Warm spring days continue

The warm spring days continue in sharp contrast to the dull, damp weather last week. The construction you can see in the foreground of the photo above is a cold frame made by my friend Jim McKinney who also helped me build my shed cum greenhouse. That's at the other end of the allotment and I will post a pic of that soon.
Anyway, in the cold frame are seedlings, sown in modules, of lettuce (Drunken Woman - an Italian variety!), swiss chard (Bright Lights - stems are various bright colours), savoy cabbage, parsley, and Galician cabbage given to me by French friends when I was staying with them in February. There is no sign of the last two but the rest look very healthy. I have also not seen any signs of peas sown in guttering under cover so have given up on them and put in some mangetout seed saved from last year (Carouby de Maussane). My neighbour who's been on these allotments for 40 years reckons they were nabbed by mice. He recommends covering pea seed with holly leaves to deter the little blighters.
Other sowings include red cabbage, fennel, self-blanching celery, radish, carrot and sorrel (sorrel and potato soup...mmmm!) which is a perennial and should self seed every year to provide lovely lemony flavoured leaves. I have had no success with my carrots and I have such a bad record with beetroot that I've given up on that too.


This is some radicchio that has overwintered. It's a chicory and has a very bitter flavour which becomes less intense and for me more delicious when cooked. I find it takes me some time to get used to certain flavours. Mostly it's just a question of finding the right recipe and then experimenting. I made a radicchio and jerusalem risotto the other day and I've also varied it substituting leek for the artichokes which also worked well. It's become a regular and I take the leftovers to work and heat them up.

Here's how I did it:
2 radicchio cut lengthways and washed very well and then dried (I spin mine in salad spinner)
2 or 3 rashers of bacon (omit if vegetarian of course) chopped
1 finely chopped medium sized onion (omit if using leek)
2 large or 6 small jerusalem artichokes or 1 leek peeled and cut into small dice about 3 or 4mm
250g arborio (risotto rice)
40g butter
1 litre HOT stock (chicken or vegetable)
Parmesan cheese grated (about 2 tablespoons or more if you want)

Fry bacon in the butter until it starts to get crisp.
Then add the onion if using and the radicchio sliced at 2 cm intervals then the diced jerusalem artichokes or leek.
Fry for a couple of minutes on a medium heat.
Then add rice and coat with the butter and vegetables for anther 2 minutes.
Add the stock a little at a time adding more as the rice absorbs the liquid.
After about 20 minutes the rice should be creamy NOT soupy and will still retain a little bite.
Stir in the cheese and serve.