This growing season has been a delightful experiment trying, not only new fruit and veg, but new plants. While the garden is still in the early stages (year 2), perennials are beginning to establish and the original garden design tweaked to accommodate new preferences of placement and direction as I get used to the space.
One key ambition I have is to learn to grow enough food to feed two people over the course of the summer, and hopefully into winter (through preserving, and growing winter hardy crops). This year, some crops have been more successful than others, but the one obvious thing realised, is that I need to become more imaginative when it comes to recipes!
While I enjoy eating, cooking, I simply don’t mind. Following a recipe is easy, but I am less confident with creating recipes ‘free-form’ without some sort of guidance. However, when there is a sudden glut of cucumbers, tomatoes, beans etc., having more than a few ways to enjoy them is essential!
This year, I ended up with unintentional glut of Bothby Blonde Cucumbers. In 2021, I made the mistake of keeping 8 of these plants (I couldn’t bear to throw them away) and had so many, some inevitably went to waste. This year, my heart hardened, I eliminated the majority of germinated cucumber plants, keeping only 3. These plants are incredibly productive, and I still ended up with too many!
Alongside the usual use in salads, drinks, as a snack with hummus, this drove me to trial some new recipes. In this case, fired stuffed cucumbers. Surprisingly tasty, although as ever, I am never really sure what should accompany this type of meal.
Growing heirloom varieties, I often find that there are not specific recipes for the vegetables I am harvesting. As I experiment, I will add recipes to this blog to keep track and hope that I can glean some from other like-minded growers:)
Until next time!