One of my favourite activities at this time of year is ordering seeds. It is a tangible manifestation of the summer to come, of abundance and the promise of longer days.
recipes and future ingredients
For my birthday Mr Snail gave me Rick Stein’s new book The Road to Mexico, as I had very much enjoyed the recent television series. I like Mexican food, but I’ve never really cooked it. I settled down with the book the other afternoon to drool over the recipes and read what he has to say about various ingredients. As I read, I realised the potential from growing some of the herbs and spices for myself, and so I did some research and modified my seed ordering accordingly. I spread my orders between companies because no single company had all the seeds I wanted, including the two Mexican herbs Epazote and Hoja Santa. I placed the first order on Wednesday, so I was delighted to receive the seeds this morning. The company in question, South Devon Chilli Farm, sells ingredients as well as seeds, so I gave in to temptation and bought some large dried chillies and some chipotle (dried, smoked) chillies too. Chillies are the first seeds that I plant in the year because they do need a good long time to grow, so I’ll be planting the ones pictured very soon.
The rest of my seed orders mainly stuck to tried and tested things: a good range of peppers, spring onions, courgettes, squashes, parsnips etc. My only other departure was tomatillo seeds – another common ingredient in Mexican recipes and something that I grew successfully many years ago, but wasn’t exactly sure what to do with at the time. I do love the process of growing the things that I want to cook with – it may be taking ‘slow food’ to the extreme, but it is so satisfying.
My next gardening job is to have a good clear-out in the limery and then I’ll be all set for the 2018 growing season. Do you have plans to grow anything new this year?
pictures and the real thing – hopefully I’ll have home-grown ones later in the year
The Snail of Happiness 
Suzi
/ January 5, 2018I live in Texas in US. Love Mexican food. Hope your new adventure with cooking turns out well.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018I’m sure you have no problem finding all the ingredients that you need… here in the UK it’s a bit more of a challenge, but I’m up for it!
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tialys
/ January 5, 2018Aha! Is it that time already? Mr. Tialys spends hours poring over these catalogues – I call it seed porn.
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cambridgearomatherapy
/ January 5, 2018Seed buying time. – When my eyes are bigger than my allotment plot 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018ah yes, I know that feeling!
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Laurie Graves
/ January 5, 2018What fun! Looking forward to future posts about the growing and the cooking.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018Trouble is I want to cook everything immediately!!
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coppicelearner
/ January 5, 2018My order from Real Seeds came today – always a sign that the year has turned and an invitation to start the new growing season.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018I’ve had an email to say that mine from Real Seeds are on the way – hurrah!
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nanacathy2
/ January 5, 2018Seed time, mmm. I should try that, think what I like to cook then try to grow the ingredients, otherwise it will be all runner beans and tomatoes again.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018I’m not going to grow either runner beans or tomatoes this year – the local tomato supply is huge so I’d rather fill the limery with peppers and chillies.; and it’s climbing French beans all the way rather than runners. It’s been fun starting with recipes and working backwards.
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The Belmont Rooster
/ January 5, 2018Very good! I haven’t decided what to experiment with in the garden this year but will no doubt plant most of the same things as usual. 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018Lots of regulars, but it’s fun to think about some new recipes and work backwards 🙂
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wybrow1966
/ January 5, 2018Good luck with the chillies!
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Murtagh's Meadow
/ January 5, 2018Nothing like new seeds arriving! I did try tomatillo a couple of years ago but never got any fruit.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018Did you grow them outdoors? I did last time, but I’m planning to have a few in the limery this year.
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Murtagh's Meadow
/ January 5, 2018No I actually grew in the greenhouse and still no success. It wasn’t a very sunny summer which may have affected them and I may have started them too late too.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018Interesting… I’ll be sure to plant them in good time. The seeds are from Real Seeds, which is a local company, so I’m hoping they will be suited to conditions in west Wales.
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Murtagh's Meadow
/ January 5, 2018🙂
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Rowena McGregor
/ January 5, 2018How exciting! I gave up on culinary gardening – not enough time at the moment – and am now turning everything over to bug and butterfly plants – so many flowers, many are self seeding but I had a few new varieties arrive to plant out this week. Sunflowers, poppies, cosmos, calendula… a riot of happy! And yesterday I happened across a monarch butterfly emerging from her chrysalis.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 5, 2018Oh, the butterfly must have been lovely to see. We have some wild bits in the garden and some that get progressively more wild when I’m too busy to keep them under control!
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anne54
/ January 5, 2018It certainly is slow cooking! But how satisfying. Keep us updated.
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katechiconi
/ January 5, 2018I think I’ll stick to the easy stuff: mangoes, passionfruit, mandarins and the occasional lemon. I used to indulge in seed catalogue surfing back when I lived in NSW and the climate was more temperate and less giant-bug-infested. One of my favourites was canellini beans, which had delicious and very pretty pods for eating when young, but also dried and kept well when more mature. I liked lombok too, as it grew very quickly and filled a niche in the crop rotation when other brassicas took more time to mature.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 6, 2018Well, it’s either that or eat the bugs!
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katechiconi
/ January 6, 2018Well, the size of the grasshoppers we get here, there’d be quite a lot of protein available….
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crawcraftsbeasties
/ January 6, 2018Oooh, exciting! Boyfriend just ordered some chilli seeds last night, so there will hopefully be a few plants here in Beastie Towers too… Although I think he’s gone for super-hot varieties, so he’ll be eating those himself! I’m going to be trying to squeeze a few herbs in for cooking, and some bee-friendly flowering plants too. Happy growing!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 6, 2018My favourite bee-friendly plant is borage – and you can put it in your Pimms too!
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crawcraftsbeasties
/ January 8, 2018Oooh, that IS good news! I have borage seeds bought and ready to go! 😀
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TammieLP
/ January 6, 2018I’ve always had plans to create culinary theme gardens – Italian, Mexican, etc – but limited space just doesn’t allow it. I had such a terrible time with seeds last year (all my seedlings died a week after planting them) that I’m planning to buy starts except for the fool-proof things like beans. Enjoy your foray into Mexican cooking…it’s one of my go-to favorites.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 6, 2018When I was younger I didn’t like spicy food, but I have developed a taste for it as I’ve got older – I cook lots of Indian food these days and Mexican seems like an area ripe for developing my skills – cooking and growing.
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TammieLP
/ January 6, 2018I was practically raised on chili pepper-spiced food so love it, but my stepmom is Mexican-American and far outpaces my heat tolerance! She’s also an amazing cook. I love cooking Indian food too since most good Indian restaurants around here are a bit pricey.
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Born To Organize
/ January 7, 2018I haven’t quite made it to the planning stages, though I’ve received at least one seed catalog. It’s always such a joy. Enjoy!
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Rebecca
/ January 7, 2018Inspiring….am thinking tomatillos andchillus too!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 7, 2018go for it! I love growing chillies… just make sure you plant them nice and early and keep them warm.
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quietwatercraft
/ January 8, 2018Do you ever get to use seeds from plants you’ve grown yourself? I would feel like a super awesome green machine if I could ever do that
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 8, 2018Sometimes I do. I saved some climbing French beans from last year and I’ll be growing them again this year. When I mentioned this fact in a past post Helen (whose blog is Crawcrafts Beasties – check it out if you haven’t seen it) said she’d love to grow some too, so I sent her some of the seeds to have a go with too.
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Ann Pole
/ January 11, 2018What variety climbing French beans do you grow Jan? And do you have a favourite tomato or several? I’m about to put an order in and want to try a few new-to-us ones this year. Thanks.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 11, 2018I haven’t settled on a favourite variety of French bean. As for tomatoes – I’m not very good at them, so I’ve stopped trying!
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Ann Pole
/ January 11, 2018OK, thanks. Worth asking.
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sunshinysa
/ January 18, 2018Im an avid gardener. Started with the faith of a mustard seed. So blessed with my herbs and veggies. I regularly share with neighbours and anyone who shares my joy of my garden treats. I going to make a bean curry and a separate butternut dish tossed in garlic, onion, oil and 1 red dry chillies. Butternut from my garden. So glad i found your blog and this post.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ January 18, 2018Your food sounds delicious. I just love being able to eat food I have grown and cooked myself.
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