In today's Bite: Fresh from the garden

Herald online·

5 Mar, 2016 05:00 PM2 mins to read

Sarah O'Neil's vegetable garden.

Find all your favourite bits from today's Bite magazine online. Follow the hyperlinks in Jo Elwin's editor's letter and lose yourself in bite.co.nz.

Though it would be nice, you don't need a 1.2-hectare garden like Sarah O'Neil's to enjoy the pleasures of growing your own food. The tiny 3-metre vege patch in my back yard is right now producing beans, tomatoes, spinach, rocket, lettuce, courgette, spring onions, tatsoi, kale, basil, bay, oregano, parsley and thyme. And yes, I do enjoy boasting about it, and wandering out to the garden to pick what's required in the kitchen. I am also doing my bit for the bees by letting things go to seed.

http://www.bite.co.nz/recipe/13970/Garden-pesto/

Garden pesto is my latest obsession because it enables me to incorporate my home-grown produce (including the flowers of those bolting plants, which also look pretty in a vase or as a garnish) into lots of dishes.

http://www.bite.co.nz/recipe/13975/Tomato-and-watermelon-salad/

Your edible garden may be even smaller - a couple of pots of lettuce and herbs, even if they have bolted to seed, can provide just as much pleasure and satisfaction. Warren Elwin has drawn inspiration from Sarah O'Neil's garden produce to rustle up 4 weeknight dinners: A tomato and watermelon salad, an autumn vegetable shepherd's pie, roasted sausages and tomatoes and a quick autumn pickle for serving alongside grilled meats. Ray McVinnie is preserving eggplant in olive oil, making Moroccan salad pickles and whipping up a ten-minute berry jam for some tarts. If you've got pumpkin, here's a great weeknight lamb and pumpkin curry, and, if you aren't feeling good enough about all of this already Mikki Williden is here to tell you some of the nutritional benefits of eating all this local autumn produce.