The first place my two like to go upon arriving at Pippi's (other than her bed if it is late) is the garden. When he was younger Ben would also strip naked the minute he got out there and start frolicking in the water from the water butt - he no longer strips though thank goodness! They can wander amongst the large vegetable garden picking whatever berries, fruits or herbs whose path they happen to cross, sneak into next door's garden through the little gap in the fence at the very bottom of the garden behind the wildflowers and play with the boy next door (or he comes through to play with them) amongst other things. The morning after Ben's party they did just that, and had the added pleasure of picking that day's lunch fresh from the vegetable garden.....I decided that I'd like to actually take some pictures to try and reflect the beauty that is this garden and the pleasure the kids get from it.
picking peas and broadbeans
Shelling them
Ben finds an early blackberry
runner beans
figs
Stargazer Lillies (my favourite flower)
grapes
rhubarb
the harvest for our lunch...potatoes, globe artichokes, rhubarb and the peas and broadbeans
As well as the fruit and veg pictured above, Pippi grows; pumpkins, corn, a variety of squashes and courgettes, various lettuces (which we also had for lunch), various types of onions, garlic, swiss chard, broccoli, carrots, leeks, horseradish, fennel, a couple of types of wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, peppers, chillies, tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, pears, damsons, apples, kiwi, sloe, lovage, mint, rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage, greens, and plenty of other things that I have forgotten. And this does not even count the flowers she grows. That's a whole other story. I am in awe.
Pippi made us a delicious salad with the peas, broadbeans, artichokes and some parsley and mint. I ate a lot of it. I would have put the recipe on the food blog, but we ate it before I could get a picture. And really, you just mix them all up together and make a vinaigrette to dress it - so no recipe needed really.
5 comments:
gorgeous..... it is a dream place! Pippi, can you be MY grandmother please?!
sorry, we want to keep her all to ourselves - unless you want to do swaps now and then with your parents who own the ranch.....that would be cool! English garden one summer, American farm\ranch the next :-)
Figs. I am in awe. BEFORE I hit the list. That being "The List" really.
One of the most sensual (that being the word?) memories I have of my grandmother is that of shelling peas. She praised me for my patience in doing it (for dinner). I still love doing it. She had a veg garden too. It felt like it was the size of a farmyard. And cherry trees. And grapes, little sour things. And apples that went to a juicer and came back bottles. And a cellar full of jams... but hey, this is not my blog! It's wonderful having a gradma like that. Lucky kids.
(Also, I'm very jealous of the tasty fresh food. Off to eat the last muffin, shop bought.)
We were just there this weekend and for Sunday dinner we had (along with roast lamb and potatoes), mint sauce made with mint from the garden and fresh green beans, yellow runner beans, peas and swiss chard - mmmmmm. After dinner I took myself off into the garden with a pair of scissors and cut myself some of that wonderful chard. As well as some herbs (bay, sage, rosemary and mint). And a bunch of lavender.....If you do ever get around to reading this Pippi, your garden is GREAT!
Oh Alex, when I lived in Germany we used to send apples from the garden off to come back as juice...I wonder if you can do that here in England somewhere - must be possible.....
Maybe you can go some way towards recreating those memories for Tara and Leo......they will definitely remember bumper crops of tomatoes and courgettes :-)
My own garden this year is just tomatoes, mustard greens, basil, chillies and some courgette plants that never survived the Tanya imposed drought.....
Post a Comment