cravings

I've been trying to eat vegetables in season this winter. Thus lots of celeriac, fennel bulbs and silver beet.

Yum.
No... seriously, yum! (You should try the incredible winter vegetable gratin I made. Talk about flavours bursting on the tongue!)

Anyway, my tomato seeds have not germinated this year. Corn, snowpeas, beans, carrots, lettuce, raddish and beetroot are all doing swimmingly. But the tomatoes? Not even a glimpse of green. A few other things have also not germinated, but I'm not as bothered about them - whoever thought growing eggplants in Tasmania was possible or desirable anyway?

Nope, it's tomatoes I dream of. Red, luscious, flavoursome, juicy, wonderful. So I've soaked a few seeds overnight and planted another round. If that fails I will buy seedlings ready to go. Time is running out if I want to catch any summer warmth to ripen the fruit. I must get them in the ground very soon.

But for now I dream of tomatoes. Capsicum too, because I have also religiously avoided that summer fruit during these winter months. (Funnily enough, I've always considered ragout a winter dish, but all the vegetables in it are summer produce! Go figure!)

Bring on the day when my tomato bushes are big, lush and heavy with fruit. Yum oh yum.