Wednesday 15 February 2012

Pleasures of the Kitchen Garden


What are the the things that bring you pleasure in your vegetable garden?
plaiting onions into strings
in the garden shed
with the rain pattering on the roof above
the first thin green line
of seedlings
down the dark soil
white flowers on early peas
gaudy orange flowers
opening in the early morning sun
on courgettes and marrows
beads of dew resting on the
crinkled inner leaves
of cabbages, like
crystal drops
the sweetness of stolen peas
eaten raw
 
scarlet flowers
climbing up wigwams
and
tents of runner beans in high summer
leeks in orderly rows


the earthiness of new potatoes
just dug up

baskets piled high
with a glut of produce
soup.
frozen fingers tingling back to life
around a mug of hot soup
after winter digging

Extract from
'Through the Garden Gate'
by
Susan Hill

19 comments:

  1. Lots of things there which make a gardener's heart sing. There's nothing quite like bringing a trug of home grown produce home from the allotment.

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  2. Hi Elaine,
    I do so love peas eaten straight from the pod-hence very few seem to make it into my kitchen!!!

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  3. I love the feeling of stepping outside to collect food that within an hour will be on my plate. Surrounded by buzzing bees and singing birds, much better than the sounds of a till ringing in the supermarket.

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  4. I just love the harvesting, cooking and preserving of home grown produce. It gives one a lovely feeling of abundance.

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  5. A wonderful descriptive list of thoughts there. Mine would be the first full punnet of Strawberries & the aroma from jam simmering after a good fruit harvest.

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  6. Pleased to have discovered your great blog.

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  7. You have shown many of my favorite things in the garden. One of my favorite things in the garden is coming out each morning and seeing the bounty. I am so grateful!

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  8. Pleasure is managing to harvest anything edible! It's a great feeling to pull carrots or to dig up potatoes (and find something there).

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  9. I'm looking forward to the coming year in the veg garden having been cheered by your photos, Elaine

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  10. At this time of year it is hard to remember that soon the allotment beds will be productive spaces growing delicious veg. The first courgette flower feels a long way away right now, but today is warm and sunny, there are broad bean seedlings growing, so thank you for the reminder of all that is to come.

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  11. Seeing the first cauliflower head forming and this year - lifting our potatoes and finding a good crop despite lack of rain and seeing our sprout plants actually forming sprouts!

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  12. Looking forward to leaving behind the winter soup and getting on with all that other stuff!

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  13. Having the company of a robin whilst plotting is top of my list! Flighty xx

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  14. As a newbie veg grower I get pleasure from anything that is harvestable

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  15. My mouth is watering. Peas and potatoes and onions, oh my.

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  16. Just the thought of getting outside & watching...

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  17. All of the above, plus the smell of newly mown grass and of damp soil, I love the earthyness of it.

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  18. The promise of things to come :) One of my favourite books Elaine along with her 'Through The Kitchen Window' - such beautiful illustrations to accompany the words.

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  19. Definitely has to be the first sight of my seedlings poking through the soil. That is the moment when I know the growing season has truly started and all the preparation was worth it.
    Nice blog.

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