Taking over for the first time an allotment and growing everything from seeds were never going to be easy. However, it is one of the nicest projects I undertook this year, the rewards from it are incredible and it is a learning curve that is truly captivating.

The allotment is going well for certain species and has been a learning curve for some others, I have to admit that so far the carrots are doing well, the pumpkin has turned to be some marrows (I must have put the wrong label on whilst growing it) however I don’t seem to find anywhere the pumpkins and the lettuces are probably one of my specialty so far… On Sunday I picked this huge Marrow (the size of a rugby ball (I promise you that I am growing everything on my plot organically!) and brought it home wondering what to do with it. I am so happy to have home grown this that I felt inspired by this recipe for it.

Ingredients:

-2 onions
-2 cloves of garlic
-1 big marrow
-3 tomatoes
-1 Tin of chopped tomatoes
-1 pack of rashers of smoked bacon
-Salt and pepper

In a large frying pan, add a drizzle of olive oil and fry the onions and garlic chopped until golden.
Cut into small and thin pieces your marrow without peeling the skin, add them to the frying pan until they reach a softer and more sheer appearance, then add the 3 chopped fresh tomatoes and then finally add the tin of chopped tomatoes and the bacon cut into small strips. Season, leave it simmers for 30-45 min and it is ready! Serve with some fragranced rice like Basmati, delicious…

With my sister, we laughed at myself the other day as I have magic green fingers, I simply can’t explain why almost everything seem to be growing really well with me even though I am really not endowed with the character of an accomplished gardener.

We were then trying to determine the core qualities to be a talented gardener. We came up with this: you have to be committed, pragmatic, and attentive to detail but without being obsessive, practical but with a twist artistic and of course to be armed with plenty of patience and laughter. A sense of humour is we believe probably the key here.