Desert Island Vegetables 5

My motivation to start growing some of my own vegetables, fruits and herbs was born from my enjoyment of cooking. You will never cook with fresher produce than that brought straight from the garden to the kitchen. This also encourages you to adopt recipes that make the most of each season. It also opened my eyes to how unthinking my cooking was based on having most vegetables available through the year.

It never occurred to me that at certain times of the year I was buying vegetables that had been in storage many months. I just sort of assumed that the vegetables on the supermarket shelves were coming from a field somewhere. In fact I now realise that knowing how to store or cook produce to preserve it is an integral part of ensuring a steady food supply throughout the year. 

Nor did I have any comprehension of how long any vegetable took to grow. Looking at a Brussel Sprout I never imagined that it was planted in June to harvest during the winter months.

So with speed in mind my next choice of vegetable for the fantasy desert island is the Lettuce. It grows relatively quickly; it can be grazed - taking a few leaves at a time and leaving the plant to grow on. I am also assuming that a desert island would have a climate that with succession planting would give a year round crop. Taking some different varieties (at least one red and green type) would help keep things interesting.