Make Use of Whatever Comes My Way

Yes, it is the time of year we long for during long, dark winter nights, the time of warmth and plenty. Trouble for some of us is that plenty can quickly become a bit too much as the glut of produce arrives more and more zucchini and vegetable marrows are pressed upon us by harassed harvesters who put a few too many plants in 'just in case'.

I never turn anything down; even when my husband, eyebrows raised, gently hisses 'what are you going to do with more of this stuff' as our hostess joyfully fills another bag with zucchini (or their awkwardly overgrown siblings, big, green, teenaged vegetable marrows) I don't know about you, but seeing the relief in the eyes of the gardener with a glut when someone will willingly take even just a little of their irresponsible over-production out of their sight, is worth a bit of puzzling over what on earth to do with it all once you get it home!

The secret of my survival is that I was blessed to be brought up in a family with its head in a book and its feet planted firmly in the land. I learned to dream and imagine, but I was also taught to cook and create usefully with my hands. There is a family story still dutifully told to our groaning children about how my brother, sister and I once fashioned a game from acorns and an egg carton, but we really did; not because we had to, but because it was fun and it made us laugh together. So as their eyes roll and they return to whatever electronic pacifier they are ruining their thumbs on, ours meet and we smile again at the binding memory.

Now we all have that miracle of the modern age, the cornucopia busting font of all knowledge the internet. I still think it is so amazing to be able to have half a dozen recipes for summer squash disposal literally at my fingertips and, thank my lucky stars, I have the skills to fearlessly use them, even to change them to suit our own tastes and use whatever is in the store cupboard.

So when I return to my beleaguered friends, wild eyed with the guilt of those who have had to compost something someone, anyone, should have eaten, I smile and serenely place a jar of my prized Marrow Ginger and Cardamom Jam, or Marrow Pickle on their table and anticipate the grateful gold rush that is bound to ensue!