Food From The Garden

Seasons change

When I first saw this I thought it was a monster’s claw erupting from the ground. Because that’s how a writer’s imagination works.

At the weekend I did my first mow of the year. I have a manual push mower and love it. Light, easy to maintain, no cables or electricity needed, and it makes a brilliant chunka chunka sound as I push it. A patch of daisies had sprouted in my lawn so I mowed around them, leaving the flowers for the bees and other insects.

There is a lot of edible stuff in gardens. I’m particularly fond of nettle soup. I even eat nettle leaves raw (there’s a trick to it so you don’t get stung). But it’s the hosta shoots that provide a treat for the week when they are sprouting: which was this week!

We have a lot in our garden. The header picture was a small patch, but the bigger ones have up to fifty shoots. So I cut some of them, always thanking the plant. There are plenty left to grow.

Into the pan with them

The hosta shoots are basically like asparagus. You can cook them lightly with garlic and oil, then sprinkle them with salt. I love eating seasonally where possible, because you never take things for granted, and always look forward to the offerings of each month.

This time I had the hosta shoots on toast with some tofu and chilli powder. Last time they were added to noodles.

Supermarkets destroy seasonality. They use imported foods and forced hothouse growing so that everything is available all year. It’s convenient, but breaks our connection to the seasons. For example, the ever-presence of tomatoes (flavourless mass-produced ones) takes away the excitement of that first ripening batch, that first juicy bite.

Do you try to eat seasonally? I often fail, but am making an effort.

Promoted by Karl Drinkwater (Green Party) at The Gate, Keppoch Street, Cardiff CF24 3JW.
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