An article I wrote for www.theplantbasedchef.com.au

Understanding your produce is a huge part of becoming a great cook. Its not just the difference between whats good and bad, as often this is self evident, though spoilage and poor handling. Its about the little things, the colour, smell, texture, season, but most importantly the taste. Super fresh and in season food that has been grown and handled with care should taste as a sum of this, in other words, amazing. After a while you begin to develop a sixth sense about what's fresh and seasonal, but I still always like to taste the food as this is the true test. I always seek out organic produce as much as possible as often the growers are "true" farmers and custodians of our food and farm land. Organic produce by its very nature is seasonal and I love cooking with it as it expresses the trueness of the food and the soil it was grown in. . For my own part vegetable gardening is an important connection to my personal food experience, the environment and finally the kitchen.

As a child growing up in a rural community we didn't have the access to food that we take for granted now in todays supermarket orientated market place. Across the street from my childhood home was a an acre or more of vegetable gardens tended by the old man that lived in a two storey brick house behind it. This was almost a community garden and was indicative of our closely knit community. As a child this was an amazing place of twisting paths, pumpkin vines, yellow corn, fragrant tomatoes, an orchard of fruit trees as well as a hive of honey bees. In our own backyard, just across the street, sat our own vegetable patch filled with the same tomatoes, as well as carrots, celery and cauliflower. There were pineapple guavas, tree tomatoes and white peach trees. I still remember tending the garden with my mother, a different time and place yet viewed though the nostalgic haze of childhood eyes. What I didn't realise at the time is that growing vegetables is hard work, a real commitment but it was necessary as we didn't have a supermarket close by. A small general store was half an hour away though the twisting local roads but this only stocked the basics, bread, milk, meat, sugar, tea and a few vegetables and fruits. If you wanted fresh vegetables and fruits you were best to grow them. These early lessons were reinforced though my grand parents and cousins, all farmers and rabid gardeners. I remember to this day the bottling of the white peaches, huge, soft and sweet. The jars boiling in the pot or baking empty, in the oven. The kitchen table piled high with bowls of skinned peaches heady with the sweet smell of late summer. Then there was the jam making, podding peas from around the back of the shed and of course the sprinkling of the tea leaves and the chopped banana skins on the garden beds after dinner, my grandfathers lazy composting method.

Chioggia Beetroot and Fennel straight from the ground.

After school I spend three years studying agricultural science before becoming a chef, even though all of this my interest and love of my vegetable has never waned . It has become a link to my childhood and a source of wholesome fresh, nutritional sound and organic produce. As I have gotten older the importance of nutritional sound produce has become more and more important to me. The older our food is the less nutritional it is. Vegetables straight from the garden are bursting with nutrition and haven't been waxed, polished or sprayed, which is equally as important as chemical residue is some best left out of our food. The other advantage of straight out of the ground vegetables is the taste. Think of the taste of a stick of celery from the supermarket now times that by ten, thats the difference. The flavour just explodes though your senses, after eating supermarket produce it is hard to believe that they are in fact the same vegetable.

The following dish morphed from preparing a simple green salad for a good friend and neighbour whose birthday we were attending. I had all the necessary provisions yet I found myself trolling the garden looking for parsley. Gazing around the vegetables my thought was just to pick whatever looked ready and add it to the dish. Served with a little extra virgin olive oil, the excellent "Joseph first run" and some aged cabernet vinegar as well as a walnut and caper salsa we should have an excellent salad. Once I got back to the kitchen the dish became two, one green salad and one a crudo of garden vegetables. Enjoy

Finished salad waiting for the walnut and caper dressing.

Spring Salad

2 heads of small fennel with fronds

4 Chioggia Beetroot.

10 baby carrots and 5 purple carrots.

4 spring onions

4 stems of baby celery

Some salad leaves, I used raddiciho as it was plentiful in the garden

Some leaves of flat leaf Parsley

Carefully wash all the vegetables. Peel and rewash the onions, carrots and beetroots. Wash and dry the salad and herb leaves. Remove the outer leaves from the fennel to reveal the tender centre. Using a mandolin or knife thinly slice the carrots, beets and fennel. They should be around 5mm or less in thickness. Chop the celery and spring onions on an angle and pick some fennel fronds and parsley leaves.

In a large open salad bowl build up the layers of leaves, herbs and vegetables being mindful to allow the salad to have an open feel (see photo). Top with slices of beetroot.

Just prior to serving sprinkle with madden sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a walnut and caper dressing (recipe below) and serve.

Walnut and caper dressing.

Place about 75g of raw walnuts in a mortar and pestle or food processor with a pinch of salt and pepper. Pound till the nuts are in small pieces but not a paste. Add 1 tablespoon of drained baby capers that have been finely chopped and 2 tablespoons of chopped flatleaf parsley. Mix together gently adding in Extra Virgin Olive oil till the mixture is quite runny, around 100ml. Finish with 1 tablespoon of good white wine vinegar and the juice of half a lemon. Check the seasoning and serve.

Links and Reading

The following are links to the Diggers Club and the Italian Gardener both of which are excellent sources of vegetable seeds, advice and other excellent products.

www.diggers.com.au

www.theitaliangardener.com.au

I have also been reading "Heirloom Vegetables; A guide to their history and varieties." by Simon Rickard. This is a wonderfully entertaining and information packed book for anyone interested in Heirloom vegetables.

www.simonrickard.com

My own Plant based website www.theplantbasedchef.org