I am still tickled pink by Jenny’s lovely giveaway that I think that it is time to return the favour.
The giveaway will run until the 30th April and then I will pick a name at random.
What is in the giveaway I hear you ask, well I thought as it was my first giveaway a skein of Wollmeise would be in order. I’m not sure which colour, mainly because I couldn’t decide which one to put up. So if you really favour a colour or hate a certain colour this is for you as we can talk if you win. And there will be a few other bits and bobs that I find put into your package.
And what would I like you to write about.
What is your favourite fruit or vegetable and your first memory of it?
Mine is tomatoes, barely a day goes by that I don’t eat a tomato, either a cherry tomato popped into my mouth as I’m passing in the kitchen as they have been sat on the windowsill gently warming in the sun. Or cooked in a sauce or stew, or perhaps just a dollop of chutney on the side. I love tomatoes, my days would not be happy if I did not have tomatoes in my life. Seriously, if I became allergic to them, well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.
I love tomatoes even more than I love peas. And I like peas alot.
When I was very small about four years old, my grandfather had a large vegetable patch in his garden which had a greenhouse. And in this greenhouse my Grandfather grew grapes and cucumbers and tomatoes. His grapevine was very old and gnarled I loved it. But it was the tomatoes that really took my attention. And every time I visited him and Grandma I used to toddle off to the greenhouse, I was only allowed into the greenhouse if I stood still in the middle of it because greenhouses are not really safe for children to play in. So I used to sit on the floor. Always being a child that was safety conscious. And I used to stare at the bright red jewels on the tomato plants and beg my Grandfather for a tomato. He always said “no, the tomatoes are for Grandma.” And it made me sad, because I loved tomatoes. It was a very long hot summer, the sort that goes on forever in childhood and I was often to be found sitting on the floor of the greenhouse staring at the tomatoes, never daring to pick one. I watched the tomatoes ripen and disappear. (I am sure Grandmother gave me tomatoes in salads, I just can’t remember that part of the story) Then one day when all that was left on the plants were just a few leaves that had seen better days and and lots of tiny, tiny red tomatoes no bigger than your thumb nail and many were only as big as your little finger nail, Grandfather said I could pick them and eat them. And I sat on that sandy hot floor in the greenhouse carefully picking these warm and sweet tiny red jewels and popping them in my mouth, they were absolute heaven. I think I was there for at least half an hour before other grandchildren came to find me and they too were overjoyed that Grandfather had said we could have the tomatoes and they helped, although I didn’t really need any help, to strip all of the plants bare.
Good Luck.
blossom and sunshine 
What lovely memories. My grandpa used to grow tomatoes in his greenhouse and used to take me in there to show me his resident spider. My favourite has to be peas. They taste so different home grown and fresh from the pod. I didn't grow nearly enough last year, so I'm growing more this year, and also trying to sow successionally to give me a longer harvest. I remember when I was about my daughter's age, maybe a little older, a group of friends decided we would make some money in the summer holidays, and we went pea picking. We got 20p per sack, and each sack took quite a while to fill, I can tell you. It didn't seem like work, we were having fun, lots of laughter, and every so often we would pop open a pod and eat it's contents, delicious. It's years now since I've seen advertisements for pea pickers wanted. Great giveaway.
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How generous of you to have your own giveaway, though I don't think I should be included as I won one fairly recently and don't want to be greedy. My fav veg, peas. I have an abiding memory of picking them from the garden as a child and chattering away whilst shelling them with my mum or gran, eating as many raw as went into the pan. Unfortunately peas don't like growing in our garden here in Scotland, occassionally mange tout or sugar snaps producing a boiling but that's all and bought peas are just never fresh enough.
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Great memories.I love all fruits and vegetables and don't have a particular favourite but as childhood memories go my happiest must be that of rhubarb. My parents weren't great gardeners but did grow rhubarb. I have very fond memories of sitting on the back doorstep in the sunshine (the sun always shone then!) with a freshly picked stalk of rhubarb dipping it into an eggcup full of sugar – delicious! Also helping my mother make rhubarb tart and the way the beautifully colours sticky juice made the bottom pastry soggy.More recent memories of those of courgettes, which I love, but only freshly picked. When my children were small I shared an allotment with a friend. The first year we succeeded in germinating 14 courgette seeds and enthusiastically planted them all. Fourteen courgette plants produce a massive amount of courgettes! As well as giving them away to all and sundry we became experts at all manner of courgette recipes including one for courgette jam. It wan't particularly tasty, nor did it look very attractive and the children, rather rudely, named it “snot jam”. I don't have an allotment any more but my friends so and keep me supplied with their surplus courgettes each summer. My children, now in the twenties, remember the jam and always anxiously enquire as to whether or not I'm going to make jam!(I really enjoy your blog, particularly loved the recent photos of your allotment and understand the pleasure you get out of it.)Judith (Swindon friend of “Stasher”)
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I love tomatoes too and vividly remember the wonderful cheese and tomato sandwiches my mother used to make. She grew a lot of veggies including peas and wouldn't let me near them as I would eat them all and not get any in the basket for dinner. To this day I still do that although we can't grow them here. When and if I find any in the supermarket, I buy and eat!!!She also grew strawberries and sold to Covent Garden. Dad and I weren't allowed to have any because it would take some of her precious 'strawberry money'!!!
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How nice of you to open up this “givaway”.Where do I start? It would be cruel to nail down just one favourite fruit or vegetable. My father used to call me a gourmand gourmet. From a little thing growing up in Mauritius, I was game to try anything. I had no fear of artichokes or salsigy, would climb roofs to pick letchis off trees as big as horse chestnut trees, and easily eat 200 or more. My gang used to have eating competitions and count the stones, not so many when it was mangoes! Every part of the Island also had its own banana speciality.I love seasonal food, and ask me any week and the answer will be different. The new asparagus is just in, so for a few weeks this will be a favourite. Oh the asparagus beds I have established and then had to leave behind. In a few weeks it will be baby broad beans, later peas and so on. Later in the season it will sun warmed figs.
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What great memories.My favourite vegetable is beetroot, my Dad is one of ten, so my Grannys house was always full of people and always full of people eating, Sunday lunchtime was a huge pot of soup and meat and beetroot for sandwiches. As a child I loved that it made the bread a beautiful colour. In later years my Mum grew beetroot and makes the most amazing beetroot and apple chutney, she once posted some to me, it has to be the strangest package I ever received in the post. It was double packed in freezerbags, wrapped in tinfoil and then a jiffy bag, the kids thought it was fantastic to get this in the post, it didn't last long.Here I am lucky enough to be able to buy beetroot easily when its in season so I make sure my Mum comes to visit so she can cook us up some chutney. The kids have great memories of wearing goggles to chop all the onions and being purple from peeling all the beetroot, all worth it when your prize is your own jar of chutney. :0)
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