes!