First Harvest!

I've been ever so slack with my blog posting this week (it's been a hectic one) so I thought I'd finally get around to telling you about the first crops I pulled from my garden the other weekend following my garden update.

The first things that have been ready in my garden have been the radish and the spinach. The radish were fast growers, ready within 4-6 weeks and they didn't disappoint.


I'm not a fan of radish, at all but Mr M loves them so they were really for him. He said that they were quite zingy, more so than supermarket ones. The chickens certainly loved getting the radish tops!

The spinach took on a life of its own and had to be removed for the general public safety reasons. It was turning into the little shop of horrors! A few of the leaves had been munched on by some little critter and those found their way into the chicken run but the majority was fully intact and superb.


On the picture above you can see my radish on the left and the big mound of spinach on the right - being carefully modeled in my Garden Trading trug which was a leftover accessory from my wedding that is now fulfilling its destiny. (By the way, I did a guest post for Garden Trading recently which you can read here if you are interested!).

I didn't have any meals planned that weekend that involved spinach so I decided instead of being wasteful I would freeze the spinach to use later in curries. I know that looks like shed loads of spinach but believe me, it made a large handful once blanched. I've now got a nice bag full of frozen spinach stashed in the freezer ready to veg up meals when needed, and for those who are interested, this is the method I use for freezing fresh spinach.

Freezing Spinach

First wash the spinach well in cold water and remove any stalks that are left on the leaves.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and pop the spinach leaves in. Boil over a high heat for 1 minute. This is known as blanching.

Drain the leaves and run them under the cold water for a minute or two and drain well.


Place the spinach leaves onto a tray, flat is you wish or in small balls and pop into the freezer for 30 minutes.


Remove the spinach from the freezer and put into a labeled and dated bag and pop back into the freezer. The spinach should keep for around three months.

And there you have it!

love & kisses

Mrs M x