In the kitchen garden
We live in our dream house - a really Scanian house surrounded by grazing cows and rolling meadows just outside the beech forest in Skåne. Our site has stoning clay soil which with a lot of work has given us fantastic cultivation opportunities. We have a large kitchen garden where we have tried to grow most!
With so many vegetables, I see it as a challenge to come up with dishes where we make the best use of them. During much of the year we do not buy as much vegetables, but come up with new dishes based on the ones we have. In my recipes, I usually use the vegetables we have in our kitchen garden for the season or what we store in storage or freezer. Sometimes there are suggestions for replaceable ingredients, so that you can use exactly what you grow or have at home.
Odling i växthus
Med ett växthus ges ännu fler möjligheter till odling. Andra grönsaker kan odlas och säsongen kan förlängas. Tomater, chili och paprika älskar klimatet som växthuset ger. Men det är inte en lätt sak att få fram många och goda tomater under lång tid. Det ska vara lagom varmt, inte för soligt, bra ventilation, inte för fuktig luft men inte heller för torr, jämn vattning och rätt gödning i rätt tid. För varje år lär vi oss något nytt.
Culture
To come up with and decide what to grow is a fun part of growing. It is easy to be seduced by all the seed bags in the plant shop, but after trying to grow most, we have come to the conclusion that it is best to mostly stick to what we know is successful and that we use a lot of and then add something exciting to try. Some vegetables are best suited for a certain type of soil, others only work in greenhouses, etc.
The best thing about growing ourselves is that we know that everything is 100% organic. Even the cows that give us fertilizer eat organic from the pastures and meadows around our house.
We grow potatoes, yellow onions, garlic, leeks, peas, artichokes, mangold, polka bean, carrots, squash, lettuce in various forms, spinach, kale, sugar peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and a lot of other fruits and berries. These are vegetables and fruits that will be included in most of my recipes.
Preparation of the earth
At least as important as deciding which vegetables you want to grow is to prepare the soil for cultivation. In our kitchen garden we started from scratch with rocky and hard clay soil. It has taken a lot of work but in the end we have got a fantastic good cultivation soil that keeps water and nutrition good. We fertilize with lots of genuine cow manure from our neighbor every two years and it produces incredibly good harvests. Read more about our work on my blog!
Storage
Most growers recognize that once a vegetable has started to yield, there is no hay. Then it is good to have stuff that can be stored. I like when it can be made easy! These are my tips on how vegetables can be stored in different ways.
In the storage room
We dig up yellow onion and garlic early autumn and let it dry in the sun. Then we put them in airy baskets or trays and place them in the storage room.
Potatoes we usually dig up quite early when it is dry, because with clay soil it is easy to start to mold in the soil if there is a lot of rain. Then we put it in jute sacks in the store.
We dig up the artichokes just before freezing and storing in bags in the storage room.
In the freezer
Leek - slice
Squash - diced (for casserole or gratin) or grated (for steaks or pasta sauce)
Mangold - shred
Beets - dice / divide and pre-cook about 10 min
Apple - pie (for porridge or pie)
Rhubarb - slice
Berries - put in bag as they are (for smoothie, pie or cream)
In the kitchen country
Some vegetables, such as kale can remain in the soil all winter and stay
even better after it's frozen. We eat green kale both cooked and in salads (see recipes and tips under the tab On the plate) and we do not dig up last year's plants until we start getting new lettuce in the spring.