Columnist Emma Beddington has declared she is having a 'tradwife summer' after spending days picking berries, making compotes, and batch-cooking chard and spinach. But she admits she would rather be the 'tradhusband' who brings in the bounty and then sits down to eat.
A Glut of Produce After Five Years of Gardening
Beddington, who has been gardening for five years, now faces the challenge of dealing with a surplus of fruit and vegetables. 'It’s taken me five years as the genuinely grateful, happy guardian of a garden to fully appreciate the issue with growing fruit and vegetables: once you’ve done it, you have lots of fruit and vegetables,' she writes.
While some crops like strawberries and raspberries are easy to enjoy, others require extensive preparation. 'Other stuff that thrives here requires prepping and cooking to be edible,' she notes. With family and friends avoiding her offers of surplus produce, she finds herself resigned to cooking.
The Tradwife vs. Tradhusband Fantasy
Beddington admits she loves gardening but hates cooking, a sentiment she shares with her husband. 'I’m fully committed to carting watering cans and endless bags of compost around,' she says, but at harvest time she is reminded of her dislike for cooking. 'So it’s a tradwife summer, when I really want to be a tradhusband, the rugged provider who strides into the kitchen with an armful of dirty, insect-ridden bounty, then sits down after a well-deserved rest to enjoy eating it.'
She jokingly puts out an ad for a tradwife: 'It’s an unpaid post, but you get all the courgettes you can eat.' The column highlights the often-overlooked labor of turning garden produce into meals.
