Heroes and Superstars.
The garden has really been pumping out the harvest. Everyday there is something new to deal with, on top of the things already overwhelming my harvest basket. It can be so easy to just take yet another zucchini for granted or leave it languishing on the plant a little longer in an obstinate attempt to delay the inevitable, which ultimately results in a bigger problem – literally. Today’s me shakes her fist at the garden proclaiming ‘why are you so big?!’ Tomorrow’s me will be full of praise and thanks for all of the wonderful produce squirrelled away in jars, freezers, larders and sheds.
A glance across social media in late summer will reveal aspiring posts of delicious looking fruits and vegetables positioned in an aesthetically pleasing manner across a benchtop, or a jar line up, showcasing hours of hard work processing and preserving in a bright array of pickles, jams and other bottled delights making it look like it was no trouble at all. A snapshot into someone else’s kitchen fails to show the reality of the situation. Most of us have lives outside of the garden. There isn’t much spare time to commit to a marathon session in the kitchen every couple of days to sort every last thing harvested from the garden.
In my kitchen a pile of gherkins can wait for a few days while I decide what to do as there are already more than enough of them pickled and put away and yet the plant is still pumping them out. At this point they are getting a little soft so may be offered to the chickens in exchange for eggs. I feel a little guilt as the perfect little unpickled pickles stare up at me. Sadly, they aren’t alone in the day before’s harvest basket.
In the busyness of it all, even eating becomes a bit mundane and the humble carrot that was once lauded in those early days of the new harvest to be the best thing to come out of the garden since sliced bread, is now unceremoniously added to a quick ‘go to’ meal that vaguely resembles a recipe we once followed carefully and enjoyed enough to repeat ad nauseam.
I’m trying my best, but there is just so much to be done. Although I am determined to turn this situation around and honour everything that comes as a result of my labours. I will make each and everything count. Back in those hopeful days of winter I carefully considered each crop I wanted to grow and filled my head with visions of wonderful meals that celebrated the tastes that I now find in front of me. It may have been a little romantic of yesterday’s me and not a lot different from glancing through social media today. But here we are with a load of produce in what is actually a small window of time, so I need to just get stuck in and do what needs to be done.
There are a few things that can be done to improve the situation. Firstly, I need to work on my time management. There are 24 hours in a day and who needs sleep anyway?! Just kidding. But if I started my day a little earlier, and finished it a little later, I can buy some time.
I need to be realistic about how long things take. Picking a 5-metre row of peas is not a 5-minute job and if it was, it doesn’t stop in the garden. They need to be podded, vac packed and frozen as soon as they can to capture their sweetness before it converts into starch making them taste completely different.
I need some hero recipes that will make the fresh produce a super star in the jar or on the menu for tonight’s or next month’s meal. It is all very well to have a freezer full of fresh produce, but if you don’t eat them, then what is the point?
I need to just get on with it… Procrastination is my weakness.
Come again soon – I’m off to the garden to see what is ready for the harvest basket today.
Sarah the Gardener : o)
I have been given a recipe for Pineapple Cucumber Agua Fresca which a good friend swears is absolutely delicious. (and the pulp makes a very refreshing after gardening face mask apparently) I haven’t made it yet but am going to give it a try
Hmmm – that sounds really interesting! : o)
Elderberries?! I was not aware that you grew elderberries! Perhaps I merely forgot. I would not have guessed that anyone there would know what they are. Until a few years ago, not many here knew what they are, and the blue elderberry is native and grows wild. I started using the blue elderberry as black elderberry, and winning ribbons for elderberry jelly at the Harvest Festival. Now, roadside berries get harvested before I can get to them. At about the same time, black elderberries became available from nurseries.
Yeah we have those – it is more common down south where they are more of a pest plant. I used to make elderberry wine when I lived in the UK from berries foraged from hedgerows, so I had to have my own here. : o)
Oh, so yours must be European black elderberry, rather than American black elderberry.
The European variety is what is commonly found here. : o)