Most of the last week we had monsoon weather so I wasn't out in the garden much but when I was I was still fighting those Lardy Balls back for the most part.
Yesterday I waddled down to the herb garden to check on some seedlings and pick some more strawberries and to be honest I almost missed it.
There definitely was no sign of this last time I looked so I literally did a double take when this hit my eyes -
What was that? Walked back for a closer look -
Yup, oh my days a HUGE cauliflower had suddenly appeared. My friend Con had warned me that you have to be quick when your cauli's come up coz it's a very short window between cauli and flowers. I got to it just in time by the looks.
It barely would fit in my big pans so not to be greedy I cooked half of it. From field to plate and in my belly within half an hour.
It was the best cauliflower cheese I've ever had.
Also I have to say not one bug or slug or sign of any critters taking a bite. It was clean as a whistle inside and out. No fertilizer was added, just the hugel kultur soil I made in 2018.
Recipe below -
Grow one organic cauliflower and wait for 7 months.
Place half of giant cauli in pan of 1inch of water + some salt and turn up the heat.
Meanwhile melt 50g of vegan butter in a small pan, add 1-2 spoonfuls of cornflour and stir like billyo off the heat to form a 'roux'. Add in some stock or plain hot water and stir like mad again, keep adding until you get a nice thick sauce consistency with no lumps.
Add some Applegreen vegan cheese (the cheeziest flavour on the market). Let it melt and add some Engevita flakes off the heat.
(You can make a cheese sauce without the vegan cheese and just the Engevita but I am spoiling myself.)
Pour over the cauli which will be defo cooked by now, don't overdo it, cauli tastes better al dente.
For pudding eat the strawbs you picked earlier too, with ice-cream.
NOMNOMNOMNOM I am one happy gardener right now. This makes up for all the mistakes and disasters.
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Ohhh that's great, congratulations! How cool that you are already starting to harvest.
I can prepare your recipe but with a cauliflower that I bought yesterday, I don't know if I can grow any in my apartment window.
No I doubt this would fit in ur window. It was huge hahaha. Good luck with the recipe, hope it goes well. Nomnomnom
That is awesome, looks delicious.
I've never has any success growing cauliflower, it always gets destroyed by bugs. This year I'm going to try to get a fall crop, a friend told me it usually does better in the fall in our area (zone 6b, east coast USA).
I'm not sure. I planted this one last October and it kind of just sat there through the winter months, no bugs to bother it then it suddenly exploded in the last week. I have some growing in the polytunnel planted in march-april and they are almost as huge now as that one but no flower head yet. Give it a go. Experiment.
Nice results and a good prize for you.
Does the California bud keep growing back or do we start over fresh? Its july and i am searching for things that I can still plant. Winter is coming...
Whats a california bud? If you mean this cauli plant, I tried a cool experiment once on cabbage. Instead of pulling the whole thing up you chop it back to the stalk and cut a slice into it or even a cross and two or four new heads are supposed to grow. I'm gonna try it again, see if I can rinse more heads out of it.
Don't know about your area but here I'll be planting Kale, cabbage, brocolli, swede, brussel sprouts, chicory, chard, more lettuce, spinach, carrots, radish, beets. Look up winter crops for your area and keep sowing.
OMFG, thats one impressive cauliflower there!
Totally gonna try this recipe. . .
Thought Ive been obsessed with cauliflower mush lately, but happy to swap for this for a change. . .
Thanx I was so impressed I rushed back to take the gardeners version of the selfie. Am gonna eat the 2nd half tonight.
You're supposed to add cold stock or water and bring back to the boil but I think that's a waste of time myself so if you can be quick and thorough with the stirring in (3 hands are better than two hahaha) you can get away with adding it hot and it's pretty instant sauce. You have to be brave.
If you are really clever use the water from the boiled/steamed cauli pan too.
Oh, we love to cook that. It's cheap in the summer. But very expressive in the winter, that's why we eat a lot of it in the summer.
I've planted different varieties at different times so hopefully will get some summer AND winter. This was planted last October and didn't do much all through winter.
It was a good looking head!!! I can feel your happiness here across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond.
I remember having to wrap the leaves around the head so that it doesn't turn green. No?
Never heard of that, no time to turn green hahaha, it went in ma belly
Wow so satisfying to eat your own veggies they rly have a lot more leaves on than I thought they did!
Yeh I saw some in the shop today and they were titchy compared to mine. Feeling a big smug hahaha. I was like - call them cauliflowers? IN my head of course