Sprouts bonus crop

 Last year following the advice of one of my favourite You Tube gardeners I planted a load of Brussels sprouts purely for the leaves and not the sprouts. I've been picking leaves off them for months and we eat them raw and steamed and both ways are equally delicious.  Ages ago I noticed that there were shoots forming on the sprout stalks.  They are three, four or more inches long and I've been picking them to add raw to salads and  steamed for dinners. They are so sweet and tender and gorgeous each way.  I'm now wondering whether I might be able to root them and grow full size sprouts plants from them. I'll give it a try this coming week.

I've picked a bowl full of the shoots and a few sprouts to add to today's dinner

And here's the salad that I have just picked for todays lunch.  I will add a load of sauerkraut and a chopped apple to it before I crumble in some feta cheese and a handful of walnuts. I'll dress it really simply with a slug of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We've really enjoyed eating seasonally and are looking forward to summer for fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. We haven't bought any at all as we want to only eat what our garden produces if we can.  I'm becoming aware of the things I need to grow more of to see us through the winter... carrots, onions and a few potatoes. We don't eat many spuds so it's not worth buying a sack the way I used to. Far better to have a little bowl full of something utterly delicious that I've grown organically than a huge sack of something that might have been sprayed/fertilized with heaven knows. We've been really enjoying leeks both raw and cooked and I have a whole tray of them and some beetroot to pot on this coming week.  There's a couple of pots of lettuce seedlings and peas for shoots ready to go into the ground. My first cucumber seedlings are doing really well. I'm growing Beth Alpha and I'm trying the White Wonder again.  I will be really vigilant with the White Wonder and I'll be checking twice each day for the male flowers as they need picking off.  I'm going to grow both varieties in different rooms to keep them apart. The white ones looked stunning but it was like playing Russian Roulette as some were very bitter as they'd been pollinated by the male flowers. I have some windowsill chilli's coming on nicely and hopefully they will make really pretty edible house plants. There's Prairie Fire and Heatwave, neither of which I've grown before so I'll be interesting to see if they do well.