Rounding off his series, Gaz Oakley offers great tips on sowing, harvesting and wild foraging, and how to cook up delicious meals with your fresh bounty
Part 3
May has arrived – so the days are longer and there’s some warmth in the Welsh air that feels so comforting and needed. My garden in May looks neat and organised, and all this extra light and warmth is like rocket fuel for my children – aka my plants. At this time of year, it feels like I can sit and watch them grow before my eyes.
This month there are plenty of tasks that suddenly feel pressing, though. And it’s definitely a busy time of year in the garden. But there’s still plenty of time to show you a delicious new way to cook your freshly harvested first early potatoes, for when yours are ready to harvest, and I want to look back on my growing journey over last few years – what a beautiful journey it has been.
Lastly, don’t worry if you haven’t started on your own veg-growing journey yet – May is a great month to sow lots of essential tasty ingredients for your kitchen harvests.
■ Gaz Oakley is a cook, author and gardener from Wales. Originally a classically trained professional chef, Gaz started sharing his recipes and food films on YouTube and now has an audience of over 2.5 million. @gazoakley
I know things are getting serious in the garden when my basket is feeling heavy and the contents are becoming more and more diverse. I’m currently harvesting a wide range of crisp, delicious lettuce leaves. This year I sowed a few new exciting varieties I hadn’t grown before. ‘Rossa di Trento’, a stunning red and green hearty leaf, and ‘Super Red Ruffles’, another red leaf but with a unique texture that soaks up a creamy salad dressing so well. Plus ‘Salad Bowl’, a green gentle-flavoured leaf with a beautiful shape. I really recommend these varieties for a simple salad mix, but throwing in a sharp kick of red-veined sorrel, which I always have growing, adds a unique surprise to my side salads.
Rhubarb bounty
My harvests are also boosted with fat bunches of rhubarb, either from my own garden or my lovely neighbour’s – I can’t use it up fast enough. I think it’s such an underrated crop – it can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes and I often use the juice as a replacement for lemon juice – the sourness is almost a like-for-like swap and enhances other flav
