‘Jack-be Little’ squash; perfect for roasting in the juices around a chicken or a joint.
‘Red Ball’ sprouts keep their fabulous colour even after cooking.
Cool and elegant ‘Bleu de Solaise’ leeks.
The spidery flowered and spicy scented Witch Hazel in the Kitchen Garden gives me a wake up call and tells me that the garden is coming back to life.
Big, beautiful and weighty ‘Purple Haze’ carrots.
A bed of ‘Bleu de Solaise’ leeks with their arching blue-grey leaves.
The delicate pastel shades of a ‘Rainbow Mix’ of carrots.
No matter how wet the soil, ‘Bleu de Solaise’ leeks just tough it out, making them a perfect variety for Dartmoor or any wet area.
It’s so easy to pick a few vegetables for supper. No need to drive to the shops and they are SO fresh and full of flavour.
A real favourite of mine; ‘Yellowstone’ carrots.
Raiding the Living Larder creates perfect material for the compost bin.
Big round ‘Amsterdam Sweetheart’ carrots.
The pleasing cylindrical shape of ‘Renova’ beetroot.
Beetroot leaves are so tasty, but these would be too tough. I sow seed in the greenhouse in September and harvest the baby leaves for salad through the winter.
I had a bumper crop of these ‘Winter Golden Hubbard’ squash this year. This heritage variety with its fine-grained, thick golden flesh, with a sweet flavour, is such a good keeper.
Huge and far from perfectly shaped, but some of these carrots weigh in at 1.1/4 lbs! Perfect for roasting, for soups, cakes and purees.
The fern-like foliage of the carrots still pretty after the gales.
Such a reliable beetroot and slow to bolt; ‘Bolthardy’.
Muddy leeks; quite simply beautiful!
Scrubbed up and glowing like amber, the carrots come in from the cold.
Dartmoor Flower Shed 
Beautiful, the most colourful store cupboard I’ve ever seen! Xx
Thank you Sarah. It just shows that it is possible to find beauty, even at the worst time of the year. x x
Um, Karen…this is prize worthy photography. It looks as though it comes out of magazines. I am going to post this on my blog, its too fabulous to share! ~amy
Oh thank you so much Amy. Your photographs are SO professional and make any compliment coming from you very special indeed. The blog is a real lifeline for me at the moment, but it is slow to build and to attract followers, so any help from a blog as fabulous as yours is truly appreciated. Karen.
Karen, I want to reblog your beautiful photography, because it is SO professional! On my blog, there is the ‘like, follow & reblog’ choices, your blog doesn’t offer the chance to reblog anything. I am no expert…my daughter, when she was 10 years old, showed me how to blog, so I can’t tell you why your blog doesn’t offer that reblog choice 😦 I did post you on my Facebook that you are an amazing photographer & cook.
To get more views, you must go to your reader & put in the “enter a Tag” section…gardening, photography, cooking & find bloggers like your own. When you find the ones you like, you follow them & like their posts. Usually bloggers will see you as new & come check out your blog in return & follow. It is work to find others with your passion. I go almost everyday to my reader–to photography & like/read the posts that catch my attention. Everyday there is a new blogger for me to follow…that is how you get your traffic. It is also how you can meet/see other people from all over the world sharing the same passions you have. Makes the world a bit smaller & happier. My blog is a lifeline for me as well–due to my pelvis. Being trapped by my physical limitations, my blog is a way for me to travel the earth from the comfort (as good as it can be) of home. Thank you so much for your wonderful, compliment & for becoming a modern pen pal from across the ocean. 🙂 ~amy
Oops, I cannot “reblog” your pages. So I shared you on my Facebook page. ~
Thank you so much……..I wonder why you could not ‘reblog’, because I have seen you do that before. I think you did that with the Vermont snowflakes? (They were totally magical). I will have to look into why you could not do it……K
I do reblog images I love & want to share yours on my blog. I hope you figure out why soon. ~amy
I never seen purple Brussel sprout. Do they taste better?
I think they taste better than the green varieties. I think these have an amazing taste, but then I pick them when they are really small. The larger ones I make into soup and serve it with sauted chorizo sausage and croutons.I grow red cauliflower too, the pleasure they bring to the kitchen garden and to me is priceless.
Thank you so much for your comment.
Those looked very nice and tasty! Thank you for sharing your experience! — Jane
Mmmm that looks tasty! Super job and great photos as well!
Thanks Lucy. Home ground produce just tastes so much better than anything you can buy and growing it is such an enjoyable journey.
Karen
If I could, I would only eat what comes out of my garden. Love and care makes any food taste better, on top of the clean soil, lacking all sort of chemicals!
Since last year, we hire an allotment & we already have had many successes. We love working growing & digging in the garden & harvesting is also fun! 😉
Dear Sophie, please forgive me for taking so long to reply to your wonderful comment. I am so pleased to meet a new friend who also loves gardening. It is a whole way of life isn’t it ? There is no doubt that it is hard work, but knowing that what we grow and eat has been grown without chemicals means so much. And there is real joy in what we do. Karen x
Your blog is so inspiring. Love the Living Larder concept. I’m working on my garden plan, and envy your milder climate that allows leaving veggies in the garden over the winter months. I don’t think even with a protective tunnel it will work here. But, I am working on creating a storage larder in the basement. Keep writing. We need you!
Oh Carolee! You are so kind! Thank you so much for your lovely comments. I am off to visit your blog now and check out where you are. It is true that the Living Larder idea only works where the climate is relatively mild, but many of my vintage gardening books give details of clamps or places under the earth which are protected by straw where veg may be stored during the winter. have you got any such old books? I will search mine out tomorrow and read up. Carolee needs her Living Larder!😀