A couple of years ago I went to an inspiring talk by the head gardener of Eythrop House who raved about the flavour of the globe artichoke Vert de Laon.  The Rothschild family, who still live at Eythrop, had conducted an elaborate tasting and concluded that Vert de Laon beat the ubiquitous Green Globe into a cocked hat.  After a good deal of searching I located some Vert de Laon plugs, which have taken very well.  Now in their second year I have just cut off and replanted a few suckers.  We haven't conducted a taste comparison, but if last year is anything to go by they are one of the highlights of the late summer harvest.

Two rows of ealy potatoes, colleen, have gone in.  The potatoes are 30cm apart and the rows slightly closer than I would have liked at 50cm as this is our narrowest bed.  Since we harvested the squashes in the autumn this bed has been digesting a thick layer of manure.  It's now a wonderful rich loam, perfect for spuds.

It does look like the grave digger has paid us a visit though! Anyone seen those difficult neighbours.......

Here it is!  The pale slender shoots of the rhubard searching for the light.  There's not a lot of it I know, but there will be more.  Then we can have one of our favourite puds, roasted rhubard with ginger ice cream.

Its really very simple.  Wash the rhubard and chop it into inch sized chunks.  Peel and finely chop an inch of so of root ginger.  Tip both into a rosting tin and sprinkle liberally with sugar or elderflower cordial if you have some.  Roast in a medium oven for 20 minutes or so until the rhubarb is tender and starting to get wonderfully unctuous.  Serve with a dollop of ginger and choclate ice cream (Waitrose own label is divine). 

Not everyone agrees about the best way to chit potatoes, but in my experience egg boxes are the best.  Even the largest ones can be wedged in with the rose end pointing upwards.  And the egg box gives you something to write on.  If you're like me and you like growing several varieties, then remembering which is which is often the biggest challenge.

The earlies really benefit from chitting as it gives them a head start when they are planted later this month.  The mid and main crop varieties chit a bit more slowly, but getting a good start is less important for these as they have all summer to grow.

The earlies we are growing this year are Colleen.  They are reported as having a good resistance to blight and scab as well as being good to boil or fry.  All too often new potatoes can disintegrate into a gloupy soup when boiled, so we are hoping these will be a little more rubust.

Our salad potatoes are Charlotte, the queen of salad potatoes.  Waxy, golden and unbeatable in salads, as long as the worms don't get to them first.

Our main crop are Desiree, which after years of trialing different varieties have become my firm favourite.  They grow to a good size relatively unscathed, store well after lifting in late Sep and are invaluable throughout the winter for jackets, roasts and mash.  Sunday lunch wouldn't be the same without them!

It feels so warm and sunny its hard to imagine that we could still get a frost.  It depends where you are in the country of course, but in our part of Oxfordshire I reckon we have to wait to mid May to be confident of being frost free.  That is not to say that we don't put tender plants out sooner.  We do, but we keep and eye on the weather forecast and dash out with fleece if the temperature is in freefall.