The Joy of Garden Food

[Jade Emperor]

Hello.
I’m in my childhood home now, and we have a large garden front and back. My dear departed father didn’t really do much beautification on the yards but there are some trees and a few shrubs.
As I moved in, I firstly went to work on a veggie/herb patch. Also some flower beds.
I grow my own basil, chilli, coriander, melons, broccoli and spinach currently.
For a very long time, I have loved using kaffir lime leaves in my SE Asian food as well as sweets. I always use to buy a little bag of the leaves when I went to market.
Then I thought - for the amount I spent on the little bags, why don’t I just buy a tree for my barren front yard? So I did.

I installed a trellis, gave it some paint and sunk the new tree in. The tree wasn’t cheap but it was already established to a degree.
I have already flavoured some of my stir fries and curry with the fragrant leaves.
Yesterday, as I was having some me time in the kitchen, I decided to make some kaffir lime ice cream.

(A little bit of green colouring to give the idea)
It’s really nice! But the really lovely feeling is knowing that it’s from my own garden. Just like I feel when I chop my own basil, chillies, coriander etc.
I know some of you have amazing produce gardens so thanks for the inspiration!


(WHOOPS! Just noticed the Farm to Table subforum. Mods please feel free to move this if preferred.)

 

[taxlady]

@Jade Emperor, if you click the report button, right below your post, you can ask a mod to move this from the window that pops up. They will notice faster if you do that.

 

[FrankZ]

Moved.

 

[Jade Emperor]

Thanks

 

[pepperhead212]

@Jade Emperor There is nothing like those fresh lime leaves!!! I have 2 trees - only because I experimented in propagation methods, and one worked, giving me another plant, with the old one 10 years old. That one is 24 years old now, but even one tree is far more than one person can use! I started growing them when I had to, when they outlawed the import of kaffir lime leaves in the end of 90s, due to citrus diseases. Same thing happened with Szechwan peppercorns, in that same era, and I considered growing that, but I had a large amount of those, that kept me in supply, until they could import again.

One thing I learned quickly about those fresh lime leaves, right off the plant, is that they are so intense that I can usually usually use 1 or 2 less than the recipe calls for; otherwise, it can be overpowering.

Here's a funny note: in the early years of growing that first lime tree, a lady friend came over for a Thai dinner, and I had a small bowl of lime leaves I had just cut, sitting on the counter, and she would repeatedly run her fingers through the lime leaves, and smell her fingers, and she would apologize for doing this. I told her no need to apologize, and that I would do that all the time out in my garden, with the rosemary and basil mostly, but sometimes the mint. Nothing like fresh herbs!

 

[Badjak]

I got 2 trees as well and those leaves are just special.
Love them

 

[Jade Emperor]

Yes yes yes! I love the fragrance I get on my hands when I harvest some fresh basil for dinner. And now the kaffir too.
Unusual story. My partner’s brother was very down on his luck, nowhere to live and had lost his job a his wife kicked him out and he was living in a tent.
I have a spare room so I insisted he come stay with us (with a fair set of rules that I made very clear.)
Eager to please, he promised to get into the garden and do some weeding.
I came home and he had pulled up all my coriander and put it in the bin!
I was horrified, and he was sheepishly sorry. But never fear! He retrieved the coriander and it still had some soil clumped around the roots, so we resettled it into its spot and off it went again!
Haha - his response after I had cooled down a bit was “I thought it smelled nice when I was ripping it out!”

 

[Jade Emperor]

Another quick thing about kaffir lime.
The juice of the fruit has quite limited use in food. There are some specialty dishes from Indonesia and a few from other regions of SE Asia, but it’s the leaves that are most important in food.
So a lot of people don’t really care about how to make use of the fruits.
You can use them to add to your clothes washing, not simply for a lovely fragrance, but they are also very effective in cleaning the fabrics. When I spent a lot of time in Thailand, heaps of ladies would have squeezed kaffir limes into their bowl and would pour it into the washing. It’s a great alternative to chemical detergents.

 

[larry_stewart]

I had a kaffir lime tree for awhile. It was healthy and even fruited , but eventually it met its maker. I don't use enough leaves a year to justify getting a new tree ( although I'm tempted), but I do miss that plant. I must have had it for close to 10 years.

There nothing better than when you can just go out into the yard and decide what's for dinner just by looking at what is currently ripe. I had a friend when I was in school whose parents were farmers. She said when she was growing up, she'd be sent to the fields prior to dinner time just to harvest what they needed . I envied her and that experience , cause having a full blown farm exposed her to everything ( even though I do a pretty good job in my garden to provide me what I want and need).

A weeding story involving my wife. She wanted to help, she had the day off and I was going to work, so I told her she can weed the the okra area of the garden. I showed her what the okra seedlings looked like, and told her to pull out anything else that looked different. Came back from work to find %100 of the okra were lying wilted in a pile, next to a plot of flourishing weeds. Stupid me had her help out a few years later in a different area . This was a flower bed, so I figured I had nothing to lose. Well, came home and found mostly weeds in a pile , along with 2 plants, pulled out with their root balls which were shape exactly like a 4 " pot. Now to me, common sense would indicate that roots shaped like a pot were something I intentionally planted. Anyway, she no longer helps in the garden , other than harvesting ( although she is color blind, so sometimes the tomatoes she picks need a few more days)..

 

[Badjak]

Another quick thing about kaffir lime.
The juice of the fruit has quite limited use in food. There are some specialty dishes from Indonesia and a few from other regions of SE Asia, but it’s the leaves that are most important in food.
So a lot of people don’t really care about how to make use of the fruits.
You can use them to add to your clothes washing, not simply for a lovely fragrance, but they are also very effective in cleaning the fabrics. When I spent a lot of time in Thailand, heaps of ladies would have squeezed kaffir limes into their bowl and would pour it into the washing. It’s a great alternative to chemical detergents.

To add on ..
Use the kaffir lime zest in anything that ask for zest. Very very fragrant. Maybe start by using half the amount.

And a slice of zest in a gin & tonic
(Careful of using a slice. The white layer can be very bitter)

 

[dragnlaw]

Years ago, I had hurt my foot, sent my 10 yr old son into the vegie garden to do some weeding for me.
Later at supper I thanked him for his help and by the way - did some of the clumps of grass he pulled out just happen to have a faint smell like onions?
He looked at me shocked and said 'How did you know!'
2 rather large clumps of chives had disappeared.