Grown Your Own: Ideas at home

Lockdown has been tough for all. Many are struggling and we are all looking to silver linings to help us get through.
A key one for me has been spending time with my family. I am also lucky to have a garden.

A project (wish) that we started before lockdown was to start growing some herbs and veg.
​The two we focused on and the two that actually did well were Carrots and Rocket.

​The rocket was my wife's project and she nurtured them from a tiny seed in a jar, to a pot and then in our veg planter. It was amazing seeing them grow and grow. Once they had established themselves and we protected them from the cats, foxes and insects; we then began to feast.

This is where we really started to enjoy the freshness of the produce.
Pick, wash and eat. Once established it is that easy and quick, and when an ingredient is that fresh it can go with almost anything and at any time of day. 

Breakfast = with any type of eggs
Lunch = as a salad or on the side of meat
Dinner = rocket pesto (as below) on a pasta, pizza or tuna salad too.
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The carrots were given just as much love, if not more. Some are actually still in the veg box, getting bigger and longer. As you can see from the picture above, home grown carrots come in all shapes, forms and sizes. 

The carrot leaves are something that surprised me and gave a great look to the garden. I always try not to waste food and this is true with the leaves too.
I decided to use the leaves as a replacement for coriander in a few recipes; these included fish cakes as well as in a salad and a smoothie too. CRAZY

Gardening and growing your own herbs and veg needs patience. You need to care for it, but also be ready to sit and wait for the wonders.
They are not all ready at once and when they are... use it.
Fresh is best, but it can be frozen as you may get a lot ready together. We used our rocket to make a lot of pesto and most of this was frozen to use at a later date.

Last tip from me, is that you should be bold and brave with what you have and grow. It is all fresh and healthy and reduces the amount of plastic used and means you are saving money too. Hooray!
GROW, GROW, GROW. Even if you don't have a garden, indoor boxes can be used too. Enjoy the journey.