It is pretty easy to grow vegetables for a
Christmas dinner. Carrots, Parsnips and
Potatoes are all very simple. You dig a
hole in the ground, plant a seed or a tuber, cover them up, water and leave
them to it. They pretty much grow
themselves. The problem I have is that I
don’t have any land in which to plant root vegetables and you can’t have
Christmas dinner without roast potatoes so I need to figure out how I’m going
to get root veg. Another ‘must have’ on
the Christmas table is Brussels Sprouts and I haven’t a clue how I am going to
find them. There are plenty of farmers
on the east coast of Scotland that grow sprouts, so maybe that may call for
bartering.
I have a very good book on finding
mushrooms, called Mushrooms by Roger
Phillips and have already found a place where I know Chanterelle mushrooms
grow. There are also many other fungi in
woodlands and on trees so I need to learn what is edible and what isn’t. Due to the desire I have to not be poisoned
by a rogue toadstool, I have every intention of finding a guide who can help me
positively identify every mushroom I pick.
I’ll then (after having a few of them lightly fried on toast) learn how
to preserve wild mushrooms for either use in the feast or give out as gifts.
Seaweed is in abundance on the east coast
of Scotland, and with the help of the internet and a few books, I want to explore
this massively unused source of food. I
am sure that by drying and rehydrating, they could provide a suitable
alternative to cabbage or other green, leafy veg. I have also heard that there is a lot of
samphire on the beaches too, and I hope that I can find out what to do with
this plant, that appears to be a staple on all Michelin star restaurant menus.
Herbs are the things that I don’t have a
problem finding. Aside from the two
(small) rosemary plants that are already in my tiny flowerbed, I have a
thriving sage plant and am going to plant various herbs in pots and keep them
outside my house. Sure, some may get
pinched by the occasional passing rambler, or peed on by a passing dog, but
such is the way with growing food! I have heard that there is some wild garlic growing in a park in St Andrews, so hopefully that should provide me with some much needed flavouring.
I also have a chilli plant in my kitchen
window that appears to continuously be producing fruit. I’ve frozen some chillies grown from this
plant, so may use those in the autumn months when I’m making preserves and
chutneys.
I reckon that with a bit of lateral
thinking I should be able to provide the necessary veg for a Christmas feast,
even if it does mean bartering with allotment owners or farmers. The next thing I need to figure out is fruit.
