Today's Favourite.........Nasturtiums

So Nasturtiums.........

What is not to love? They come in every flower colour from deepest crimson to pale tones of creamy yellow. Some of them have mottled leaves, some are green and some are even a bluey tone. They grow really easily from seed, and can be sown in situ and still be relied on to grow. The happily trail over a wall, or live in a hanging basket, asking only for watering and little else.  They are a great plant for those areas where you can see the bare earth and will clamber through other plants, making a border rich with colour. Of course they will also tempt the blackfly away from your roses and tomatoes, and will get going early in the season for companion planting in a polytunnel or glasshouse and be ready long before the traditional tagetes.

But what I love about them most is that in terms of edible plants they are amazingly good doers. The flowers offer their peppery taste to salads and also add that flash of beautiful colour to the bowl of mainly green. It adds a touch of glamour and decadence, and who doesn't like that? of course the leaves also offer a peppery hit to a salad and are not to be treated as second class citizens. In particular is the variety Blue Pepo, a unique variety bred for it's steel blue leaves, which are delicious and add another layer of colour to a summer salad.

And finally of course are the seeds which can be used to make what is known as "poor man's capers". They are delicious and can be used instead of capers in dishes and are amazingly simple to make. Below is the recipe from the River Cottage Preserved book, which has been my go to recipe book for all things pickled and preserved for many a year!!

Ingredients
15g salt
100g nasturtium seed pods
A few peppercorns (optional - I used them)
Herbs, such as dill or tarragon sprigs, or bay leaves (optional - I used bay leaves)
200ml white wine vinegar


Method

1. Make a light brine by dissolving the salt in 300ml water 
2. Separate out the seeds from any stalks or other plant parts and compost the latter. Also discard any seeds which are yellow or brown, these won't be tender and flavoursome after pickling
3. Put the remaining seeds into a bowl and cover with the cold brine. Leave for 24 hours
4. Drain the seed pods and dry well
5. Pack them into small, sterilised jars with the peppercorns and herbs, if using, and leaving 1cm at the top so the vinegar will cover the seeds well
6. Cover the seeds with vinegar and seal the jars with sterilised vinegar-proof lids
7. Store in a cool, dark place and leave for a few weeks before eating. Use within a year.

Makes 2 x 115g jars. 

A Trip to Yeo Valley.

Yeo Valley Organic Garden is one of very few gardens with Soil Association organic certification, and is just down the road from us in Bristol so on a warm, sunny May Sunday when it was open for the National Gardens Scheme, we decided it was too good an opportunity to miss and off we went.
Now it has to be said I know this garden relatively well having visited on a few occasions and am always knocked sideways by how well it is kept considering it relies solely on people power. In fact I posted a photo on Instagram of the veg garden and one person almost refused to believe it could be so tidy in an organic system. It is, of course, down to a truly committed team of highly skilled, professional gardeners and their tireless work and it's also proof that you can garden completely organically and still have a stunning garden.
It was amazing to see the garden so busy, with car loads of folk arriving to see the garden, particularly as it was a day that was benefiting the National Gardens Scheme. The garden is also open throughout the season so it's worth looking at the Yeo Valley website and seeing when and popping along
So here is a walk through the visit with photos.

Those yellow signs never fail to make my heart sing!!

The stunning vegetable garden with views of the rolling Somerset hills.

The herbaceous borders that lead from the veg patch to the meadows. Alight with the freshness of lime green Euphorbia, tulips and fresh spring growth. The darkness of the Pittosporum Tom Thumb really makes these colours zing.

The meadow, full of stunning flowering Camassia. 

The Crab Apple walk which was alive with bees, who's hives are in the adjoining field, full of flower and the promise of the harvest to come. 

The main garden is full of colour, again all with a nod to pollination but also in a very designed, modern herbaceous border way, that really lends itself to the landscape behind it. The large pond, just out of shot, echoes Chew Valley Lake which is the other side if the wall.

Purples and pinks abound in Spring,making the freshness of the spring foliage particularly bright and zingy.

Wisteria features heavily in this part of the garden, covering walls, fences and pergolas and again supporting the bees that live so close.

I love a good piece of garden sculpture and this, I think, is lovely. It sits at the end of a new piece of garden where you can sit and look out at Chew Valley Lake.

Mint and other herbs sit on the patio outside the cafe, in containers of all types. As the Yeo Valley dairy is next door, there is an emphasis on using the recycled containers used in milk production.

The promise of the year ahead....

Tulips in pots adorn the outside area of the most spectacular greenhouse!

The greenhouse. Closed on really busy days but I have been allowed into these hallowed halls and what an amazing space, full of non hardy tropical type plants that come outside in the summer.

Robbing the Flower Fields.....

Flowers. No matter who you are it's impossible to be unresponsive to the beauty of a flower, and to be able to combine flowers and food is an extraordinary phenomenon that can lead to a really emotional connection with what it is being eaten. Part of my and Incredible Edible Bristol's remit, if you like, is creating both beautiful and productive spaces across the city of Bristol, and use of edible flowers is vital to meeting that. So imagine my delight when I was asked, with Incredible Edible Bristol, to put together two small raised beds in the new Grow Zone at RHS Malvern; one that speaks of the city centre Urban Food Trail and one that supports the more beautiful side of what we do, in showing beautiful blooms that we use, either as edible flowers or to attract pollinators, and all of which are British grown.

So fast forward a few weeks and I had a chat with Jan Billington of Maddocks Farm Organics who grows the most stunning array of edible flowers, some which are instantly recognisable as such but some which are a surprise, such as Wisteria which tastes like peas, who said she was more than happy for me to pop along and raid her flower fields. Well that is not an every day offer now is it folks, so yesterday, with our amazing volunteer coordinator Hannah, off we doodled to have a look.
Now I am a long time fan of Jan. Anyone who creates an organic flower farm on overgrown Devon fields, and grows not just a huge range of edible flowers but also looks after the land and the soil to high organic principles, is inevitably going to be a hero. And oh my.......when I say the farm is beautiful what I mean is the farm is heart rendingly beautiful. Not only are all the plants stunning, healthy and pest free, but the farm is buzzing with life. We saw three different species if bees in one polytunnel alone. Swallows were swooping and buzzards flying. A gigantic bug hotel sits by a pond teaming with life. Swathes of plants are there for pollinators alone. And of course by supporting those pollinators, Jan is supporting the blossoming and blooming of the flowers that make her business sustainable both for people and planet.

Often we see edible flowers as a by product. We might grow Tagetes for example as companion planting and then pick a few flowers to zing up a salad. We might grow Borage for the bees and then fling a few flowers into a salad or a gin and tonic. We all grow violas as part of bedding or hanging basket schemes. Our Wisterias are dripping in glorious flower. But instead of looking at these flowers as incidental perhaps we should begin to look at them as a great way of bringing beauty into the vegetable garden and treating them as a really important part of our salad offering. A salad with mustards, sweet cicely and chervil leaves and flowers, borage flowers, calendula petals, violas and primroses, wild rocket with its flowers attached and bells blooms, is far more exciting than a sad bit of iceberg, and tastes amazing, with different bursts of flavour appearing with each mouthful. Plus of course the more flowers we grow, the more pollinators we attract.

So perhaps let's take inspiration from Jan and l add beauty to our veg patches with more flowers that we grow to eat whilst marvelling at Jan at Maddocks Farm and the many ways we see people farming beautiful British flowers.

Alliums just beginning to open ready for use.

Beautiful calendulas flooring their socks off in the polytunnels and making a grey day bright.

White borage, sweet and full of nectar as well as being covered with bees, which annoyingly weren't in the mood for posing!

Jan grows an amazing array of tulips, and the petals are used to adorn wedding cakes amongst other things.

Two to three inches of local, organic manure is spread on the beds each year, feeding the flora and fauna in the soil that are vital for good organic growth.