I feel a braindump coming on.LOL.

Chefs have never loss sight of the advantages of having a kitchen garden next door to the kitchen. Jamie Oliver, Maggie Beer and Hugh Furnley- Wittingstall all have kitchen gardens and know that the best ingredients make for the best food.
SueBk asks – ‘How would you describe the difference between something storebought and something homegrown – without using generalisations like “tastier”, “fresher”?

Last night I made a spanakopita (spinach pie) and only the filo pastry and feta cheese were storebought.
I picked a fresh white onion from the garden and washed and sliced it. With fresh onion that root base bit is quite soft and edible, and as you slice the onion, all this white cream is present between the onion layers. Although the bulb is firm it slices like a soft ball and all this juiciness means it cooks slowly and better.
I also picked a colander full of baby spinach leaves. All the less-than-perfect leaves were thrown to the chooks. It does take time and water to hand wash each leaf but then you don’t need water to boil them or saute them since they have plenty of moisture in them. You don’t need to stalk them either, since the stalk is soft and just needs to be chopped after the spinach has been reduced.
Fresh picked parsley and mint were combined with feta, an egg and the cooked ingredients and placed in filo pastry and oven browned.
The homegrown ingredients combine so well that when you’re eating the dish you are not tasting each individual item but an amalgram of the whole.
It would be awesome to try it with fresh feta and filo -but even so – I’m an ordinary cook made to look good by the fresh picked vegies.

I believe ‘Foraging’ has been totally overlooked in modern urban society.

I have always grown a home garden so my daughter has always had access to one. To her the fenced garden is like supermarket shelves packed with munchies. She will shamelessly wonder through the garden pulling carrots, snapping off celery, shelling peas, stripping corn, crushing basil and swallowing tomatoes. All these unpackaged sweets are there for the picking.
I do the same and can confirm they are all sensational. No amount of packaged food will ever compete.

Oh wow…I’m starving after reading that post Pepe…. (maybe not having breakfast may have a bit to do with this too)

I see where you are coming from as I too pick from the garden when needed and the differance is like chalk and cheese.

SueBk asks – ‘How would you describe the difference between something storebought and something homegrown – without using generalisations like “tastier”, “fresher”?
=======================

Keat’s line:

“burst joys grape
against his palate fine”

springs to mind…

homegrown kind of explodes in the olfactory senses by comparison to shop-bought

Having said that, when I go to WoolWorths, I send up a silent prayer of thanks for such a large choice and reasonably priced, too…

when I think of my childhood, the fruit and veg came twice a week on the refrigerated train carriage, and the choice was limited to what could travel (no fancy preservative gasses back then)…the fruit and veg was also limited to what could be grown at home (preserved green peaches, anyone?) and the veg was usually grown in the winter as the summers (think 45C for a few days – in the shade) were too hot except for cucumbers and other heat lovers (we didn’t eat capsicum or eggplant back then, much less grow them)…

Of course gardening practices have improved hugely since then, my late father would have loved the mulching and organic fertilizing that goes on now, plus the summer vegetable range has expanded…

The Sozzies might turn their noses up at the asparagus I buy, but I am grateful for them (both the Sozzies and asparagus!!) … on the other hand I sigh when I buy tomatoes at the moment as I know I could be growing them myself…a few of the home grown tomatoes go further in the cooking / salad taste “competition” than the shop-bought ones…

One comparison I can make between store bought and home grown is like watching a black-and white movie compared to a coloured one.
I think the sugar content in HG carrots must be higher, also in onions and fruit.
Green vegies taste “greener”
We all know a lot of the vitamin content is lost by storage of fruit and vegies. A Dutch friend of mine says that when she was growing up only vegies harvested and cooked on the same day were used. Anything older were considered no good. I think they had a farm, but this was the general attitude. Not a practical plan for many today, but a lot of us can do it on this forum!!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says that half the sugars in fresh veg have turned into starch within 30 mins of picking, or something to that effect. So if you cook your veg within 30 mins of harvest then it will taste sweeter than older veg.

I still remember hating things like spinach .. couldn’t stand the bitterness.

Brussells sprouts .. all that stuff used to taste like garbage until I actually grew it myself.

Once I grew vegetables.. I started to actually love things I hated.

My mother used to send me up the yard to pick peas..

I’d come back in and she’d say where are the peas?

I’d answer um I ate them.

She’d say I wanted to cook them for tea.. I’d say I hate them cooked.

As for asparagus.. many people only eat the new shoots.

I eat the growing tips for far longer. I don’t over harvest asparagus but instead I tip prune it .. with my mouth.

Browsing can be great fun if you don’t have any dogs peeing on everything.

If I remove my fingers from up my nose I’ll tell you my thoughts on this.

I have just peeled 2 garlic cloves (hence the finger up my nose….. lurv this smell) for my steamed spuds for tonight meal.

Elf

Bought garlic.. is like wow… oh hum…cooking garlic are we??? Smells!!!!

Home grown garlic ….. like ….what the hell….that garlic stinks…how much you using 6 cloves or what????

My taste buds… and nose

Bought garlic….. 2 cloves or 4???

Home grown….. oh yummo home grown garlic….you beauty. So much flavour teases my taste buds and then pow like the listerine add…… an explosion that sends my senses into thinking they are watching garlic porn

Puts fingers back up nose and continues to sniff and enjoy the smell…..

the thing that really strikes me with home grown garlic is how crisp and juicy it is and rich in oils.

bluegreen said:

the thing that really strikes me with home grown garlic is how crisp and juicy it is and rich in oils.

Oh so true BG… so true………

Lucky1 said:

bluegreen said:

the thing that really strikes me with home grown garlic is how crisp and juicy it is and rich in oils.

Oh so true BG… so true………

I have just bought some made in mexico garlic…of all the shop-bought it is my favourite…I’m going to have another “go” at growing garlic next year, having learnt from my mistakes this year…mind you I have more confidence now having tried even if I failed…

I don’t have a problem with some imported fresh food…when you consider the extreme poverty in some countries where growing illegal drugs is the only way to get cash to support the family in some countries (like the south americans and mexico)…I’m happy to support legit crops such as garlic and asparagus if it means less cultivation and reliance on illegal drug crops…and honestly the Peruvian asparagus was streets ahead in quality compared to the Aussie product…

Gosh BlueGreen, Lucky: I am a few steps closer to string’n‘stick planning of the new beds after this current rave of yourn…