Hi, to those who know me you will know that this is my first year growing veg in raised beds in my large garden, I had the idea to grow my own veg when my son who has 3 hungry sond lost his job.
However, althought, I didnt have sucess with salad greens (they tasted too strong) and I left my cauli's in the ground too long so that the frost took them and turned all the lovely heads yellow and froze them. I did leave some things in the ground for my Christmas Dinner, and heres my problems and I hope you can help:
On Christmas morning we dug up:-
Baby beetroot (baby cos they hadnt grown much) but werre planted in July
Baby carrots (baby cos they hadnt grown much) but were planted in July
Cabbage
The problems were:
This was the first time my family had come across fresh veg dug from the ground, and we did have ready to cook Asdas carrots etc incase we were left without any.
There was far more above the ground with the carrots and beetroot than below and my daughter in law had never seen carrots with mud on them so she didnt want to try them.
My carrots which cost approx £1 a packet (in seed) came to about 8 casrrots the largest the size of my little finger and believe me the rest were half that size, however they were sweet and my 18 month old grandson ate them along with me.
The beetroots which differed in size from the size of my little finger nail to a little bigger than a silverskin onion wer bioled then roasted in honey. My son and I were the only two to try them and they were "earthy"
Now to my cabbage... despite the holes in the cabbages, ( pests, pidgeons, caterpillers) we had enough from 3 plants to provide us whith what an Asda £1 cabbage could have given us... but my family YES THEY ACTUALLY TRIED IT (sorry I forgot to tell them this was home grown) but they said it tasted funny.. tooo strong.
Now my question to you all with much more experience than me is,
have we lost the taste of good home grown veg, have we never had the experience of good home grown veg, have our tase buds been tainted by long life, chemical produce so that we dont know what home grown vweg should actually taste like AND last but by no means least...
How can I get my family to eat what I grow, whether it be baby sized or (if I get my soil etc right) a size right to feed a family of 7.
On a great note, on New Years Day we had lamb and they all tried and loved my home made mint sauce (including my daughter in law)... theres hope there!!
Your thoughts and help are as always appreciated.
Jools