FLOWER POT KITCHEN: THE PERFECTLY RIPE AVOCADO

10 Dec 2017

THE PERFECTLY RIPE AVOCADO

Avocados...Unripe, Unripe, Unripe...Rotten!

Rich creamy, super good for you loaded with goodness and flavour, these little gems are so versatile, eat them on their own, stuff them, bake them, turn them in to a sauce, mayonnaise or into gnocchi and pasta, you will never get bored of an avocado.

Avocado Health

Vitamin B6, K, C, E, 67% mono un-saturated fats as oleic acid, 19% palmittic acid and linoleic acid, 14% saturated fat, potassium, folic acid, high fibre, folate and omega 3 fatty acids. Perfect food, compounds help the liver to cleanse toxins, lowers blood cholesterol, eaten with spinach and carrots will increase absorption of impressive carotenoids, these are fat soluble and aid absorption of carotenoid nutrients, anti inflammatory, helps arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular health, protects blood vessels and promotes blood sugar regulation.

If like me you love your avocado's daily and like to keep a stack in the fridge, some un ripe waiting to ripen later and others ripe and ready to go, this post is for you if you find as I used to, Unripe, Unripe or rotten! This has taken some trial and error and now I never have any avocados that go rotten, I really detest food waste. This ripening system is working really well and it is the avocados secrets that tell you what stage of ripeness they are at if you just know what to look for.

The Perfect Avocado

Here you can see that this avocado is perfectly ripe, almost just over, one more day however and it would have start to go rotten. Avocados go rotten firstly from the point they are detached from the tree and then secondly around the stone. Avocado's will never ripen on the tree they only ripen once picked. This is the first point of where an avocado will start to spoil, above you can see where the avocado is just starting to spoil. How you tell this without first cutting open an avocado is easy once you know how.

X-Ray Vision!

How to tell if your avocado is perfectly ripe, try to remove the stalk stub at the top of the avocado, if your avocado is ripe this will easily fall off, in ripe it won't want to pop off and over ripe and spoilt the stub may have already fallen off and you can probably see the start of mould in the stub pocket.

Perfectly Ripe Avocado

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.