From seed to plate...Buon Appetito!

23 March 2010

The AGM was followed by a very interesting talk by Paolo Arrigo from Seeds of Italy (the company that supplies Franchi Seeds) www.seedsofitaly.com. We have used Franchi Seeds with much success: we had (and are continuing to have) a fabulous crop of cavalo nero and we managed to grow some long red onions from seed last year (see below). Paolo spoke enthusiastically about how many of the Italian seed varieties are (contrary to popular belief) so well suited to the British climate and he recounted some wonderful anecdotes about life in Italy, the types of produce that are grown, the regionality of such produce and of course, how the Italians like to use the produce. We could have listened to him ALL night and were all rather peckish at the end! Seeds and books were for sale afterwards so we came home armed with the following:


Basil Foglia di Lattuga - Lettuce Leaf Basil - this should produce leaves the size of your hand so ideal for wrapping around mozzarella balls and drizzled with olive oil or around slices of parma ham and shave with parmesan


Tomato Principe Borghese (da Appendere or Eternal tomatoes) - you put the whole plant upside down at the end of the season and hang it (in a shed for example) so you can harvest the tomatoes for months


Courgette Romanesco - Paolo highly recommended these saying that they had a nutty flavour and were a restaurant quality courgette] check variety]


Tomato Cuor di Bue (Coeur de Boeuf) - as recommended by Raymond Blanc - 'Ox Heart' beef tomato, so called because of its size and shape. A lovely slicing tomato due to its meaty flesh, and few seeds. Unbeatable in salads or with slices of fresh mozzarella and basil


Red onion - Rossa Lunga di Firenze - we grew these very successfully last year so have chosen them again. Regional red onion variety from Florence in Tuscany. Nice and sweet so good to use raw in salads.


Yellow dwarf beans - (Romax Meraviglia di Venezia). Paolo suggested that the best method of preserving these beans is to freeze them so you just pick the beans when ripe and put them straight in the freezer. They are great hot as a vegetable, but equally as nice as a cold bean salad dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. When you need to use them there is no need to soak them for hours, you can simply add them to dishes, cooking them for 30-40 minutes or so. The same goes for borlotti beans that we will also be sowing this year.

Multi-coloured carrots White, purple, orange and yellow carrot! Should be interesting!

We also have some Franchi seeds left over from last year:



Giant leeks
Tomatoes - Rio Grande
Spaghetti Squash
Romaine lettuce
Courgette -Zucchera Rugosa Friulana - the ugly one! This has a slightly nutty taste and tends to keep its shape well.

We also came home with a copy of Paolo's book "From Seed to Plate"(signed by the man himself) so are already planning what to cook with our produce!

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening that has spurred us into action!

The 25th anniversary Spring Show

Saturday 20 March 2010

Walton & District Allotment & Garden Society held its 25th Anniversary Spring Show at Elm Grove Hall featuring exhibits of Flowers, Cookery, Handicrafts, Photography and much more!

Once exhibits had been staged and the all important judging had taken place, the Show was open to the public and the Deputy Mayor came along to present awards. The weather hadn't been very kind to us all this year so there were significantly less spring flowers (daffodils and tulips) than in previous years but the entries in the cookery classes certainly made up for it! Whoever was judging those classes wouldn’t have gone home hungry! They included: cup cakes, chocolate brownies, treacle tart, cheesecake, coffee sandwich cake, cheese and potato pie, cheese and onion bread, marmalade and chutney! They must have been fit for bursting!

Some of our entries were:

This was my 3rd prize winning entry into the photographic category "My favourite place"

My 3rd prize winning entry in the toy class - Eddie the Elephant

My non-prize winning brownies

Third prize-winning baby booties in the knitting section


An auricula that we had grown from seed (taking the green seeds from a plant in the garden).

and some more general pictures of a very pleasant afternoon:

There's nothing more satisifying than a good clear out...

14 March 2010

Especially when you get some lovely meals out of the casting out!



We pulled up the last of the leeks to make space for some Spring planting. They weren't as fat as they were last year but they were certainly very tasty and we have had a good few meals out of them (leek & potato soup; leeks wrapped in ham; chicken, leek & mustard pasta).



One of the brassica tunnels was also cleared as the cavalo nero had finished (we still have one tunnel bursting with it) and we needed the space to plant some parsnips and beetroot. We haven't had much success with beetroot over the last couple of years which is odd as everyone says it is a really easy crop to grow so fingers crossed, this year we will have some better results, especially as we like it so much! This Raymond Blanc recipe has become a recent favourite of ours:



We constructed a new brassica tunnel on the plot. We have decided to put the bigger crops that take up a great deal of space on the new plot (brassicas, courgettes, rhubarb etc) and will probably put our potatoes on part of it too as they should do a wonderful job of cleaning the soil.



Whilst digging over the new plot we unearthed a couple of slow worms who must have come up to the surface for a sunbathe. Thankfully we managed to avoid skewering them with a fork, so we relocated them to the raised bit at the back of plot so they could scurry away into the undergrowth.

Lots of rays of sunshine...

Sunday 7 March 2010

... and the digging continues. It is slow going as there is so much glass, stones and general 'rubbish' on the new plot, having been used as a dumping ground for so many years. One problem we are having is that we are fast filling up the blue wheelie bin with stones and glass that it is simply getting too heavy to move!



The broad beans are generally doing well although some have either not come up so we will fill in the gaps in the hopes of having a bumper crop this year.



The garlic and onions are also growing very nicely - amazingly we managed to get the garlic in the ground well BEFORE Christmas this time so we have high hopes especially as we have been so unusually organised for once!