In article ,
Dave Hill wrote:

I try to be self supporting in veg, but always fail. We run out mid
Winter then nothing until early Summer except frozen. Any suggestions
as to which veg can be grown to fill the late Winter and early Spring
months please? I have lost all my Spring cabbages in their early stage=
s
by greedy mice. Any regimes far all year round supplies?

I'm no veg grower but isn't this why people bottled and pickled? =A0Fres=
h
veg is so hard to come by in winter months in any liberal sense!
Brussel sprouts? Cabbage? =A0I'm sure things are available but I think
wide choice is going to be a bit tricky!

And salted and dried. =A0It wasn't known as the hungry gap for nothing.

I will add to my post that has yet to show,
For early spring there is the spinach and Swiss Chard left from last
autumn which will sprout lovely young leaves, the sprouts from the
cabbage stalks which you cut a cross into after cutting the cabbage,
the shoots from any sprouts that didn't get picked and from any left
over cabbage; as good as if not better than sprouting broccoli;
There is always the young nettle shoots, better than spinach if picked
nice and young.
If you plant Spring cabbage about 3 to 4 inches appart then you can
thin them a couple of times as early greens, and if you have a
greenhouse then grow a few in there over winter..
If you can grow some French beans in large pots then early beans,
(they take 12 weeks from sowing to picking).
Otherwise Broad beans, the tops can be cooked as a green veg, and
young pods can be picked and sliced as green beans.

I snipped remarks I made about the rationing years, but one of the
relevant points is that most of those are fine in mild winters
only, or are much later than the hungry gap. We have grown
accustomed to mild winters, but even those are enough to see
off most of those vegetables in the colder parts of the country.
I forgot leeks, though - they are about as hardy as sprouts.

This year, my broad beans are a few inches high to just coming
through - at the end of April! If I had planted them in February,
they would have been further on, but I have lost them before by
doing that. My spinach has just got its true leaves :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.