episode 206| show notes & advice
episode description
Be it a fully fledged kitchen garden, or a few window boxes outside your back door, It’s never too early to start planning which edibles you want to grow for the season ahead.
Following last week’s flower-focused episode, this week’s ‘grow, cook, eat, arrange’ continues the sowing theme to highlight Sarah’s top pick of outstanding edibles to grow from seed from the beginning of the year, through to the end of March.
In this episode, discover
- How to embrace winter growing, sowing some of the hardiest crops for tasty salads and nutritious greens to liven up winter dishes
- Which varieties offer the most transformative, flavoursome plants – from the punchy flavour of mustard wasabi to the ‘Sungold’ tomato’s unbeatable sweetness
- Tips on sowing direct into gutter pipes or outdoors with protection
links and references
Order Sarah’s new book - A Year Full of Pots
Order Sarah’s book - A Year Full of Flowers
Order Sarah’s book - A Year Full of Veg
Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook | Sarah Raven
Shop on the Sarah Raven Website
Get in touch: info@sarahraven.com
Episode 206 advice sheet
Salad rocket, continental lettuce and mizuna (3:20)
In the first few weeks of the year you can sow some extremely versatile and rewarding edibles. Salad rocket is top of the list, with a peppery taste that lifts any shop bought bagged salad or a humble risotto.
For something gentler in flavour, try a loose leaf cut-and-come-again lettuce – Sarah rates ‘Cocarde’. Meanwhile for a versatile Mizuna to add to stir fries and soups ‘Red Knight’ is slow to bolt and has an intense flavour that’s a favourite with the chef Raymond Blanc.
Chervil, spinach and mustard (7:15)
Hardiest of all the herbs in Sarah’s experience is chervil, with beautiful lacy leaves which have a slightly fennel-like taste. It also bounces back from frost and snow making it a wise choice if you live somewhere exposed.
A pair of flavour-packed hardy spinach – ‘Medania’ and ‘Rubino’ – make a great combination. ‘Rubino’ with its crimson veins and ‘Medania’ with rich, dark leaves.
For mustards to grow in early Feb Sarah recommends ‘Red Frills’ with its distinct taste of freshly cooked new potatoes, while mustard wasabi is a fantastic cut-and-come-again variety which is as strong as the name suggests.
Another standout lettuce, flat-leaf parsley and coriander (10:40)
Among the oldest and most beloved lettuce varieties is the 'Merveille de Quatre Saisons' – the marvel of four seasons – beautiful with its bronze outer leaves, and ideal for successional sowing.
Yet another favourite of Sarah’s, and top of all its trials, is the flat leaf parsley 'Gigante di Napoli'. It’s superb in salad or scattered over tomatoes, and is perfectly happy throughout the cold winter months. Just don’t forget to soak the seeds ahead of sowing.
Two top tomatoes, pea ‘Nairobi’ and courgette ‘Bianca’ (13:45)
If you know Sarah, then you’ll know she absolutely adores two particular tomatoes; ‘Sungold’ and ‘Black Russian’. Both superb, the former with the sweetest flavour of any tomato, and the latter being a large, deeply coloured beefsteak variety.
For more sweetness, the pea ‘Nairobi’ is a top quality sugar snap type with succulent pods that are never stringy. Topping off this list is the courgette ‘Bianca’, a pale skinned quick cropping courgette that, if lifted away from the soil to prevent rot, will deliver a wonderfully steady supply.
