If you have any sort of garden or pot, you can grow an edible garden, you definitely don't need an allotment! What might help you though is this brilliant new book by Vicky Chown, the amazing head grower of @omvedgardens and half of @handmade_apothecary 🍅🌶🥕🥬
As you've come to expect with Bloom books, it is properly packed and really hardworking. It starts with all the nuts and bolts you need, from shaping and planning your space to organising a planting list and sowing seeds. The edible directory covers ALL the specific growing information for tonnes of plants – and you can grow loads in your borders and any little gap you have 🌸
So go on – make this the year you grow your own tomatoes (and kale and carrots and chillies and artichokes)!
Edible Garden is out on April 4th and you can snag yours by pre-ordering now: 💫
Cornflower lemonade: a Polish tradition
Last year, in Poland, I fell in love with the local lemonade recipe: a mildly fermented soda using beautiful blue cornflower petals and sugar that turns into a bright pink fizzy drink.
It isnt something we do here in the UK, at least that I have never come across. Polish ethnobotanist, Łukasz Łuczaj @thewildfood said he has only seen it in Poland, and kindly agreed to translate his video into an English version so that you can learn how to do it here too.
His website is here: http://lukaszluczaj.pl/
& his instagram can be found here: @thewildfood
Cornflower recipe here
Recipe: Nettle seed joint balm
Nettle seeds have been used by herbalists to create a warming, circulatory sensation that eases aches and pains, especially for osteoarthritis.
Read moreHawthorn: create a flower-berry brandy
Hawthorn shrubs are a common sight in wild and garden hedgerows, making a beautiful display with their spring pink and white blooms and later in autumn with their plump red berries. They can also be used to create a delicious tipple which is also used by herbalists for supporting the heart.
Read moreSpring foraging: Wild Garlic Video
Throw back to a couple of years ago when we got together with Tom at Omved Gardens to have a little wild galric forage.
Have you found wild garlic yet? What are you making? We have two main types near us: Ramsons (Allium ursinum) and three-cornered leek (Allium triquetrum). We have recipes for both on the blog, access these using the search bar below, but include favourites such as wild garlic and cheese scones and deliciously creamy Garlicamole. Let us know what you are cooking below in the comments.