Kitchen Garden Forum

As a response to comments in another thread about underuse of the forum, can we have a daily thread posting what we have eaten/used from our vegetable plots or allotments? (Or home grown produce from our freezers). It will be interesting to see how much we are managing to provide for ourselves, particularly now the growing and cropping season has passed its peak

My contribution today is rocket and a generous helping of mixed salad leaves originating from. A £1 Living Leaves punnet from one of the supermarkets.

We've used eggs from our own hens today.

Onion & garlic (fresh), tomato & peppers (frozen), chilli (dried) in linguine tonight & apples in my lunch box at work!

Westi

(1) Soup for lunch, made with shallot, garlic, carrot, Hamburg parsley, parsnip, Florence fennel, swede, potato, a few herbs and three of four bits of kale (all fresh) - made a big pot of it whilst cooking Sunday lunch and eat it up every day during the week

(2) leftover roast lamb (from Sunday) with mashed potato and red cabbage (cooked with shallot, apple and red wine, frozen)

Our only chance at present is if a couple of fish swim over from the sankey canal

dh had the last beefsteak tomato in his cheese & pickle sarnies for lunch (last year's green tomato chutney - all homegrown except for the sugar and vinegar!) Red chili and garlic in my left over chili for lunch and the garlic in the spagbol tonight was mine. had you asked yesterday my answer would have been slightly more interesting

Breakfast - Apple chopped into muesli
Lunch - Leek and potato soup followed by two apples
Evening - Meat and potato pie from weekend beef (originally with roast potatoes and parsnips, sprouts and our frozen peas) including onions and carrots (at least) with pickled red cabbage. For once it wasn't a home grown pud, some fine hazelnut creation from Good Food.

Husband had home grown garlic and onions mixed with cheese on a jacket potato with home grown salad. and he mixed some chilli sauce in with it made from our home grown chillies.
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My lunch time meal was a home grown salad with some chopped nasturtium leaves mixed in which are nice and peppery like rocket, The frost hasn't damaged them yet.

Incidentally I have lots of nasturtium leaves. Does anybody have any idea what I could do with them? has anybody tried them in some kind of soup?

Borlotti beans (frozen a month ago), potatoes, onions and half of a jalapeno pepper, as part of a stew. Can't wait for it to be ready!

Minestrone soup today with a base of home grown tomato purree, & home grown beans, leeks, onions & kale. The other vegs were supermarket cheats It's what my cousin calls Mystery Soup, and I call Bottom Of The Fridge Soup !

Primrose, that sounds a bit like the sort of soup I make which my OH calls "central European winter soup" - anything goes.

Well Monika, it's surprising how good some of these soups are, especially if you have a good stock as a base. We have an amenable village butcher who gives us free chicken carcasses which we turn into stock and freeze . You can always tell a soup made with a good stock. After it's cooled and on the second day, it always sets into a good jelly again!

Primrose couldn't agree more about it going to jelly to indicate a good stock - been caught out now & again though when bought high welfare birds and got a weak watery mix that had to be flavoured with stock cubes, which kind of defeats the object but considering the time simmering etc wasn't going to throw it out!

This is just my idea that the quality of the bird dictates the consistency of the stock, I know it certainly does the flavour. If I'm just pants at making stock feel free to tell me but I was convinced I was duped & it was a battery hen neatly disguised! It wasn't in packaging by the way!

Westi

I'm using my bottled toms for soup now, garlic, frozen beans, cooking apples, lost my crop of Cox's to the storm (should have got them in), chutneys, beetroot, a chest freezer literally full of fruits (currants, rhubarb, gooseberries) which will gradually go down over the winter and spring. Sad lack of autumn/winter veg due to lack of time earlier in the year, never been without leeks for years! Only a patch of leafbeet which is doing well.

Best stock in the world is from a turkey carcass, unctious, gelatinous and usually goes back in the pot about three times. We're having beef this christmas though so I feel bereft, not so much for the turkey but the stock!

MW

We're going through our winter squash, carrots, still some potatoes and hope to start on the Brussels, Swede and Parsnips soon.