Is there anything more gorgeous than freshly cut asparagus? Well, maybe fresh sweet corn, but that’s a delight for later in the year. The first proper harvest of the year on my plot is asparagus, and its always a marvel.

There are some vegetables that we grow because they’re a staple and we have the space, but to be honest they don’t taste wildly different to good supermarket vegetable. However, there are some that genuinely taste completely different to anything that you can buy elsewhere, and can only be grown. For me, fresh asparagus, cut and cooked within a few hours definitely falls into the latter category – Pure allotment magic.

There’s a reason why the first challenge on the Big Allotment Challenge was to grow radishes, and this time of year reminds me that one of the easiest quickest wins on any allotment is radishes. I’m sure that if cockroaches survived a nuclear holocaust, they would have ample feeding on similarly indestructible radishes.

Only two weeks after planting they’re already looking like proper seedlings. In another 3-4 weeks the first ones will be picked ready for adding to a tasty green salad.