my son is (with his 8 years) too 'grown up' for the sand pit in our garden. last year we took out all the sand and carried 12 bags of garden soil into garden. as we don't have a back entance we had to take it all through the house (hallway, living, kitchen) to fill the pit again. we did some experiments with tomatoes, lettice and carrots. which was a great succes. this year we wanted to improve our farmer skills and we started with the home growing of seeds in little pots in front of the bedroom window. soon enough we had little sprouts of carrot, tomato, paprika and endive. it soon became quiet packed in the little sandpit. and when the neighboor (who is even more addicted to home garden vegetable growing) donated 4 potatoes we had reached our limitation. last week we shared the endive with friends and family. We had ten crops ready to be eaten at the same time. At bit too much even for endive lovers. So next year we have to practise to spread the moment of the harvest.....
the last crop is waiting for Dutch endive stampot;
here is the recipe of Dutch stampot for endive lovers: peel enough potatoes (depending on the size of the family and appetite). boil them and make mash potatoes with milk and butter. In the meantime fry small pieces of bacon crisp and slice the endive in small bits. in the end you stir the crisp bacon and the endive into the mash potatoes and leave on the stove for another 5 minutes to soften the endive. lovely with loads of apple sauce and a sausage (a recipe for Dutch apple sauce will follow another time, promise).
