Vegetables in season

With the summer vegetable garden in full swing, our meals are being dictated by what is available from the morning’s harvest. Where possible, we prefer to leave the vegetables on the plant or in the soil and only harvest as we prepare a meal. Doing so improves the taste and also saves us the trouble of finding storage space.

After assessing the available vegetables, the meal planning will start. This forces me to be creative with my recipes. I cannot find a recipe and look for ingredients. I find the ingredients and look for recipes.

The vegetable garden reduces our carbon footprint. More local you cannot get. We hardly have to break a sweat to collect the vegetables for our meals, what to say of using petrol.

White brinjals on the left and purple brinjals on the right

And our vegetables do taste the better for it. We believe them to be healthier than supermarket vegetables that have been chemically fertilised, sprayed with pesticides and treated to stay fresher for longer.

Growing our own vegetables keeps me grounded. As a cook/chef, I enjoy cooking my own vegetables. I can plan my meals well in advance, when I put the first seed in the soil.

'Boerpampoen' pumpkin

Purple and brown onions

When we eat vegetables at Towerwater, it is the vegetables available on the day and therefore always, vegetables in season.