The Food Issue: Eat what you Grow. Simple as A plus B equal C, Cooking Galore :)

The theme today is about food and turning out dishes out of your harvest.



I must say that already the labour of tending to your vegetables and fruits make them already more precious to you. You get a earthy sense of where they come from and how hard it is for them to develop: right amount of rain, right amount of sun, right soil, pest control and so on. The list is long and I am still discovering it as an amateur gardener. So when you get your harvest, whatever it is, you tend to do it justice and honour. From all the sweating and hard work, the fruit of your labour makes it from 'fork to fork', to mention the book of the inspirational Monty Don.




Gardening makes you so much more conscious about your food. Your 'Blasé' consumer attitude changes irreversibly. The mere thought of chucking away your harvest because you let it rot away, having forgotten about it somewhere, doesn't happen. When you come loaded with shopping bags and stuff the fridge, and throw away a bag of rocket salad that went all 'liquidy' a week later because it didn't make it to your plate, let's be honest, you will not feel a tinge of guilt, nor throw yourself upon your knees and promise yourself that you will not do it again. The care is hardly there, start growing your own food and this is an entirely different matter.

I tell you what, you just start giving a shit from a single seed to a single veg or fruit that will appear from it. First you have the sheer excitement of seeing it happen before your eyes. Let's call it the beauty of nature. But then nature can be very cruel, the lion ate the antelope and your lettuces do look as appetising to you as the local slugs who will make a bee line for them. The wind can blow your tall plants to annihilation in a gusty gust, where mouth to mouth reanimation of the tender destroyed green stalks is just not possible. So the big second is the sheer tender, love and care involved in growing something, anything from start to finish. Third: it's a fairly emotional journey filled with sadness and joy, disasters and successes.


The result if you have one is never overlooked. From day one, I tend to dream for the result and the outcome on my plate, let it be jams, chutneys, pickles, infused oils, which keeps for ages or the straight onto the plate for a Sunday Roast. I have that childish excitement from seed to result based upon plans and dreams. It might be just seeing and growing a black tomato to know what it taste like to doing chilli jam or oil passing by the now traditional in my household 'Christmasy' redcurrant and port jelly. The result has the honour to make it onto a plate with usually great pride.

I am not going into the whole issue about food, consuming behaviours, wastage and the third world, for I am not called Bob Geldof, however I did learn during my life to count my pennies, and yes there was a time when I would pick the odd one from the pavement which would bring the amount in my pocket to the right level where I could afford a bag of potatoes. When my cheap potatoes had growing eyes and buds within a few days, I did not despair. I planted them.


I would never forget my first harvest of potatoes, I have been growing them ever since, once or twice a year, trying different varieties.  A desperate idea born out of necessity soon became a passionate hobby: growing the food I love with the space I had. It only took an humble spud to reignite the gardening bug I took from my father's allotment and from the trendy lady who gave me a papyrus to grow and tend. I also remembered vividly how my dad got by his hard days of unemployment which only lasted from six to nine month by feeding us with his allotment. I thought I could grow out of mines by growing stuff to feed myself. Gardening fed my fighting spirit to keep looking forward.



For me respect is due to a harvest and it does not go to waste. Maybe it grew from my personal food issues falling on hard times once or twice or thrice. Yet growing my own is just a pure passionate hobby now, pulling me out of my writing desk to the sunshine for a few blessed hours.  Rain or shine, collecting that blessed harvest put a smile on my face, from the humble potatoes, to the fiery chillies, passing by a glut of raspberries.

Doing justice to the food I get has almost been ingrained upon me. Which brings me to C, the Cooking Galore.

Summertime 29/08/2015

As the last days of August are here, as the rain seems to love putting a damping early grey to our sky, I keep crossing fingers to have enough sun bathing all my chillies, sweet peppers and tomatoes to their respective, red, yellow or black...

To be honest, this year proved itself already so bountiful.
It was the first year where I gave a good go at growing root vegetables. Previously, I only tried potatoes which gave me a nice bounty now for five to six years. Different varieties every year: 'Apache' stood out yet who can beat a good 'King Edward' when you grow one... And this year potatoes didn't fail to show up with a  decent harvest for a patio garden.

In Jan/Feb encouraged by the lovely harvest of Mooli radishes, I extended my repertoire of root veg to carrots (2 varieties, 'Nantes 5' and 'Chantenay'), beetroot (a normal classical type which I forgot the name of, let's call it 'Beetroot') and parsnips.

The result for the carrots was impressive although with the 'gianormous' size of the Chantenay, I guess I did let them in the ground a tad too long, however taste wise, braised in butter accompanied with shallots, seasoned with black pepper and cumin, yummy as hell. What's up Doc? So I grew a giant carrot... Not up to standard...? That's okay, I'll get rid of it in two bites... :0) Yep, that harvest made a Bugs Bunny out of me and my partner.



For the beetroot, if it was less of a bountiful, jumping about affair, yet they were duly pickled today to fill a Kilner jar which we will enjoy this autumn. It was my first attempt at pickling, and making that fragrant spiced vinegar filled the entire house with a lovely smell. Pickled beetroot is one of my big favourite since a wee kid. I could never have enough of them, the same went for gherkins. Just having a jar of them, makes me want to try again to grow beetroot next year: A fancy variety definitely, but the normal one too to get me growing them much better.






The hanging baskets full of Bumble Bee tomatoes has been a successful one despite the variety not being made for baskets. I must say they thrived in there and I am very much looking forward to that harvest.  I tricked a bit the stem growth when the plants were so so young with toilet paper roll. First it gives to the seedling that strong upright growth, the chase for the sunlight. Then kept on a bit it gives the lower stem, deprived of sunlight, that weakness, and flexibility perfect for being rooted in a hanging basket. Despite the risk of frost, I put them out mid may, while I delayed my other tomatoes to be planted out by a couple of weeks. When on their first week, their leaves turned brown, I thought they were cold shocked, however months later, they have been the hardiest ones this year and most fruitful of any of my tomatoes. The question between frost/sunlight/ temperatures is a hard one for any gardener. But from this experiment this year, I would say hours of sunlight are crucial more than warmer temperatures. The head start of a couple of weeks had a massive impact on their crops and delivery. I know I will eat those Bumble Bee tomatoes, cocktail size, they are the perfect Sunday afternoon nibbles mixed with little mozzarella pearls and
Greek basil, probably accompanied by a late summer Pimms and lemonade, while day dreaming of my next year's projects, patio wise and writing wise and plenty wise. The Bumble Bees turned out to be a physical reality, taking the risk of them fighting frosty nights. They are a bumper crop.  Shine a light, dare to put some beams on those tender leaves and let them do their things.

For the rest of the tomatoes, it is a show but a fairly weak one. My black ones did show up, though, lol, I have two that made it so far... Tigerella is a non show but in flowers, Moneymaker has a descent crop needing to turn red, and the Yellow Stuffer, a beef tomato kind has done a few which need lots of plumping up and to turn yellow to be bespoke to its name.

When it concerns the chillies and sweet peppers a lot just need that good big burst of sunshine, Let's say a good decent 14 days of rays kissing their flesh to the blushing red or yellow they should be. The Cayenne peppers have been sun kissed red and duly harvested. For the rest the size is there and the bounty but not the colour. The Romanesco pepper delivered on size, but also the sweet mini pepper who are not that mini whatsoever. Then the lemon drop chilli who have to turn yellow are giving us a fantastic crop.

As for the unusual, the gherkins which I was pinning for did start to do something and so are the cucamelons.Too early to say anything yet, but grown or sown a couple of weeks earlier may have helped there too, or put outside in a less conservative way.

There is still a good month of Summer left. For my part if the rain allows me to be lazy and not do any watering in the garden, I wish for more sun right now to sun kiss all my endeavours of the year with a blessed harvest of goodies for my kitchen.

Autumn is another adventure altogether. I went Sasquash for the Fall: Coquina squash and butternut Squash are growing fast but also the hundredweight Pumpkins slowly. Hopefully I will carve my own pumpkin for Halloween, and I will have a couple more for soup and tart. That's the grand plan as well as publishing the sequel to 'Hair Rising, Heir Raising, Erasing', the spooky tale, 'A Ghost Spell, A W-C's Haunting Return'.

This Winter, I intend to grow more of the Mooli, but I planted some winter leaves, from Spinach beet to curly scarlet kale passing by Japanese cabbage which are doing well so far. Cooking with those are going to bring funk into the winter plate.

Taking stock and looking back at all the months gone past, I marvel at what you can do with just pots and veggie bags and hanging baskets. Any spare metre counts if you want to make an adventure of it. Yet nothing are a given, nature, pests, weather are a crucial parameters to work with. But given hard work, you may turn that square metre into something palatable or gorgeous to the eyes.

My plans are already forming for next year to transform that space again into a bountiful kitchen garden with plenty new varieties I never tried before... Gardening is simply grounding you back to nature and rewarding. Planting the seed that will feed you later, gives you hope in a future within your own hands. Watch it grow with TLC, gives you strength. When the outside world tries to squeeze you and others out for monetary whatsoever reasons in despicable corporate ways, breaking free back to a true simply loving life gives you wings, strong and powerful, the hurt, the past caused, a voice.

Any time you feel the pain, just remember that you are FREE.

Remember to make it Better somehow for yourself.
For it is Your Life and No one else.

Love what you do: Truly.

XXX

Never forget to Dream.

Never forget to act upon those dreams.

To the people who told me you could never grow lemons in England:

Check my lemon tree in my British garden, full of rain, he was blessed with it this Summer,

Check these babies out: fruitful despite everything: It's just TLC.

Take loving care of your Dreams and just watch

them happening. Firetongue.

13/07/2015. Fireworks... le Schpountz...

Despite the rain this Sunday afternoon, it has been a garden affair...

The last few warm weeks meant lots of re-potting, lots of moving about, lots of framing of many plants... The main task was to put out all the chilli and pepper plants out to benefit of the Summer sun.  From the yellow Peruvian chilli to the Californian sweet pepper passing by the Romanesco pepper, the Jalapeno and Cayenne, we have a lot of pepper from sweet to hot to look after this Summer. The Chilli  Adventure has been so exciting so far that my partner dreams of creating a UK chilli bank of seeds or something better along the lines to share for all to grow.

I must say the heat of the entire affair enthuses me somehow. Digging Scotch bonnet seeds from market shelves to Ghost chilli from wherever on the globe, to growing lots of interesting chillies has been a true adventure. At the end of the day, it involves taste as well as all the peppers will end in a pan. My choices went for sweet varieties, the long pointy red Romanesco, the Californian bell pepper and the sweet mini mix. I never grew sweet peppers before. If any  appear I will be very happy and my pans even more.

This Spring comes to an end full of bounty. First, the baby gem lettuce salad that went sky scrapper on us. It provided for a few lovely meals and an allotment salad with radishes that was a delicious treat.





Then it is fruity: redcurrants, strawberries and raspberries. The plan for those are in terms of jellies, Eton mess, jams and conserves.

Then it is the good old potatoes: Baby new potatoes, Désirée and Apache. The good harvest happened today. Plentiful. Better than last year.

Demain ne donnez pas la main aux trancheurs de tetes. Vous perdrez toutes vos libertés, si vous etes assez stupides pour tomber dans leur propagande: half cooked, planning on mass imbecility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSqPNpWZjYI

 Leurs videos incitant à la revolution n'ont pas de fondement. La république n'a pas été fondée par une simple phrase de Machiavel.  N'importe qui , fully educated, vous le dira. C'est pure bullshit! Du sable, la poudre aux yeux, pour vous faire commetre le pire. Ne baffouer pas les libertés acquises, ne les perder pas sur un coup de tete. Vous risquez gros. Les trancheurs de tetes sont sur vous, ils jouent avec vos consciences comme des pions sur un jeu d'échec. Don't give them the easy hand! Fight For Liberty, Fraternity and Equality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MVonyVSQoM

09/06/2015. Spring Shoots and Shouts.

Don't you love it when the sun shines finally and it looks that it will last a bit?

Don't you love it when you can walk outdoors without a coat on?

I do. When I can come back from a pub's terrace with a sun stroke nose, this is when I can let all my plans and vegetables/fruits dreams out for good in the year. Any frost scare are unlikely, and your babies can be re-potted outdoors. Cross fingers, without too much wind, just the right amount of rain and shine, all the plants projects kept indoors, nursed to nice young shoots will fare well in the big outdoors.

It is a bit like taking your kids to school for the first time. My worst fear for them is the battering of a big bully you cannot control:  Aka Mister Blue Sky, Aka, Weather Bro.

But in the same token, once you have a good growth indoors screaming for light, you have to give it. So once frost fear is gone, it is just happy re-potting galore.

Gosh did I went crazy this year on my many plans, whilst still trying to keep some of last year alive and kicking.  Any regrets: none so far. A failed project makes me start from scratch all over again until I get it right. This year, I have a black fly pest destroying pumpkin shoots as soon as they have a nice growth. Did a small test, and found out that the sowed straight outside rather than nursed inside are not affected by the problem.  Yeehaw, I may grow my 'Hundredweight Pumpkin' to completion ready for Halloween. I would love to carve that big Baby, to a awesome spooky lantern , one that says to kids and their parents, that we have massive boxes of Cadbury's chocolate for them. That we welcome the cheerfulness of that night. For me it is a night that means for you do get to see children and their smiles. I cannot have a child for health reason.  So I spread my love to children the way I can: giving chocolates and growing a magical size pumpkin. Well if it grows to a Cinderella' awesome WOW size. Lol. Big Dream: I can imagine the pumpkin soup coming out of that Big Baby of a Pumpkin. Nothing lost, the seeds would be planted the following year.





For dreams coming to a physical reality, I always wanted to see a black tulip., since a French film of my childhood called  'La Tulipe Noire' with the handsome Alain Delon as the star cast. I bought some 'Black Parrot' tulip bulbs last year which 4 came to blossom out of 5 this year. I must say to see those black tulips in my patio yard made this Spring pretty special. Any dream you have, keep them strong and alive, for they can happen any time in your life. Do not bury them as impossibilities. Black tulips are a man's dream, a creation, which they rendered physical using good old genetic laws like Mendel's one. The romanticise black tulipe, wrote by Dumas in the  19th century saw real life as a scientific creation in the late 20th century, 30 to 20 years later I can grow some in my patio garden. I felt blessed to just be able to see them flourish. Black tulips are a dream come true for a few aficionados devoted to their creation.

A big challenge those last weekends, were to re-pot the tomatoes to their final position, outside.  First went the batch of eight 'Bumble Bee' tomatoes  which went into a couple of hanging baskets. I do not know if the variety is suitable for hanging baskets yet this experience will give me a straight answer. The young plants were strong when planted outside in the baskets. They are all surviving, yet their first leaves wilted not use to the outdoors within the first three days. I skipped the acclimatization and hardening time to the outdoors. . The May weather was too crap to allow it. May be this was a bad decision only time will tell.


Second went the rest, the RHS winning 'Indigo Rose' the ultimate black tomato, The lovely beefsteak tomato, 'yellow stuffer', and 'Tigerella's' in big planter pots. I have also a weak 'Moneymaker' to plant outdoors. But I am keeping it in for a week or two longer indoors. I am looking forward to see all thrive outdoors throughout the summer. It's the exiting part which can also be a devastating part, come heavy rain or storm: When it is out there, it is like a child taken to school for the first time.  Does he/she have the strength to face bullies? Can we protect him/her more during their first outside steps?

The other incentives are doing well.

I never ever planted so much veg at once: two types of carrots ( 'Nantes 5, Chantenay), aubergines, parsnips, beetroot, gherkins, little gem lettuce, and two type of butternut squash, Coquina and normal,, plus  two kind of potatoes, King Edwards being the much sought after one. All is in the hands of hope and weather with the added good care we can provide. So far so good.

We have also a borlotti bean 'Firetongue' growing. Last year one was impressive enough to try it again big time. We also managed to get a shoot from a tendrilla pea: One of last year total failure. Touch wood this one will deliver big time.

21/04/2014 The Gardening Bug.

For sure I cannot tell you with exact precision when I caught the gardening bug or the planting green thing one...

However I can remember three memories of it happening. The conscience of it all was between 5 to 10 years old at the most.

First it was within the allotment garden of my late father. It is still a vague memory to this day yet it has burst of colours and flavours. For the colours none beat the dahlias he planted for my mum. Brash and loud like 'Europe' singing The 'Final Countdown', those flowers amazed me by their vivid colours and shapes. They were a visual fireworks. As for the flavours, I remember the pumpkins and the soups all too well. It meant the redundancy ghost came into town and fired the workers it could not pay. 'Petrobras', an oil rig, did cost the livelihood of many men who built her, for she was not paid for  by the nation who ordered her, hence it ruined a ship and oil rig building yard. She was a beautiful thing. I remember her sitting proud in the docks and I mourned an era when she capsized years later.

Then there is your first cactus bowl full of cactusy plants. Hard to keep... I think it was drowned in water by sheer ignorance... I loved that gift rewarding some of my exams... yet I was not that cultivated about cacti at that time.









But none of this is beating the papyrus plant I was given by a lady who had a massive one as a stunning unusual feature in her living room. When she handed me the head of one of them in my young hands with the instructions to make it thrive, it felt like a treasure, I followed them eagerly. Papyrus was for me exotic, but also so full of history. It was a plant with a curriculum. I was very successful at growing papyrus. I had a thriving recipe. However I named my plants and it disturbed my mum so much that she chopped the head off the entire thriving papyrus thinking it was alive with some kind of dark magic.  When the head of Charlie, Liz, Lucie and so much more went down, I felt that unless I was a scientist or proper breeder, I was not allowed to give names to my endeavours. It didn't help me that I did talk to plants at that time. Seeing them thriving above her own head, my mum just freaked out. The day she did the cull broke my heart so much that I never tried to grow anything else in front of her eyes. I waited until I had my own place.


Years later, three decades, I can now grow what I want providing time, space and weather. I am growing my own veg in a patio like fashion, aka, in containers. Tomatoes of different varieties and sweet and chilli peppers are my annual favourites while all the rest is still at experimental stages. Growing flowers like tulips and clematis is an adventure.





Today I planted a pumpkin seed which should become so gianormous as to be a fit contender for fairytale carriages...












I sowed cucamelon, aubergine, butternut squash, courgette, peas and firetongue borlotti beans, but also the experimental 'Luffa'. My partner, jealous of my luffa back scratching brush, wants one: lets grow one from scratch :)





I got the gardening bug from somewhere and it is there to stay.
Perfect match my partner's father was a gardener. He caught the bug from him. Together we have green fingers.

22/03/2015 Early Spring Sowing.

Yesterday was cold and grey yet it was the first day of Spring.

On the positive side, thinking of the season we have just left,  it was not a very wet Winter nor a very snowy one. However it was quite frosty at time and bitterly cold.  I may have lost all my fuchsias. The last few days have been free from frost and planting outdoors has been possible and a 'touch wood' venture.

Today, I let the adventures and the dream plans run loose again. It was all about trying something new, something I was not familiar growing with in the garden.

I started with something a little crazy. It's just pure recycling in my mind, a little nutty scheme in my partner's view yet he laid an helping hand. We had a spare cat bed that we had to re-use or throw away. Our cats didn't like it at all. The unloved bed was discarded to the garden until we figured out how to recycle it properly.  As it is quite large and as the proper potting about in the garden has started in earnest, I saw in it a potential pot.  It met the retort: 'What about its door?'

Dreaming of an answer, I started to visualise the possibility of that odd container from a mini rock garden using the door of the basket as a feature to let the alpine plant cascade out to creating terraces within the pot. I went for the latter. If the idea of the rock garden is not discarded for good, it is postponed until next year providing me a year to plan it carefully with a lovely selection of plants and also to read about the subject.

So this year is not ornamental, it is all about trying my hand at cultivating different type of vegetables. Terraced in rows, the container made a perfect veg patch for experiments. I allocated the first and lower row to spring onions 'North Holland Blood Red', a red variety.  Loving a good stir fry, I tend to buy spring onions every two weeks. I am looking forward to see if I will be successful in growing some.

For the second row, I sowed leek, a variety called 'Elefant'. It's another staple veg in my shopping list, and my fridge is never devoid of leeks at any time. From stews, to soups, stocks and risottos, to letting them do all the talking on a plate, I love leeks, its great taste and versatility. It was not always so for in my childhood I hated leeks and in particular the stringy  thick potage my mum used to make out of them. But with time and adulthood, the humble leek lost totally his 'boogeyman'  aspect in my mind. Especially trying fantastic recipe like 'leeks vinaigrette' by Valentine Warner put leeks back into a big winner for my taste-buds:

http://www.valentinewarner.com/recipes/vegetables/leeks-vinaigrette/

In the third row, it is another vegetable we love to hate but that I actually like: Brussels Sprout. The variety is 'Eversham Special'.  Total novice there as well at growing them, it will be educational. During my time as an Au-Pair girl and Nanny, I spent many Christmas, helping in the kitchen, chatting away with K, sitting at the table preparing the sprout the traditional way: hard bottom off, bad leaves off, cut crossing the top then they simply went to the boiling pan. Somehow, I have fond memory of the tedious task because I associated Sprouts so much with the buzz of Christmas. It is no surprise that in my household, every Winter welcomes that veg however the way I cook with those green gems is utterly different: braised in butter, jazzed up with nuts of some sort (walnuts work well with them) and pancetta cubes equal nice side veg treat.





My final two experiments are trying to grow 'Cornichons' : 'Vert Petit de Paris' . I am fond of gherkins. I eat literally about three pots of them a week while relaxing and catching up on TV programs. So I am well excited about that plan.









Last I sowed an aubergine seed. I haven't got room for more as butternut squashes and pumpkins will occupy my larger pots this year. The variety is 'Early long Purple 3'. The aim is to make my partner appreciate them more. Seeing something grow and caring for it creates bonds between a plant and the gardener. I guess I dream that his pouting pursed lips when I ever buy an aubergine will disappear in a smile when he picks up a large one for diner from the garden. Well that's the plan which pursues into let's give that aubergine 'star treatment': A bit of mozzarella, tomatoes from the garden, Italian herbs from our UK pots on the patio and 'Voilà: we have Aubergine Parmigiana!'. One of my favourite dishes, as comforting as delicious which I want to share with Mr Aubergine Shy-Puke so he becomes Mr Aubergine Love-More. He won't be able to resist a Jamie Oliver recipe, he never have been able to...


http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/aubergine-parmigiana-melanzane-alla-parmigiana/#R0Tohr09cdVvR7K2.97

Spring is here with lots of scope to start plenty of dreams and plans and make them work out. Whatever your dream may be, it is the time to put your plans into action. 

It's growing time. 

Win or fail, there is a lot to learn from any endeavour. 

Yeehaw!