Friday, February 09, 2007

Sweet Memories!

I was so amazed by the colourful images of the BBC's, 'Grow your own Veg' series tonight on BBC Two. It was simply inspiring and brought back so many feelings.

I have fond memories as a young child, visiting my Great-Grandparents home in rural Kent, affectionately known as the garden of England. Standing at their window in the quaint village of Littlebourne, just outside historic Canterbury, you could hear the calls of the gorrillas at the late John Aspinall's Howletts Zoo (just a couple of miles away), as Grandad donned his wellington boots. I can still remember now sitting on the back kitchen step, helping shred crisp green beans or carrying muddy potatoes fresh from the ground, heaped in a whicker basket or wiping my mouth from the juice of sweet strawberries, still warm from the ripening summer's sun.
Although both my Great-Grandparents died several years ago, his only son (my grandfather) shares an allotment plot just a few feet away from my mother's (his daughter) in Sussex.
Ever-since, my mum took on the plot, a few years ago, she would drag all us children down the road, helping to carry spades, string and seeds. My youngest sister, now almost 8 years old, literally grew up in a shaded corner, occassioanlly crawling amongst the weeds. Although, I now live in the middle of Birmingham city centre, I still walk past other's allotments, thinking of those times. And whenver I am home, I rarely miss an opportunity to walk down to the woods where a clearing unveils our own allotments. If only to cut some fresh herbs from an for-ever green corner of curly-leaf parsley, or sage, or fragrant rosemary.

Often I take for granted being able to work with an abundance of fresh ingredients- peeling small purple potatoes that stain your finger-tips, or carefully folding in pink rhubarb compote and stiff meringue to fill deep souffle moulds or blanching bright red tomatoes in a huge pan of rolling water and watching the eyes just begin to reveal the flesh beneath, before plunging them in a bowl of ice.