Desert Island Vegetables 8

In the UK there is a long-running radio show where a guest chooses eight records/compact discs to take with them to an imaginary desert island. I have adapted this idea and in seven previous posts have chosen vegetables to take with me on a desert island. This is my eighth and final choice as I decide from all the possible vegetables left which one to take.

To aid me in this difficult decision I have consulted my copy of “Amaranth to Zucchini” by Elizabeth Schneider. This is an American book that is packed full of interesting information on 350 different vegetables together with various recipes and tips to cook them. In the end though my choice is not in the book because of the difficulty in deciding what is a vegetable or a fruit. So while various fungi are listed in the book, sweet peppers are not.

As with my previous choice of tomatoes I am going to use the culinary definitions of fruits and vegetables that place peppers in the vegetable category; botanically both are fruits.

Although my decision was based purely on culinary reasoning a bit of further research shows there are many health benefits to include peppers in my list. For example they are rich in Vitamin C and contain more (by weight) than citrus fruits.

With my list of eight vegetables for my desert island completed and the arrival of Spring marked by the equinox today my next post will be from my vegetable plot.

Photo Selection - the arrival of Spring

The weather has suddenly warmed and the garden is coming alive. At the moment I divide my time in the garden between gardening and taking photographs. Wonderful to see the cherries and plums start to blossom.

Desert Island Vegetables 7

Growing my own vegetables was stimulated by my love of cooking and the idea of using just picked ingredients. At the time I thought of myself as a pretty good cook but growing my own vegetables has revealed how little I actually knew about my ingredients. I have already mentioned being surprised by how long some vegetables take to grow. Also with many vegetables being on the Supermarket shelves all year round it is difficult to develop a sense of the seasons.

Another big education has been discovering different varieties in vegetables that I previously thought of generically. My next choice of vegetable to take to a fantasy island is a good example of this. Previously I thought of Garlic as being just Garlic although some bulbs seemed purpler. This assumption was reinforced by cookbooks that list garlic as a general ingredient.

Looking into growing my own I discovered that there is much more to garlic than I imagined. Not only can you choose between varieties for autumn or spring planting but also there are two main types, softneck and hardneck. Because softneck garlic stores better it is the one you will almost certainly buy from a Supermarket. Also with China growing 75% of the world’s garlic it could have travelled quite some distance.

Each type taste differently with each having advocates that consider theirs to taste better. To add more choice there is ranges of varieties within each type that together offer over six hundred cultivated garlic varieties worldwide.

If having all these varieties isn’t enough another often under considered fact is that where you grow your vegetables will also influence it’s growth and taste. This influence of geography, geology, climate and horticultural practice is often known by the French word Terrior or sense of place. Although widely used in discussing attributes of vineyards and their wines every plant to some degree responds to it’s environment.

Discovering varieties that thrive in your garden is either a case of trial and error or research – asking nearby growers for their experience is a good way to gain knowledge.

There are many benefits to growing your own vegetables but this widening of my knowledge and appreciation for ingredients I use in my cooking has been a welcome surprise.

Desert Island Vegetables 6

I am choosing eight vegetables to take with me to a fantasy desert island in a similar way to how I select for my home vegetable patch. Firstly by simply going for vegetables that I enjoy eating and secondly keeping an eye of good husbandry especially crop rotation. The basic idea is not to grow the same vegetables in the same ground year on year. The main reason is to prevent a build up of pests and diseases it also has some benefits with soil fertility as well. That said, some vegetables such as rhubarb and asparagus are grown in permanent beds.

A four-year rotation is the traditional ideal but this requires dividing your vegetable garden in four plots to rotate plus a permanent bed. An alternative is to rotate using three beds especially if your garden is too small to realistically divide into four plots.

To keep the four-year rotation simple you use one plot for brassicas (cabbage family), one for legumes (beans & peas), Alliums (onion family) in the third and for the fourth I have a plot for potatoes. It does take a while to work out what bed some vegetables should go in. For example Beetroot goes in the potato bed, lettuce with the onions – I initially regarded both as salad vegetables and grew them in the same bed.

So with crop rotation in mind by next choice of vegetable comes from the legume family but which to go for? On the one hand my favourite bean to eat fresh is the Runner closely followed by French; on the other I do like my baked beans so perhaps Haricot beans would be the better choice. Chickpeas would be a good choice especially for North African and Middle East dishes that might better suit the climate of my island. The fact that they can be dried also gives them versatility – I am assuming I will not have a freezer. Add to this that I have never grown Chickpeas and I like to grow something new every year then they are my sixth choice.

(photo above) Scarlet Emperor Runner beans - "a traditional old favourite" as it says on the packet and my choice for my home veg patch.