Harvest Dinners

Full on kitchen gardening has been a new experience for thousands of allotment virgins this last couple of years, and it’s a fair bet that a good few are wondering what on earth to do with all this sudden abundance of food.

There are quite a few things you can do with excess fruit and vegetables, and some of them could make you money. Not a lot, perhaps, but probably enough to pay for the seeds and sundries you’ll need to get going again for next season – and, now that the gardening bug has bitten, how could you not be thinking how much better you’ll do everything next year?

You can give surplus produce away of course, if you don’t need the money – perhaps in exchange for someone keeping an eye on things from time to time when you have to be away. Or local shops are usually pleased to have garden produce, and customers love the idea that it’s come from close by – there shouldn’t be any pressure to provide regular amounts and you’ll get something for it; and the small amounts involved will be an education if you’ve never thought much about how much (little) farmers are paid.

Or you might band together with other allotment growers and take a stall at a farmers’ market, which you could take turns to attend; this could be fun, and you might even branch out into other produce – home baking, say– when the fresh fruit and veg is in shorter supply.

Then there’s the sensible option of preserving the harvest in various ways for use over the winter: freezing is often easiest (but not suitable for all products), and then there are all the more traditional options including bottling, pickling, making jams and chutneys etc – all very satisfying if you have time, and lovely to have handy through the year for small presents as well as your own use.

And then you can simply be a bit more imaginative about what you cook, and extend your repertoire of everyday dishes to make sure they use up loads of that lovely produce that you’ve sown, and tended and harvested so carefully...

If inspiration is needed, the highly regarded Irish-born London-based cookery writer, Diana Henry, has plenty of suggestions for ‘good food made from the plentiful, the seasonal and the leftover’ in her book Food From Plenty (Mitchell Beazley, 320pp, hardback stg£20).

Having twice been named UK Guild of Food Writers’ Cookery Writers of the Year, she has her finger firmly on the pulse of current culinary trends and, particularly, has a very sure sense of style.

If you need to be convinced that the age of poshed-up food is over, just take a look at the rustic styling of Jonathan Lovekin’s photography; the food is plainly delicious but, with splashes and spills and used cutlery and fruit stones all over the place, it’s like a home kitchen on speed.

Anyway, it’s all about the pleasure of enjoying good food without waste, eating seasonally, caring about food “in a more thoughtful way that will in turn increase the goodness we receive from it” - and being more resourceful.

You’ll find over 300 wide-ranging and very do-able dishes with influences from all over the globe, including a lot of succulent slow-roasted meats and other delicious cost-conscious dishes that can suit varying occasions.

The following dishes are right in season now, and use up lots of home-grown or inexpensive locally grown produce.


Tomato and basil tart

“Large, scarlet, fragrant with basil, this is a gorgeous tart and, in terms of cooking, is not much more than an assembly job. Do make sure your tomatoes are finely sliced or they won’t become cooked through and slightly caramelised in the cooking time.”

Serves 6

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Kaye korma curry

“Use this as a blueprint for a mild vegetable curry, with whatever is abundant. I sometimes make it with aubergines, courgettes, or squash, and don’t always add beans or peas. It is very good-tempered and reheats well.”

Serves 4

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Plums with red wine and rosemary

“Based on an idea from the wonderful Italian food writer Anna del Conte in her book Food From an Italian Kitchen. Rosemary in plum compote is fabulous, and it’s good with poached pears, too.”

Serves 6

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