The kitchen garden may look like it’s been ransacked right now but we’ve still got a wide range of winter vegetables to bring to the table every day. I’ve been taken aback by how we can create a veritable feast from what looks like a humble pile of vegetables. I’m loving the culinary challenge of finding tasty things to make with what’s ready for harvest – like the roasted fennel and mushroom lasagna which on the face of it sounded like an unlikely combination but turned out to be really tasty and has been added to our must cook again list.
Admittedly I had to buy the mushrooms but I grabbed two juicy fennel bulbs from the garden before they went to seed. It’s still a thrill to skip through most of the vegetable section in the supermarket and ultimately we’d like to get to a point where I could almost leap frog it altogether by relying entirely on seasonal produce from our very own backyard pantry instead.
Pulling the latest new vegetable from the Kitchen Garden today took a great deal more effort than I imagined. The nobbly celeriac had put down roots into the ground requiring a deep dig to retrieve it from the plot. I grew these from seed and like all the other first harvests from the kitchen garden it gave me a great deal of satisfaction. Tonight’s vegetable stews with parsley and Parmesan dumplings was all the more delicious knowing it was made with vegetables from our backyard.
Elegance and timelessness are what spring to mind about black and white photographs. They have a depth of view that colour photographs often don’t convey. Converting colour photographs from colour to black and white digitally can often bring a crispness and brightness to an otherwise dull photograph. So why given all the pluses of black and white photography do I show so few of mine in Black and White?
Mostly it’s because I like my photographs to be a true representation of what I see. That means in all the technicolour glory. But mainly because when I try to make the conversion they simply don’t look that good. This is because I mostly don’t give lots of thought to how I take my photographs but rather just click away experimenting as I go. For once this week I thought I’d think a little more in advance and look for photographic opportunities where I could capture the essence of winter in the kitchen garden.
At the time I didn’t convert the photographs to black and white but when it came to publishing them on the blog I threw caution to the wind.
The really heavy frost was only with us for one day but it was a remarkable day when the winter vegetables really did go wintry. Like this Bok Choi.
But let’s start at the gate which was frozen shut. It was quite remarkable to see the frozen moisture on the wood. Also, how the edges of the parsley and asparagus were edged with frost.
Although they looked a bit forlorn the leeks will have benefited a bit from some chill. Looking more at this picture makes me realise I’m going to have rather a lot of leeks to eat!
The vestiges of rhubarb, cauliflower, cabbage and beetroot certainly didn’t enjoy the chilling experience. I’m hopeful that they will still be ok to harvest as I have plans for them next week!
Away from the kitchen garden the frost was certainly making it’s mark amongst all the puddles of water lying around. With all the recent rain we’re waterlogged in many places. I quite like the artistic feel of this frozen puddle.
Having had a bit of a photography blight in recent weeks I’m feeling more cheerful to have been able to get out and get a bit more practice in. I’ve enjoyed the black and white experiment too so perhaps I’ll do a bit more of that in future. That would of course require me to be more diligent in my photography which is probably a good reason in itself.
With the wind howling around the verandas and the rain lashing down it’s hard to remember when the sun beat down on the kitchen garden. Even when we didn’t get much sun this summer I would pick those days over what winter is starting to throw at us right now. Even if I did end up with an over supply of green tomatoes.
Back in the warmer days of Spring, I threw caution to the wind and was a little enthusiastic in my propagation of courgette plants. Seemed a shame to waste them although at that time I didn’t quite appreciate the sheer productivity of this plants. My final fling to use my courgette harvest was the perfect match for my green tomatoes to produce a seasonal chutney using a recipe from The River Cottage Preserves Handbook.
Since I started growing vegetables two years ago I’ve comforted myself that I’m a beginner and that if anything grows is a bonus. It seems that this year my beginners luck has run out as far as Cauliflower growing goes. Unlike the creamy tight balls I have previously grown this years crop has been more flower like than cauli. Despite covering their creaminess with leaves to keep them safe from the sun I have been left with the rather unattractive sprouting look.
The good news is though that they taste just as good in soup. And with winter upon us I’ll be rustling up plenty this week before these plants finally go to seed for real.
Aside from the dodgy cauliflower there is plenty still flourishing in the kitchen garden. The celery is still tall and strong. I’m harvesting as I need a few stalks so we’ll have plenty to keep us going for a while. The broad beans are shooting up and about ready for tying in to save from the retched winds that are most definitely on their way this week. My favourite tall vegetables are the fennel which makes a mean risotto now MT has found his risotto making mojo again.
The cabbages, beetroot and parsnips are keeping us well stocked too. The leeks look very promising – can’t wait for Spring to see them in their full glory.
There is something heart warming to wander down the garden and wander amongst the kitchen garden. The bassets see it as the biggest snack cupboard to raid. I am content to discover what’s ready for picking and plan what might be on the menu for the coming weeks.
For all the gardening books I have there is nothing that prepares you for what actually happens when it comes to vegetable growing. Nothing like experience to teach you how things work. I’ve bought myself a beautiful notebook this week to start my full Backyard Pantry masterplan. With the wet and windy weather this weekend it’s a perfect opportunity to start planning for next year.
I’ve got my sights on a cloche system that will support poly sheets as well as sun shade (for the pesky cauliflowers), insect net (to keep the pesky white cabbage butterflies) and fleece to keep the plants warm (to keep off the pesky frost). But first I need to plan out what I’m going to grow and in what quantities. Planting will start in the barn in August to give me the best start this year.
Although we could never eat all that we grow it gives me a real buzz to drop off a bag of vegetables to the neighbours or to my city slicker friends. I may also give away extra plants from seeds to people to see if I can make the growing bug into a virus.
Memories of harvest festival services in church when I was a child have been popping in my head recently. Displays of fruits and vegetables in technicolour glory all laid out in church to celebrate the end of summer’s hard work. I was never in favour of tinned produce making it into the display when those who didn’t grow their own still wanted to make a charitable donation to the festival. The wonder for me was seeing people’s hard labour on display, grown with love and offered with good heart. Popping in a tin of peaches and pears just didn’t cut it for me.
It’s been a veritable seasonal feast here are Domestic Executive HQ. The kitchen garden has been burgeoning with crops and the kitchen overflowing with new adventures to capture this seasons produce in chutneys. I do however have some regret as things in the garden look so wonderfully lush and in their rightful place. Just like this butternut squash peaking out from under the leaves.
Companionship is an important part of life. And this is just so in the kitchen garden where the carrots have been making friends with Marigolds. These are orange beacons amongst the predominant greens and as well as bringing colour to the garden they’ve kept the pests away from our prized crops. I’m definitely going to increase the amount of flowers we grow with the vegetables next year. These are both beautiful and purposeful so deserve a prized place.
Although we are moving to the end of our prime growing season there is still plenty to marvel over. I am also getting increasingly inspired about what are the culinary possibilities from our remaining crops.
There is nothing better than being able to chat with a like minded friend. Someone who won’t roll their eyes when you start moaning about your tomatoes and will get equally excited when you tell them the number of eggs the chickens are laying. Comparing notes about what’s growing in our respective veggie plots was a comforting experience. To know that another novice grower is also wondering how big your pumpkin plants should be growing or whether you’ve spawned a triffid.
We were both as clueless about when the potatoes should be lifted. The rule of thumb as I understand it is after they’ve finished flowering. But what if they don’t seem to have flowered or the flowers blew away in a freak gale. A couple of weeks ago common sense prevailed and I checked my veggie calendar where I’d written down when I could expect the spuds to be ready. I admit to feeling just a little dumb to realise that I was already a week late. My Granddad in law will be tutting at me if he read this blog!
As I stepped into the kitchen garden this weekend it was like being transported to a different world. A place of minor miracles everywhere you look. I still can’t get my head around the fact that I can grow food. Food we eat and enjoy. Food that started by me fumbling with packets of seeds and crossing my fingers that my efforts would not be in vain.
I munched my way around the beds pulling out the occasional weed but otherwise marvelling at what nature has produced for us to eat.
I didn’t know it the time but the line of sight to the kitchen garden from the bedroom window is perfect. It’s the first thing that I see when I first open the curtains in the morning and the last thing I see when I close them at night. Every day I look down and think how marvellous it is that you can grow food right there outside your bedroom window.
There are many other things that also cross my mind like must tie up tomatoes, plant swede seeds. Order cloche frame. It’s a pressure cooker of things to do.
Between you and me I’m just relieved that anything is growing. The fact that we’ve just eaten our first beetroots grown from seed that tasted rather delicious is just a bonus. And every day I pick something new for us to eat I just feel happier and happier. Now all we need to do is align our menu planning a little more strongly. I can tell you that it won’t be long before we’ll be eating courgettes in as many forms as we can.
