Things to Do on a Rainy Day (I) What Veg and Herbs are Worth Growing?

Somehow I have a copy of the "Which? Guide to Vegetable Growing". I have no idea when or where I bought it, but I'm really glad I did. The best thing is that it de-mystifies all the technical stuff in my other gardening books. It has loads of clear, simple info on general veg growing, as well as fairly detailed advice on specific crops. I spent quite a bit of our miserable summer going through it, working out what I might be able to grow next year.

It would be all too easy to think that by growing our own veg, we could somehow change the habits of a lifetime and become shiny happy Government-and-Jamie-Oliver-approved healthy eaters. It's far more likely that having grown all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff we should be eating, we'd find it all too much effort to prepare and cook on a daily basis, and end up buying our standard supermarket vegetables after all... It's a waste of effort (and criminally, of food) to grow stuff we won't eat. I decided I'd better stick with what's already in our diet when I considered what to grow. So the next question was "What do we actually eat?"

Well...

If we have lamb, it has to have rosemary with it.

I cook loads of curries, which means we need onions, garlic, coriander and chillies. (Even I am not stupid enough to expect to be able to grow cardomom or a cinnamon tree!)

We eat loads of fish, and usually lemons are involved.

We also eat a fair amount of miso soup with noodles and kneidlh (Spouse's Auntie most amused by this - don't know why - have soup, have dumplings, no?). My version of this involves lots of random green stuff, including

- Pak Choi
- Spinach
- Whatever happens to be in the packet of salad we've only eaten half of, usually some combination of Chard, Rocket, Beetroot tops, Lettuce and Lamb's Lettuce.

Mint is always useful.

Chives and Dill are essential ingredients of Spouse's spectacularly yummy scrambled eggs (green eggs without the ham!) - Dill also good with salmon.

Tarragon useful for roast chicken, and goes well with chestnut mushrooms in red wine risotto.

Basil. Mostly for Thai Green Curry.

Potatoes. New ones with fish, or as potato salad (another use for chives).

Parsnips. Spouse loves parsnips.

Tomatoes. Wasn't sure about this at first, as we don't eat so many of them - but a lot of that is because supermarket tomatoes taste of nothing, so it's not worth it. Then I saw a demonstration on one of the weekend cookery shows of how to produce "sun-dried" tomatoes by slow-roasting them. I use shed-loads of the things, so if I can do that, it's worth growing tomatoes. If I grow cherry ones, they might even get eaten in salads as well.

Brussels Sprouts. Freeze well and keep their flavour - which is actually lovely and sweet and nutty if they're not boiled to a pulp a la traditional Christmas dinners.

Broccoli. We used to get through loads of frozen broccoli florets, but they do tend to go a bit mushy, and we don't really eat enough fresh to justify the amount of space the plants take up. Purple Sprouting Broccoli, on the other hand, is delicious but expensive - if I can grow that and get a steady supply, that would be handy.

Cucumbers. Just for a laugh. (I've got the tomatoes and the lettuce - I might as well finish the salad off. Alternatively, "Anyone for Pimm's"?) And only because the Which? Guide says there are hardy climbing varieties - otherwise it would be impossible without the greenhouse for which we have no space.

Peas. Easy and quick to cook when you need green stuff to go with fish and chips. Unless you're using fresh ones, which are a pain. Mange Tout and Sugar Snaps, on the other hand, are really convenient, and also good for stir-fries. Shame about the carbon footprint. Let's see if I can do something about that (sorry, Kenya...).

That's a good load to be going on with, then.