"Organic Home Garden Party"

A successful home garden party doesn't have to be on the scale of the Royal Garden Party :-) Well, I hope not!

Cater to your family and friends and have an organic evening at home in your garden....

Consider outside lighting and even decorations for your party...read more about outdoor lighting here

"Organically Yours..."

Celebrate the abundance of locally produced organic fruit and vegetables, and have an organic home garden party. Whether it's with good friends or family or a happy mix of both, an organic evening from start to finish will create a warm rosy glow of contentment and lots of positive energy.

Put a little time and energy into the preparations and you will be able to enjoy the evening as well! During the day, prepare some or all of the following salads. Chill in their serving dishes in the bottom of the fridge.

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Grow your own organic garden vegetables to make the finest meals for your family....

Thompson and Morgan are online worldwide suppliers of seeds and other products and they have some great pictures to drool over!

broad beans brussel sprouts Carrots

Chile Peppers Sweetcorn Tomatoes

Thompson and Morgan UK
Thompson and Morgan US
Home Garden Party vegetables at Thompson and Morgan Worldwide

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( use your own garden vegetables to make your home garden party an even greater success!)

Green Salad:

Finely slice a lettuce and put into a large bowl. Loosen with your hands or a large slotted spoon. Mix in a very finely sliced onion and a tomato. If available, add sliced organic cucumber, sweet peppers and a few chopped fresh herbs.

Potato Salad.

Steam or boil diced potatoes until tender and leave to cool completely. Stir in some chopped chives and a mayonnaise sauce- try half mayo and half natural yoghurt. Taste sauce before adding to potatoes. Chill before serving. Optional extra: mix in some walnut pieces and chopped celery.

Rice Salad:

Cook rice and leave until cold. Put into a large bowl and mix in; sweetcorn, chopped tomato, onion and green pepper. Chill before serving. Add a few nuts and even dried fruits if liked. Can be served with a mayonnaise sauce.

Coleslaw:

Grate or very finely chop some white cabbage, an onion and a raw carrot. Mix together in a large bowl with a mayonnaise sauce. Chill before serving. If available add finely chopped walnuts and celery

Now you have a selection of salads, prepare the dessert: Your home garden party wouldn't be complete without fresh fruit....

Fruit salad:

Chop any fresh organic fruits you have available and mix with a few dried fruits and nuts. Search the market stalls for an exotic fruit or two, such as mango or pineapple, to add a 'je ne sais quoi' to your salad! Leave to marinate for an hour before serving. Cover with a clean cloth and leave in a cool place.

For the main dish at your home garden party, you could choose to have veggie burgers or the equivalent, or even organic steak if you don't want to get too vegetarian! If you have a few laying hens or 'you know a man who does' make a huge spanish type omelette for your guests ( a truly organic home garden party recipe! ). Most of the ingredients can be prepared in advance:

1. Dice and steam or boil a couple of largish potatoes until just cooked. Drain and leave to cool.

2. Slice some mushrooms and simmer gently in a little water in a frying pan for a few minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

3. Slice and gently simmer one or two medium onions - as you did with the mushrooms. Drain and leave to cool.

4. Boil a few peas. Drain and leave to cool.

While this lot is cooling, clear up the chaos in the kitchen and find a fairly large flat dish - a chopping board will do. When the veggies are cool, arrange them in small heaps on your dish and set aside, covering with a cloth to keep them moist and to protect from flies.

The next step for the ultimate organic home garden party is an outside job! Shut down the bar-b-que and build a fire instead.

Find a comfortable spot in the garden, away from trees and wooden fences etc; and make a circle of stones. These should be large stones, about housebrick size - but no bigger. The diameter of the circle should be about 50cm or so. Then make another circle of stones around the first one about twice the size.

NB: If you don't have space to do this, use your barbeque grill - your home garden party will be almost as much fun!

In your middle circle, build a fire. You can do this as you would light a barbeque, or collect some paper, card and small dry twigs and some larger logs to keep the fire burning. The next thing to do is find two sticks at least a metre long around broomstick size in diameter. You can use these to control the flame and, to a few degress, the temperature of the fire. When your fire is burning and the flames are low, place a trivet over the fire, and start cooking! Use the long sticks by pulling them out and pushing them into the embers. When you push them in, the flame will burn higher. Normally you will need to keep the flame low, but if left too long, the fire will die, so heating it up and removing the pan from time to time will keep the embers glowing nicely!

NB: Don't use your best pans for this!

If you're cooking steaks or veggie burgers - throw them in the pan and get frying! If you decided on the omelette, bring your covered dish to the fire and place in between the circles of stones. Beat eggs in a bowl, allowing two per person. You could do this in shifts if there are more than four people eating. The cooking time is quick so by the time the first shift have dished up their salads, the next servings are cooked!

*Make your home garden party interactive - enrol some help!

Pour a little oil in the frying pan and add a spoonful of each of the ingredients on your dish: potatoes, onions etc; Stir gently and pour beaten egg over the mixture. Sprinkle on some grated cheese to taste. Add a little black pepper. Cook gently for a few minutes, then turn and cook for a few minutes on the other side. The omelette will probably fall apart during this manoeuvre, but push it all back together -it will taste just as good. :-)

Now dish up your main course on individual plates and let everyone serve themselves from the delicious spread of salads decorating your outside table.

Carefully remove the trivet from the fire, place a few logs on and enjoy your meal to a crackling fire in the night sky!

Voila! a wonderful organic home garden party!

And still later...... after everyone has complimented you on a delicious meal and scrummy dessert, play a traditional parlour game to round off the evening. Avoid card games or word games. They require far too much concentration!

Entertain each other by showing off what a fool you can be by playing charades. Choose the name of a song, a tv programme, a film, whatever, and mime the title - abosolutely no speaking aloud, unless you're under ten yrs old, then you can have a few concessions! If no one guesses your mime, you have the added embarasment of having another go!

Or try playing this once very popular parlour game ( perfect for a late home garden party! ): Divide guests into two teams, one seated on either side of a table. One team passes a coin between their clenched hands under their side of the table until the other team call out "Up Jenkins". The team with the coin put each of their hands ( clenched ) on the table in full view. The object is for the other team to guess where the coin is. They can only touch the clenched hands when they decide to eliminate, and say "Down Jenkins". If the hand told to go down contains the coin, the coin holders win the round and play again. But if the last hand is still on the table with the coin, the other team have won and it's their turn to hide the coin.

A perfect end to an organic home garden party!

And when all your guests have gone home and the children are in bed, take a few moments to sit by the fire and watch the dying embers, and remember the evening with gladness in your soul and good food in your body!

Happy Partying!

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