It was with a slight sense of fear & trepidation that I presented, for the first time, our very own olives at last Saturday’s Kitchen Gardening lunch! Not that it’s the first time I’ve ever tried to ‘keep’ our harvest before, but honestly, the last good harvest we had was around 12 or more years ago, when I was still trying to combine the ‘school run’ with a working life that meant leaving Glenmore each day, (and consequently precious little time to do things like change the salty water in bucket loads of olives!).Even this year, you can see it wasn’t a huge harvest, though thankfully more manageable. (Olives, you see, do NOT enjoy midsummer rain, and often that is the best rain we receive here…).
And so I unscrewed the lid of one jar, and sent the very first batch out to the long table drenched in olive oil & tossed with garden thyme! I think they’re just a little on the salty side, but the texture is divine and everyone seemed to approve wholeheartedly! So let’s hope we get a decent harvest this year, as I reckon I might be able to deal with the odd bucket now….they’re in flower as I write….
I had no such qualms about preparing the first globe artichoke harvest of the season! Part of me wishes I grew them by the bucket load so we’d have hundreds to eat, while the other part knows perfectly well that preparing a dozen or so as a special treat a couple of times a season is…..well…..quite enough!
The resulting mid-morning taste test was much appreciated by participants as they listened and learned their lessons in the kitchen garden, while savouring the delights of artichokes poached in white wine, olive oil and thyme….
It was such a lovely day (despite all the ugly weather thrown at us!). As usual, there was no time to photograph the rest of the lunch which incorporated all the best produce the garden had to offer. And everyone left with seedlings to plant into their own burgeoning gardens. I can hardly believe it was the last Kitchen Gardening Day of the year. Linda and I are about to plan our 2j015 dates, so watch this space if you missed out this time around….