The speedy vegetable garden

208 Pages·2013·4.93 MB·English

by  Mark Diacono, Lia Leendertz

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Mark diacono & lia leendertz
Timber Press
London • Portland
Page 2: Fresh, crunchy and nutritious
just-sprouted peas, ready to eat after just a few days.
Copyright © 2013 by Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz. All rights reserved.
Published in 2013 by Timber Press, Inc.
The Haseltine Building 2 The Quadrant
133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450 135 Salusbury Road
Portland, Oregon 97204-3527 London NW6 6RJ
timberpress.com timberpress.co.uk
Printed in China
Book design by James Nunn
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Diacono, Mark.
The speedy vegetable garden / Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz. – 1st ed.
p. cm.
I ncludes index.
I SBN 978-1-60469-326-3
1 . Vegetable gardening. 2. Cooking (Vegetables) I. Leendertz, Lia.
I I. Title.
S B321.D53 2013
6 35–dc23 2 012021278
A catalog record for this book is also available from the British Library.
Contents
Introduction 7
soaks and sprouts 11
Micro greens 53
edible flowers 77
Cut-and-come-again salad leaves 103
Quick-harvest vegetables 149
sources 204
Index 205

Introduction
The traditional perception of gardening is that it’s all about the long view. A
gardener must be stoic and long-suffering: seeds sown in spring will come to
fruition in autumn. We sow, we tend, we wait, and if things go our way we
finally harvest. But while it’s true that a great many delicious and worthwhile
plants require such forbearance, there are also a large number that suit even
the most impatient gardener. These are the crops that will be ready to eat in
weeks, days, and even hours, and they are the subject of this book.
This isn’t about cheating: it’s about plants that are actually at their best
grown quickly and impatiently. Some are small salad leaves and tiny micro
greens that must be enjoyed young and fresh – be slow to harvest and you
miss their best moment. These are fresh, lively and zingy flavours, flavours
that can either fade or become bitter and overly strong as the plant grows on
towards maturity.
Of course, ‘fast’ is relative. While there are crops in this book that can
be on your plate within a few days of sowing, others may take many weeks.
What we have sought out are the quickest types and varieties of each crop:
Pick radishes while for example, cherry tomatoes ripen faster than beefsteak tomatoes because
they are small
there’s less bulk to ripen, and new potatoes are faster to the saucepan than
and all crunch,
maincrops because they are picked when little, soft and sweet, before their
and before any
woodiness creeps in. skins have hardened.
8 IntroductIon
We have also chosen plants that aren’t traditionally quick to harvest but Edible flowers and
are actually improved by being picked when immature, such as carrots and micro greens are
quick to grow and
beets that are more sweet and tender when picked at half or even a quarter
make for lively and
of the size you would find them in the shops. Many of these crops – the
colourful salads.
edible flowers, the delicate but punchy micro greens and the tiny, sweet
vegetables – are hard to find in the shops, and are a daunting price when
they do appear.
The one thing you will miss out on with speedy growing is bulk, but
what you will get in return is layers of flavour: a sprinkle of hot and peppery
micro-green radish here, a sweet and nutty, barely cooked new potato there, a
garnish of cucumbery borage flowers to finish a dish. These are the crops that
will mark out your cooking as distinctly and unquestionably homegrown.
These quick crops are a great place to start if you are a beginner and
want to get a few fast and easy crops under your belt to set you up with
a little confidence. They are also a great place to graduate to if you are an
experienced gardener who specializes in those crops that are big on bulk but
mellower of flavour, and you’re craving some of the exciting stuff. This is the
quick, easy and tasty end of growing your own. There is no suffering here.
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