Thursday, December 18, 2014

Urban Homestead Open Morning

For those of you in Cape Town I am hosting an open morning where you can come and walk around our humble patch of earth and see how we grow our vegetables.

This is no a professional talk, and you will see the bugs and bare spaces too, but it will be real and I will happily share what I know with anyone who would like to grow their own veggies on whatever scale you can manage.

There is a cover fee of R50 per family which will go to our feral cat sanctuary in Franskraal.

Email me at footprintsonourland@mweb.co.za should you need directions and address details.

See you then!

Figs...just in :)

Monday, December 1, 2014

The sad story of my asparagus and a delicious recipe

Asparagus season is here. I love asparagus. I don't care that it has an after odour (nudge nudge wink wink). It is a fabulous health giving little plant.


One of the first things I planted back in 2008 were 12 asparagus seeds. I nurtured them year in and year out until they were big enough to be planted into their final place in 2010. 4 years after the seeds were sown (2012) we were able to start harvesting the spears.

Oh the sweet sweet taste of those first few we cut. The joy of seeing them sticking their tops out of the soil. The delight as each year the harvest grew...until this year.

It was my fault.

I should have told him.

I really needed to explain better.

Sam weeded the asparagus bed for me in August, but he used a fork and I believe he damaged most of the crowns.


We have had a dismal harvest of asparagus with very few spears. So sad, so sad. I will feed them, love them and see what happens next year.

But, never a girl to be kept down long...when I did my grocery shopping yesterday I saw the most magnificent spears and couldn't resist.


Today I made them into a heavenly soup...Superman said so, so we believe him :)



Here is what I did:

2 freshly picked onions
4 cloves of garlic
Zest of the last lemon on our tree


Slowly sizzled in some butter.

 

Remove the tips of two bunches of asparagus and set aside. Chop the spears into chunks and add to the onion. Add in some dry thyme and 400ml chicken stock.

Slowly simmer for 20 minutes then use a hand blender to make smooth.

Return the the heat and add 100ml cream, salt and pepper and the tips. Reheat.




I am sure it would be superb just on its own, but on Saturday I picked up some bacon from CURE and I fried up some bits until crisp and added this as a finish.


Nom Nom Nom!