The result of hard work

The veg garden is growing. Weeds as well as veg, of course.

But the veg is winning enough to give the first meal of the season totally from the garden.

This is always very satisfying

Peas, courgette, leek, cauliflower,  aubergine and cucumber fried in a little butter. Does that make it a vegetable stir fry or a warm salad?

Either way, it was yummy.

The aubergine was an experiment. I'm not normally a big fan of it. Somehow it always seems wet and slimey when I've had it cooked for me. But home grown and home cooked it was great and I'd definitely do it again.

The cauliflower was a mistake. I'm sure the seedlings were labelled kolrabi but I guess it was one of those "lost in translation" things. I'm not normally a fan of cauliflower either, but variety is the spice of life, and all that. 

Tomatoes are coming. I'm expecting a bit of a flood - there's a lot of self seeded volunteers. Quite funny really, after all the disasters with my attempts to grow seedlings.

And the carrots! I've never suceeded with carrots. But this year I ditched the seed packets and bought plants. And I'm totally sold on buy seedlings - I'm never going to buy seeds ever again. And next year I'm doing carrots big time. Because what could be better than a freezer full of carrots? Carrot soup. Carrot cake. Everybody like carrots.

I wish I'd thought of the freezer for the beetroot and turnips last year. I didn't grow them this year due to last year's storage disaster - too disappointing. But freezing solves all those problems. Seems a bit of a cheat - shouldn't need to freeze root veg to store them - but you've got to start somewhere. Next year.