A farmhouse recipe...

I love to cook, but being on a farm has meant I've had to learn to cook in a different way. Back in England, I was starting to get into seasonal food, but it's easy to get distracted when you're surrounded by fruit and veg shops stocking everything you could possibly want all year round. But on a farm, seasonal cooking is a must. When the garden throws a glut of peas or spinach at you, you cook with it! Instead of starting with the question of what I feel like cooking or eating, I'm getting used to first looking at what's around and conjuring up a meal from there. A bit like Ready Steady Cook. Every day.

Yesterday the farmer here asked if I'd cook dinner. There was no question of what groceries I needed from the store - nope, the fridge, garden and store cupboard were my raw ingredients. And the resulting dinner may not have been the most gourmet or exotic of foods, but everything came from a 20m radius of the kitchen (veg, duck and chicken eggs, home made cheese from the goats) - a truly local meal.

Farmhouse frittata

Ingredients:
- Potatoes, cubed and parboiled until almost cooked (leftover cold ones also work well)
- Onion
- Garlic (with additional garlic scapes at this time of year)
- Seasonal veg (in eastern Canada right now that means spinach, beet(root) greens, baby carrots, peas)
- Foraged additional things (I threw in some lambs quarter, a green plant that's a weed, but also edible and can be used like spinach)
- Eggs (chicken, duck or a mix)
- Cheese (I used some home made goats feta).

Method:
- Fry onion in some olive oil in an ovenproof fryingpan/skillet/cast iron thing. After 5 minutes throw in garlic and potato cubes and the veg and fry for a few minutes
- Whisk up eggs and add salt and pepper
- Distribute things evenly in the pan and Pour eggs around it. Top with the cheese.
- Cook gently on the hob for 5 minutes until it starts to set
- Pop under the grill until it's cooked all the way through and slightly golden on top
- Serve hot or cold with some freshly picked salad and pickled beetroot