Owen Pidgeon's pesto with home-grown rocket recipe

I came late to growing rocket in the garden but it has a number of attractions for both small and larger gardens. Rocket is an annual herb which will grow easily from seed. It will be ready to pick within just 5-6 weeks from planting. It is a good crop to get children involved with, as the growing cycle is quick and the planting work can be shared.

We have sown our seeds into a seed raising mix but you can as easily plant them out directly in the garden bed, allowing 5cm between plants. Plant to a depth of 2-3mm. Keep up succession planting every three weeks to maintain a good supply of fresh young leaves for salads and stir fry dishes.

And if you are located close to a restaurant you may use this little crop to set up a supply link because professional chefs love the peppery taste of the little, slender leaves and also love to use the flowers of the fully grown plant as a garnish. It does take quite a number of plants to yield 100 grams of leaves and the restaurant may wish to order 500g each week but this is certainly a cottage industry outlet for a small space similar in size to a carrot patch.

This salad herb is a species of Eruca that grows wild in the Mediterranean regions, from Portugal in the west to Lebanon, Syria and Turkey in the east. In Italy it is known as rucola or Italian cress, in France as roquette and in the US it is called arugula. It has been grown in home gardens since Roman times.

This little plant is rich in vitamin A and C, folates and potassium. Its leaves are rich in anti-oxidants. It is great to complement lettuce and mild salad mesclun mixes. Southern Italians add generous quantities of chopped rocket leaves to homemade pasta sauces and it is a very good substitute for basil when making pesto.

Add some torn rocket leaves in with the main ingredients when making tortilla pizzas. Simply scatter chopped rocket leaves over a mushroom-based pizza just before serving. Saute mushrooms and onions, along with chopped garlic and rocket to make a delicious winter dish. When figs come into season, serve with rocket and walnut pieces, mixed with fine mustard and olive oil.

You can grow rocket in a flower pot or a longer balcony planter box if you have few or no backyard garden options. This is a plant that loves to be growing in a sunny position, in rich, moist soil but with good drainage.

Plant out small succession crops of rocket and you can enjoy its fresh taste through many months of the year. The leaves do wilt quickly so growing your own home supply is the best option. When you pick the leaves, keep them in a green vegetable special plastic storage bag.

This is one of the fastest herbs to produce a harvest. It should be given regular feeds of liquid fertilisers, such as seaweed or fish emulsion mixes and kept well watered. It will grow to a height of 50-60 cm and then the flower stems will shoot up higher still.

The leaves of the young plant are very tender but the spiciness in the leaves will increase as the plant gets older. The little white flowers are a wonderful garnish.

Rocket can keep producing in drier conditions but when the days turn very hot this spicy herb tends to bolt to seed and its leaves will become tough and bitter. Chop off old plants and add to your compost heap.

If you allow some of the flowers to stay on the plants, you will have a high chance of seed producing pods arriving in a very short time. Soon you will have a self sowing program under way. The new seedlings are easy to transplant if you want to use your first garden bed for other purposes.

Pesto with rocket leaves

3 cloves garlic
50g pine nuts
100g rocket leaves
salt
5 tbs parmesan, grated
150ml extra virgin olive oil

Put the garlic, pine nuts, rocket and a pinch of salt into a food processor and blend until smooth. Alternatively, you can use a mortar and pestle to pound the mix manually. When the mixture is evenly blended, scape the paste into a medium-sized bowl and add in the grated parmesan cheese. Gradually pour in the olive oil and mix well. Place in a sterilised jar, seal with a thin film of olive oil and store in the refrigerator.

This week in the garden

* Transplant seedlings of silverbeet and spinach into a sheltered garden bed which will have plenty of sunshine in the coming months. Plant out long keeping onion seedlings.

* To obtain a quick growing, late winter crop, plant out a couple of rows of radishes.

* Plant out a row of broad beans, shelling peas and snow peas to provide a follow on crop after your earlier plantings have finished their growing cycle.

* Prepare your first deep garden bed for planting out carrots. This is one of the most productive crops, per square metre, that can be grown. Do not add in animal manures or fertilisers as they will only cause your carrots to fork and become very hairy.

* Complete the planting out of fruit trees and berries so that the roots of the plants can settle in before they begin to send out new season fibrous roots and the trees come out of hibernation.

* Fertilise your citrus trees with a generous supply of chicken manure, around the drip line of each tree, to give them a nutrient boos for early spring. Avoid spreading too close to the trunk as it will burn the bark.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.