LIFE IN MY KITCHEN

As usual my kitchen bench is edged by bowls of various things that I have picked or gathered from somewhere or are being processed in some way so I thought I would share them with you.

Firstly, taking up the most room are 2 large bowls of olives, being soaked in water that is changed everyday for a while, until they are not so bitter. These are a couple of special varieties of olives a friend gave me which he picked down at McLaren Vale.

Next is a bowl of the Chinese Seashells ( I did know their name(s)...but I have forgotten for now; maybe they are Jane and Sean and ....!!). These I dug up with the garden group on Wednesday and they have sort of been cleaned but not fully - and we are going to eat most of them tonight. They are crisp and like quite water chestnuts as they stay crisp even when stir-fried. best raw, I think, in salads or as a snack.

Thirdly is the very poor crop of water-chestnuts that I extracted, very messily, from a pond today. Delicious raw and unpeeled - something you can't get if you don't grow your own.

Next are the limes, mandarins and tangelos from Deb plus some oranges and some different limes from my mother and some lemons from Kathy, the latter being left over from my third batch of limoncello which is still brewing. I am going to make some citrus-y things but I still have a lemon pudding in the fridge - 2 people don't get through food as fast as I want to cook it!

Then there is a small bowl of the pretty lillypillies - a native fruit - which I picked at my mother's today. They are olive-shaped fruits the size of a cherry or so and are like a grape crossed with a pear in flavour and texture! They are high in pectin and people make jam with them. I just eat them raw.

Then there are the last 2 okra seedpods that need to have the seeds removed and allowed to dry fully before storing. Next to them are the rest of the mizuna seeds that I sowed today - all over the asparagus patch...might as well be doing something with that soil while it is bare.

The last thing worth mentioning is the very last piece of the orange and date cake I made yesterday for gardening and I am trying very hard to resist eating it!...I did have a small piece for morning tea with some of the Paris Creek quark that someone mentioned before.

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Now the thing is, you see, a lot of people like their benches to be all clear of stuff and look like nobody actually ever does anything in the kitchen - which they probably don't. But to me that is not the way a kitchen should be - it should be filled with goodies from gardens and bowls of fruit and nuts for nibbling on and herbs hanging to dry and pieces of paper with ideas for recipes and an open recipe book or two and a market shopping list and containers of seed pods and buckets of olives etc etc etc.

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A messy kitchen is good. Fill your life with the joy of food today.....

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