December 2016: brassicas, artichokes, parsnips and Christmas

The brassicas - brussel sprouts, kale, cabbages, cauliflowers -  and swiss chard are well established now and promise good harvests for the next few months. They can, of course, withstand frost and December saw the first of the really heavy frosts of the winter here in caversham.

Parsnips, I am always told, benefit from a heavy frost and taste sweeter. To be honest, I've never noticed much difference!


A crop I nearly forgot about were the Jerusalem artichokes.They are grown in a potato growing bag near the back of the garden and once the leaves have died back I tend to forget about them, as I did this year. I remembered in time to dig out enough for about 4 meals. I am sure there are more in the bag and I need to empty it to find them all. Some will go back into the bag for next year but I noticed this year that the foliage looked overcrowded, so time to thin them out.

The main event of the month was Christmas and the main Christmas meal. The brussel sprouts, kale (cavolo nero) and very wonky parsnips came out of the garden. The potatoes were from Paget's at the Reading Farmers' Market.

I was really pleased with our parsnips despite their "wonkiness". They were grown in a part of zones 2/3 that has only this year been brought back into use so they did well to grow at all.

Work on preparing the horseradish sauce started about three weeks before Christmas and is the subject of a separate posting. Suffice to say it was head-blowing stuff and perfect.

And we broke out the Quince Vodka and Damson Brandy with the brandied damsons served with ice cream, cream and hazelnuts.

Christmas fare

Frost on the garden fence

Quince vodka update and damson brandy

Quince vodka and damson brandy

The quince brandy/vodka prepared in November made an appearance on the dinner table at Christmas and quickly disappeared! The spices were at just the right level and the flavour of the quinces came through, but it was a bit too sweet for my taste. The recipe that we worked with specified 450g sugar to be added to the 8 large grated quinces and 1 litre of vodka. I did wonder at the time if this was too much sugar; next time I shall reduce the amount by half.

The damson/blackberry/elderberry brandy was perfect. For this I used a large jar with 1-1.5inches of fruit at the bottom, then 1-2 heaped tablespoons of sugar, repeated the layers of fruit and sugar and covered with brandy. I added more fruits as and when they became available, topping up with brandy each time.

Alternative Christmas pudding

Damsons made up the bulk of the fruit with just a handful of blackberries and elderberries. Most of the blackberries were eaten almost as soon as they had been picked and the elderberries made into syrup for winter coughs and colds. .

For Christmas I poured off and bottled the brandy. Some of the fruit was served with ice cream and crushed hazelnuts, and the rest made into a crumble.



Not on the dining table but in the kitchen is the quince scrap vinegar, which has now been bottled. This was my first attempt at making it, using the peelings and cores from the quince vodka workshop. During the first couple of weeks of fermentation the aroma of cider wafted through the house and it was tempting to have a glass, but we did manage to leave it to turn into vinegar.

I use it in general cooking but I am not the sure that the pH is low enough for it be used for making preserves. (I really ought to get a pH testing kit.)

The remains of the quince scraps were added to the compost heap.