06 Jun Young beetroot ferment for Botwinka soup

Garden Kitchen surprises

I have returned to my garden after a couple of weeks’ (one of those times when life just hits you in the face, you know) to find both pleasant and unpleasant surprises. The squash and globe artichokes have grown, they look strong and healthy bar a few pesky aphids. The corn is shooting up too. However, the young beetroot are being blighted by the leaf miner. I actually saw one coming out of the leaf when I washed it, looking smugly satiated – I don’t like to kill things, but sorry, it had to go! This is bad news when you are making Botwinka soup, because this is literally a soup made of young beetroot with stalks and leaves. Luckily, I managed to find a handful of healthy leaves to make my ferment.

Small acts of activism

Among the local issues that have been coming to the fore these last couple of weeks, I was happy that I found the time to travel to London and take part in the Red Line for Palestine. I am horrified at what I have been witnessing and it was good to be there in person, physically making a stand against it. Some argue that it’s none of my business, but I believe that this is the old paradigm. We are all witnessing it and therefore, we all have to do what feels right by our conscience. If something terrible is happening, then I don’t want to look away and pretend it’s not happening or justify it in some way. I believe that we have to shine a light both into the darkness out in the world and within ourselves. That’s how we transform and evolve. This is also the lesson from the things that have been going on around me recently that have caused me to neglect my garden a little bit. While the pests have been annoying, it feels good to root them out, and to clear the way for healing and progress. In the garden, as in life.

A recipe for fermented young beetroot leaves, stalks and baby roots