Carrot Perfume…….

by Karen B

The satisfying sound of acorns crunching under foot jump-starts my senses as I pull on my sou’wester and head off down the garden path to pick carrots.

Sensory deprivation is a big issue for me in the dormant months of the gardening year and what helps me through this is keeping my Winter root vegetable crops in the ground. Pulling carrots in the Winter, when the air is less fragrant with the aroma of new growth or the scent of flowers enables me to breath in the potent, concentrated perfume of the carrot in perfect isolation. I pull one root and then two more and am bowled over by its intensity.

The carrot scent is released mainly from the foliage when the carrots are thinned out or pulled and is powerfully attractive to the carrots biggest enemy; the carrot fly. The small black insect lays its eggs in May-June and August-September and the larvae will burrow into the carrot, making the crop inedible. I protect my carrots with a 2 foot clear plastic defence from May to September and after that I leave this up through the winter to give the vegetables extra protection from the destructive Dartmoor winds.

With my casually imperfect ‘Purple Haze’, Yellowstone’ and ‘Amsterdam Sweetheart’ Carrots in hand, I tramp back indoors, muddy and triumphant and keen to prepare a beef dish to set off these fabulous, freshly pulled beauties!

Carrot fly defence
Carrot fly damage
‘Purple Haze’, ‘Yellowstone. and ‘Amsterdam Sweetheart’ carrots.

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON WITH GARDEN CARROTS

(For the recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon click here)

‘Love Me Tender’ Salads……

by Karen B

It’s 7 a.m and I am on Dartmoor, getting my morning hit of cool, peat scented air and tramping over a slippery mosaic of wind swept leaves and debris. The storm has passed, leaving the soil wet and cold in my Kitchen Garden and yet, despite high winds and days of rain, the salad crops both in the ground and in the greenhouse are simply astounding.

In the summer, Lettuce and salad crops are just so easy to grow that a bowl of mixed leaves from your garden will barely be noticed. But serving baby leaves from your garden in the Winter grabs everyone’s attention .

Crops like ‘Winter Density’ Lettuce, Lamb’s Lettuce and Land Cress will survive outdoors without any protection. Many of the Summer herbs keep throwing up little shoots which can add real spice and flavour to your Winter salads. But if you have a greenhouse, conservatory, or sunny windowsill or are prepared to cover your crops when the temperatures plummet, then you can grow the most fabulous leaves.

SALAD LEAVES TO PICK NOW

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SALAD LEAVES TO SOW NOW (Ready in 20-30 days)

It is not too late to plant salad leaves in England now. Try sowing Thompson and Morgan Salad Leaves- ‘Bright and Spicy’,  their Lettuce leaves ‘Mixed’, or  Mr Fothergill’s ‘Wrinkled Crinkled’ Cress. You can even grow the cress on moist kitchen roll, a great way to introduce children to the joy of growing. ALL of these will grow on a sunny window sill or under glass. Why not try it this weekend?

‘Stormy Weather’……

by Karen B

A big storm brewing over the South West of England sends me into a spin about getting in supplies. I drive across Dartmoor and get blown into the store where cans and cans of tinned wild salmon are half price! Memories of my weekly Sunday tea with my great aunt and the visiting preacher from the next parish are so real that I can smell the tinned mandarin oranges and thinly cut slices of bread and butter. But, now comes the highlight of this mini flash-back; taking centre stage, there it is, the ultimate luxury, in 1960’s Britain, a tin of salmon, turned out in a dish, ready to be served.

As a result of 6 days of crisis weather warnings, I am now totally in the grip of siege mentality and I am piling cans of salmon in my trolley. It’s cheap, it’s stuffed full of Omega 3 fish oils and I won’t starve whilst waiting to be rescued. It will even help to protect me from Alzheimer’s (which is brilliant, because by the time I get home I can’t for the life of me remember why I bought it).

Fortunately, I can remember how to make a fishcake, but to blast away any thoughts of this salmon only being a safe, austerity treat, I want to pep things up a bit. Let’s make something with a kick. Let’s make Thai Salmon Fishcakes. And serve them with chilli mayonnaise and baby salad leaves from the garden!

(click here for the recipe for Thai Salmon Fishcakes)

‘Fat Lazy Blonde’……

by Karen B

I think we need to get a few things out in the open. I am not a great gardener. I have entered my produce in local shows and I have literally wilted at the sight of the splendour and quality of the competition. But I did once win 1st prize for my ‘Fat Lazy Blonde’ lettuce in a Summer of constant rain, when everyone else’s lettuce died! The carrots which I grow with such enthusiasm in my raised beds, signed up for the Avant-Garde movement years ago, their far from perfect forms depriving them of ever fitting the criteria of being fit for supermarket sale. But, hey! That’s a good thing, because what store vegetables can never match is the FRESHNESS and FLAVOUR of home-grown vegetables and that, we can all come up with by the wheelbarrow load, with very little effort.

One thing that always works for me is growing baby carrots in a pot. A few seeds in multi purpose compost and a variety such as ‘Parmex’, ‘Baby Chantenay’ or ‘Resistafly’ and I have PERFECT baby carrots to be proud of.

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And, yes, I could steam them or eat them raw, but the very best thing that could happen to a little carrot is for it to be pickled with chilli and mustard seeds!   This is a fridge pickle, with a shelf life of just a few weeks. But each sweetbabyveg will have the fresh, just ever so slightly soft bite of a freshly picked carrot- fabulous as a nibble with drinks, with a pastrami sandwich, or with a pork terrine.

Depending upon the variety, these baby carrots can be planted from January to July. The ones featured here were planted in pots in early August and are just ready now. So you are too late to plant them this year, but they could be added to your list of seeds to be bought for the next growing season.

  I think you are going to love their spicy, sweet crunch- so gorgeously glossy and golden orange in the jar.

(Click here to go to the Pickled Baby Carrot recipe)

Pickled carrots and beans.

‘Easy like Sunday Morning……..’

by Karen B

Cooking for comfort and for friends on a wet Sunday morning…what could be better? The Squash and Pumpkins are all ‘curing’ (toughening their skins) inside in the warm and I am ready to make some great sharing food as the driving rain powers across Dartmoor. Folk are arriving as the yellow butter starts to melt and spit on the heavy, jet-black griddle.  Everyone wants to pour the batter over the figs as they hit the heat and pancakes are flipping as the bacon sizzles in the pan. These pancakes are light and fluffy and just divine with streaky bacon and Maple Syrup, A perfect Brunch dish served with lots of glasses of fizz. When the party quietens down, I wheel in the Pumpkin cake. This moist sponge, fragrant with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves is a real show stopper and well worth the purchase of a Bundt tin. This rounded shaped beauty looks like a big soft cakey pumpkin. There were toasts all round for the food and for a day when life  just felt a little simpler, and the food was a real comfort. These recipes are packed full of the flavour, colour and spice of Autumn and they use ingredients which are so good now…Pumpkin and Figs.

SPICED FIG AND RICOTTA PANCAKES (click here for recipe)

PUMPKIN CAKE (click here for recipe)

The easiest, but most SENSATIONAL cake you will ever make!