Courgette Soup with Lentils and Cheese

c. 8 litres of soup

Serves 6

450g courgettes - chopped
350g potatoes - peeled and chopped (I leave the skins on as I prefer them that way)
3 garlic cloves - chopped
1.2 litres veg stock
Small bunch oregano
Summer: add ½ cup lentils (c. 120g)
Winter: add ¾ -1 cup lentils (c. 150g to 230g)

225g Brie - rind removed, or 200g grated cheddar or feta

1. Briefly fry garlic and oregano.

2. Put all the veg in a large pot, add the stock.

3. Bring to the boil, and add the lentils. Then simmer for 15 minutes or until the veg are tender.

4. Cool slightly, then process the soup using a blender until smooth.

5. If batch cooking, separate out into containers to freeze. When eating straight away or once a batch has been defrosted, see 6 and 7.

6. Add the cheese, bring back to near boiling point, stirring constantly so the cheese is combined with the liquid (you can also do this step using a microwave).

7. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

The lentils make it a heavier but protein rich soup, so I've given rough summer/winter estimates, given you don't always want a heavy soup in summer.

This soup easily scales up too. I often make x4 of the recipe, c. 10 litres.


Note: this is based on an Allotment Soup recipe, by Michelle at Veg Plotting, but adapted to my taste.

Gardening with ME: harvest time

Harvests include flowers for the house

Harvest time. It's that moment we are all working towards all year, after all that sowing, tending staking and watering. When we finally get to pick the fruits of our labour. I decided last October that I had to cut back on how much veg I try to grow, as from an ME perspective, I was struggling to manage everything. As ME has fluctuated throughout the year, so has my ability to garden, particularly in the last 3 months. However, some of the work I did when I was feeling better has paid off and I've been enjoying wonderful fresh food from the garden since June.


Broad Beans
I love Broad Beans. I adore Broad Beans. They are quite possibly my favourite vegetable. They are also one that isn't so easy to get fresh from the shops, so it's a good one to grow if you have the energy. They have a Spoonie Veg rating of 2-3 (I'll do a Spoonie Veg post on Broad Beans in Autumn) as they require a little more looking after. Mainly staking, as my garden is quite windy being two thirds the way up one of Sheffield's rather big hills. And there is also the dreaded black fly. I manage the latter by having a squirt bottle with washing up liquid and water at the ready at all times. As soon as I notice the black fly, I basically drown them. Do it twice a day for a couple of days and it's 1 me, black fly 000.

Because of the cold Spring I had some problems with germination and then they took quite a bit of time to get growing. I also didn't get around to sowing these until mid-March, however I still got a great crop from a 1.5 x .75 bed of beans. This amounted to approximately 18 meals, which I think is pretty good going from such a small space.

I grew a mix of standard and dwarf Broad Beans, but it was the standard ones, Bunyards Exhibition and Super Aquadulce that did best. I think the taller beans over shadowed the dwarf ones, The Sutton, too much, despite planting the dwarf ones in front where they would get the most sun, which is why I think the crop from them was poor. If I have the energy, I'll try growing the dwarf ones in pots next year.

I started harvesting them in late June (usually you would earlier, but the cold Spring held things up by several weeks) and have made a variety of dishes from them. This includes: Broad Bean and Feta Salad, Broad Bean, Bacon and Mint Penne pasta (this works just as well with French Beans), and Broad Bean Risotto.

Broad Bean and Feta Salad

Garlic
When I say Broad Beans are possibly my favourite vegetable, I'm also thinking of Garlic, which I also adore and which is incredibly easy to grow. Garlic has a Spoonie Veg rating of 1; I'll be publishing an individual Spoonie Veg post on Garlic in a couple of weeks. For garlic, sow the cloves in late Autumn, do nothing until around mid Spring (depends on the weather) when you need to just make sure they are watered if it is a dry Spring and Summer. Cut off the garlic scapes when they form (late May-early June). Then harvest. That's it.

Ok, maybe slightly more is involved than that, but you get the drift. I grow Hardneck Garlic, that forms a scape from which you can make Garlic Pesto. Although it's not meant to store as well as Softneck Garlic, I don't find much difference if you store them properly.

I use garlic in everything. This is in part because I'm allergic to onions (I know, same family, don't ask) so garlic is my substitute. And when you compare growing the two... Garlic: plant a clove, end up with a full bulb. Onions: plant a small bulb, end up with just a bigger bulb. So even without being allergic to onions, you can see that you get a much higher yield from garlic.

Most of my crop did really well this year and what you see below is enough for two people for a year, for saving some to grow next year, and to pass some on to others to grow. Not bad for so little work.

After a few hours in the sun (previous picture), I then dry my garlic out in the garage.

Peas
I didn't grow as many peas as I usually do as I wasn't up to the extra work they entailed. So this year I only grew heritage Pea 'Robinson'. The other I regularly grow is heritage Pea 'Latvian', which I'll grow again next year. 'Robinson' (right picture) is a tall pea, close to 1.5 metres, so needs something to grow up. I think Peas are a bit more work compared to Broad Beans, and I don't think you get as much for your efforts. Peas have a Spoonie Veg rating of 3.

Fresh peas taste amazing, and again aren't something so easy to get in the shops. So if you have the energy, the flavour can be worth the extra work. I sowed about 15 seeds and ended up with enough to go in a dish for 6 meals, plus plenty left over from which I can save seed. They do need a bit of watering and I find it doesn't matter what you grow them up, you still need to do some tying in. I would like to try growing some dwarf heritage peas to compare them too. So if you know of any, let me know.

Because I often cook in batches, this year I made a big batch of Pea and Broad Bean Risotto, enough for the two of us for three nights. The risotto is amazing on the first night, though the quality lessons slightly on subsequent nights, but it's still pretty good. When you have ME, you are not always up to cooking. Hence I cook a large batch of something, risotto, curry, that being my only job for that day, so the next two days I can rest and maybe do something else. Like gardening.

Pea and Broad Bean Risotto

Courgettes
Ahhh, courgettes. That versatile vegetable that just keeps giving. And giving. I'm not too fussed about courgette gluts as I'm always happy to make large batches of soup that I can freeze and eat in winter. Courgette have a Spoonie Veg rating of 2, the main efforts going to sowing and potting on, then watering and feeding through Summer and Autumn.

This year I decided to grow round courgettes, Tondo di Piacenza from Real Seeds. The website says they are very productive and I can confirm this. From two plants I've already made enough Courgette and Brie soup for 12 meals and a delicious stir fry for 4 meals. And the plants have only just started to take off. Like the usual long courgettes, they go from tiny fruits to monsters within a blink of an eye. I founds the flavour to be just as good, though I manage to pick the large ones before they turned into the aforesaid monsters. Any monsters will be turned into more soup.

Tondo di Piacenza - not only prolific, cute too!

Other veg
I have also just started picking Dwarf French Beans, and will have some Beetroot (I sowed late), parsnip, carrots and Fennel bulbs to come soon too. And there is also my patch of Sorrel which is getting larger and larger by the week, and the Strawberries I harvested back in June. I'm hoping for some pumpkins, but unless we get some ongoing warm sunny weather in September, I'm not sure they will amount to much.


Reflecting on what I've been harvesting so far this year, I'm pretty happy with the results. I had hoped to sow and grow more things from mid-Summer, but since June my ME has been pretty bad and I've had to spend a lot more days in bed than out of it. I therefore decided not to try and grow any further veg this year (until late autumn when I sow the garlic again) to reduce the workload in the garden. The ornamentals have been doing fine on their own, such as the Crocosmia in the top picture, but even they are starting to look like they could do with some tending. So I've decided to focus my limited energy there for the next couple of months. Because I see enjoying the flowers as a 'harvest' too. A feast for the eyes.

Gardening with ME isn't easy. Sometimes you have to let a crop grow, as I did with my climbing beans last year, and sometimes you aren't well enough to sow anything. But what I can sow and grow, gives me so much joy. I love being in the garden, tending the plants and enjoying the sun and birdsong. And what I do get to harvest, not only feels like a great achievement, but also gives me incredible pleasure. Plus, of course, is the yumminess factor.

* * * * *
I welcome your thoughts and comments. And if you blog about gardening with ME/a chronic illness, do link to this post in your blog and leave a comment below with a link to your post, so we can all find each other.

About Gardening with ME    About Spoonie Veg

Twitter hashtags: #GardeningWithME, #SpoonieVeg

Recent Gardening with ME & Spoonie Veg posts...
  Spoonie Veg: strawberries
  Spoonie Veg: Sorrel
  Garden visiting with ME

More harvesting, and green manure

I must say thank you to the weather, for hearing my plea and making the weekend predominantly sunny, or at least,  not very rainy, as it did rain for 1 hour on Sat. My lottie was ever so pleased to see me today.

Thankfully I got there just in time before some of the courgettes started becoming marrows. This particular courgette, verde di Italia, has yielded quite well, though I do have to be quick about getting to them before they become marrows. They taste much better when smaller. As usual, another good variety I got from Real Seeds.

Courgette verde di Italia

I only had to dig up a couple of beetroot to get enough to make some brownies...

One of them was quite large compared to the others (see right side in the picture below). This was a variety called Devoy, which rather than giving you round beetroot, gives you longer more carrot-like beetroot. This one was quiet chunky. Mmmm, brownies....

The St Valery carrots were also doing well and taste really sweet, like sunshine in your mouth.

The green manure I sowed a couple of weeks ago is coming along wonderfully. First is the Tares, (with the errant pumpkin elbowing in for some space) which over-winter without any problems from frost damage. I planted the tares after pulling up the garlic. Tares are from the legume family, and fixes nitrogen into the soil as well as improving soil fertility.

The following bed is a mix of winter salads and pak choi to the left, and Hungarian Grazing Rye to the right.

I will be putting a cloche over the salads and pak choi, so carefully marked out the space it will need for when I have to put it on. This will be just before the first frosts, probably in October. Well, hopefully in October and not late September when I'm on holiday in Bavaria!

Because the rye is a cereal it can fit anywhere in a rotation. I thought I'd try it because it is supposed to stop nutrients from leaching, for example, from heavy rains or flooding. Apparently it can really take off and put in deep roots in Spring, so I need to remember to dig it in, in early Spring. Ok braincell, remember that...

You dig in green manure in Spring, at least 4-6 weeks before you want to sow seeds. The freshly dug in green manure can inhibit germination, which is why you need to wait a few weeks to let them break down and release their manurey-goodness before spring sowing can commence. My plan in general, is to have some kind of green manure growing through winter in any bed that I don't have veg over-wintering, such as my Brassicas, Spinach/Chard and the winter lettuces.

Whilst I was busy harvesting, weeding, and sowing more Spinach, Chard and an overwintering cabbage, Wintergreen, Kevin was working on digging out weeds and preparing another raised bed.

Our great aim(!) is that for a change, next year all the beds for the potatoes will be ready when it is potato planting time (traditionally Good Friday), rather than the desperate rush in mid-late May as has been the case in the last two years! Oddly, the late sowing of the potatoes doesn't seem to effect the yields, but still, it would be nice to not have rush in May for a change.

My final photograph is of a poppy that has self-seeded in my spinach/chard bed. Seems a bit late for a poppy to be flowering, but hey, not complaining. I mean - pretty! Ok, perhaps it is flamboyant, but still, pretty...

Harvesting

After yesterdays garlic harvest, today I collected kale, peas and some beetroot, plus the last of the broad beans.

Thanks to Kevin's trusty bike trolley, it's no problem getting the food home from the lottie.

Home!

And here is today's harvest, plus some ex-courgettes I picked the other day too.

The kale will be blanched and frozen. There is plenty more growing and with so much food coming in at the moment we cannot eat everything straight away, so storing some for winter.

The purple podded peas (bottom right), look pretty, but are better for soups than eating fresh from the pod. However, the green Robinson, from the Heritage Seed Library (HSL), taste great just picked and will get eaten quickly. I've left quite a few on the plants as I'm saving some for me, and to send some back to HSL.

As for the marrows, these are going to become cakes, such as Lavender cup cakes and Coconut cake, thanks to my wonderful vegetable-based (and largely gluten free) cake cook book, Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache. Yum.