FOOD IS GOOD...

Ian from Kitchen Garden in France sent me an email which ended with

"Food is good. Grow it fast and then eat it slow!"  I love it!

Ian is on a roll now - here is his next creation, hot off the press:

"Food is good. Cook it fast and then eat it slow."

 

 

If you read this blog regularly you will probably have picked up that I love salads - not stodgy things like potato salads with mayonnaise or pasta salads either but assorted fresh, green, tasty leaves dressed only in dew or rainwater with crisp little bits like daikon seed pods at their green stage, slices of raw, crimson okra with those tiny, juicy pearl-like seeds, or yellow fennel flowers giving a hint of aniseed. Here is my list of things to grow to provide you with a continuous supply of salad ingredients through the seasons.

SALADS FOREVER - pick any time of the day or night

lettuces	loose leaf sorts such as: cos, oakleaf, purple-coloured varieties too
mild Asian greens	eat at the small leaf stage - bok choy, mild mustards, edible chrysanthemum leaves, mizuna, almost anything else
sweet potato leaves	small to medium sized ones are best, growing tips are crimson.
broccoletti	tiny sprouts - green and purple
broccoli	smallest leaves
sorrel	even though they taste sour alone, in a salad they are beautiful
water cress	leaves
water spinach	leaves
herbs	mint, basil, fennel fronds, chives, garlic chives, chervil, dill etc
pea shoots	when the peastraw sprouts or sow masses of seeds in beds especially to pick the shoots
broad bean shoots	when the broad beans get to about 6" high, nip off the tops and eat or sow as green manure and keep eating the tips
broad beans	tiny raw, or medium size thrown into boiling water for 30 seconds then chilled
beans	sliced tender, raw beans
peas	sugar snap, Chinese snow peas, any tender-podded peas
asparagus	raw or thrown into boiling water for 30 seconds then chilled
celery	slice thinly or eat chunks separately, smothered in peanut paste! Great snack
capsicums	yellow cornos is best I have ever had - eat like an apple or in salads, red is also good, Mini Mama is an F1 which is cute and can be eaten whole
carrots	thin carrots tossed on top are so sweet
chicory	young leaves are bright and crisp and juicy and not too bitter
cucumbers	yellow (most crisp and juicy one I have grown), Lebanese, any other
flowers	fennel (yellow), nasturtium, calendula (orange/yellow), chives (mauve), chervil, dill, chicory (bright blue), chrysanthemum, day lilies, lemon verbena, pineapple sage (bright red), radish etc
okra	raw pods sliced thinly, or just eat whole like an apple
pomegranate	red seeds
daikon	crisp green seed pods are not strong like the root
spinach	baby leaves
beetroot	baby leaves, especially 'bulls blood' which are dark red
rocket	wild rocket self-seeds year round and adds a spicy hit. It is one of the only things I don't really like to add in large quantities.

 

Young watercress	Crunchy yellow capsicums	Fennel flowers
Sweet potato vine	Beans	Pimento capsicums
Red Cornos capsicums	water spinach	Young cos lettuce
okra flower	crimson okra	pomegranates

I wish I had thought more carefully about sorting the list of salad ingredients. Maybe one day I will arrange them into seasons. Compromises, compromises, where do they end?