Tales from a veg patch

MAKING THE MOST OF THE HARVEST AT HOME, KATHY SLACK COOKS SEASONAL DISHES AND SHARES THE STORIES FROM HER BACK GARDEN THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

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THE HUNGRY GAP There's nothing to eat. Well, that's how it feels. The veg beds are a patchy collection of a few hardy leaves that have valiantly survived the winter. This is The Hungry Gap. I cobble together a sorry bouquet of old kale, the odd cabbage and chard (there's always chard) for soups and stir fries, but I'm ready for a change. In my quest for variety, I experiment with eating the flowering tips of the kale and cabbages, plucking the thin stems that hold a cluster of tiny flowers. Treated like tenderstem broccoli and briefly steamed they turn out to be delicious – sweet but slightly bitter. I drown them in melted butter like a poor man's asparagus. A more skilled gardener would have purple sprouting broccoli and leeks just ready…

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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2024

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