About a week ago my husband heaved our 'salad crib' over the lintel of the greenhouse to its winter home. I had previously sown it with a salad leaf mixture: kale (not a success - I should have known this), rocket (always a success) and oriental mustard which is doing well, though quite small at present. This latter crop brought back memories of the weekends we used to volunteer at the Copped Hall Trust, near Epping Upland, which as I may have written before, is well worth a visit. Early on Sunday mornings we would pack a picnic and motor up the drive towards the Hall's Walled Garden which is still in the process of restoration. It has a southerly aspect and we would sit outside for lunch in our shirtsleeves, even on autumnal days. We were offered the chance to cultivate some mustard in a ruined greenhouse which was awaiting its rebuild. Those strongly flavoured greens grew to a good height and lasted well into the winter.
Up here, our mustard has more the nature of a 'garnish' which I add to pep up supermarket lettuce - locally grown by preference. I hope it lasts through the winter under glass. I have sown more rocket too. Lancashire's coastal glass houses, like those of our former home, the Lea Valley, once supplied our region and beyond. I wonder if those times will ever come again.
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