Jackie French picks her 10 favourite vegetables to plant this spring

So hunt out seed catalogues online. Now – before the other superior gardeners get there first and they are sold out. Look online or at good garden centres.

A Wow! Plant – Italian heirloom veg that looks like a small, green, cascading fountain. Which sounds truly revolting. But this is possibly the most glamorous veg ever. Steam or boil gently till just tender. Serve hot and whole on a platter for guests to slice up, drizzle with hollandaise, melted butter, lemon and olive oil dressing with French/mustard and garlic, or plain, if it is to served with a well-sauced dish. Pile other veg, in orange, red and white for stunning contrast, and a spectacular vegetable centrepiece.

Small, round and fast growing, they like a weed-free fertile spot, good watering and should be ready by Christmas. Spectacularly round, crisper than you thought possible, sweet and tender. Eat fresh from the garden. Just wash and eat raw. Or peel thinly and boil in a few centimetres of water with a knob of butter added and the lid on firmly till just tender, then serve with their juice. The pot needs to be pretty crammed with carrots so you get a good juice flavour. (Note: this can be spelled "jus" if you are doing the gourmet menu thingy.)

Very sweet, no sulphurous tinge as long as the weather isn't too hot (if it is, drape the garden with shade cloth). Feed and water very well. This one is fast growing, tender, sweet and purple. Again, serve whole as a centrepiece, perhaps surrounded by the round carrots.

Dark purple, fast growing and early maturing so you'll get a good crop in almost any climate – if you tend them well. They form clusters, are long and thin and make th best baba ghanoush I have ever had or eggplant parmigiana which is possibly my favourite dish in the world, but takes hours to make plus I eat the whole thing, so it is produced only for guests who love it as much as I do. Bryan doesn't – he says it looks far too healthy.

The fastest-maturing cucumber I know (there are several similar varieties) ; laughs at heat and drought and is a bright gorgeous yellow though, sadly, the peel is a bit tough so you do need to cut if off. But grow it on a trellis near the house so you can admire the glowing globes – they really do seem to catch the sunlight and shine it back at you. Again, feed well and water well till they are growing strongly. Like all cucumber, alternating dry and wet conditions will promote downy mildew – use a one part milk to nine parts water spray under and on top of the leaves at the first sign.

Frilly, red-tinged leaves, one of the most tender kales around. Very young leaves can go in salads. Older ones can be chopped for coleslaw or stir-fried. They look darling in the garden too. They withstand neglect but will suffer for it, and so will you as they'll be tougher and stronger tasting and much, much less prolific.

Small, extra sweet and you can plant them now, without waiting for spring. They are perhaps the sweetest onion. Bake them with just the outer skins removed and serve them whole on that platter with the cauliflower and carrots, or even a platter on their own. Also superb added whole to stews, instead of all that chopping.

These are much firmer fleshed than the long varieties, look superb steamed or boiled lightly whole – again, a nob of butter when cooking them in a little water with the lid on will give you a perfect natural sauce for them. Plant indoors in late winter on a sunny window sill and plant out when frosts are over. They don't crop as prolifically as some of the long varieties, but do still give a good abundant crop. They also stay tender longer if you forget to pick them every day or if you find a monster lurking hidden under leaves.

Sweeter, more tender and far more luscious than other common varieties. Plant in spring and if you feed them VERY well you'll get finger-sized spears to cut in two years – seedlings are more vigorous than when you plant the roots or crowns. These really do need watering and tending – the more you cosset them the more you get. And the sooner. And on an impressiveness scale they are No. 1.

Just the size for two, tender, floppy leaves that are sweet and taste of lettuce i.e. mild but just slightly assertive. At the moment they are my favourite lettuce ever, though iceberg is still the one if you want crunch, or cups to fill with spicy salads. Perhaps this should not be the veg to end on as they don't have the international supermodel good looks of the others. But the taste and texture is perfect.

And what more can you ask of a veg than to be the most perfect of its kind?

* watching the wallabies chomp the pelargoniums (often called geraniums) – except the peppermint pelargonium which they don't like – and the frost wither the cannas and the wombats chew the lemongrass and other succulent stems – this is called "let the wildlife do the pruning";

* wishing our possums would go back to pruning the roses instead of deciding to nibble the top of the Hass avocado tree, which doesn't need pruning – they don't like any of the other varieties (NB You can grow avocados in frosty areas – protect them from wind, both hot and cold, forever and wrap them up warmly – alpaca felt is perfect or water-filled plastic shelters for five years or so, with a shelter belt of other plants to keep the winds from harming them);

* watching the spinebills discover the winter red-hot pokers, one new bloom each day and I suspect with a good sweet nectar – some plants that bloom summer and winter can get a bit deficient in their nectar nutrients in winter and winter is not the time a spinebill needs to diet;

* not weeding the vegie garden, which needs it – full of all soft, sappy weeds but I am still feeling a bit soft and sappy myself;

* watching Bryan raking the second fall of autumn leaves – or really winter leaves, like oak and white cedar, into neat mulch piles around the bases of young trees that the lyrebirds are lurking to mess up but even messy, the mulch will do its job; and

* wondering if I should make kumquats in a sugar rum solution, or find a jam maker who'll give us a jar in return for the kumquats. Suspect it'll be the latter. Or just leave them for the birds which, come to think of it, is less work and more fun watching them feed

RECIPES: Comfort me with carbohydrates, gluten and dairy-free

(For my niece who needs her treats both gluten and dairy-free)

It occurred to me, as I was giving the chooks their extra corn ration to help keep them warm and laying this winter, that we humans deserve the same winter treats as chooks. A few extra delicious carbs to ward off the cold. Of course, this should only be eaten before thrusting your warm limbs out into a blustery day, the sort that turns your nose to ice or when you have come back in to thaw it. Or when you need a bit of warm comfort watching sleet out doors.

Eat these with a cup of something good and warm, and you'll feel equipped to challenge Antarctica. Or at least the next item in the in-tray.

Gluten-free recipes can either be dry as flavoured cardboard or decadently rich with fruits, ground nuts and other goodies to keep them moist.

200g brown sugar
75ml coconut oil (or olive oil)
100ml coconut milk
3 large eggs
4 large carrots, grated
2 peeled firm apples like Granny Smith, peeled and grated and mixed with 3 tbsp lemon or lime juice so they don't brown before you add them to the cake
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger (optional)
125g plain gluten-free flour or cornflour. A more roughly milled yellowish cornflour works well here, but the others work too
100g desiccated coconut
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (gluten-free)
1 tsp baking powder (gluten-free)

Optional: 100g glace ginger, chopped

Icing:

2 cups icing sugar
2-4 tbsp lemon juice
coconut flakes for decorating or whole roasted cashews or glacé ginger or sliced glacé lemon or lime slices

For the baking: baking paper or coarse cornmeal

Use a wide cake tin, square, rectangular or round, not a loaf shape.

Line with baking paper or grease with coconut oil (not olive oil which can be sticky) and then dust with coarse cornmeal.

Beat coconut oil, milk and sugar till it's creamy and sugar has dissolved. Mix in eggs one at a time – don't hurry or they may curdle and the cake texture will be heavier. Add the spices, then gently mix in the apple and carrot, then the coconut, then the flour. Mix only just enough for the flour to be incorporated.

Pour and scrape batter into the cake tin.

Bake at 180C for 45 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and when you quickly press it with a finger it springs back or if a skewer comes out clean when poked in the middle – it's cooked.

Take out of the oven and cool for 20 minutes before tipping out – it's a bit fragile till it cools. Ice when perfectly cold.

Icing: Mix icing sugar with half the lemon or lime juice. Add more juice if need. Spread over the cake. When cool, decorate with the coconut flakes, cashews or crystallised lime slices.

Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week. With all that fresh fruit and veg in it, this cake does need to be kept chilled unless you plan to eat it within 48 hours. Which if there is any one around who smells this cake cooking or cooling, will be no trouble at all.

You can use gluten-free flour, dairy-free margarine and dairy-free chocolate in this cake – the amount of chocolate and almonds are enough to keep it moist.

120g dark chocolate, at least 70 per cent chocolate butter, chopped
3 tbsp extra strong coffee
3 tbsp rum
120g butter
⅔ cup brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature, not from the fridge or they may curdle
⅓ cup ground almond flour/meal
1 teaspoon almond extract
⅔ cup plain flour

Icing:

½ cup dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp extra strong coffee
2 tbsp rum

Decorate with chopped white chocolate, kumquats preserved in rum if you made and/or almond slices

Turn oven on to 200C. Line a shallow square or round cake tin – not a deep loaf tin –with baking paper or grease with butter and dust with flour. Warning: this cake can stick.

Beat butter (or butter substitute) and sugar till light and creamy. Don't stint on this or the eggs may curdle and the cake will be heavier. Beat in each egg, one by one, and make sure each time the mix is light and fluffy again before adding the next. Don't underbeat! (Or overbeat, which can happen if you use a machine mixer, which is why hand-made cakes are moister – it is so easy to overbeat a cake if a motor is doing it for you!)

Heat the bowl of chopped chocolate in a microwave and zap for 10 seconds. Test – it should keep its shape when melted. If you overheat it, it will turn grainy – throw it out and begin again. Mix in the melted chocolate and then the almond extract, almonds and flour. Stir just enough to mix at this stage – no beating, just a gentle stir.

Scrape into the cake tin. Bake at 200C for about 25 minutes – oven heat varies no matter what your settings say. Scrape out the mixing bowl as it cooks, unless you are wary about eating raw eggs – don't do this if you are sick, a kid, elderly or immune compromised. Or dieting – one good bowl scrape can have the same calories as a slice of cooked cake. It will be ready when the top springs back when you gently press the middle. DO NOT OVERCOOK this cake. It should be velvety moist and five minutes too much can turn it a bit dry. Good, but not superb. Cool for 10 minutes, then unwrap totally. Cool.

Icing: Melt chopped chocolate as above, Stir in the icing sugar, coffee and rum. Add more coffee if it's too dry, but be careful – you need surprisingly little liquid. Spread over the cool cake.

Decorate as desired: random scattered scrapings of white chocolate, artistically placed slivered almonds or cumquats. NB: the kumquats may ooze over the next few days spoiling the look and possibly the texture, so add them just before serving – unless you like rum-soaked kumquat cake and icing, in which case leave them on there and feast.

Store in a sealed container for up to five days but it's best in the first three days.