Can I Survive Eating Only What I've Grown

This is the ultimate challenge. Can I survive on only food that I've grown? I'm definitely still a beginner gardener. I've only been growing food for the last three years, but I am a competent cook. I've been cooking in kitchens since I was 15 years old. So I'm gonna put those skills to the test. Can I survive on food that I've grown myself for a whole day? But what's gonna make this even more challenging, I have guests coming over for dinner this evening, so the food needs to be delicious, of course, hearty, filling, and nutritious. Let's get into it. Now for breakfast, I don't have a Cheerio plant or a Weetabix plant. Wait, do Weetabix grow on trees? I don't know. Anyway, I don't have one. So I had to be a bit more creative. Recently, I harvested a load of my potatoes. It's like digging for gold. It's one of the most exciting things to harvest when you're digging through the earth to see if there's any potatoes. And I managed to grow quite a lot. So I'm gonna utilize those and make a rosti, like a hash brown. And in that rosti, I'm gonna stir through some of my homemade kimchi as well, which is absolutely delicious, using all the greens from my garden. I'm gonna head to the greenhouse now to pick some tomatoes to serve with it. Plus we'll get some herbs. Oh, we'll get a cucumber too. And look at this. Watermelon, cucumber, and tomatoes growing right next to each other, not even in the greenhouse. Gosh, my cilantro coriander is looking a little sad. So because I wasn't expecting it to look this bad and not have so much, I'm gonna use some nasturtium leaves as well in the rosti mix, which will be delicious. It's got a lovely wasabi flavor. Oh, there's this plant that you have to know about. We're gonna get an onion, then I'm gonna show you it. This is green purslane. Did you know that this plant has as much omega-3 as fish? And it tastes really good too. This will be a lovely little garnish for my rostis. Okay, I'm gonna add one stipulation. If this is okay with you, wait, hold on. This is my channel. I'm gonna make the rules. I'm allowed bare essentials, such as salt, oil, vinegar, flour, and some seeds, maybe, if that's okay with you. Is that okay with you? It's okay with me. So let's get straight into the recipe for the rostis. First up, what you're gonna need to do is grab your potatoes. I'm using my homegrown potatoes, of course. I'm leaving the skins on because why not? I'm gonna grate the rostis into a kitchen towel. You then wanna squeeze all of the liquid out of the potatoes. We're giving back to the soil. Then get that mixture into a mixing bowl. I'm then gonna stir through my lovely homegrown greens kimchi, plus the top of my onion. If you don't have onion tops, just use some spring onions or a leek. My chopped herbs, the coriander, and the nasturtium leaves. Then I'll sprinkle in some salt, some flour, and a little sesame seeds. Give that a really good mix until it starts coming together, then form it into some patties. Preheat your nonstick pan over a medium heat. Add a little oil, then fry your rostis on either side for around four to five minutes. You can bake them too. If you don't wanna use oil, just put them onto a lined baking tray with some greaseproof paper. Look at the caramelization and crispness on these beautiful homegrown potato rostis. Oh, yes. I'm gonna get a pan on top of this now because I don't have an oven outside. The pan on top will create like a real vacuum of heat, but you can just pop yours in the oven after flipping them if you want to. Whilst the rostis are cooking, let's make this beautiful little garnish with my homegrown tomatoes. I'm gonna chop these into chunks as well as my cucumber, the rest of the onion, because we need to eat some more raw onion. It's got so many health benefits to it. I'll then add those three ingredients to a mixing bowl, then pick another ingredient that I'm gonna use to replace lemon. Now, I do have a lemon tree. You would have seen me get that tree a few months back in the first, well, one of the first homesteading videos we ever did. You can click by here to watch that. You can see the progress, but the lemons aren't ripening very well. I think it's because I brought it out of the greenhouse, but a good replacement, rhubarb. Believe it or not, let's pick some of these and squeeze the juice into the salad. I'm gonna bash this up and squeeze the acidic, sweet juice out of it onto the salad, and it should replace the lemon. Look at that. We have some juice. That is exactly what I needed. A nice bit of acidity in the salad to help break down those onions and add some more vibrancy to everything. I'll add my purslane leaves, a pinch of salt, and some sesame seeds, and that's the salad done. Salad's done. Let's check on the Rostis. Oh, yes, these are ready. Let's serve up. I'm gonna drizzle a little bit more of the rhubarb juice over the Rostis and then taste. Why does this always happen? When I'm about to serve up, it starts raining. A few weeks ago, I cooked for my hero, and it just bucketed it down as I was serving for him. You gotta watch that. Well, it's cozy in here with the rain. Let's give these Rostis a taste. Look at that cross-section. Delicious. I really love how all the flavors in that Rosti have sort of melted together, and it's lovely and crisp on the outside. A bit of the cabbage and the kale that was in that kimchi and sort of gone crispy, crispified, that's my new word, on the edge. Absolutely delicious. If you need more savory breakfast, then this is the one for you for sure. Make this kimchi Rosti so delicious. So recently, I've been trying to sort of focus on my well-being, and a huge part of feeling good to me is the amount of time that I spend exercising. I'm sure most of you feel the same about that too, but I wasn't feeling motivated about training for a long time. Just got into a bit of a rut with my old sort of workout plans. But lately, I've discovered Copilot, and it's really sort of given me a new lease of life when it comes to achieving my fitness goals. Now, living so rurally in the countryside meant that I couldn't really reach gyms as conveniently as I'd like. So what my dad and I did a few years back is convert the garage into a makeshift gym, and it's been amazing. I gave you guys a whole tour of it in a previous video, but it does get a little bit lonesome when you're on your own training, especially when in the cold, it's hard to stay motivated. But Copilot teamed me up with an incredible coach called Rod, and we sat down and did a video call straight away to discuss my fitness needs, what equipment I had to hand, and how he could help me put a plan together to keep me motivated when I'm in the gym. We set out on three sessions together per week, and each session was different from the last. The Copilot app is now my gym companion, and Rod will motivate me between each set, pushing me to keep going. Now, I really love that there's a video with each exercise on the app helping you keep correct form, and you can even hook up your Apple Watch to the Copilot app, and it will keep your form in check and give feedback to your coach so that they can tailor the program exactly to your workout style. After telling Rod I wanted to get fitter and stronger, the workouts he created for me really hit the spot. I noticed real changes to my physique in a short space of time. So if you want to level up your workout game and unleash your inner fitness warrior, no more wandering aimlessly around the gym wondering what to do next. Copilot will be your trusty compass guiding you through and holding you accountable. 1,001, 1,002. Oh, sorry guys, just caught me in the middle of my Copilot workout. If you want to get a 14-day free trial of Copilot with a personal trainer, scan this QR code here or click the link below the video to sign up. See you there. Should we see if the chickens like rhubarb scraps? You all right, my lovely girls? I've got some rhubarb for you today. Let's see if you like it. Get away, get away. All right, oh no, they don't like it. Oh, oh, yeah, they are eating it. There's plenty to go around, chickens. I think it's safe to say they like rhubarb. I'm not surprised, because rhubarb is amazing. So I bet you're thinking, what am I going to eat for lunch? Run. I'm certainly thinking of lunch. I'm always thinking about food. Just like these chickens, they always seem to be hungry. But anyways, I'm going to make a, I need your help on this one because I can't pronounce it, but I've got loads of beetroot right now. So I wanted to make a beetroot soup, but I found out that this is a popular delicacy in Eastern Europe, borscht. Is that right? Is that how you pronounce it? Tell me below. I'm going to do my spin on that. We'll get a load of homegrown veggies in it. So for my deep, red, rich beetroot soup, first up, of course, some beetroots. Now I've got a strange variety growing. They are called cylindrical beetroot, and they grow in like tube shapes, but they're extra juicy. Mine have all wrapped around one another, so they're a bit wonky, but they're so tasty. A good soup must have a rich base. So I'm going to pick an onion, some carrots, and I'll pick some of my homegrown garlic that I harvested a few weeks ago. Oh, it's a big one. That is one beautiful carrot. The excitement of picking my own veg will never, ever leave. So let's get my base of the soup cooking down, sweating down slowly. Onions, garlic, carrot, chopped really fine, plus some herbs from the garden. Right, it's important to season your food at every stage. So I'm going to add some of my homemade, homegrown celery salt as well. And I remember when I was back in the professional kitchens as a young chef, if I hadn't seasoned my food properly, the head chef, when he was serving up the dishes that I prepared for him, he would have a little taste. If they weren't seasoned properly, I'd get this look of fear, death stare at me. I'd want the world to swallow me up. So it's so important to season your food. I learned right from the start. This is definitely a great video, literally, because we're grating bloody everything today. I'm going to grate these beets in now, just two of them. The reason I'm grating them, so I want to try not to have to blend this soup. It just makes it easier for everyone. Maybe you don't have a blender. We'll see how lumpy it is at the end, if we need to pulse it a few times, I will. But grating is a great way of making sure your soup isn't too chunky. Definitely a bad day to wear white. Add the beets to the pan, along with, you guessed it, some more grated stuff. I'm going to grate up a few potatoes because the potatoes are going to help thicken this soup up beautifully. I'm turning into Dwight K. Schrute, aren't I? Beet-stained hands, beet-stained teeth. My babies will be pink. All right, we're going to grate some tomatoes. You're asking for it. You just want me to use this grater, don't you? We'll grate two of these lovely, sweet, juicy tomatoes in. Oh, we just canceled that. No more grating. But I'm going to use some of these sweet, juicy tomatoes to add that sort of, that sweetness. And also, if these cook down long enough, it will, it's natural umami locked within tomatoes. That's why sun-dried tomatoes are so rich. So I'll add a few tomatoes now. Why not? I've got them here, freshly harvested. And then I'll add some stock or some water. I'll just be using water because I want to make it as simple for you to recreate at home as possible. Bay leaf from the garden and some dill. Or you can just use the tops of some fennel if you've got fennel growing, and that's what I'm going to do. To season up this soup, I'm adding some more celery salt and some white wine vinegar. I am absolutely mesmerized by my green beans. Some of these beans are as big as my head. And I've got to make a dish tonight, this evening, I think, with these for my guests that come in. But the soup's nearly done. I'm going to harvest a few lovely little garnishes to go on top. I think a lovely candy beetroot will look spectacular sliced thinly. I'll also get some more herbs, some of the fennel tops, some nasturtium, and maybe a few little flowers here and there. When you grow the food yourself, you just have such way more of appreciation for it. So just cutting this beautiful baby candy beet as fine as possible. So exciting. Look at the color on that. This soup is ready. Now, you know when it's ready, when the potato has released all that starch and it's thickened up slightly. I don't need to blend this. This is a lovely, chunky, luxurious borscht-inspired soup. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Sorry if I'm not. Let's serve up. I'm going to serve up my beautiful, rich beetroot soup, top with my delicate garnishes, and then crack over some black pepper. Oh, yes. A little olive oil drizzled around, and that's my beetroot, garden beetroot soup done. I am dying to taste this. Here it goes. It's really strange because it's so red. You almost think that it's going to be like a dessert, but it's really tangy. It's got a lovely, savory note to it, and a lovely little peppery-ness from a bit of the nasturtium leaf that I put on top. Nasturtium flowers are the easiest things to grow in the garden. I really recommend, even if you just have a little pot, pop some nasturtium seeds in, and you'll be able to grow a lovely plant. It brings beautiful bees and flying objects into the garden, so you want to get some in. And they taste good. Now, there's a lot of hard work grating everything, but the texture of that beetroot grated is delicious. Mm. Guests don't often visit me because I'm so rural, but today is an exception, which is a nice exception, and it's an opportunity for me to showcase my amazing produce that I'm growing and not use any other ingredients from outside sources, which is exciting. I've got these amazing runner beans growing here, and I got inspired by a lovely Greek dish called, called fasolakia. Probably messing up pronunciation again, so I'm gonna do a dish inspired by that, but I'm gonna turn it into a bake to make it more hearty and substantial. It's basically green beans cooked in a tomato sauce. I got homegrown tomatoes. I got beans. I got onions. Let's make a lovely, rich, green bean bake. I'm gonna top it with some finely sliced, homegrown, yellow zucchini, potato, tomato. Get that baked. It's gonna crispen up, go delicious on top, all caramelized and golden. I think that'll be a nice treat for my lovely guests. So for the base, of course, we're gonna need some homegrown onion. Let's pick some of those and chop them really fine, plus my homegrown garlic. I'll mince that up nicely, and I'm gonna pick some of my celery. I haven't actually harvested any celery on camera yet for you guys, but I often will just juice celery, and I pick the outer leaves or the outer stalks. It's so abundant, and celery is one of my favorite things to add to bases of sauces because it's got such a rich, punchy, aromatic flavor, and most stocks, most really good stocks will have celery in it, so it's important in this dish for me. If you juice celery, you will be reaping the benefits. Not only is it super hydrating, but so many incredible vitamins and minerals, and I use these leaves for my celery salt. I just dry them out, grind them up, and mix them through some salt, but for now, because I've got so much of them, I'm gonna give these to my chickens. I'm just gonna chop up my celery really fine. Whilst my onion, garlic, and celery are sweating down and releasing all the sweetness that's locked with inside them, I'm gonna chop up some homegrown tomatoes to make the base of my tomato-y, tangy sauce. The sun is out. It's shining at last. We have had a terrible summer, apart from probably three good weeks where it was hot. It's just been raining and miserable for a long time. The sun is shining on me right now. It feels beautiful. Cooking my tomatoes, lovely stuff. I'm gonna add some of my celery salt, some cracked black pepper, and some dried oregano to the pan now. I'm gonna add a splash of water before grabbing my beans. What I love about beans is that the more you pick, the more you get to know them. I'm gonna add a splash of olive oil. I'm gonna add a splash of lemon juice. I need to keep coming up with recipes for them. Sourcing inspiration from all around the world. Today, we're doing grease, which is lovely. I love grease. And I'm sure this is gonna be delicious with my homegrown beans. I've got beans dotted all around the garden, actually, just because they're very easy to grow. And they are absolutely delicious just fresh, eaten like this. All I'm gonna do with these beans is just chop the ends off and shred them really fine. What I love about cooking is that there's no rules whatsoever. What I'm gonna do, actually, before I get my beans into the tomato base here, I'm gonna saute them. I wanna like add a bit of almost golden charring, not necessarily char, but caramelization to them first before they go in. I think that will just add a new depth of flavor to them. Before I get them into the cast iron pan, I'll add a little olive oil, a clove of garlic, and a sprig of rosemary, just to infuse into the oil. When they've done their job, I'll remove them and add my beans. Oh yeah, I'm glad I did this. Smells so good. It's like barbecuing them first. Just add a generous pinch of salt as they're cooking. So I'm gonna get these lovely sauteed, slightly charred runner beans into my tomato sauce now. I've noticed one issue that I may have. There's not that much sauce, but I only have so many ripe tomatoes at the minute, and I can't get some from the supermarket. I can't use a jar or tin of chopped tomatoes because this video is only produce from my garden. So we'll have to make it work. I'm actually happy with the amount of sauce here. Every bit of bean has got a lovely coating of the tomato, and I'll pop the lid on this pan now and let this cook down gently, and that will release even more liquid, moisture, steam, and we'll trap that in there to create more of a sauciness to this. So whilst the beans are cooking away, I need a giant courgette to top it with, and I think I've got some monsters at the minute. This is just taking over, but I found a giant one. One sec, let me get this. It's so deep in there. Yeah, I got it, I got it. I've caught a big one, boys. I've caught a big one, guys. Whoa! Look at that. That'll be the perfect topping. Oh yeah. Time to get my beans in my dish and top it with my lovely toppings. So I'm just going to alternate between the courgette, potato, and tomato. Look at that. That is a celebration of my homegrown produce to a T. There is, what, how many different ingredients in there that I've grown myself? I'm very, very proud, considering I'm a beginner gardener. This now needs to bake in the oven until crisp and caramelized on top. It should take about 25 minutes, but I'm going to do that when my guests arrive. Really trying not to fall over with this. Here we go, my lovely guests. Everything in here is from the garden, and there's also some greens from the garden too, which I just steamed off. I always end my day with a calming tea. I pick some chamomile, some lemon balm, some nettle, and some sage. Thank you so much for spending the day with me. I really appreciate you tuning in, and I look forward to seeing you in a future video. Don't forget to share the video, subscribe, comment. It means the world to us. Give it a like too. Thank you, guys. I'll see you soon. Click the link below or scan the QR code on screen to get 14 days worth of CoPilot for free, plus your own personal trainer.