Author: Tabula Rasa

Salad – Red Salad Bowl

Red Salad Bowl is an attractive loose leaved lettuce that you can cut and come again. It holds an AGM at the time of publishing.

Parsnip Gladiator F1

This is an absolute beast of a parsnip that lives up to it’s name. An RHS award winning parsnip at the time of publishing the roots when mature can get to a good 10 cm across and might win you a prize in the biggest parsnip competition.

Potato Mayan Gold

Sometimes a trendy vegetable comes along that everyone is talking about but often when you try it you are left a little bemused as to what all the fuss is about. This is not the case with Mayan Gold potatoes. These potatoes are a recent introduction bred from the Peruvian Phureja potatoes.

Pea – Alderman

Many years ago the cutting of pea sticks to provide support for tall growing peas was common place. The world wars, where labour was short and modern farming techniques has pretty much put paid to the growing of large pea varieties except for the home gardener.

Kale – Red Russian

Kale was one of a very few fresh vegetables available in the winter months. Perhaps for this reason, alongside the fact that many kales can be pretty tough and bitter once vegetables could be imported it fell heavily out of fashion.

Chop Suey Greens / Shungiku

If you are a keen gardener you are likely to come across James Wong. James is famous (notorious?) for introducing unusual vegetables to British gardens and kitchens. One of the plants he recommends is Shungiku, a tall and if you let it flower, quite a cheery Chrysanthemum.

Runner Bean White Lady

I grew these runner beans this year after a friend described them as “the best runner beans they had ever grown”. With a recommendation like that, who wouldn’t want to try them?

Potato Purple Majesty

You would be forgiven for thinking these crisps are beetroot. In fact they are a purple potato called purple majesty.

Runner Bean Wisley Magic

Wisley Magic is a heritage variety red flowered runner bean which is often considered one of the best for flavour and having that “old fashioned runner bean taste”.

Tomato – Sungold F1

Sungold is the taste topping tomato sensation. This cherry tomatoes unusual orange colour and intense sweet taste make it a joy to eat and is almost universally popular with amateur growers

Tomato – Green Zebra

If you want to confuse your friends try feeding them Green Zebra Tomatoes. These were bred in the 1980’s by the famous tomato breeder Tom Wagner and whilst ripe tomatoes will take on a slightly yellow tone, they never stray far from the name that they are given.

Tomato Principe Borghese

The weather in the UK is rarely good enough to sun dry tomatoes but having recently bought a dehydrator I decided to grow some tomatoes specifically bread for sun drying.

Kale – Peacock Tail Mix F1

Kale is one of the those vegetables that we all know is healthy but quite often don’t like it very much so it is often relegated to smoothies, crispy seaweed or crisps.

French Bean – Purple Teepee

I grew purple teepee attracted by the idea of having wonderful purple beans easy to see above the foliage. This was for both looks with the wonderful colour contrast between purple and green but also ease of harvesting I’ve always found purple beans hard to see against the earth.

French Bean – Golden Teepee

I first tried tepee beans attracted by the idea of having plants that proudly display their beans on top of the foliage, rather than rooting around under the leaves to find them and less chance of dirt splash back.

Courgette – Zuccini

The Italian for corgette is Zuccini so these are effectively corgette corgette. Despite the unoriginal naming these are a good corgette plant.

Potato – Winston

I’ve not had much success growing first earlies that get to a large enough size to be bakers.

Courgette – Romanesco

If you want to grow a well behaved corgette with flavour then you won’t go far wrong with this one.

Pea Carouby De Maussane

Carouby de maussane is a heritage mangetout type pea. It’s has pretty purple tinted flowers and the pods themselves have an unusual translucent quality and unusually still remains tender even when the peas have started to form.

Swerford Open Gardens

For those who live in or near the Cotswolds the Swerford open gardens is a must. Happening every three to five years around ten garden in this charming village from small cottage to large estates to Chelsea gold medal winning flower arrangements in the church open their doors to a thousand plus people.

Broad Bean – De Monica

De Monica is advertised as one of the earliest spring down broad beans to harvest and should from a Feb planting it is claimed be ready to harvest in May.

Wholegrain Pita

When you read the back of even “heathy” wholemeal bread the list of additives is shocking. Pita is great fun to involve the kids with, sticky kneading  and then watching the pita rise in to small balloons in the oven and they are also child’s play to make. These are great with Hummus Prep Time:…

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Hummus

As the recent humus crisis has shown, the people of the UK who previously would have viewed a chickpea dip as foreign muck have wholeheartedly embraced the humble hummus and now find it hard to forgo their leguminous fix.

Pepper – Poblano Ancho

Poblano Ancho are a mild Mexican Chilli which is often smoked and dried. Because of its large size and mildness I grow it to use as you would a bell pepper. They are easy to grow and have a beautiful taste, much more interesting than supermarket pepper with a slight hint of bitter.

Parsnip – The Student

The Student is a heritage parsnip developed around 1850 by James Buckman originally as an experiment to prove that existing strains could be improved by crossing with a wild parsnip. The results were so good that you can still buy the seed today.

Chilli Squid

When ordering squid as a starter it almost is always covered in batter. Maybe it is because we sqeemishly turn away from the tentacles or because they assume that British people can’t eat anything other that battered or breaded fish.

Making The Bed

I’m still playing around with the perfect layout for my plot. Last year I tried 4ft beds going across the plot. These seemed a bit narrow so this year I went for 5ft beds which fitted perfectly along the plot, which also takes advantage of the slight south slope.

Tabula Rasa In Action

The new year begins and we practice patience, waiting for the perfect time to prepare the soil for the year ahead. Too much rain and the allotment turns into a bog, too little and the heavy clay becomes concrete.

Pesto

Homemade pesto has a lovely fresh zing to it that you don’t get with store bought and you can also control the oils that go in and add ingredients that you fancy.

Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahibli – Dehli

Arriving in India for the first time is always going to be an experience. Turning up after the prime minister has withdrawn two of the most commonly used bank notes from circulation is something else altogether.

Al Boccon Di’Vino is Non Solo Vino

It’s taken us seven years to get to this small Italian restaurant in Richmond Surrey, in part because of its long waiting list. Run by Riccardo a characterful Italian it was an experience well worth waiting for.

Steamed Whole Fish with Ginger, Chilli and Spring Onions

This is a beautiful fresh, light and zingy recipe that looks great so I often serve it for lunch with friends or part of an evening banquet. I first cooked this after a memorable trip to a local food market in Hong Kong where the fish was so fresh we chose it still swimming in the tank.