Gluts are a pain. I have more freezer space here in suburbia than I ever had living rural off-grid, but a glut of winter peas is never going to come out of the freezer while there are summer beans and button squash. There is a loveliness about pantry shelves full of jars of preserves that still gets me – the jewel colours of jams, the sense of affluence and security. But nothing beats eating fresh, picked that day, fruit and vegetables. And I like cooking, but not enough to want to spend all day sterilizing jars. Or at least not very often.
I live in a climate with a year-round growing season. Winter’s broccoli and cabbages give way to spring’s broad beans and snow peas, that then give way to summer’s beans and button squash. With a bit of planning and design, it’s possible to eat fresh year round, even from our little front yard garden. The trick to eating very well out of a very small garden is planting very small quantities of a very big variety sequentially. Never a bed of lettuces, rather instead one or two a week scattered around the garden. (I forget my own rules often, so somebody remind me when I forget – one cucumber vine bearing, one coming up to it, one in a pot in the nursery, a couple as seeds still germinating – only one of which will be planted out.)
And then the trick is looking for a recipe that is based around what you have, what is in season, what needs picking. Always the picking (or shopping) first, the looking up a good recipe for it after.
Come with me on this little video walk, while I pick dinner out of the garden.
(Dinner ended up being something like this – https://witcheskitchen.com.au/gnocchi-with-zucchini-and-pesto/, but with orecchiette rather than gnocchi – with a rocket, shaved carrot and daikon, radish and cucumber salad with a vinaigrette dressing, on the side.)
Wow Linda, what a lush food forest. And you can go about barefoot! I wish I had such nice raised beds.
It’s midsummer here, coming up to the summer solstice in a few days. I put sandals on to go shopping but it’s barefoot the rest of the time. I’ve put some work into getting rid of all the bindi-eyes along the footpath so that passers by can walk barefoot too 🙂
Dinner ended up being something like this – https://witcheskitchen.com.au/gnocchi-with-zucchini-and-pesto/ – with a rocket, shaved carrot and daikon, radish and cucumber salad with a vinaigrette dressing, on the side
So enjoyed watching you pick your dinner. Now to check out your gnocchi recipe.
Loved the picking walk Linda. I really need to get better at succession planting. We have too many lettuces ready to eat at the moment. Looks like the chooks will be getting some.
Chooks do love lettuces 🙂
I’m another one who needs work on the succession planting.
I came back from Antarctica two weeks ago and my son kept the dogs alive but didn’t water the garden as much as he should’ve. I filled a green bin with all the things that have bolted.
Ah well. There’s always next year!