Kem Ormond’s vegetable garden progress: Potato gnocchi and a flatpack gumboot rack

Cabbages ready for picking, well before those white butterflies appear. Photo / 123RF

Kem Ormond is a features writer for NZME community newspapers and The Country. She’s also a keen gardener. This week, she’s giving an update on the progress of her vegetable garden.

OPINION

Once that bit of spring warmth starts heating the ground, I am always amazed at the growth that begins happening in the vegetable garden right before my eyes.

This week, I thought I would do a little show-and-tell about how things are progressing in my vegetable garden.

I know many of you experienced gardeners will be well into planting and even harvesting some of your vegetables, but I want to encourage new gardeners and show them it doesn’t take long to start reaping what you sow.

This weekend I harvested a whole bucket of new potatoes, and my next crop is coming along nicely.

I planted a few brassicas and a few rows of sunflower and zinnia seedlings for the birds and insects to enjoy.

In late summer, I love seeing the little green wax-eyes when they discover the sunflowers bursting into seed.

Plus, it is so nice looking out the kitchen window and seeing sunflowers peeking over the wall between my courtyard and vegetable garden.

My beetroot seed is up, onions are all standing proudly, and I will have some lovely, sweet leeks ready for the pot at the end of the week.

I have a cabbage ready for a large coleslaw, along with coriander, parsley and dill.

I have been waiting for a repair to be done on the cover for my tomato house, and with that now done, I was able to plant my tomato crop over the weekend.

The potatoes on the right I am already digging and those on the left should be ready for the Christmas table. Photo / Kem Ormond

The sage has sprung into life, which means I will use some of my old potatoes and make potato gnocchi in a burned butter and sage sauce.

Topped with a few gratings of parmesan cheese, it’s delicious (I have shared the recipe below).

I am planting my corn in a different area this year, along the side of the house where I have my persimmon, plum and Monty apple trees planted in the garden opposite.

This area gets plenty of sun in summer, so the corn should thrive.

Seedlings ready to plant and share. Photo / Kem Ormond

The peas are making their way up the makeshift frame, and behind them I noticed this morning that the runner beans have poked their heads up, wanting a bit of that sun too.

My outside dining table is covered in bread trays full of pots with tomatoes to give away to friends, chili, capsicum ready for planting, and more coriander, as well as more sunflowers and zinnias that will get planted.

My greatest achievement this weekend was building a flatpack gumboot and gardening tools rack. Photo / Kem Ormond

But my proudest achievement by far accomplished over the weekend is something I have had on my to-do list for at least a year, and that was to build a flatpack stand for my gumboots and gardening grab-and-run tools – you know the ones always left at the back door or on the window ledge.

I can’t stop going outside and admiring it!

Happy gardening!

Potato gnocchi

Potato gnocchi being made. Photo / Kem Ormond

Ingredients

• 360-400 grams of cooked potatoes (approximately four average-sized potatoes). Note: these must be still pretty warm when you mash them.
• 200g of flour.
• One egg.
• Pinch of salt.
• Pinch of pepper
• Pinch of nutmeg.

Method

Steam or boil the potatoes until cooked and tender.

Let them stand to dry a little before putting them through a potato ricer.

Make a well in the centre and add the flour and seasonings.

Work the potato, egg, and flour together gently to make a dough.

When the dough is firm and smooth, roll it out into long even tubes.

Cut the gnocchi into small pillows ready for blanching. I like to put a little gentle fork imprint on each one.

Cook the gnocchi in small batches in rolling, boiling salted water until the gnocchi floats to the top.

Cool the cooked gnocchi on oiled trays before warming through your favourite pasta sauce.

Serving options

My favourite way to serve is to quickly brown the bottoms in brown butter and sage leaves, grate over some parmesan and serve immediately.

Or you can make a quick home-made sauce by crushing a couple of cloves of garlic into some heated olive oil.

Sweat quickly, add a tin of tomatoes and approximately one teaspoon of brown sugar.

Cook for approximately five minutes, season, add gnocchi and gently toss until warmed through.

Tear and add some basil leaves.

Serve immediately in bowls, and sprinkle over some parmesan.