Plants

[bugshaw]

I'm not making good use of my vegetable box at the moment. The root vegetables come with a thorough coating of earth, and it is enough extra trouble to wash and scrub them that I don't tend to bother - three weeks' potatoes sit in the fridge, while I chuck rice or noodles (or rice noodles) into a pan for a quick dinner. I am considering putting it on hold until Easter, but I suspect that is a bad idea as we will degenerate into strange Pot Noodle creatures without the discipline of preparing fresh veg.

The freesias fjm brought to Saturday's Concussion programme planning meeting though, are just lovely. Fragrant and yellow, the blossoms are opening up all along the stems. In the absence of sufficient vases, I stuck them in with the last of the tulips from hawkida and tobesv, which they complement nicely. The tulips started out a so-sophisticated deep deep red, but have developed yellow streaks and have opened out more and more till they looked first like children's drawings of flowers, and now they have opened as flat as saucers.

We don't normally have fresh flowers in the house, but I do appreciate them. I suspect it is partly because they come with a finite lifespan; I am Very Bad at plants, so it is nice to have some to enjoy which are guaranteed to die through no fault of mine.

The canna that coth gave us is made of fairly strong stuff. It is a striking plant we keep out the front of the house, tall and pointy with crisp red flowers. When winter started it suffered from frost, so I took it inside and cut down the brown bits and thought hopeful things at it. The brown bits are showing no life, but there are three new green shoots, three inches tall already, so I have poked in the seeds I collected from it in November (there's a technical term for that, isn't there? "Planting", or something...) and will continue with happy, hopeful thoughts.

Comments

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Have you thought of joining organic_boxers? A community formed for those needing a bit of support around the issue of organic vegetable boxes...

...proving that whatever your issue, there is a livejournal community for it. :-(

*making soup frantically*

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I don't need support, I need veg that takes less time to prepare. Sainsbury's ready-grated carrot has never looked so appealing :-(

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Sainsbury's ready-grated carrot has never looked so appealing :-(

Oh, dear...

[timill]

I suspect the answer is to set aside some time to do veg prep that isn't close to cooking/eating time.

Say, mid-afternoon or so. Dump the cut chunks in a bowl of water in the fridge??

[feorag.livejournal.com]

Now that looks useful! (goes and joins community)

autopope and I joined a box scheme a few weeks ago - one veg box and a top-up fruit box per week (to force us to eat more fruit - though it mostly means I get lots of smoothies). I wish they'd put fewer tatties in, but autopope wishes I'd cook tatties more often, and I'm currently wondering what to do with a large swede - probably parboil and freeze it in portion sizes, so I can sneak it into stews, or mash it with potato, without him noticing.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I wish they'd put fewer tatties in, but autopope wishes I'd cook tatties more often

Oh well, if you do the cooking, you control the vegetables. This is The Rule. :-)

and I'm currently wondering what to do with a large swede - probably parboil and freeze it in portion sizes, so I can sneak it into stews, or mash it with potato, without him noticing.

Make Ankh-Morpork curry?

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I love mashing additional root veg into potato. It tastes lovely, adds a portion of veg, and gives you more bulk for your calories (if you care about such things) than straight potato. Swede, carrot, celeriac, parsnip are all good.

I have five large beetroots :-(

[feorag.livejournal.com]

I had some beetroots (three, small) a couple of weeks ago, but when autopope went out, I looked at them to see if I could make soup, and they'd gone smalelr and wrinkly. Alas. I think the swede will last forever, though.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

One friend of mine likes to roast beets with other root vegetables and says that they turn out very tasty that way. There's peeling in there somewhere, though I'm not sure where.

The only use I have for swede is in Branston Pickle, and really isn't that why we have Crosse & Blackwell? (I don't cook much; I'm more of a baker.)

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I'm on my own this evening (so can have as many vegetables as I want), so I think I'll do the roast beets thing. And onion, carrot and parsnip. I have made beetroot soup a few times, but it comes out unnervingly pink, like raspberry sorbet.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Cut into chunks and cook in a tiny ammount of water and finish off with a knob of butter.

Delicious in stews as well.

[feorag.livejournal.com]

This, unfortunately, means that autopope will immediately spot what it is, and reject it more quickly than a cat rejects food which is insufficiently expensive.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

It doesn't exactly take long to scrub a carrot or potato... (and the vitamin content is better preserved if the carrots aren't washed beforehand)