A Table! And Gardener's Revenge Salad!

How was your May Bank Holiday? (For those of you that have have one, that is) We thought about a wee trip over to the west coast, took one look at the weather forcast and swiftly made other plans! We headed east, not too far, in search of some clement weather and maybe...a table.

We've had a tiny kitchen table for over a decade, ancient and lovely, but really, with friends, far too small. And wobbly to boot. We've been hunting for a while, in and around various charity shops, but didn't find anything that really fit the bill.

We thought it was high time we paid a visit to an antique & reclamation place not too far from home. It's a great cavern of delights! And swiftly we found just the thing, a splendid old table, missing a couple of leaves (but not a problem, we can improvise and cover up!), slightly battered, but very sturdy and can be extended to feed an army! Hurrah! Oh, and cheap too, even better.

The boys enjoyed some fabby vintage toys - including a rather slendid Harrods tricycle. The beloved table was very carefully tied to the roof of the car and the journey home had to be along the back of the back roads, at a very dignified pace. But we made it! And with a bit of borrowed muscle, got it into pride of place.....

I also bought a lovely old table cloth, and it does look rather nice on my new table, but I'm not sure it would survive more than one pasta sauce incident. So, I have other plans for it...

I admit that I do love a certain Swedish purveyor of cheap household things, but it feels so much nicer to be using an old table and cloth, with their sense of story. Who made that cloth I wonder? It is beautifully stitched.

Well, it certainly is nice to have space to spread out meals on the table. And what's on the menu? Haha! Gardener's Revenge Salad! Recently, in The Guardian newspaper, I read that Ground Elder could be eaten. I duly told my husband, who is PLAGUED by the stuff in the L'Arche garden. No matter what you do, every year, up it pops! We checked it out in a few wild food books, and yes, it can be used like spinach, or in salad.

He tasted it a few days ago, and is still here to tell the tale, so we had some for supper. The verdict? The small, young leaves are the best, and they have strong flavour, part lemony, part celery. Quite edible, although, I prefer it mixed sparingly with other salad leaves, and a good salad dressing. A few walnuts go well with it too.

My dearly beloved however, ate a plateful with relish! If he can't exterminate the stuff, at least he can eat his way through it. It must be the first time Ground Elder has made him happy. I think we are going to have some good times around that table....