I love living in England. I love the way the weather changes with each season and I even love how the weather changes from day to day. In June, for example, you should really be basking in some warm hazy days. Of course, we aren’t. It has rained and rained and been pretty dull for most of June. April of course was a different matter with blazing sunshine for most of the month (and this from a month famous for its showers).
I love how in the winter in England you can forget that in the summer your house will be so warm that you will want every window open and then in the summer you forget how bloomin’ cold the kitchen was (even with the Aga!) in January. You can also forget just what a pleasure it is when June comes around to be able to eat pretty much everything on your plate straight out of the garden.
I must add that everything in this picture is out of my parents’ garden ( they are so much more organised with their earlier planting than Mr OC and I).
I was having a dilemma about what to make for dinner. Then I called at my parents and came away with this lovely bounty. Some tiny beetroot with their delicious leaves, two types of lettuce leaf, a few baby carrots, a red onion and the last of the new potatoes out of their greenhouse. What a lucky girl.
I defrosted some bacon, chopped a bit of last year’s garlic, got out the olive oil, the balsamic vinegar and a pack of feta, added some mint, and ended up with this.
It was the perfect celebration of fresh garden produce.
Oh my! Eating straight from the garden is a wonderful summer pleasure. I grew up with a huge garden in the back yard; and although I no longer have one, thankfully there is no scarcity of fresh produce come summer. I can’t wait.
I would miss my garden very much, but summer produce is great if it’s fresh and local and the bonus is that someone else has done all the back breaking digging for you.
Oh, I remember those days. We had a little veg plot for years and got so much pleasure from it. Sadly, I’m not wonderwoman, and other things have taken up my time, but it is one of the things I really miss! Those simple fresh meals are the BEST.
You are right Cathy the garden takes up a LOT of time. Ours has far more weeds than it should.
The produce looks wonderful and I know homegrown tastes even better. Sadly, mine has to be bought in!
Home grown is very satisfying but I know you live in one of the best farming regions in the country so you should be getting some good stuff.
Excellent post, couldn’t agree more. I love the changing of the seasons – even if I don’t always think so at the time. Your parents are organised, all we’ve had so far are greens from thinning our beetroot, orach and swiss chard.
They are so very organised and unfortunately I didn’t inherit that gene. I wish I had. Those thinnings sound good. Our swiss chard has taken a long time to germinate and is just showing though now.
wonderful, Kath! lucky girl, indeed. it doesn’t get any better than this–to dine on food just picked from the family garden.
swiss chard takes a REALLY long time to germinate—here too.