balcony garden

jagodna pita-9

It’s been three years since I’ve started my balcony garden. It had its ups and downs. Tomatoes, cucumbers, paprikas, herbs and spinach all worked well, but there were some serious fails with pumpkins and artichokes. And strawberries weren’t any success either so far. I wasn’t even planing to plant them this year but something was telling me I should…

jagodna pita

And it turned out to be a good decision, because this year I indeed have strawberries growing at my balcony! They are absolutely delicious, and to be honest, they went straight to my yoghurt in the morning. I would not dare to cook them. But they did inspire me to make this strawberry galette.

jagodna pita-8

Ingredients

crust:

60 g rolled oats
50 g wholegrain spelt flour
80 g shredded coconut
45 g cold butter
1 Tbsp agave syrup or honey
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt
30 ml cold water (or more if needed)

filling:

300 – 350 g strawberries
3 Tbsp chia
1 big Tbsp strawberry jam (I used 100% fruit content jam)
1/2 of vanilla pod
1 – 2 Tbsp stevia or sucralose

Preparation:

Grind rolled oats and coconut in coffee grinder to obtain flour consistency.
Mix all the flours and salt, than add cold butter and mix evenly. Add agave syrup or honey and egg yolk. Mix and add water as needed. Form a ball, wrap it in plastic foil and let sit in the fridge for 30 mins.
Cut strawberries in half. Mix all the ingredients for filling.
Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it out in between two sheets of baking paper. Put all the filling in the middle and fold the ends inwards.
Bake for 25 – 35 mins at 180ºc.
Sprinkle with mint leaves. And yes… vanilla ice cream is always a good idea!

jagodna pita-12

I love my neighborhood! It must be one of the greenest parts of Ljubljana. When I look through my window I see trees and I more often hear birds singing than cars passing by. Our apartment building was built in mid fifties when living standards were relatively high. Apart from comfortable flats, that also meant that its surroundings were designed to provide a community place where people would gather and spent their time. What always fascinates me is how clever they were back than. Cooperation between architects and urbanists created a pleasant green living space in the middle of the city, something that we aim at today, but is not always possible anymore.

My balcony is one of my shelters. When working at home, I like to make a pause and take a coffee outside. What I love even more are those warm summer nights when there’s no one on the street anymore, just pleasant silence. And a glass of a good red wine.

This year I’m making an experiment. Already in previous years I had all sorts of aromatic herbs, tomatoes, strawberries and flowers. So this year I wanted to see how it would work to plant some real veggies that I could actually use when cooking, like cucumbers, zucchini, salad, spinach, tomatoes and artichokes.

Eventhough it’s a small garden there’s a lot of work to be done. But I don’t mind. I must say that I’m really proud of myself. It feels so good going out on your balcony and picking up your own salads that you’ve seeded and watch them grow. It just makes me so happy. Besides, it’s sustainable and you know where your food comes from. Everyone who has some space should do its garden. It can work, so no excuses for not doing it!