Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you will probably be aware that this weekend marks Ireland’s annual gardening festival, Bloom, which takes place in the Phoenix park, Dublin. Now although I’m not a big man for the flowers and the pretty stuff, I have a big interest in the growing with a view to eating! In the last few years there has really been a huge push towards growing your own vegetables, with groups like GIY springing up and going from strength to strength. You can put it down to the recession and people becoming aware of the many food miles some of the produce in supermarkets have to go to in order to reach our plates, but along with those highly valid reasons personally, I think the sheer success of growing it yourself it’s down to pure and utter enjoyment.
I have been growing my own for the last 3 years and I’m just about getting a hang of it. This year for the first year I have a garden on my doorstep which has made life a lot easier and with the help of the fantastic raised beds from patchworkveg.com, my gardening experience this year has been an absolute pleasure, and it’s only getting started. While I have already got a good glut of quick growing Pak Choy, spinach and rocket, my strawberries are just ready to pick, the pea hedge I have has just got flowers and I have pumpkins, runner beans, beetroot, plus a lot more already making good headway ready to pick in the next few months!
Along with all the gardening going on at Bloom, there is a strong focus on food, with a fantastic food village featuring lots of wonderful Irish producers. I am going to be giving cooking demonstrations today and on Sunday, and one of the dishes I’ll be cooking up is this simple pasta supper of smoked salmon (which I picked up from Brigitta Curtin of the Burren Smokehouse) with garden peas and sundried tomatoes.
Continue to the recipe for Creamy Salmon Tagliatelle with Garden Peas and Sundried Tomatoes…