Onions, winter seeds & mackerel pate

As long as I do things slowly with a rest and feet up between each activity, it’s surprising how much I can get through in a day whilst recuperating.

Husband went fishing yesterday afternoon at high tide, and came back with several beautiful fat mackerel.

We grilled them for supper last night on the fire pit. There’s nothing more delicious than fresh mackerel, succulent, crispy and smoky from the coals. It’s so good to feel that this is free bounty from the sea! We ate them with fresh lettuce, cucumbers and potatoes from the polycrub.

We cooked them all whilst spankingly fresh, knowing that there were more than we could eat so that the leftover ones could be turned into mackerel pate this morning. That will be my first job after we’ve cleared away the breakfast things.

Whilst bimbling around in the vegetable patch yesterday, bemoaning the state of the weeds and the rushes – knowing that I mustn’t try and sort it out else my poor, tortured stomach muscles would give up the ghost completely – I noticed that the onions were about ready to harvest, and that some of them were sending up flower shoots.

The perceived wisdom from Google is that when onions do this they should be harvested immediately. It also advises that onions that have done this should be used first as they don’t store well.

I think a few minutes of harvesting onions later today is on the cards. They come out of the soil easily being grown so so close to the surface, so it’s really no effort. Honestly.

The final job that I want to achieve this weekend is to sow some winter seeds. Once the onions have been lifted, followed very soon by the potatoes, there will be some raised bed space made free, and I’m keen to keep vegetable production going.

I’m going to try some Asian greens and winter radish alongside the winter lettuce and kale. Let’s see what we can achieve. I love that growing is a constant cycle of experimenting and learning.