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Freshly picked from the garden, it doesn't seem much and yet it feeds 4, and for less than the $15 you
would give to a Supermarket (FYI overseas reader, this $15 is a NZ supermarket campaign ) |
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First course, vegetable soup with: yellow zucchini, green zucchini, plum tomatoes, parsley, chives, celery,
carrot, silver beet, onions. The onion are really small but I can't grow them any bigger in the bush so
I grow them in pots. |
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Chop, add water (rain water for me, so this too is free!) and salt, then cook. You can add a bit of
extra virgin olive oil at the end. |
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| Second basket, more tomatoes, basil, cucumber, radish, lettuce and mizuna. |
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| Make a salad. I just add olive oil, salt and lemon juice so the dressing is not that expensive. |
Yes there is a main to go with the salad, a frittata made with free-range eggs (60c each at the farmers market, the most expensive thing in this meal, and I used 4). To flavor the frittata I used chives from the garden, and the usual salt and pepper, a bit of self-raising flour, and olive oil to fry.
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| Frittata before flipping |
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| Frittata after flipping |
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Well, no much for dessert, only some rhubarb and a few strawberries (regular and wild),
since the season is almost finished for me. |
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Still, I am not discouraged: I boiled the rhubarb with 1 tbsp of sugar, added a pinch of agar agar and
made a jelly to be topped with a little yogurt, the strawberries and some edible violets.
Arantxa got the biggest strawberry! |
I am very lucky to have a little veggie garden, but even if you don't have a garden there are many community gardens where work and produce are shared, and the results are amazing. Just watch this short video to see a truly inspiring community garden in New Brighton, Christchurch. And my father-in-law is featuring too, walking around the gardens! He is having an operation tomorrow so I would like to wish him the very best. Over to the video now:
Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©
