Anyone for Fennel

Today I dug up the last of my first batch of fennel. These were grown in peat pots at home and then planted out. I grew half a dozen of the usual "Florence" and half a dozen "Rudy" because the speil said they were slow to bolt. The usual advice is to crop them when they "about the size of a tennis ball" This one qualifies



and so do these:

Both lots did well but the Rudy were rudy good indeed. I won't beleive the advice to leave sowing until the days start getting shorter, after 21st June, anymore.

Chuffennel

Never had such good fennel!





This second row has surpassed the first by not bolting. I guess it is down to the time of sowing, having sufficient nutrients in the ground, and the wet summer! Ordinarily we would just have it in salads but we have extended to braised fennel this year (and it was really good).

I'm fair chuffed.

It's been a fennel of a summer

I've hardly stopped to take breath since returning from our Pembrokeshire holiday. The weeds are relentless. One success this year has been the two rows of fennel, planted about a month apart. We've had good eating off one already, and the remaining plants are now at the optimum distance from each other at last (I just can't steel myself to do enough thinning out when I should - when they are still seedlings that is). In the past fennel has had a tendency to bolt. Aside from the thinning, the weather conditions this year have been wet enough to arrest this - so far.



The second row is well hidden between the leeks and the French beans.




Jocelyn Dimbleby has an excellent recipe for Fennel and Potato bake. Aside from being delicious it uses lots of two ingredients that are in abundance just now. I'll see if I can find a link.

It's like this one but I recommend Gruyere or Emmental rather than Cheddar. And if you use your home grown potatoes you won't need to bake it for nearly that long.

http://www.cookitsimply.com/recipe-0010-0360k2.html