GROW YOUR OWN FOOD with DIRTY NAILS SEPTEMBER, 3RD WEEK WINTER PURSLANE & CORN SALAD ‘Claytonia‘, or winter purslane, is a pretty little plant that will provide succulent fresh green leaves for use as a salad garnish during the winter months. Also known as ’miners lettuce’, in the past it was grown widely by working families as an important food source for when the days are short and the nights long.

Dirty Nails has been sowing winter purslane this week. He sprinkles the shiny black pinhead-sized seeds over a tray of moist compost in much the same way as he applies a pinch of salt to a plate of food, and barely covers them with a fine layer of compost. The seed trays are put into the greenhouse to germinate. A cool window-sill is also ideal. The seeds require only to be kept moist and should start showing tiny shoots in a few days. They will grow on until large enough to handle, whereupon Dirty Nails will transplant them outside in rows at 4 inch (10 cm) intervals. Once in the open air these autumn-sown plants are most productive when given the protection of a cloche covering. Individual leaves can be picked as soon as they are large enough, about the size of a two-pence piece. White flowers stem from the centre of round leaves which resemble a belly-button. These are edible, too. Winter purslane develops into a compact, low rosette of leaves which thrives on regular pickings. A dozen or more plants should provide sufficient greens to keep a family of four in fresh saladings throughout the dark months.

Corn salad, or ’lambs lettuce’, is another hardy vegetable which Dirty Nails grows for winter food. He broadcast-sows, or scatters, the small brown seeds on any spare patch of soil before raking them in. They will develop happily enough with or without a cloche, producing stout little plants. Leaves can be picked individually but are a bit small. Dirty Nails prefers to tease out plants, dunk them in water to wash, trim the root, and present whole on a plate or in sandwiches. Corn salad has a pleasant nutty flavour and self-sows freely if a few are left to flower. Dirty Nails has it coming up, as if by magic, in various corners of the veg garden and it is always welcome.

VEGETABLE SNIPPETS: SOME FACTS ABOUT WINTER PURSLANE & CORN SALAD Winter purslane might be called ’miner’s lettuce’. This name came about from the days of the American gold-rush. In these frantic and sometimes desperate times, the fleshy leaves provided miners for gold with a crucial source of vitamin C. They actually depended on this low-growing plant to ward off scurvy. It is a good crop to cultivate in a partially sheltered spot, as this mimics its chosen natural habitat which would be shaded by trees.

Around-about 1600, corn salad was introduced to the UK. It came from the Low Countries of Northern Europe. An alternative name for this petite plant is ‘lambs lettuce’. This is in reference to the fact that it is reputed to be at its greenest and most tender come the end of winter, which coincides with the traditional start of the lambing season.

As an escapee to the wild, in the UK it grows as a discreet plant that looks very much like a miniature forget-me-not. Corn salad prefers the dry soils provided by hedge banks and dunes. In places it may be a common weed of arable farmland.

NATURAL HISTORY IN THE GARDEN: BLACKBIRDS & ELDERBERRIES Elderberries are swelling in darkening, ripening bunches that drip from the branches of the bushes that are dotted over the bank which backs on to Dirty Nails’ plot. They are attractive to blackbirds. Watch out for flocks descending on the heavily laden plants this month. These handsome fellows like to cluck quietly to themselves as they gulp down a few berries, look up and around, shift position, and gobble up some more. Like most of the wildlife in the garden environment, the birds gorge themselves on nature’s bounty during these heady days of plenty. ‘How to Grow Your Own Food’ by Dirty Nails (How To Books: ISBN 978-1-905862-11-5) is available at bookstores and www.dirtynails.co.uk , priced £10.99.