Recipes from our garden

Vegetable soup

• One handful juicy of runner beans. and or mange tout
• One beetroot.
• 3 carrots
• 4 potatoes
• Handful of cabbage leaves or red orache
• Sprigs of fresh oregano and thyme
• Fresh parsley garnish
• 2 onions
• Garlic
• (Fresh root ginger if you like the taste)

Clean and chop the vegetables and cover with boiling water, simmer for 15 minutes. (Put all the peelings into the worm bucket!) Take herb leaves off the stalks and throw them in. Add a couple of teaspoons of boullion if you like the extra taste and stir in and 1 teaspoon of marmite or yeast extract.
Chop onions, two cloves of garlic and the ginger root (about 2cm of it after taking off skin) and fry gently in a bit of olive oil. Add to the other stuff and let it simmer for another five minutes making sure it has enough water to cover the veg.

Either serve it as it is with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste or liquidise briefly and serve with a swirl of cream and parsley garnish. Particularly nice with fresh baked rolls and butter.

Fresh basil pesto and baked potatoes

Wash potatoes prick them lightly with a fork and put in oven to bake for approx 1 hour.

Then take:

• One large handful of fresh basil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Chopped Almonds or pine nuts

Take leaves off the basil and put them into blender with peeled cloves. Add two. tablespoons of olive oil and one of vinegar and blend together. Add a bit more oil if needed. Slowly add in nuts to get a nice consistency.

When the spuds are done open them up with a knife and put a layer of the pesto on them, then grate cheese over the top to melt and serve with ground black pepper and a salad.

Pretty good for you salad

So-called because of its attractiveness and revitalising and immunity-strengthening properties.

• 6 nasturtium flowers and some of their leaves.
• Petals from 2 calendula flowers
• Handful of borage flowers
• Mixed lettuce leaves, red and green
• Pak choi leaves
• Sprouts of chickweed
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Fresh coriander

Wash all the ingredients in a colander and drain.
Take salad leaves and roughly tear them by hand as base for the salad. Chop tomatoes and cucumber and throw in. Add nasturtium leaves around the edge of the bowl. Chop chickweed and coriander and put in centre. Take the yellow calendula petals and sprinkle over the salad and then place the orange and red nasturtiums in a circle, then add the blue of the borage and what an amazing sight! Serve with an olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey vinegrette.