February 27, 2007
Harvesting Delights
We're approaching the end of summer here. The good thing about NZ is that we have lots of local fresh produce here. Organic shops around town offer an amazing service of delivering a weekly organic veggie and fruit box to your doorstep. You may tell them your likes and dislikes and they will try to accommodate your requests. Otherwise, you'll find whatever seasonal stuff happens to come into the shop that week in your box. You can't beat the excitement of ripping the box open to see what's for dinner tonight (and there are always suprises!). The box brings a completely different dimension to planning your daily meals. Instead of sticking to the same old 3 recipes that you've been recycling for months, you realise that you have to act fast and break your old ruotine, or else your beatroot or corn may go bad! These days you'll find me poring over the recipe books in the evenings trying to find a recipe that would demand enourmous amounts of carrots (I just happen to have accumulated almost 2 kilos in my fridge!) or something combining cauliflower, beans and capsicums (as they're all about to go bad!) Eating 5 servings of vegetable and fruit a day becomes a piece of cake. Throw away the idea of shopping for vegetables in the supermarket and go with whatever is in the box! So exciting! And the apples in the box taste like real apples should taste - just take a bite and you'll have to say: "oh yeah, I remember apples tasting like that in my childhood..." So what have we been eating all those years?!?!
My tiny vegetable bed so far produced 1 ripe tomato, some basil, some lettuce and mint. Far from subsistence...
