Rocket Science

Wild rocket and salad rocket seeds multisown on the same day, in the same way. Planted out in the same bed, on the same day, some weeks later. Salad rocket given slightly more space (9"), wild rocket tucked in a little tighter (7").

In just one week, the salad rocket is flourishing, whilst the wild is bonsai by comparison; small but perfectly formed. Erratic watering and dramatic changes in temperature (and just general heat) make all orientals bolt quickly I find. But all is not lost - the flowers are delicious (although the excited 4 year old I tried them on this weekend did not agree) and you can still pick younger new leaves for a while. Leave to flower too long and you make extra work for next year - hundreds of tiny new seedlings appearing everytime you turn your back. Not the worst thing in the world though. Particularly if you are shoddy about spring sowings.

Both plants have a pepperiness that intensifies as the plants age. Salad rocket leaves are more tender, jucier, lighter. Wild rocket is less productive initially, but prolific once up and running, with spear-like, tougher, serrated leaves. Great to mix into a salad with other leaves and divine on its own with avocado and a splash of oil and balsamic (in a kind of retro 1990's way). Remember rocket is from the brassica family - so build into a rotation (unlike normal salad leaves, which are neutral) and give extra manure before and after to the beds that will be home to it. Both can be grown in big flower pots, and are fast growing. No excuse for not having a tub or two at the back door so drop the 'but I don't have a polytunnel' line and get growing!!

Money? GOD No. (Failing to grasp the nettle.)

Fellow growers from farming co-ops around Europe have been visiting Ireland for a whistlestop tour of the great and good things happening in organics. Invariably, that included a trip to the North West. Land of Lovely Leitrim; "Like your own personal Tibet, but with more lakes and craic, and no oppression" as novelist DBC Pierre explains to the UK's leftie-indie-arty population via yesterday's Guardian.

The sun shines, the local organic scene glows, and generally speaking the delegates seem to be enjoying a favourable impression of the work that is happening on the ground here. On one farm walk I collar an English grower who has managed 100 acres and an organic marketing co-op initiative with her partner for some 11 years . Here I think, I may find my holy grail - the secret answer to how to make a living out of organic horticulture. Excitedly I ask her what she believes to be the elusive tipping point, the scale and style at which organic growers need to operate to be commercially viable. “You mean in money terms? Oh GOD no. We barely break even. Each year we wonder is this the year when we finally decide we have to give it up. The only good thing is that we work so hard – late into the evening in the season and up at dawn - that we really don’t have time to spend money the way other people do. We do it because we love it, but it doesn’t add up. I'm afraid I am the last person to give you hope. But I definitely think you are asking the right questions, and they are the questions people don't ask”.

Another delegate suggests that we have to think in terms of making a 'livelihood', not a traditional, comparable salary. And he suggests that scaling DOWN from 100 acres (particularly when a chunk of turnover goes into renting additional land) might be one solution in her particular case. And still the tipping point escapes me.

The elephant in the room. There are such fundamental questions to be asked about who we train up to be the growers of the future, and if they really comprehend the kind of scale and committment required in order to be commercial before they start. Questions about whether the infamous issue of 'import substitution' is actually achievable or just mindless, uninformed rhetoric, trotted out by officials who mean well but have yet to grasp the nettle.

But where there are problems there are also opportunities. Opportunities to tease out and share solutions in terms of how to operate in the most efficient, productive way possible. So it was REALLY good to receive the tip only moments later about a new concept in small-scale farming currently being piloted in the US and Canada. I won't say more about it here as I am currently writing an article about it, but I think I may be one step closer to my holy grail, and positively beyond myself with excitement...(how sad is THAT!).

Barely Sprouting Broccoli

Brassica olaeracea. Sown far too late last year. Planted out too late. Planted too close together. Stunted growth, in every way. Harvesting the first shoots now as everyone's else's has just about finished cropping for the season. Better than nothing though, lessons learned, and just about as beautiful a vegetable as is possible, I think.

The rules for next season, according to Joy Larkcom:

• Sow mid to early summer in seed beds or modules
• Plant out firmly in summer AT LEAST 2FEET EACH WAY (whooops)
• Advisable to earth up and stake as they grow
• Harvest from late winter to late spring
• Pick regularly to encourage early cropping

As with all in the brassica family, a heavy feeder so lots of well-rotted manure to prep the bed first.

Do NOT overcook - steam lightly, and preferably eat raw chopped up in salads.