How long have you been growing your own fruit and veg?
Fside from planting one potato with my nan as an experiment when I was little, and occasionally picking from my mum's rhubarb plant, I wasn't really into gardening and growing my own veg until I moved out of a flat into a house with a postage stamp of a garden - it was a new build so the garden was basically rubble if you scratched the surface, but I put in a couple of raised beds and thought I would see what veg I could grow.
Like with most things, once I'm interested, I go all in, so after that I got the bug and I put my name on the allotment list. F few years later - in May 2021- I got the call to say I was at the top of the list and this was when I really started in earnest!
I immediately got to work on my plot (despite it raining solidly for the first month) and it became my own little productive haven for two years until we were lucky enough to move out of the centre of town to a village where the garden plots are fairly big! I then set about converting what was lawn before into a permaculture-inspired allotment and food forest and I'm still building on that and changing things around now.
Do you have a favourite veg to grow?
I think it's a toss-up between carrots, garlic and squash-squash mainly because I love how a mixed squash patch looks in autumn as the squash are ripening and the vines are starting to die off- it feels a bit magical! I eat so much garlic though and it's easy to grow, so that's definitely up there, and we get through a lot of carrots too as we have a bunny who enjoys the tops. If you get the conditions right, you'll get a lovely crop of carrots and it's fun to sow rainbow seeds and guess the colour of the carrot you're going to pull up!
Do you have a favourite recipe (or preserve) made from your homegrown produce you could share?
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2024-Ausgabe von Kitchen Garden.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2024-Ausgabe von Kitchen Garden.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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A FOOD FOR ALL SEASONS
Another Christmas has passed in a whirl of twinkling lights, naff jumpers and Brussels sprouts. No doubt we smug kitchen gardeners were patting ourselves on the back after another year of home-grown delights on the dinner table. Frost-sweetened parsnips dripping with butter, tender carrots and potatoes grown and roasted by our good selves. Not to mention the swede, turnips, cabbages and other winter treats. If you're reading this while Christmas memories are fresh, you might feel your waistline expanding just thinking about it. For some, it might even be too soon to talk about food full stop!
DIGGING THE DIRT THINGS THAT GO CLUNK IN THE LIGHT
John Holloway finds the mechanical and electrical tools on his allotment site somewhat 'challenging', shall we say. But has he found the perfect solution?
THE BIG (OR LITTLE) PARSNIP GROW-ALONG
Back in December we included a free packet of parsnip seeds with every issue and invited readers to join us in growing the longest root. Here are some top tips to get you started
DIGGING FOR DEVON!
Rhiannon Alcock thought gardening was definitely not for her. So who could have foreseen that one day she would go on to found a thriving community project growing food for food banks?
WINTER WONDERFUL
This month Anna Cairns Pettigrew has prepped a range of delicious and nutritious dishes for us all to try, with mustards, Savoy cabbage and 'Cavolo Nero' kale on the menu
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR COMPOST
Dr Anton Rosenfeld from Garden Organic shares some great ideas for ways to use your composted waste effectively
A wildlife pond is born
Jane Kelly finally got round to making her own pond in the hope that it would attract a variety of wildlife. And it did!
UNDER COVER
HARVEST WINTER SALADS - Winter salads, whether they have been growing outside, on a windowsill or under cover in the garden, will be starting to grow faster as the day length increases. Regular picking of the outer leaves helps to keep the plants healthy and producing for much longer.
HERB OF THE MONTH: SAGE ADVICE
Sage has been an important culinary and medicinal herb for centuries but it also comes in a range of leaf colours that makes it a real treat for the eyes (and nose) in borders and pots
CREATING A POTAGER GARDEN
Creating vegetable beds in patterns with dividing pathways can be an attractive and practical way to grow. Emma Rawlings offers some tips on making a potager
