No fridge - just a safe on the slate slab in the dark, cool dairy. Bacon salted in wooden boxes and hams hanging from the hooks in the beams.I grew up, mostly, on a Coniston Farm - it was nearer Torver but in Coniston Parish. Marrows came but once a year like tomatoes and things. Food was seasonal unless bottled, preserved or kept through the winter by various methods. Potatoes in sacks or like the carrots in clamps. You do not hear much about clamping on Gardener's World now but Percy Thrower knew all about them.
Parsnips could be left in the ground into the winter but you need a bigger crop than we had last year - this is it!
The apples were on wooden racks, none touching and regularly examined for rot. Kilner Jars stood in rows on shelves.
So what am I on about?
When such as marrows were once a year they were a treat and are remembered fondly - at least by me - none of the rest of the family like Marrow much. The strawberries
and raspberries came fresh from the garden for such a short time - then bottled or jammed.
Some things still have a season in the garden if not in the supermarket. One classic example is asparagus.
Two years ago I planted an asparagus bed with 20 crowns.
Last year we had one meal.
This year we had about four but decided not to tax the bed too much because the spring was so dry.
Next year - get out the melted butter for six May and June weeks of succulent delight.
(Unless we have a mild wet winter in which case it will be a battle with the slugs again.)
(The pot thing in the foreground is a rhubarb forcing pot I bought without a lid for a pound many years ago at a house sale. I could find a more attractive top for it than this disc of plastic though.)
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