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Three Cheers for Good Old Veg

It was a dreary, dismal day when we went to the National Botanic Garden of Wales this week and, although I spent most of my time in the office, I did get to walk down to the gatehouse to deliver some things that were needed there.  As I’ve said before I always enjoy walking in the Garden and it was a good excuse to go out and see what’s about.  There were a few people around and I chatted to some of them – mostly about that good old standby, the weather.  I got about halfway down the Broadwalk and thought that I should have brought my camera with me.  There are still some bits and pieces around and some of the trees are lovely. Has the autumn slowed up a bit?  The trees seemed to start their change fairly early and yet they still have lots of leaves. Give us a windy day and that will all change I suppose.

I walked back through the Double-Walled Garden (well it’s a flatter walk – not so much puffing) and I noticed the beautiful bright red stems of the rainbow chard. This is a vegetable that I have never tasted so can’t say much about it except that it looks lovely. We tend to be fairly conservative about vegetables don’t we, although we do find different ones in our supermarkets nowadays. I got chatting to one of the gardeners about the veg.  I mentioned the chard and she pointed out some lovely fennel. I also saw the ferny leaves of asparagus and it made me think of how my gran had some asparagus, but she grew it to put in a vase with her roses.  I don’t think she even knew that you could eat the shoots of the plant let alone that they are something of a delicacy.  I have eaten asparagus but it’s not a favourite. There’s a lovely globe artichoke growing in the Double Walled Garden and I photographed it a couple of weeks back and when I looked this week it was trying to flower. That’s something else I’ve never tasted.  My husband reckons his mum used to give them artichokes when he was a kid – but we’re not sure and sadly, we no longer have her to ask about it. They are just so beautiful to look at. 

The lettuces were pretty and such lovely colours. Gone are the days when lettuces were green and that was that. There were green ones, but some were bronze and some deep, deep purplish red.  Even the cabbages and leeks looked attractive. 

Although the light was not good, I went and fetched my camera to take some photos of the vegetables.    Why shouldn’t we admire vegetables growing in the same way that we admire flowers? We used to grow the pretty leaves of carrots and beetroot in a saucer of water when our kids were little. Do children still do that? I hope so.

Pam Murden