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Little Green Space |
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Little Green Space |
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LITTLE GREEN SPACE Originally published in the Peak Advertiser on 7 August 2008
There
have been many stories in the press recently about rising food prices, and
apparently the average family's yearly food spend is set to rocket. So
I feel really lucky to be able to grow some of my own vegetables. It's
hard to tell yet whether our weekly shopping bill is getting any smaller,
but we haven't had to buy potatoes or salad for quite a while now. The
first onions and garlic have just been harvested, and the pea plants are
producing a bumper crop every week or so. And this morning I pulled up the
first of the carrots and a parsnip. Okay, I know, I know — parsnips
should stay in the ground until after the first frosts, to improve the
flavour. But October seems such a long way off and I just couldn't wait to
see how they are doing! Growing
your own requires some work though. The last few weeks have been
particularly dry and sunny so the vegetable patch has needed to be watered
every day. Weeds need to be cleared regularly, and gardeners need to watch
out for slugs and snails, which can devour a whole salad crop in just one
night. The
benefits However,
there is nothing as satisfying as digging up potatoes you have grown
yourself, or gathering salad leaves to enjoy with a meal. And the benefits
don't stop there. Growing your own food is good for our planet too.
There's no needless packaging, the food miles are non-existent and, if you
garden organically, you know that your food isn't coated in chemicals like
pesticides. Alongside
all this, the physical work and fresh air fresh are good for your health.
And to top it all, the food tastes better as well! Of
course, not everybody has the space for a vegetable garden or is lucky
enough to have an allotment. But there are a lot of things you can grow in
containers — and some plants really thrive when grown this way. We have
several pots of outdoor tomatoes and there is even a variety called
‘Tumbling Tom’ which can be grown in a hanging basket. Herbs, too, are
great in pots, as are strawberries and blueberries. But I'll come back to
the blueberries later! Feeding
the Family I
would love to be able to provide all my family's fruit and vegetables from
my small plot, but few people are able to achieve this. I'm still learning
about growing fruit and vegetables, and part of that process — as with
most things — is learning from my mistakes. So
when slugs eat my lettuces (as happened last month!) I will need to buy
salad from somewhere else. Now, though, I am beginning to really think
about where our food comes from, and to try to shop wisely. A great way to
do this is to buy local produce whenever possible. There is an incredible
range of mouth-watering food produced in the Peak District, and some
products — the Bakewell Pudding or Hartington cheese, not least — have
become well known. One
of the best places to start finding out about local food is at the monthly
farmers' markets, held at Bakewell, Buxton, Matlock and other locations
across the Peak. We
visited Bakewell Farmers' Market last week and I was amazed at the amount
of locally-produced food. The halls were packed with stalls brimming over
with organic vegetables, meats, bread, cakes and preserves. There was
flour on sale from Heage Windmill, the only working windmill in
Derbyshire, and there was honey made by bees in hives up on Beeley Moor as
well as near Ladybower Reservoir in the It
is even possible to buy beer produced in the Peak District. Local
breweries produce real ales with evocative names such as Noggin Filler,
Ambler Rambler and Jaipur. Shop
Locally If
you can't make it to one of the farmers’ markets, there are literally
dozens of shops and farms selling local produce across the Peak District.
For a list of retailers, and for more information on local food, visit www.peakdistrictfoods.co.uk. As
well as supporting our local economy, buying locally, like growing your
own, is great for the environment. The energy used to get it from farm to
fork is minimal and again, there's a lot less packaging. Anyway,
back to the blueberries. Our blueberry bushes, planted in tubs of
ericaceous compost on the patio, are producing huge amounts of fruit this
year. It has become part of our routine to pop out first thing in the
morning to gather a handful of berries for breakfast. The
plants themselves don't need much space, and as well as producing their
delicious fruit, they have sweetly-scented bell-shaped blossoms in the
spring and leaves that turn an attractive red colour in the autumn. If
you do grow your own blueberries, try cooking these hearty, filling
pancakes for a Sunday breakfast treat. American
Style Pancakes with Blueberries Serves
four (or two if you're really hungry!) Ingredients: 6
oz plain flour 2
teaspoons baking powder Half
a teaspoon of salt 2
teaspoons sugar 2
free-range eggs 8
fl.oz milk 3
oz butter
Method: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and stir
in the sugar. Melt the butter in a small (8 inch) frying pan over a low
heat. Meanwhile, whisk up the eggs in a jug with the milk, then add the
melted butter and mix well. Add this to the flour mixture a little at a
time and mix well to form a smooth, thick batter.
Put 4 tablespoons of the mixture into the frying pan and cook for a
couple of minutes each side, until lightly browned. Add a teaspoon of
butter to the pan between pancakes to prevent sticking. Serve hot with a
handful of blueberries and drizzled with maple syrup — or local honey!
Penny
at Little Green Space |
