There has been a suggestion that I maybe getting too old to keep posting up pictures of myself with a courgette flower in my mouth all available for the world to see.

That may be right – but I can think of no better way to go about picking up something straight from the ground and putting it into your mouth. There is always a hint of danger about because who knows if a baby slug or snail may have curled itself up and hidden away in one of the slight kinks or there may be a gobbet of soil thrown up by rain waiting to  act as grit against teeth.

But get one free of those hinderances and you have a small treat like no other. There is crunch and cleanliness and a slight peppery taste with hints of parmesan and the taste of the dirty soil.

We ate a roast chicken this evening stuffed with garlic, with roast potatoes and carrots and gravy. Does man know of a better meal.

This afternoon I was halfway through planting 100 tulip bulbs when it occurred to me that they would all be looking their best whilst we will be halfway through our three week holiday in Australia. Hopefully there will be a few dark heads left by the time we got back.

It has been a warm October day and prompted by a conversation on garlic on the way to last night’s rugby game I was up up in the morning and out buying some seed garlic to plant for next year. It was whilst buying those I saw the tulips and remembered how every Spring I vow to plant some more and never get round to it. So whilst will we have a veritable Dutch streak running through the garden next year I will be on a beach with clear yellow sand twitching at the thought of those tulips in the garden without me.

Luckily the garlic will need another couple of months before it is ready. I planted that as well and then split the leeks.

I had bought the leeks in Bantry Market back in July. They came in small clumps of three or four. I was given some instruction on what to do with them but i think that at the time I was more worried about when Ma Murphy’s might be opening and if we could squeeze in a pint before heading back to the Cottage.

I had put them into the ground as they came but a month or so later they looked as if they were starting to crowd each other out. So I went down the bed digging out each clump and teasing them apart before scrapping out a separate hole for each delicate stem.

The leeks are planted in the the two beds next to the garlic so if the all come up well next year we shall be able to have some allium feasts! A good job I have the Lindsey Bareham book on cooking with onions as she includes a large number of recipes for garlic and leeks as well.

In order to plant the garlic I had to remove the last of the courgette plants. I was able to find three courgettes that will be good enough to eat next week and one final flower to eat before they come again next summer.

It is the second Saturday of the month which means that Wirral Farmer’s Market has been on in New Ferry. I went down and used it as an opportunity to construct a very good steak sandwich for my lunch

The steak came from the Dolwen Farm Shop. I had asked for a couple of rump steaks but they were out of those so I had to make do with sirloin cut straight from a great slab of deep red meat. There was a pleasing heft to it in my bag.

Along with the steak I bought some smoked streaky bacon, a fat free range chicken, dirty potatoes and carrots, two partridges and three long French style baguettes.

Back home the partridges went into the freezer. They will no doubt make an appearance next weekend. I then set about constructing the steak sandwich.

I started by going out into the garden and picking a good handful of the rocket that is still growing like a weed around the veg plot. The fact that I have let some of it go to seed means there will be plenty next year. Now in the early autumn the green serrated leaves are peppery enough to bring a tear to the eye.

Back inside I put an heavy iron ribbed pan over a high heat to get smoking hot. The steak was cut into three thick strips and salted and peppered. One of the baguettes was cut in half and stuffed with rocket. A drop of oil was swirled round the bottom of the hot pan. Smoke billowed and the strips of steak were laid to spit and sizzle in the pan with the hot oil. I turned them over after a couple of minutes and they were done in five.

I took the pan off the heat to let them rest for a few minutes more and they were then stuffed into the baguette along with some sliced onions and tomatoes.

It was very good and didn’t need anything else apart from the electronic wash of John Grant’s new album in the background.

I may have mentioned over the weekend that I had some Spanish ham to use up. Having sliced most of what I could from the ham I went at it with a stumpier knife and ended up with two piles not counting the bones. The first pile was of yellowing fat and the second was chunks of ruby red meat.

I used some it up last night.

I started by cutting pieces of the fat into small cubes half the size of my thumb. These went into a heavy pan with some hot olive oil and were left to sizzle whilst I cut up some of the chunks of  of meat into similar sized cubes. These were then added to the pan with the sizzling fat and were given a stir.

A large onion was then finely sliced and added to with the fat and the meat along with some garlic and chilli, a bay leaf and plenty of salt and pepper.

Once the onion had soften a tin of chopped tomatoes was stirred in and allowed to bubble for a few minutes. Finally a couple of tins of white cannellini beans were drained and stirred in. They all cooked through whilst I fried off some boiled potatoes to eat with them.

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We could have been sat in a Spanish taverna as we ate it taking in the smell of ham fat and burnt potato.