Photography & Words © Anna Rubingh
OT 001
OT 002
OT 003
OT 004
OT 005
Includes 3x recept (scroll down)
In a historical, once royal garden, "The Walled Garden" of Dutch King Willem III, Esther grows a wide variety of organic vegetables.
"When I was a student at Wageningen University, I cycled past the old wall here in Renkum every day," says Esther. "And every day I wondered what was behind that wall and what it had been used for. It turned out to be an old garden wall that once had been the wall of a vegetable garden laid out by King Willem III in 1882. The old vegetable garden had not been a garden for a long time and the grounds were totally neglected. The story inspired me and that was, 20 years ago, the beginning of what is now my organic vegetable garden; The Walled Garden.”
The garden has grown into a highly productive horticultural business. "We grow as many as 450 different edible plants; vegetables, fruits and herbs, some of the vegetables growing here are old varieties that we grow for the Heritage Seed Network." The garden is not excessively big, just around 2 acres, but in season enough is grown for 100 families who each take a vegetable crate every week, and there is also enough left over to sell in the garden's shop and stock Esther’s kitchen where she cooks delicious treats with veg and fruit from the garden. "People like to visit the garden; for the peace and quiet, to walk through the garden, have a drink and a healthy snack or piece of cake, all made with produce from the garden and then go home with a bag of fresh organic vegetables and fruit."
OT 006
OT 007
OT 008
OT 009
OT 010
OT 011
OT 012
OT 013
OT 014
OT 015
OT 016
OT 017
OT 018
OT 019
OT 020
OT 021
OT 022
OT 023
OT 024
OT 025
OT 026
OT 027
OT 028
OT 029
OT 030
OT 031
OT 032
OT 033
OT 034
OT 035
OT 036
OT 037
OT 038
OT 039
OT 040
OT 041
OT 042
OT 043
OT 044
OT 045
OT 046
OT 047
OT 048
OT 049
OT 050
OT 051
OT 052
OT 053
OT 054
OT 055
OT 056
OT 057
OT 058
OT 059
OT 060
OT 061
OT 062
OT 063
OT 064
OT 065
OT 066
OT 067
OT 068
OT 069
OT 070
OT 071
OT 072
OT 073
OT 074
OT 075
OT 076
OT 077
OT 078
OT 079
OT 080
OT 081
OT 082
OT 083
OT 084
OT 085
OT 086
Recipes: De Ommuurde Tuin Photography: Anna Rubingh
Esther loves to cook, especially with produce from her own garden, of course. "I have lots of favourites," she says, "my favourites are always seasonal, with what's fresh from the garden. Pea burgers for example, my kids love those, or a cake with red fruit freshly picked from the garden, that's really cooking in the season."
Pea burgers
Simply delicious, these vegetarian burgers made from peas and fresh herbs from the garden. One of Esther's children's favourites, delicious on a toasted bun with fried onion, (homemade) piccalilli and some lettuce leaves, but also tasty with roasted potatoes or chips of course! Make the burgers in season with fresh peas, but frozen peas are also fine.
Chioggia Beet Soup with Basil
Chioggia beets are an old beetroot variety that originated in the town of Chioggia in Italy. Chioggia beets have red and white rings, and the red in the beets is much lighter than that of red beets. They are easy to grow in your own vegetable garden (sowing from April to end of July for a harvest from mid May to mid November). When you cook them, they turn light pink and when you use them in this soup, the red colour disappears completely. This gives a nice effect, you don't see any beets, but you do taste them! The fresh basil gives the soup a nice extra summery flavour. Do you prefer a red beet soup? No problem, with the same recipe you can make it just as easily.
TIP from Esther: "The nice thing about this soup is that you can eat it hot or cold. If the weather is warm, you can prepare it in advance and let it cool to have a deliciously refreshing soup, but it is just as tasty when it is served hot."
Selmolina Cheesecake with Red Fruit
When I arrive at “De Ommuurde Tuin” the whole garden smells of strawberries. "Strawberry season is coming to an end," says Esther, "but we still have a field where you can pick your own strawberries. Further down the garden berry bushes are full of red berries, it really is "red fruit season".
This is a very nice summer cake. The cake is made of semolina and cottage cheese baked with strawberries and red berries on top. And with so little sugar that a piece of cake is no sweeter than an average bowl of muesli with yogurt. A piece of cake for weekend breakfast maybe?
