Redcurrant Soy Shake with berries from the garden!

One of the nicest things to do in the Summer months is to wake up in the morning, race down to the fruit cages which lie at the end of our garden and forage for soft fruit for breakfast.

This morning, I found there plump little redcurrants - ruby red and with a glossy outer skin, they were like precious gems awaiting discovery by treasure hunters.  I also managed to beat our resident squirrels to a few stray raspberries that had escaped from the cages and had grown quite randomly around the garden.  

Grow pretty Chinese veg: Tatsoi and Kale

A bouquet of Kale from the garden

A few months ago, longing for the taste of Chinese vegetables which had now become a distant memory, I decided to sow a mix of Oriental vegetable seeds.   Some of the baby leaves were continuously picked and eaten by us in salads, whilst others were left to grow.

And then finally, over the weekend, we found ourselves face-to-face with a vegetable garden with lots of lovely looking Tatsoi and Kale, all ready for us to devour.  So pretty were they, that I almost wanted to leave them in the ground to have as decorative plants!

Growing Spring Onions for FREE!

Spring onions(also known as scallions, salad onions or 葱) are absolutely essential in Chinese cooking - my mum uses them as a garnish atop almost everything from clear broths to Hainanese white-cut chicken*. I am a little less organised and don't usually have time to garnish my meals, so I tend to slice them up into longer pieces and use them in dishes like stir fried beef with spring onions and ginger.

Recycled Spring Onions growing amidst Coriander in the 'Chinese' wing of our Garden

Anyhow, spring onions are one of those quiet but remarkably generous vegetables that are always having a secret sale for those in the know, and that's the 'buy-one-get-more-free' sale. 

Cut and Grow again Chinese baby leaf salad

How I love a salad in the warmer months, and especially baby leaf salad!  This year being the year of homegrowing, I really wanted to have 'cut-and-grow-again' baby salad leaves around the house as they are so handy to have and you can just snip your way to a lovely homegrown salad as and when you desire! 

Back in April, we decided to sow "Leaf Salad - Stir Fry mix" seeds from Suttons.   The mix included "Pak Choi, Kailan, Choy Sim Hon Tsai Tai, Tatsoi, Chinese Kale and Yukina Savoy".