What's in my kitchen

What is in my kitchen this week?  Well for a start there are quite a lot of flowers.


A jug of sweetpeas picked this morning and waiting to go to a friend. Every time I walk past the scent makes my head turn.


The cutting garden is producing so many dahlias that I haven't brought any cosmos inside yet.  I love these huge orange ones, Ludwig Helfert, next to Bishop of Llandaff and some Euphorbia Oblongata.  They are like a firework exploding on the table.

And the fact that the kitchen is full of flowers means that it is also full of vegetables.


Fresh peas are one of the glories of summer.  I can't pick them without shelling some and eating them right there in the garden.  I haven't been able to bring myself to do anything with these other than cook them briefly in boiling water and eat them with butter and mint.  I have a lovely recipe for pea and lettuce soup which I keep meaning to try but the peas are so young and sweet that making a soup with them seems a sacrilege.


And there are purple podded peas too.


We grow these because they look so beautiful but they taste just the same as the green ones!


There are tomatoes in my kitchen, coming in from the greenhouse, ripe earlier than usual because of early sowing and the long hot sunny days of July.  Eventually I will make tomato sauce and passata with the older crop but these are the early harvest so I am using them in salads.   I love what we have already, especially the old favourite Gardener's Delight,  but I am waiting for the ripening of the Black Krim, my favourite tomato of all.  Black Krim is a heritage variety with a firm dark flesh, close to black,  and a rich, deep flavour.  A single thick slice of Black Krim on fresh home made bread needs nothing else to make a substantial lunch, singing with flavour.


There are courgettes, of course.   I shot my bolt with courgettes in my last post.  There is nothing more to say.


There is a blackcurrant tart sitting on the top of the oven.  I am being very good about not eating this but Ian and Eric are eating it with thick cream or ice cream.


On the shelf above the wooden worktop the chickens keep an eye on the harvest, less destructively than they do when they escape the run in the garden and strip the chard and take the lettuce.


I can't give you exotic ingredients but I can give you fresh ones, and the whirling clown from early last century, the surprising shell from the beach not far away and the weights, lined up like chess pieces.  I haven't shown you the piles of boots by the door and the tools and twine and gardening gloves sitting by the microwave.  So that is what is in my kitchen.

I thought I would join in with this having read shabby chick's blog and she in her turn is part of a wider community of bloggers all over the world looking at what is in the kitchen with Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

Comments

  1. Ooh, I have completely by chance chosen to try growing Black Krim this year :) I'm now anxiously hoping I get to try it before the blight does...

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    1. I will be interested to know if you like it as much as I do!

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  2. Elizabeth, I admit to a bit of envy at what your garden has given to your kitchen. That black current tart looks really, really good. I would definitely have enjoyed a slice, and wonder at your powers of resistance.

    It's grand to see what your garden is delivering. Over here, I have had zucchini in many meals in the past week. A farmer's abundance was my reward. The current stars of the farmers markets are the long-awaited ripe tomato varieties. Absolutely amazing.

    xo

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  3. Wonderful! What an inspiration you are. . . I remember how great it was to eat peas from our own garden although we never ever managed the copious harvest you obviously have.

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    1. The problem, and I know it is a nice one to have, is that the harvests deliver feast or famine, or right now, just feast!

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  4. We have no peas this year - we'd have to have planted them, and we didn't! The flowers, the tomatoes, the tart - your kitchen seems heavenly.

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    1. It is one of the good things about blogging that it makes you take a look at things you take for granted and perhaps appreciate them a little more!

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  5. Love the flowers and the peas!
    I love a cutting flower garden. I used to arrange the flowers at church from my sister's garden and it was truly a blessing to have such beauty at hand.
    Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I do like to know that the flowers have made the journey from my garden in minutes rather than the journey by air from who knows where!

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  6. Wonderful place, beautiful colors.
    Angela

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  7. Enjoying the fruits of your labour - what could be better. But don't you think that Ludwig Helfert, the Bishop of Llandaff, Euphorbia Oblongata and Black Krim sound like promising characters from an E.F. Benson novel....

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    1. Perfect! yes I do and of all of them you wouldn't want to mess with Euphorbia.

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  8. Lovely flowers but I envy your kitchengarden with the delicious peas. I grow tomatoes in my greenhouse too but only a few vegetables ouside, only beans and lettuce.

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    1. We have the other problem in growing almost too much. I need to remember to harvest or it gets away from me! Nice problem though.

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  9. I do make lettuce and pea soup often and it is delicious - do try it.

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    1. I will, just as soon as I can stop munching them raw for long enough to have enough!

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  10. Loved the peek inside your kitchen! Those sweet peas are gorgeous and all the fresh veggies (especially the peas) look wonderful. Thanks for sharing. :)

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    1. Have started bringing beans in now too! Certainly the feast bit of feast or famine here right now!

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  11. What a grand idea to show off your kitchen - especially the produce!. I might try this although I don't have much in the way of homegrown vegetables or flowers.

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    1. Lots of the participants are talking about ingredients and things going on that aren't home grown Rosie, that is just what is going on in our kitchen. Like to see yours!

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  12. Your kitchen made me happy this morning. I recognize that shell... looks like an oyster shell

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    1. I think you are right about the shell. It was washed up on a beach a few miles from here.

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  13. It's all looking good Elizabeth.
    Love the chickens! I have straw geese... similarly well behaved.

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    1. There is a bit of a theme here. Perhaps I should go in for a stuffed cat!

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  14. I'm definitely moving in. Tell Henry he has a ginger companion on the way!

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  15. Fresh flowers, fresh produce, a freshly baked tart, and some rather "fresh" looking chickens -- what a wonderful respite you've created there, Elizabeth! I'm pleased to meet you via "In My Kitchen" and look forward to your future posts. Also enjoyed your About page, as well as the holiday cottage and Blackden Trust. So much history, mixed with real life and lore. Love it!

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    1. great to meet you. It was fascinating to read yours too. I love this about blogging, the connections!

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  16. The flowers are beautiful and I love your description of a firework explosion. Your veg looks delicious, a real reminder that fresh veg straight from the garden is unbeatable. And I love your chickens, too!

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    1. I love my chickens, inside and out, but these are the easy ones!

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  17. I love those flowers, beautiful! Your kitchen looks like a fab place to be. Thanks lots for mention.

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    1. Kitchen both fab and overrun by courgettes! Thinking of trying to persuade our local shop to sell some!

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  18. What a lovely kitchen you have! Thanks for sharing it with us! Your flowers are beautiful, but I'm not sure they could top that colander of freshly shelled peas - is there anything better than that? :) Your tomatoes and zucchs are looking very healthy and tasty, and I love that you have chickens in your kitchen - we have a ceramic one up high who keeps us company as well! :)

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    1. I picked some more peas today but really need to get out there and pick more flowers. I need to hold on to the fact that in winter I would give my eye teeth to be able to do either of these things!

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  19. I'm salivating at the thought of those peas, and remembering late summers in my Grandma Eva's garden helping her harvest her crop, she had a green enamel colander and I can still hear those just shelled peas plopping into it. Thanks for the memory Anne :)

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    1. I used to help shell peas too and it is an abiding memory of my childhood. I wonder if it is to do with the fact that they tasted so good raw so it wasn't simply a job with the gratification very much deferred!

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  20. Eek ... Elizabeth ... I'm Anne, or that's what my mother still calls me!

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  21. Peas, fresh like that, are quite sublimely wonderful. As a child I used to love the taste of the freshly podded pea, but I have never managed to grow them. There is always some other species of creature that gets to them before me. The sweet peas are lovely too. In the middle of the country here someone has dumped at some time a pan of sweet pea pods in front of a field gate and they grow allover the gate like perennials. A splash of colour among the green.

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    1. I used to love shelling peas with my grandmother. I wonder if that is a memory which will pass to new generations?

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  22. Oh, my! Everything looks so fresh and lovely!

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    1. I am not showing you the dirt and the dust at all Linda!

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  23. What a fantastic harvest! And I also pick fresh sweet peas and put it on the night table next to my bed. I love the smell so much!!!

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    1. I put some sweetpeas by my bed only this afternoon.

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  24. G'day Love the sweetpeas and your chicken, true!
    Thank you for inviting me into your kitchen with its unique view too!
    Cheers! Joanne

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    1. The sweetpeas are still going strong. They are amazing as a cut flower.

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  25. Hi Elizabeth, thank you for the peek into your kitchen! Love your home grown peas! Delicious.

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  26. I loved this! And am especially fond of the chickens, and that deep windowsill. Lovely veggies.

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