From plant to pot

There’s something tremendously satisfying about having a planter box of herbs just outside your kitchen. The basil has been prolific over the last few months, and excess pickings are safely stored in packets of ice. Tomatoes form the basis of all our pasta sauces and the nearby Living Hope hospice grows the tastiest I have ever found in this country – our tomatoes seldom meet the description on the supermarket packages. A trip to Italy can be justified simply to access tasty tomatoes. Before winter sets in and the basil dies back in tune with tomato supply, a pot of these essential staples is bubbling gently on the stove, laced liberally with garlic, olive oil and a touch of onion flakes for flavour without the texture.

I like to have a deep freeze full of prepared basics as well as finished dishes, not to mention leftovers which can be pulled out for a quick lunch. Thankfully I have conquered the bad habit of leaving meat at the bottom of the freezer and hauling it out for identification a year or two later! Not that we have died from eating it, but still. The answer was a smaller deep freeze to encourage turnover rather than storage.

The planter also currently is home to my first attempt at peas – they need to be close at hand and well out of reach of marauding chickens and baboons – and I’m looking forward to eating them straight from the pod, no pot required!