Allotment colours

Okay, I’m showing off a bit. The last of the sweetpeas were needing to be picked and having picked them, I couldn’t resist harvesting a twilight purple kohlrabi to set alongside them and then the green table begged to be a setting … very arty, I hope you agree.

So, back to the adventures with kohlrabi – I wasn’t thrilled by the flavour in a casserole, so I tried it in a coleslaw, as suggested by plot-holder Duncan. That was better but still not exactly thrilling, so finally I cut this kohlrabi into chunks, sprinkled it with garlic, herbes de provence and salt and roasted it in olive oil with carrots, potatoes and peppers: superb! Since then we’ve also tried kohlrabi oven chips (like potato chips but oven roasted, well sprinkled with black pepper and chili flakes) which were just as good.

As I’m spending most of my weekends digging over the bottom of the allotment so that we can use it for root crops this year (we have no idea when it was last planted, it has turned into a impressive jungle of weeds and even a weekly digging only reduces it to a wasteland, rather than an outright jungle) I’ve got a healthy appetite for the vegetables we harvest. This weekend I’ve got to deal with two giant courgettes – very nearly marrow sized – and they are not my favourite vegetable but I’m determined to find a similarly superb recipe to make them a family favourite. Tonight I’m trying the first one in a coconut milk curry with chickpeas … I wonder if that is going to be the answer?

Labels: allotment-courgettes, allotment-kohlrabi, allotment-sweet-peas

The alien on the allotment

Well actually, it’s Duncan’s kohlrabi!

It’s a fast-maturing brassica that (apparently) can be sown as a catch-crop or inter-crop. The white and green varieties can be sown between March and June and for a late autumn or winter crop the purple variety can be sown during July or August – we didn’t know this, so we sowed white and purple together and they’ve both matured at once – go figure!

They need plenty of water in dry weather to prevent woody roots but because they are fast growing they don’t suffer from disease as much as slower relatives.


Kohlrabi taste best when the swollen bulbs are about tennis-ball sized because they get woody if left any longer. But with successional sowing plants can be harvested until mid-December.

Kohlrabi leaves are popular with rabbits and guinea pigs and have a similar nutritional value to cabbage leaves.

Labels: allotment-catch-crops, allotment-kohlrabi