Apart from purple sprouting broccoli the garden yields plenty of leeks at the moment. I strip them of their outer leaves, snip the roots and cut off the coarse green tops . Wash them with cold water from the tap and they are ready to cook and worth the trouble of cleaning them up. The à la grecque method of cooking them is my favourite. Stew them slowly in a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice until they are tender. Dusted with a little cayenne pepper, they are as lovely to look at as to eat. They are equally good hot or cold. As delicate as asparagus.
The pleasure of digging and raking in the vegetable garden and planting onion sets this morning is hard to define. For many it would be a chore. But the sense of seeds sprouting and roots stirring is infectious. Their response is similar to mine. "The force that drives that through the green fuse drives the flower, drives my green age". Dylan Thomas meant something slightly different, but the driving force is the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment