Beetroot And Courgettes

Beetroot

This is the perfect time to start sowing beetroot, and Dirty Nails has been doing just that this week. He likes to sow the Detroit 2 variety and puts down a 6 foot (2 metre) line every fortnight from now until July. Hopefully this will ensure a steady supply of golfball-sized, sweet-yet-earthy roots from midsummer and through the autumn. In June and July he also sows the long-rooted Cylindra. This variety has an extra intense flavour and a beautiful texture when boiled until tender.

Beetroot seeds are small and knobbly. They should be sown thinly not more than an inch (2½ cm) deep. Dirty Nails allows 12 inches (30 cm) between each line. Germination can be anything from a few days to a fortnight or so, depending on the weather. Detroit 2 and Cylindra seeds are multi-germ, which means that each one may produce two, three or four seedlings. These should be thinned to the strongest as soon as they are big enough to handle. Dirty Nails aims to thin his beets to 5 inch (13 cm) intervals in order to allow each one room to grow. As always, beets like to be kept moist  and weed-free.


Courgettes

Dirty Nails sows his courgettes around now, in the greenhouse or on a windowsill. He pops the large, flat, oval seeds on edge into 3 inch (7½ cm) pots full of potting compost, an inch (2½ cm) deep. Kept moist, they should grow on nicely, and will be gradually hardened off prior to planting out in May (this simply involves putting them outside in the daytime, and bringing indoors at night). Deep-green Black Beauty or yellow Goldrush are prolific, and the speedy growth of a courgette can be truly amazing. They are best picked small and are lovely grated raw, stir-fried or lightly steamed.

Natural History In The Garden: Cuckoo Arrival

April is the month for keeping an early morning or evening ear out for the cuckoo. These birds return to Britain from Africa in the late spring to breed, and will hopefully be arriving around the 15th. Males sing the unmistakable ‘cucoo’ which is so evocative of England as summer beckons. The female has a completely different call, a water-bubbling chuckle. For now, cuckoos will be focusing on recovering from their long overseas migration, feeding up and finding a mate.

Vegetable Snippets: A Brief History Of the Beetroot

The beetroot is one of many gastronomically important vegetables descended from Beta vulgaris, also known as the sea-beet, which is native to western and southern European coastlines from Sweden to the Mediterranean. This is believed to include Britain, although it is not until 1629 that the sea-beet is recorded in England. Selective breeding in the 1500s produced the familiar swollen-rooted crop, and by the 1700s beetroot was popular fare at European mealtimes.

Full of natural sugars, beetroots are sweeter than the average vegetable. Their consumption is thought to promote relaxation and a general sense of well-being. In recent years supposed aphrodisiac qualities have been much vaulted.