Our ‘veg of the month’ is just the recipe...
We’ve been reaping the benefits of our hard work. Courgette, anyone?
Our Kitchen Garden is just a two-minute walk from our Farm Shop, and the path to and fro has been well-trodden as we deliver our excellent harvests to veg manager Sarah who quickly displays them.
We decided to give courgettes (‘Nero di Milano’ and ‘Striato Italia’) the honourable status of ‘veg of the month’. We’re having a very good year for courgettes but we find people run out of ideas as to what to do with them so we’ve been giving away free recipes.
Copies of the Courgette Coconut Curry recipe nestled in with the courgette display have been eagerly picked up, and our website links to Claire’s recipes of Courgette Chips, Easy Supper Courgette Omelette and Spaghetti with Courgettes, Garlic and Saffron have been well used.
Earlier in the month we held our Cooking in the Kitchen Garden demo, one of the free events that take place during the summer under the loggia near the growing veg. More than 50 people turn up, take a seat, watch the dishes being prepared and then polish them off! The most recent one attracted 87 people. It’s a pleasure to be able to talk to visitors about not only the Kitchen Garden and the produce it grows, but also how to make the most of the crop - Beetroot Tzatziki was very popular, using our own beetroot and mint.
As well as courgettes, we’ve been picking a lot of chillies (including ‘Habenero Chocolate’, ‘Purple Tiger’, ‘Padron’ and ‘Hungarian Hot Wax’ - see recipe above), French beans (‘Blue Lake’ and ‘Neckar Gold’), 'Charlotte' potatoes, bunched carrots & beetroot, cucumbers ('Burpless Tasty' and 'Marketmore'), raspberries, currants, gooseberries, tomatoes (‘Moneymaker’ and ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and aubergines. The first of the season’s runner beans (‘Enorma’) are currently being harvested.
Visit the Doddington Hall website
More of Claire's delicious recipes