Fork to Fork – a blog about cooking and gardening inspired by Martineau Gardens
Every Friday, our women’s group gather to garden together, tending the vegetable beds, led by Miranda Kingston. We see the whole cycle of food production, from sowing the seeds, to potting out, planting on; tying the shoots to canes, pruning and watering, mulching and composting. Along the way, we harvest what we grow. All the food we grow is for sale from the Martineau Gardens sales area. But there’s always time to taste what we grow, and that includes trying out a recipe or two.
At the Gardens, we have an outdoor kitchen, where recipes are tried out. One of volunteers,alias ‘Sam Spade the Digging Detective’ is writing a seasonal blog to inspire you to try your hand at cooking, with what’s in season.
About Sam Spade the Digging Detective:
In her own words:
“When I was younger a Wimpy burger was a rare treat and all the vegetables on the table came from my Grandma’s garden. No pesticides, only drunken slugs from the beer trap. My Grandma taught me how to cook with fresh ingredients and meals inspired by the changing seasons.
For me, food is the heart and soul of our lives – bringing people together to share a dish bought from garden fork to kitchen fork celebrates a vital link between growing, cooking and eating food.
As a society, we have developed a huge irresponsibility about what we eat: massive denial about what we put in our mouths, no questions asked about factory farming, food miles, genetic engineering and the mass application of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides systematically applied to produce to create the all too perfect-looking supermarket fruit and vegetables.
Ingredients are the crucial element in producing food. Quality ingredients, eaten as fresh as possible, should always make a satisfying meal. I want to introduce recipes for food that can be savoured in season, and then we go go without that produce until its time rolls around again, eagerly anticipated.
Just think of all the packaging being saved. Overly packaged food is not good for the environment, and having a bin full of unnecessary packaging constantly having to be emptied is costly, time consuming and boring.
In essence my goal is grow food, do no harm to our environment, cook simply – do some good, eat with friends and family and save a few pennies along the way.”
Baking rolls in the Martineau Gardens Earth Oven photo credit: Sam Spade
February -cooking with artichokes