Eulogy to a pumpkin

With the first whisper of Spring in the air, I spent this morning planning and scheming as to what I am going to grow in the garden this year, choosing what to sow and what not to grow.  It is a delicious job which involves poring over last year's successes and attributing last year's failures to the wrong soil conditions or the unreasonable demands of the plant in question (for example, cucumbers are by nature contrary, at just the point when you think you have provided them with the ideal growing conditions, having nurtured them lovingly through their tender early weeks, they fade and wilt without excuse, apparently lacking neither water, nutrients or warmth...).

It is the beginning of a new edible garden adventure.  I do not grow anything which I can cheapily and easily buy.  This rules out potates, carrots, leeks, onions and cabbage.  Whilst homegrown potatoes are delicious, retaining a hearty, earthy flavour which it is impossible to buy in the shops, there is simply not enough space in my small garden to accommodate them.  I have also struck off broad beans, pumpkin/squash and cucumbers from last year's line up.  Broad beans are delicious and certainly quite difficult to buy (fresh) in the shops.  But they take up lots of space for a relatively low yield and frozen broad beans come a close second to those picked from one's own vegetable patch.  They also attract blackfly by the dozen and I spent too many evenings last summer after a long day at work picking off the swarms of blackfly which had colonised my poor beans.

Pumpkins have been ruled out because they are simply not practical in a small garden.  I planted two last year and with little or no encouragement they set off across the garden at an alarming rate, destroying everything in their wake.  Whilst they did produce pumpkins, the damage done to everything else does not warrant them a role in this year's production.  And cucumbers, enough said.

So that leaves peas (don't think that like broad beans the frozen ones will suffice, homegrown peas are an entirely superior and altogether otherworldly experience to anything you can buy in the shops), tomatoes, courgettes, french beans, chard, rocket, lettuce, aubergines, beetroot, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. 

Some of these can be sown now for an early summer crop so choose what you want to grow, order your seeds (they will all be available at garden centres although on-line suppliers such as Edwin Tucker, Original Touch and Suffolk Herbs are likely to have more exciting varieties and be cheaper).  At just over a pound for each little packet of promise, the collation of this year's seeds signals the start of your 2011 garden adventure:  these seeds will furnish your table, grace your garden with flowers before fruit, provide an excuse to dig, water, stake and support and enable you to forget the cares and concerns of the week amidst the ever changing, ever growing call of your garden.  

I've drawn up my list, placed my orders and am waiting for the little packages to drop through my letterbox.  Whilst I wait, here is this week's recipe.  Last year's pumpkin's vigorous growth has been the cause of its demise, however it did produce beautiful mottled orange fruit which have been adorning my kitchen since their harvest in September.  Tonight the last one is going to be the star of my pumpkin gnocchi.  Enjoy x

The last pumpkin

Pumpkin Gnocchi

1 small onion, finely chopped

Half litre vegetable stock

1 small pumkin or an equivalent size seqment (about the size of a red cabbage), peeled and chopped into chunks

2cm parmesan, finely grated

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

250g gnocchi

Leftover cavolo nero pesto

Fry the onion in the olive oil until soft but not brown.  Add the stock and, when boiling, the pumpkin and cook until soft, about 10 - 15 minutes.  Liquidise.  Gently simmer until it's the consistency of a thick pasta sauce.  Add the grated parmesan and season to taste.

Cook the gnocchi in salted boiling water.  Drain and add to the sauce.  Serve in bowls and add a teaspoon of any leftover cavolo nero pesto to each bowl.

Other options:  For a really tasty soup, use 3/4 litre stock.  Once liquidised, simply season with salt and pepper and serve with crusty bread.