Eat what you grow...it is good for you, good for the planet and needn't be difficult to achieve.

We have just got back from a few weeks in Norway - terrible time to go in terms of the edible garden, but July is the Norwegian month for holidays and we are lucky enough to have a daughter-in-law with a summer cottage on a fijord, plus our son and a two year old grand daughter to visit, so there is no contest. While we were away a friend collected ripe fruit and vegetables for us and kept the eggs from our hens - so when we got back it was all hands on deck to preserve the harvest. We are now just about up to date - but more about all of that later along with:

What exactly are "Edimentals"

Villandry

Saffron

Chillis

What we are harvesting now

Hey Pesto

Lunch today

Edimentary, my dear Watson....

"Edimentals" is one of the gardening buzz words of the moment - along with "re-wilding" and "weeds". Edimentals are edible plants which you can use in the ornamental garden - so pretty things you can eat. There is a huge variety - from the well know garnishes for salads and puddings - nasturtiums, dahlias (you can even eat the tubers), marigold flowers, rose and violet petals to brassicas with style, such as beautiful dark green crinkly cavolo nero, regularly seen in summer bedding schemes, but better left in the ground until after the first frosts - which sweeten the starches in the leaves. The big plus for me with edimentals is even if you have a tiny garden or balcony you can grow something which you can eat and still have a garden which is great to look at.

The outstanding garden, when it comes to edimental plants, is French - Villandry. I first visited this extraordinary garden surrounding one of the Loire chateaux almost 20 years ago and have found it inspirational ever since. The kitchen garden is a formal French parterre style garden, on a large scale which combines fruit and vegetables with traditional ornamental plants such as box hedging, bulbs and roses to create an exceptional environment. If you have the chance to visit the Loire valley don't miss it - the website is given here and this summer and autumn there are some special events, such as Les Journées du Potager on September 30th/1st October when you can meet the gardeners, get a guided visit and meet exhibitors.

The chateau itself is also open and is beautifully curated. So - something for most people.

And here is an edimental which you can plant now:

 Saffron

Buy and plant saffron bulbs now and you will have a crop this autumn - not as much as in the photograph above unless you plant in industrial quantities, but enough to have the satisfactions of being able to cook with your own saffron. You can read about saffron in our blog - click the button below:

Inspired by the red and green theme my mind has wandered to chillis. Why are some red and some green - and does their colour affect their heat?

 Chillis (and peppers) start off green and then turn red - or yellow or brown, depending on the species - as they ripen. They don't all ripen at the same time, so you may have green peppers, red peppers or mottled peppers on the chilli bush at the same time - and some don't ripen at all because the fruit set too late in the year. As the chilli ripens (turns red) the level of a compound called capsaicin increases - and this gives the chilli more heat. Different variety of chilli have the potential to have a different maximum levels of capsaisin, so a Carolina Reaper, for example, will be much hotter than a Jalapeno, and this is what enables chilli heat to be classified on the Scoville scale. The Scoville scale is an internationally recognised means of scoring chillis according to heat - so always check the Scoville scale rating on a packet of seeds and you will have a good idea of how hot your chillis will be.

Here is what I am growing this year:

Poblano - 100 - 1,500 Scoville heat units (I am growing these to roast whole and serve as tapas).

Jalapeno - 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville heat units, so mild enough to add to meals in the Adams household without upsetting anyone.

Piccante a Mazzetti - up to 20,000 Scoville Heat Units, so a bit more frightening.

What I am not growing is the Carolina Reaper I mentioned earlier. I think this is the hottest known chilli with a Scoville Heat Unit score of up to 2,200,000.

Apart from giving your cooking a good kick, capsaisin has a lot of health benefits as a form of pain relief, metabolism booster, appetite suppressant and it is being explored as a possibility in the fight against prostate cancer. In nature it was developed as a defence mechanism. Animals would not eat ripe chillis because of the intense heat - so the seeds had more chance of survival and propagation. This is the same reason onions make you cry - the tear inducing compound is concentrated at the stalk end of the onion, which is what an animal would nibble. Think about that next time you decide how to peel and chop one.

What to harvest - and what to do with it

At the moment (mid July) we have a glut of tomatoes, green chillis, basil, courgettes, aubergines, raspberries and blackberries.

We are also harvesting our annual onion crop. To harvest onions, leave them to dry out in the soil - their stems will go brown and bend over. Then lift them and allow them to dry some more in the sunshine. Then keep them somewhere light, cool and dry - traditionally plaited into long bunches which you hang up, although we don't usually have the patience to do this and put them in open trays instead.

The raspberries don't make it beyond the kitchen (or even the garden) and are eaten fresh, very quickly.

Our blackberries (we grow a thornless variety called Oregon Giant) are picked and frozen for breakfasts throughout the year.

The excess tomatoes are currently being whizzed in our Magimix, cooked in an open pan to reduce the water content and are then either frozen in plastic boxes or bottled to use over the winter. We rarely buy fresh tomatoes once they are out of season because the flavour of forced tomatoes is poor (and think of the food miles which can be involved). Later in the season we will use them to make green and red tomato chutneys and chilli jam (using the Jalapenos and/or Piccante a Mazzetti chillis).

I am experimenting with freezing pesto and baba ganoush (an aubergine based puree) this year as our basil and aubergines are doing really well.

The courgettes we don't eat immediately will become soup and be frozen - either on their own or in combination with other things.

We do try to grow as much of the food we eat as possible. It is enormously satisfying, the exercise involved keeps us fit, but most importantly to me is the fact that I both know the provenance of the food I am eating and that the dishes I prepare do not have lots of hidden ingredients. Having been involved with the food industry all my life (my family had a soft drinks business and my husband and I made biscuits and health foods) I know what can be added to a food product when it is mass produced, and it is not always good.

Got a glut of basil?

Hey pesto!

Traditional pesto is a blend of basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil. To make it I use:

3 cups* of packed down basil leaves

0.25 of a cup of pine nuts

0.25 of a cup of parmesan

3 garlic cloves which I have chopped and gently softened with some olive oil in a pan over a gentle heat as I don't really like the taste of raw garlic 

 0.5 of a cup of olive oil

*I use American cups to measure ingredients here, but if you don't have any just follow the ratio.

Put the basil, cheese, pine nuts and garlic in a food processor and roughly chop. Then drizzle in the olive oil and process to the desired consistency. I like my pesto to keep a bit of texture. It reduces in quantity significantly while you are doing this. See below.

The unprocessed ingredients waiting to be blended:

What you are left with after processing all ingredients:

Be aware that the mixture quickly oxidises and develops a brownish top layer if left uncovered (it is still perfectly edible). Basil tends to bruise and discolour easily so if you really want a bright green colour then replace one cup of the basil leaves with parsley leaves, but I find this affects the zingy taste of fresh pesto.

The pesto will keep in the fridge for about 4 days if you put it in a lidded jar and cover the top of the mixture in a layer of olive oil to seal it. I am also experimenting with freezing small quantities in plastic tubs. I understand that it keeps well when frozen for about six months.

You can also use other nuts and herbs -

Substitute cashews or walnuts for pine nuts

Try walnuts with tarragon and parsley instead of basil

Lunch today

My version of Shashuka, a Middle Eastern dish which makes the most of vegetables which are in season now:

Ingredients (for one person):

Half a red pepper

Half a large onion

About half a cup of tomato coulis

A green Jalapeno pepper

0.25 teaspoonful of cumin seeds

0.25 teaspoonful of coriander seeds

0.25 teaspoonful of sugar

A couple of pinches of Espelette pepper powder (the Jalapeno was green - so too mild)

2 eggs

Roughly chopped parsley

A few small tomatoes to decorate the finished dish

Use a small frying pan with a lid or a Le Creuset type cast iron serving dish and a pan lid which can cover it completely.

Gently soften the onions and peppers, in the covered pan, on the hob over a low heat. Stir occasionally to stop it burning. This takes about 10 minutes.

Then add the spices and cook for a couple more minutes.

Add the tomatoes and sugar and gently cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Make two indentations in the mixture with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each of these.

Cover with the lid again and cook over a very low until the eggs have set - about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle with parsley and the little tomatoes and serve with a thick chunk of sourdough bread (to mop up the juice).

You can eat it straight out of the cooking dish. 

This is Richard's idea of The Dinner from Hell, so he had chilli con carne.

That is it for this newsletter - thank you for staying with it to the end.

Until next time

Sue

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