Saturday 17 January 2009

Back To The Land

This morning was the year's first venture back into the garden, to dig the rest of the Jerusalem artichokes from their winter bed. I've got some kind of flu-ey bug again so the whole thing took longer than it might, what with me stumbling around weakly and tripping over my own wellington boots and, at one point, burying myself knee-deep in soil when the pile of earth I was trying to shake the tubers from collapsed around me. But now there is a huge pile of artichokes sitting under running water in the sink; some destined for my neighbours, and the rest for soup. Mmm, soup. Granted they aren't the most low calorie vegetable in the world but as far as I remember they are packed full of iron and good things.

I don't even try to calculate the calories in the batches of soup I make anyway. I've never quite worked out how to do that with CoM. This morning, because I was feeling a little better than I have been, I made a batch up with half a leek, a couple of celery stalks, onions, garlic, a tin of tomatoes and 100g of red lentils, simmered for hours and topped up with water every so often, flavoured with thyme and sage and oregano and a little chilli, cinnammon and a teaspoon of demerera sugar to balance the flavours. It was just what I needed after a morning's digging and I have 2 batches frozen and 1 more in the fridge. Today's CoM report will be incomplete because of it but considering I have been invited around next door for pizza and salad this evening, this is probably a good thing.

I've been tracking calories and nutrition again when I can. I'm not surprised by the results. Eating as I do (if I don't give into the temptation of yummy bread and evil dairy, which I tend not to do when I am eating alone), my calorie intake is low but the nutrition is high. I still need to work really hard on protein though. Yada yada...

I'm already looking forward to this year's gardening although I can't believe it's 12 months since I was planning last year's with the neighbours. We'll probably spend some time this evening making up our planting plan and sorting through the mountains of seeds we've acquired. I think I need to organise a village seed-swap. In fact, that's not a bad idea... Hmm. Must think more.

Hot lemon and honey and Saturday papers and a nap now, I think. Hope this bug buggers off soon; it's really annoying me.

2 comments:

Ali said...

I have started to lose faith in COM for soups and other from-scratch recipes that require cooking. Between evaporation and the effects of cooking on various ingredients I think that entering info for recipes into COM is better than nothing, but still just a best estimate of nutrition. I am so envious of your garden. I would love a tiny patch of land, but our apartment faces north and we don't get a minute of light on our patio. Ah, maybe some day! =)

Cave Cooking said...

Hey, what about throwing Quorn in your soups? That might be an easy protein fix. Drizzle a little olive oil on top and there's some fat?