A Mother’s Day feast from your garden
FOR Mother's Day, why not treat your mother to a new plant for the garden?
FOR Mother’s Day, why not treat your mother to a new plant for the garden?
An evergreen bay tree (although not indigenous) is water wise, being of Mediterranean origin, and is a valuable addition to your edible garden.
The leaves, used dried or fresh, add delicious flavour to stews and sauces. Best of all it can be planted in pots or in the ground and left to grow into a tree or neatly pruned as part of a topiary garden.
The perfect Mother’s Day gift:
May is the perfect month to plant out broad beans, kale, radish and spinach, all of which will continue growing throughout the winter months.
Now is also the time to cut down any remaining tomato and squash plants still standing, digging them back into the garden. Next year’s plants will thrive if planted in the same position, benefiting from the added nutrients. Dig over your unused beds and add a good amount of compost to start preparing the garden for spring.
Start thinking which veggies and herbs you will want to plant next season. You can head to your local garden centre to buy the seeds to keep one step ahead of the game.
During May, harvest the remaining chillies, peppers and celery that should still be going strong.
You can also harvest herbs such as thyme, chives, coriander and origanum. Certain herbs can be hung up and dried to create your very own dried herb mix or a bouquet garni that can be used to enhance the flavours of casseroles, stocks, soups and sauces. Others will need to be used fresh such as mint and coriander.
Mother’s Day prawns:
• 20 medium to large prawns
• 10 baby courgettes
• 6 tablespoons sunflower oil
• Zest and juice of 2 limes
• 1 heaped tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 small handful mixed fresh coriander and mint
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.
Get a wok or pan very hot while you finely slice the baby courgettes. Place these to one side. In the hot pan, add the oil, prawns, lime zest and ginger. Stir-fry for two minutes, until the prawns are lightly golden. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 30 seconds before adding your courgettes, lime juice, chillies and herbs. Season with soy sauce and stir before serving.
