The drought, the rain and growing vegetables

This time last year we were struggling with an 'un-official drought' , hardly any rain from the middle of March until June.

This year, we have an official drought, and we're struggling with the amount of rain we've had through April and so far in May. The drought is a long term problem though, affecting all of us, with resorvoir levels in the South East below average and groundwater sources at moderate or severely low levels.

Hopefully, the very wet conditions prove to be a short term problem for us growers, we are forecast 3 consecutive (mostly) dry days from tomorrow at least!
After getting ahead on our planting when we had a couple of dry and sunny weeks at the end of March, we are behind now, we have lots of transplants ready to go out in the field, its almost impossile to do any weed control, and the slug and snail populations are getting fat on carrot seedlings!
Bring on the sun.

And whilst I'm on the subject of water, we now have a 'treebog' compost loo at Ripple Farm, no water needed to flush (and no emptying needed, the willows planted round the site feed on the 'compost').

Spring Soup

Ingredients
2-3 small leeks
1 medium carrot
1 litre vegetable stock
1 lemon
1 handful green garlic

Wash and cut up the leeks, soften in a little butter or oil. Add the diced carrot and stock to the leeks and simmer for 20 mins. Add the zest and juice from the lemon and the shredded green garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add salt if desired.

Thanks to Nigel Slater for the inspiration for this soup, I hadn't thought of adding lemon to a soup before, very tasty.  You can substitute cabbage or kale for the wild garlic.

Beetroot Soup / Borscht

Beetroot soup (Borscht) Claimed by some to be the ultimate hangover cure,I just love it.

- Beetroot
- Cabbage (about one cup)
- stock (veg or meat)
- onion
- carrot
- lemon juice

Grate the Beet and the carrot, chop up the cabbage and the onion and put it all in a large saucepan.
Add the stock (or water with a cube)so that all is covered and bring to the boil. Boil until all is tender (about 20 mins). Stick it all in the food processor or blender than back in the pan. Add the lemon juice and fresh ground pepper. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt (or cream if you prefer). Enjoy!

Thanks to Jacqueline Thatcher for this recipe