Harvest calendar day 16: Corn salad/lambs lettuce

Hi there, friends, and welcome to a moment with me in my polytunnel. I escaped the house. It's very noisy today since we have a work going on on our upper floor, so it's very, very noisy today. I am truly sorry that I disappeared for a while and not been able to publish the harvest calendar for a few days, but I got sick Wednesday. It's difficult to talk about. I am okay and I will be okay. It's tricky to have a work depending on social media, and this is something that I can't say I struggle with it, but it's difficult sometimes because I really want to follow my heart and what I do for my living, and I have chosen to write and to talk about gardening, right? But every now and then I sometimes think about maybe I should write more about family. I should write more about how it's like to be like a woman. I should talk about the environment, the climate. I should talk more about food and different kind of things, and I sometimes talk with other people. I remember a few years ago I had a coach because I needed some advice in some things, and she told me that I would get so many new readers if you chose to talk about this and that, and it's very cold so I should just put my glove on, and then I say to myself, yeah, I might want that, but do I want like the effect of it? And that is basically where I end up when my colleagues, for example, when we talk about what we should do and not do, and they ask me, yeah, that will probably be interesting, and I think you could do like great content talking about this or that or have a great plan for things, but do you want like the effect of it? For example, writing about children and writing about family living. No, I hate to read negative comments about my life, so I better not do that, write about that. I am good in writing about gardening, so I will leave the rest, and maybe some questions will not be answered in that way, like what happens when Sarah disappears for a few days, but it's okay, and it's really nice also to know that things just don't crash because you keep away from your social media accounts for a few days, but one part of me don't like it, because I did have a pretty good plan for things in my harvest calendar, for example, but it's okay, and I am back now, and hopefully I can fulfill this. Thank you all for your sweet hearts and comments. It's difficult to read that too, because I get to cry, but it's okay. Right, today I am very lucky, because my mom is here, Ulla. She arrived on Thursday evening. I didn't know that something was wrong, but now she is here, and she stays a few days longer, because my husband is away too. Very unlucky, but that's how it is. So now she has my youngest for a few hours, so I can go out in the garden, and I have been taking a long walk with my dog, and just clearing some thoughts, and it's been wonderful, and now before I go to see them for lunch, I am going to bring some vegetables for us, and I mean, I say this quite many times, and I know I share this with many of you, that gardening can be so, you know, relaxing, and also like, it's like a medicine in a way, that I hardly feel like any pressure when I am in my garden. I always feel that it's okay not doing things in my garden. I have this, you know, this chair. I got it from my mom when I was a teenager, and it's painted with fishes. I didn't want to show you, but yeah, so I have this thing to sit on, to keep my butt warm, so I could just go out here in the kitchen, in the greenhouse, and sit for a while, and I watch my like lettuce plants over here. They are looking amazing. It's December, and they are like just surviving, and keeping themselves in a good shape, and I love to sit here, and I love to do that, especially when I feel bad, because it reminds me about the machinery that nature is, and I am a part of that. My body, and my soul, and everything is a part of something huge, and I don't really have to make complicated plans for things. As you say, Katinka, you just have to be really, and that's really, really nice. One thing I specifically like is the smell of the soil, and the vegetables, and today it's also very clear, because I watered like the beds behind me yesterday, so it's sort of, yeah, it makes it smell even more of like fresh soil. It's really good. I did write something yesterday for the blog, and it's about this bed where I sowed lettuce yesterday, but I will tell you more about that later on. One thing that I sort of like, think is a bit bad this winter, is that I have had thoughts on other things for a while, so I didn't make enough sowings of lamb's lettuce, corn salad. Not good. We still have many other like green leaves and stuff like that to eat, so it's no crisis when it comes to the salads, but it would be good if we had some more. I have four rows here, and they are planted I think in September or so, and they have grown amazingly good. It's always a discussion in Sweden, in like social media accounts, and gardeners from different parts of Sweden who sees that it's their like duty to tell other gardeners that it's no use in planting things in fall time, because it would never grow, it's not so much light, etc. I always feel quite tired of that, to be honest with you. Let people do whatever they want to. If you want to plant your corn salad and your lamb's lettuce in September, just feel free to do it. Don't complain about it, because in some parts of the country, things actually grow pretty well in fall time. I know that Katinka is watching from the west coast in Sweden, and I have seen pictures from your greenhouse, Katinka, and your garden also in fall time. Nowadays, this has spread all over Sweden, to grow things and to extend the season in your greenhouse and also in the garden, in the open. And it's so good to see pictures from others, because this is actually possible. So I get so inspired. As I tell you, I will soon go have a simple lunch together with my mom and I think we will eat some sandwiches and maybe some yogurt or something. And I want to bring some corn salad, because I really think it's a good base on a sandwich. I love to have some. We eat only Swedish meat, so for sandwiches, if we want some ham or some salami or whatever, it's always Swedish and we choose only the organic things. So it's really tasty and good quality. And I put some butter on a bread. I like the hard Swedish bread, knäckebröd, with some green leaves and then some meat or egg or cheese and some herbs, like could be sliced leek or basil or something else fresh in the garden. Parsley is a favorite too. I will turn the camera and let you see my three rows of corn salad. And these are planted too, in fall time. And I remembered when I planted them, it was at the same time that people in social media started to write things about, oh, it's not possible for anything to grow. And they were just like tiny, tiny, tiny. And this is how they end up like. In one of my books, you can buy those in the grocery store. They are called marsch when you buy them in Sweden. And they are most often grown, at least in wintertime, in areas around. My God, my brain is not awake after those days. Medelhavet. What is that? You know, Spain and Italy and other countries. Well, so they are grown there and they are like rinsed in water meant for drinking and packed in plastic bags and transported from those countries up to Sweden, where we eat them. And it's ridiculous because everyone with a garden can actually grow this amazing leafy green in your own garden. And what is even more ridiculous is the price, because I think 70 gram of this corn salad will cost almost the same as a package of seeds that will last for like a winter for a family like ours. So it's really ridiculous, I think, to buy this vegetable in Sweden if you have a garden where you can actually grow it on your own. And the size is pretty much the same as when you buy them in stores. Look here, there's something wrong with the camera and the light. I'm sorry about that. And for a sandwich, maybe if I pick three of the small plants for each person, that will be enough. Super, super tasty. And as I said, I am a bit disappointed that I didn't sow more of them. I think I made this sowing in August, maybe. And it was a part, was it in August or was it in... No, it must have been July, because in July we had this sowing calendar in Swedish, where we prepared our winter gardens, sowing a lot of leafy greens, hardy vegetables for our winter gardens. And I made this sowing and I can show you. In summertime, I make like many sowings in plug trays. So I keep them here in the polytunnel wintertime so that they won't get bothered by snow, because I make lots of winter sowings as well in plug trays. So I love to have them here, so I am well prepared. But I can fit in like 150 plants in this plug tray. And usually I sow maybe three or four seeds in each hole in that plug tray. So it gives me plenty of plants. And this summer I only sowed like one tray, and it's not enough for me to have enough to harvest the whole winter. But I will tell you more in Swedish in Thursday or Friday, why I didn't make so many sowings this summer, because I was busy doing other things. Well, well. I will do some more harvesting here. It's not difficult to harvest them at all. I simply cut them off by using my fingers and I leave the root in the ground. If I harvest like, not everyone, but I leave some of them, they will have some space. And so I like thin the row in a way. Because when daylight comes in, I don't know when daylight comes, but if it's light enough, then the corn salad will keep growing also in winter. And it's really good, because then I can get some more to harvest. So one can say that this is like a cluster of corn salad, but it is, let's see, one, two, yeah, three from one plug tray. So I leave the third one. I watered here yesterday too. It is really tricky watering in a greenhouse when it's like this cold and warm at the same time. We have like six degrees Celsius in daytime and it's like one degrees. It's not freezing in nighttime. So most often I have my door slightly open so I can get some fresh air in and get the damp air out. And it's very important. I think I watered with three cans yesterday and you can feel that in the air also that it's a bit damp. But as long as I keep an eye on the vegetables and I see that they are not damaged, then it's okay. And when it's like this warm and it's also a bit light outside, some vegetables will keep growing. And if it's not moist in the soil, they will die. So I prefer to water some of it. And in this bed, if I'm going to make sowings, I prefer also to water when it's like this warm outside. Even if it's winter, I prefer to water some before I make the sowing so it's not too dry in the ground because then it's no use winter sowing. I mean, I want to give the seeds like a kickstart and make them germinate quite early. But it's always a bit of gambling. You never know how it will go. And I think it's very exciting. What I do now with my corn salad is that I bring it in and I put it in a bowl with water. And it should be cold water, not warm water. And it's also a lot of tricky things when it comes to winter gardening. Because if you bring in like frozen leaves, green leaves, it could be a spinach or a leek or the corn salad, for example, then it's very easy that the leaves will lose their texture. They will just get disgusting, to be honest. So I prefer to bring them in and I put them in cold water and rinse them in very, very cold water. And sometimes I put them in a plastic bag or a box directly into the fridge. Well, I don't freeze them, but I let them stay a while in a very cold place to get used to it and then I can rinse them. But my harvest today looks very, very fresh. So I will simply rinse it in very cold water and it will be super tasty for me. I mean, it's amazing to go out in your garden in December and pick things to eat. And some would say it was a discussion, I think last year or the year before that, when my book Winter Odling, Winter Gardening came in Swedish and people said that it's no use to do this. And I mean, it's no use maybe to have like three rows of corn salad, but I have huge areas here in my polytunnel. And last year, for example, this area was filled with different varieties of hardy vegetables that I could eat in winter time. And that is great use and it makes a huge difference. So it's all a matter of how much you choose to grow, I think. And I mean, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of greenhouses in Sweden. It's very common to have a greenhouse, but people keep their mower and their furniture for gardens and things like that in their greenhouses in wintertime. They don't know that they can actually use it to grow vegetables in wintertime. That is a bit sad and it's changing in Sweden. So I am very happy about that because what if people actually used their greenhouses in hi, Karina, in wintertime, not only in Sweden, but in other countries too, and actually grew like this kind of vegetables that we normally eat imparted from other countries. I mean, that would be a great use for people and a good thing to do for the climate, I think. Well, well, now hold your thumb, as we say in Swedish, or wish me luck for the coming days that I will keep up and I will see you again tomorrow. Thank you for today and for your patience. I'm sorry that you had to wait for the next part of the harvest calendar, but I did have my reasons. Thank you and have a nice day. Bye-bye.