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My secrets to planting a successful French Potager or kitchen canning garden this year?
- Perfect Spring weather.
- Dense soil left dormant all winter as chickens did daily slug and poop patrols.
- Kitchen window fertilizer.
I’ll plant the packet of cornichon seeds right near the terrace so I can keep an eye on the little guys as they flower and turn into bite size cukes for pickling. Roquette pesto will be made and jarred, one for the table, one for the pantry. And the borage flowers will be scattered through iced herbal teas all summer without having to hike to the other side of Planet Camont to pick some edible flowers.
Cherry tomatoes and wild mint will dress lunch salads and that package of dill will soon be waving in the breeze above the chervil, and strawberries. The idea this year is to keep this small summer garden fast at hand and in a state of flux. Stripey Ronde de Nice courgettes will grow among the salad greens that are picked daily. As soon as they are the size of golf balls, I’m going to snatch them off the vines and toss them into waiting jars of cherry and rose wine vinegar pickling juice. Same thing with the young beets, tossing them greens and all into the mix. Inspired by a memory of those pickle carts in Istanbul’s along the river market, I’ll serve sour cocktails and rice pilaf sprinkled with toasted fennel seeds and hazelnuts.
Image may be NSFW.
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This little kitchen garden is but the first step to feeding our greedy pantry. Keeping a few fast growing teasers at hand is the key to inspiring the students who come to Camont looking for a taste of authenticity on their plates and later in their larders.
Here’s the seed list:
- borage
- lovage
- dill
- chervil
- sarriette
- radish
- borlotti & coco beans (I’ll grow a BIG Cassoulet patch elsewhere)
- mange tout
- mesclun
- roquette
- strawberries
- cherry tomatoes
- beets
- ronde courgettes
- Happy planting!
The post Can U Garden? The French Potager part 1. appeared first on Kitchen at Camont.