Creating a Community Garden

There is probably a small area of abandoned land near where you live. Maybe you’ve thought it could be usefully converted into a community garden or allotments for local residents. Here in Dinas Powys, we have taken the first steps toward converted an abandoned play area into a community garden. I will outline the process in a series of posts, to demonstrate one way in which it can be done.

With Council spending cuts, the maintenance of children’s play areas has been one of the first things to suffer. There must be numerous former play areas around the UK that are now neglected. Concerns were raised last year about one such former play area, between Nightingale Place and Sir Ivor Place in Dinas Powys. It has become a drinking place for young people, and the resulting antisocial behaviour has become of concern to local residents. Therefore, Elizabeth Millard, Chairperson of the Dinas Powys Residents Group, and Councillor Keith Hatton (Plaid Cymru), initiated a project to secure this area with a fence and turn it into a place where local residents could grow their own food.

The first thing to do is find out who owns the land in question and talk to the relevant people. In this case, the land is owned by the Housing Department of the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Even the footpath past the former play area is owned by Housing, rather then Highways (so Waste Management do not service it, which has exacerbated the poor appearance of the site). After talking to senior people in the Vale of Glamorgan Council, including Mike Ingram (Housing) and Clifford Parish (Waste Management), Elizabeth and Keith got an agreement with the Council for changing the use of the land. The Council will lease the land, free of charge, to the Dinas Powys Residents Group for the purpose of establishing a community garden.

Your local council might have someone employed to help you with community projects like this. Here in the Vale of Glamorgan, Elizabeth and Keith were fortunate to be able to call on Rob McGhee, who works for Creative Rural Communities: a new regeneration and economic development initiative led by the Vale of Glamorgan Council in partnership with various public, private and voluntary sector organisations. The aim of the initiative is to give the people of the rural Vale the power to control the future of their communities. They can provide some initial funding, but Rob’s main role will be to help project manage and obtain funds from Welsh Government sources.

In Wales, funding for the establishment of community gardens on waste ground can be sought from several bodies, including the Rural Development Plan for Wales (2007-2013), a joint Welsh Government and European Union strategy. Funding for the Dinas Powys project will be sought, in the first instance, through Tidy Towns Wales: an initiative launched by the Welsh Government in 2008. Tidy Towns funding is given to local authorities and the Keep Wales Tidy group to empower people to make improvements to their local environment. Projects previously funded have included graffiti and litter clean-ups, fencing, and the transformation of wasteland into community gardens and allotments. Tidy Towns also organize groups of volunteers who can help with clearing wasteland at key stages during projects like this.

In the next few weeks, contractors will be met at the site in Dinas Powys. They will provide estimates for the costs of erecting fencing and clearing the ground. This information will be fed into the grant application process.

The first things to do on the ground will be to fence off the area; take up the rubber surface (which used to be under the play equipment) and the concrete; and remove the weeds, dig up tree roots, and cut back the encroaching hedge. Later, water will be bought into the site at a stand pipe (through Welsh Water) and a communal shed erected.

A first meeting was held this morning (14 Jan) at Murchfield Community Hall, where Elizabeth and Keith informed a group of interested local residents of developments. A core group of local residents will be established as things progress to help establish the community garden.

The layout within the area (920.88 square metres) will be determined at a later date, although it was estimated that around eight plots could comfortably sit within the site. Ideally, the site will be kept flexible to meet the needs of residents. The meeting discussed the possibility of both communal areas (e.g., communal orchard and seating area) and individual plots within the site.

A project like this offers significant improvements in the environment and the quality of life for local residents, especially those living in flats without gardens and those who look to gardening for exercise, recreation, and an extension of their social life.

I will follow progress step-by-step. It may make you look at that piece of derelict land in your own neighbourhood with fresh eyes. Can you envisage beans, potatoes, tomatoes and fruit bushes, instead of those weeds and lager cans?

The next meeting here in Dinas Powys will be held on 18 February at Murchfield Community Hall. I’ll keep you posted.

Further information:
Creative Rural Communities:
http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/working/regeneration/rural_regeneration.aspx

Tidy Towns:
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/epq/cleanneighbour/tidytowns/?lang=en

Pieminister: Where’s the Lard?

The cookbook under the Christmas tree for me this year was pieminister: a pie for all seasons (2011) by Tristan Hogg and Jon Simon, who started making pies together in the early 1990s. They opened the first Pieminister shop in Bristol in 2004. They also traded from a van at Glastonbury 2004, and their pies have been available at all good music festivals (e.g., Green Man) ever since.

The book is full of good pie-making ideas and, as the title suggests, is divided up seasonally. It starts with Spring, which includes Posh Paddy’s Pie, Homity Pie, Rhubard and Custard Pie, and St Valentine’s Day Pie. Summer includes Jerk Chicken Pie, The Screaming Desperado, Surfers’ Pie, Pietanic, and Courgette and Chickpea Filo Pie. Among the Autumn selection is Pulled Pork, Cider and Sage Pies, Pheasant and Bath Chaps Pie, Wabbit Roll, Chicken and Butternut Squash Curry Pie, and Blackberry and Apple Pie. Winter includes Stargazing Quail Pie, Rabbit and Chorizo Pork Pie, and The Hedonist Pie.

There is therefore a mix of everyday and more specialist pies. And it’s not just pies; there are recipes for a pan-fried breakfast, smoked aubergines and olive strudel, and other quirky inclusions. There is an appealing home-made, community-based ethos behind Pieminister. The book captures this through sections on foraging, seasonal vegetable patch gardening, music festivals, and throwing a street party.

However, you should not buy this book and expect to turn out pies that taste just like those from the Pieminister van. Firstly, these are not necessarily the commercial recipes. The recipe given for the Pieminister Moo Pie (on page 80), for instance, states: “Sorry, we can’t give the exact Pieminister recipe for this steak and ale favourite (it’s a closely guarded secret), so this one’s a slight variation.”

Secondly, there’s the pastry. The shortcrust pastry recipe in the book (page 10) is made using butter as the only fat source (as is the rough puff pastry). It’s very short, very rich, and not quite the texture or taste of a commercial pie.

Traditionally, shortcrust pie pastry has been made using lard. The recipe for shortcrust pastry in The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book (first published 1944; page 351), for example, specifies half lard and half margarine or butter, while lard is also included in recipes for flaky, flan and rough puff pastry. The book stresses that good results are achieved with a mixture of fats.

Delia Smith in her Complete Cookery Course (1978) uses half lard and half margarine in her basic shortcrust pastry recipe (page 548). She notes that half lard to butter or margarine mixes are easier to rub in and handle, and have the best texture and flavour.

However, in more-recent cookbooks you are much less likely to see lard listed as a pastry ingredient. Lard is just not fashionable. Natural fats have generally been unfairly maligned, and lard especially so (artificial trans fats and hydrogenated fats are another matter, and richly deserve their maligning).

One almost imagines a manuscript arriving at a publishers, with the first recipe calling for half a block or (god forbid) a tub of lard. Alarm bells ring in the poor editor’s head (lard=loss of sales!). The publisher promptly calls the food writer asking whether it’s possible to loose the lard, or maybe loose all that nasty fat altogether. The food writer insists that fat is essential to pastry making, but is talked into replacing the lard with butter or margarine (or anything with a better image than lard). I am not saying that this was the case during the making of this particular book (lard is listed as an ingredient in the hot water crust pastry and there’s plenty of sound pastry-making advice), but I suspect such considerations are a factor in the production of today’s glossy lifestyle, celebrity chef cookbooks.

Our initial experiences with the Pieminister cookbook suggest it may become one of the more well-used volumes in our kitchen library. The Fan-Taffy Pie (page 136) was a big hit with the guests we served it to over the Christmas period. The photo depicts our Leftovers Pie (note to self: don’t do half measures, make full pastry amounts!).

Siop y Bobl, Cardiff

Siop y Bobl (The People’s Supermarket) held their latest meeting at the Festive Food Fair in Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, on Saturday (10 Dec 2011). The members of the Core Team introduced themselves and unveiled their plans for the coming year.

A People’s Supermarket has been operating successfully in London for a couple of years, but Siop y Bobl will be a unique venture in Cardiff. It will run as a local co-operative and open for business toward the end of 2012.

The key stages that need to be achieved in the coming months are, firstly, the completion of the Business Plan, and then the opening of a business bank account. Grants and funding will then be applied for. Suitable premises will be sought, while publicity and marketing will be taken up a gear. People with the necessary skills will be bought on board, while existing members will undergo training in appropriate areas (e.g., through Welsh Government and co-operative movement training schemes). Finally, potential suppliers will be assessed, using the ethical, environmental and local community values that are at the heart of the business.

Gwion acted as spokesperson and outlined the plans, values, and the necessary steps needed to achieve their goal. The other Core Team members - Kate, Andrew, Becca, Richard and Graham – noted their particular interests within the project. These included environmental issues and the benefits of local food production, keeping profits within the community, the value of involving local people as members, and enhancing food security and reducing food wastage. All agreed that Siop y Bobl will provide an ethical and sustainable convenience shopping alternative for Cardiff.

Public Relations and publicity will be increasing important next year. A website is under construction (on-line shopping is under discussion). James from BBC Radio Wales was recording proceedings on Saturday and, as an observer, will be following Siop y Bobl until its opening. His reports will use Siop y Bobl as an example of an ongoing community project. Needless to say, I’ll also be following progress on this blog.

After the meeting itself, Richard organized the Cook Up competition. Two teams of three were chosen from the audience and asked to cook items selected from a “supermarket shelf” within 30 minutes. The items were not labeled by price, however, but by carbon ratings (an estimate of how food production adversely contributes to climate change). Such are the ethical decisions that will be made when it comes to stock Siop y Bobl.

Team B (there was no team A) cooked Chestnut, mushroom and tomato rigatoni, while Team C made a Butternut squash, spinach and lentil curry. I was honoured to be on the judging panel. It was a close call, but we awarded the prize to the rigatoni (the meaty chesnuts being an inspired touch that really worked).

This will be the website (it’s still early days):
http://siopybobl.co.uk/

The People’s Supermarket in London (Siop y Bobl hopes to emulate its success):
http://www.thepeoplessupermarket.org/

Festive Food Fair, Chapter, Cardiff

Today’s Festive Food Fair at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff was a great success. There was a sizeable crowd and most of the stallholders were generally doing very good business.

I Want to Bake Free was selling, among other things, Victorian sponge cakes, gingerbread houses, loose tea and peppermint creams. The stall raised around £100 for the LATCH charity. The traditional tearoom will be opening, somewhere in Cardiff, next year. If David's stall at Chapter is anything to go by, it will be an interesting prospect.

Mark’s Bread had an eye-catching display. Although Bristol-based, Mark Newman sets up a stall every Wednesday afternoon at Chapter. Today we came home with Pan au Chocolate and a Malthouse loaf. Artisan slow-fermented sourdough bread was also available from Cardiff’s Hungry Planet and Bridgend-based Tortoise Bakery.

I always enjoy looking at The Parsnipship for their creative Vegetarian dishes, which today included a seasonal Roast Chestnut and Jerusalem Artichoke Dauphinoise. We went for the Lapsang-Souchong Smoked Butternut Lasagne, the Glamorgan Crumble, and a Stilton and Spinach Cake, which we heated up and had for dinner tonight.

Box vegetable schemes were being promoted by Riverside Market Garden (Cardiff) and Riverford Organic Veg (Devon). The other stallholders included Gwatkin Cider and Gwynt y Draig Cider, Llanfaes Dairy Ice Cream, The Nut Hut, Welsh Brew Tea, and Hipo Hyfryd.

There was also a range of workshops (gingerbread decoration, pottery, mosaics and more) and a raffle (I won a bottle of perry). Carols were performed under the Christmas tree by jazz singer Brigida Melly. The jazz arrangements fooled my daughter for a while, until she heard the words.

Outside the arts centre, there was a demonstration of a rocket jet-stove. This sealed unit can be used to cook potatoes (or chestnuts, as it did today). It is a very efficient way of burning wood, as it burns to a combustible gas that does the cooking. Biochar is producing as a by-product, which can be mixed with manure to make a great fertilizer.

A key part of proceedings was a meeting of Siop y Pobl (The People’s Supermarket), with the Core Group of this initiative updating us on progress, followed by a cooking competition. Siop y Pobl will be the subject of a longer blog post next week.

The Festive Fair was one of those events that exceeded expectations. Well done Chapter, Green City and Hedfan Arts for making it happen.

http://iwanttobakefree.blogspot.com/

http://www.marksbread.co.uk/

http://www.theparsnipship.co.uk/

Steve Garrett on Local Food in Cardiff

Earlier this week, Steve Garrett (Founding Director and Special Projects Manager for Riverside Community Market Association [RCMA] Social Enterprise Ltd) gave a public lecture in the ornate Glamorgan Building Committee Rooms of Cardiff University’s School of City and Regional Planning. He talked about his experiences with local food and Farmers’ Markets, lessons from which could help Cardiff achieve its 'Sustainable City' planning vision. A key challenge is to develop a more sustainable food system with increased consumption of locally-produced food.

Steve established the Riverside Farmers’ Market in 1998, based on markets he had seen in Canada. Riverside was to become the first of a new wave of street markets in the UK where local farmers and artisan producers sold directly to the public.

However, it soon became apparent that most of the people shopping at the Riverside Farmers’ Market were not from the local area; they were coming from more affluent areas, such as Pontcanna. RCMA subsequently established Farmers’ Markets in Roath, Rhiwbina and Llandaff North. These attracted more people from their immediate localities. Nevertheless, overall, there remains a sense that Farmers’ Markets are catering for a certain type of person (like the stereotypical affluent, middle-class “foodie”).

People who regard themselves as “non-Farmers’ Market people” have said that they do not necessarily feel comfortable shopping at them. Steve contrasted this with the situation in France, where everyone shops at markets regardless of their class. High footfall therefore does not necessarily equate with successful markets. The Farmers’ Market in Newport’s John Frost Square, for example, closed after three years. This is also the case when markets are located where people are not expecting to buy food (IKEA and The Red Dragon Centre being recent examples); although cakes always sell well, apparently.

There is also a perception that Farmers’ Markets are more expensive than supermarkets. Although this is true for some value-added or artisan products, it is not necessarily the case for fruit and vegetables. Value for money and quality also need to be taken into account. An artificially pumped-up frozen supermarket chicken may be cheaper, but an equivalently-sized organic Farmers’ Market chicken is likely to taste better and go further when feeding a family.

To broaden the customer base for local food, therefore, perceptions and attitudes must be changed. New approaches include greater community involvement, changing people’s views on quality and cost, and to establish a greater range of appropriate outlets to make locally-produced food more accessible.

Food systems are more than just about retail: they are also about culture and community. The mainstream supermarket sector will always have a bigger retail advertising budget, but local food schemes are more community-oriented. RCMA Social Enterprise Ltd found that a good place to start is schools. Children are taken on farm-trips, where they get to eat fresh vegetables (a novelty for many kids). Meanwhile, role models, such as Olympic-medal winning athletes from south Wales, visit schools to promote Real Food (with an emphasis on fresh local produce) and its importance to health. This provides an important alternative to the mainstream message, epitomized for Steve by the insanity of having McDonalds as a lead sponsor of the Olympics.

There is a potential problem with supply. If local food markets become more successful, then more food needs to be grown locally. To this end RCMA has established the Riverside Community Garden in Cardiff, and the 10-acre Riverside Market Garden close to Cardiff that will supply Farmers’ Markets stalls and their Vegetable Box scheme.

Much more food could be grown within Cardiff. Steve cites the WW2 Dig for Victory campaign, when Roath Park was ploughed and turned into productive allotments that enhanced the city’s food security. For a modern response to food production in the coming post-oil age, Cuba is the place to look. After Russia turned off its oil supply, the country turned to intensive, urban, organic agriculture with great success. Around 80% of Havana’s vegetables and salads, for example, are grown in organic urban agricultural redevelopment schemes.

In Britain, communities like Todmorden in West Yorkshire are leading the way. They are planning to become self-sufficient in food by 2018. Community Gardens have proliferated (along with “help yourself” signs). The community has been drawn together, so everyone feels part of this local food scheme. It has been made possible through the political will of the local Council. Steve contrasted this with the current situation in Cardiff, where there is a long waiting lists for allotments.

Steve believes Community Food Security should incorporate the concept of Food Sovereignty, whereby food is produced locally and the means of producing that food are put into the hands of the people themselves. Community Gardens also provide education and training opportunities, so local food-producing expertise grows. The Riverside Market Garden is a community-owned social enterprise.

To make local food more accessible, a range of means can be employed to move the food closer to people’s homes. Vegetable Box schemes are proving popular, while RCMA will soon be selling from a mobile shop that can take local food into new areas of the city. A People’s Supermarket (Siop y Bobl) is planning to open in late 2012 in Cardiff, which instead of being owned by a multinational corporation will be owned by its local community. This will stock local food, along with a full range of convenience food and also non-food items. Projects like these should show people that high-quality locally-produced food is not more expensive and it is for everyone.


Riverside Market Garden:
http://www.riversidemarketgarden.co.uk/
Future Cardiff University City and Regional Planning events:
http://www.cplan.cf.ac.uk/events/

Dickensian Fayre, Dinas Powys

Last night (2 Dec), the Twyn (village square) in Dinas Powys was the setting for the annual Dickensian Fayre, organized by The Rotary Club of Dinas Powis to raise money for local charities.

After the freeze and torrential downpours of previous years, the constant rain and above-freezing temperature almost felt like decent weather. However, The Vale of Glamorgan Brass Band were rained off, and so didn’t perform their annual selection of carols. This diminished the Fayre’s pre-Christmas atmosphere considerably, although there was still a reasonable queue of small children and their parents outside Santa’s Grotto.

Plaid Cymru’s soup offering this year was Tomato and Vegetable (with the weather and economic climate there was something of the soup kitchen about their stall). Meanwhile, the Conservatives were doing their usual mulled wine. I have never tasted their mulled wine (as a matter of principle), but fortunately the Rotary Club were also serving it and this was strong, fruity and warming. They were also selling stollen cake and large gingerbread men, while Rotary Club members were busy on the nearby BBQs cooking hot dogs and burgers.

Anne’s owls4u were raising money for rescued owls and other birds by selling cakes and other items. The beautiful owls being walked around were taking everything in. The coconut shy opposite was a popular attraction.

Dinas Powys Infants School were raising money selling drinks, crisps and sweets. Dinas Powys and Llandough Guides were selling their usual chocolate brownies, while the Scouts had Welsh cakes and snacks for sale. We won a Billie Holiday CD box set on the Scouts’ tombola, but had less success on the Cricket Club’s drinks tombola. The W.I., as you would expect, had an attractive range of cakes for sale.

Geraint Roberts set up his bread stall at the Fayre for the first time. Geraint has started a bread subscription scheme in the village, where artisan sourdough loaves can be ordered on a weekly basis. Panettone, the sweet Milanese Christmas bread, was the seasonal special on offer.

There was the odd Top Hat, but little dressing up this year. I believe this event started in the 1980s [correct me if I’m wrong] and, while the connection with Dickens is a bit tenuous (he wrote Christmas stories), it has become an important date in the calendar for Dinas Powys residents.

The event ended before 8.30pm, by which time the wet crowd was either drying out at home or in one of the village’s remaining pubs (The Star, The Three Horseshoes or The Cross Keys), which are all clustered around The Twyn.

Incidentally, the two spellings in the opening sentence are both correct (‘Powis’ is the now less-frequently used English version of the original 'Powys').

Four Uses For a Rather Large Pumpkin

We had visitors soon after Halloween who arrived with a monster pumpkin, grown on a Manchester allotment. The 5.24 kg (11 lb 6oz) squash had served its decorative function, and last Sunday I rather belatedly started to cook it.

When you cut up a vegetable of this size, you need to have a number of uses planned for it. So, I cut the surprisingly thin-skinned pumpkin into four and it went its separate ways.

The first quarter was soon being made into a risotto, following the method I frequently use for butternut squash risotto. Cubed pumpkin was roasted with butter, salt and pepper; meanwhile chopped onions and bacon were fried in a risotto pan. Arborio rice was stirred in and hot home-made chicken stock gradually added, with some thyme. The cooked buttery squash was stirred in toward the end; grated cheese optional.

My partner took the second quarter and made chutney, following the recipe in The Complete Book of Preserves and Pickles for Butternut, Apricot and Almond Chutney (pumpkin instead of butternut squash). The other ingredients included onion, coriander seeds, cider vinegar and orange juice. As there were less apricots and almonds in the cupboard than the recipe suggested, the jars were just labelled ‘Pumpkin Chutney’. This turned out to be a golden-coloured, sharp-tasting chutney, with the almonds giving it plenty of crunch and the coriander rounding out the flavour. It will mature for a month or so before we start eating it.

I made a soup with the third quarter. Looking through the Riverford autumn magazine and recipe files from vegetable box deliveries, I found a couple of promising ideas. The Dev-Mex Pumpkin Soup looked good (pumpkin or squash, onion, garlic, paprika, chillies, tomato, kidney beans, lime juice etc) - that’s Devon-Mexican, by the way. However, I decided to do that another day and go for the Spiced Pumpkin Soup. I roasted pumpkin cubes and fried onions, then simmered both in chicken stock with cumin, coriander, grated nutmeg and a little chilli sauce. The soup was liquidized and a dollop of sour cream was mixed in to serve.

With the last chunk of pumpkin I was tempted by some recipes in Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book, which has a particularly good selected of pumpkin recipes. I liked the sound of Toulouse Lautrec’s Gratin of Pumpkin (Gratin de Potiron), for instance, taken from the French artist’s collected recipes. However, on reflection, I decided to complete a sort of three-course pumpkin meal with an American-style Pumpkin Pie for dessert.

A look through some US recipe books, collected while touring the States, suggested that all those Halloween pumpkins probably end up in the bin, because most recipes seemed to use canned pumpkin. I decided to go with a custard-style pie based on a recipe in a regional home cooking book (see below), but using fresh pumpkin. I filled a pastry casing with a mixture of mashed pumpkin, canned condensed milk (omitting the canned evaporated milk), beaten eggs, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, vanilla essence and rum. Not bad, but next year I’ll stick to Jane Grigson’s Pumpkin Pie!

Cook books referred to:
The Complete Book of Preserves and Pickles, Catherine Atkinson and Maggie Mayhew, Anness Publishing Ltd, 2004. Page 186.
Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book, Penguin Books, 1978. Pages 417-429.
Riverford Recipe Files (in Vegetable Box), 24 Oct 2011 & The Riverford Farm Cookbook, Jane Baxter, 2011.
Our US cookbooks include small press and amateur publications, which collect people’s regional home recipes and gave an insight into what people really cook (e.g., A Taste of New Mexico from the Junior League of Albuquerque; Best of the Best from Florida Cookbook etc). The Florida cookbook has plenty of microwave recipes and includes unusual dishes such as Coca-Cola Chicken: “mix ketchup, Coca-Cola and Worcestershire sauce and pour over chicken”. Sometimes, you get handy hints along the bottom of each recipe page in this type of book (e.g., Household borax dissolved in water removes stains and smells after your child has been sick”). We also have similar cookbooks, sold for charity, from regions around the UK, which must look equally strange to people from out of town.

Great British Food Revival: Beetroot

One of the best things on TV recently has been the second series of Great British Food Revival (BBC2). The series aims to promote underappreciated British vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and shellfish, in order to try and change the public’s perception of these foods. This is needed to reverse often alarming declines in their production, with serious implications for British farming and food culture.

Different chefs have championed different foods. Highlights of the series so far have included John Torode on beef from heritage breeds, Valentine Warner on cockles and mussels, Raymond Blanc on plums, Richard Corrigan on mackerel, Michael Roux Jr on bread and on pears, and the Hairy Bikers (yes, really) enthusing about cauliflowers. With its farm-to-fork emphasis on seasonality, local produce and traditional cooking, this is my kind of cookery show.

Last night, Antonio Carluccio was promoting beetroot. I had been aware of this program since July when I briefly corresponded with Assistant Producer Isaure de Pontbriand, who was using my e-book Beetroot (2004) for research. We agreed that getting production statistics for this crop is very difficult. I think more is probably grown on allotments and in gardens than is produced commercially. They reckoned that beetroot accounts for just 1% of vegetables grown in Britain.

For those who missed it (or saw it and would welcome a summary), Antonio Carluccio started by roasting a large beetroot in embers and relating the type of statistics that have become all-to-familiar during this series. Half of all British beetroot fields have been lost in the past 30 years. In the case of beetroot, the post-war trend to preserve it in cheap heavy vinegar has seriously damaged the crop’s reputation.

Antonio talked to beetroot supplier Graham Forber and the general farm manager of Riverford Organics James McGregor, who both agreed that beetroot still has an image problem to overcome. At the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, Head Gardener Nicola Bradley introduced us to some heritage varieties, showing the diversity of beetroot. They can be cylindrical or globular, and range in colour from purple to red, orange and white.

The health benefits of beetroot were illustrated using recent research at Exeter University showing that beetroot juice significantly enhanced exercise performance. This research is new to me, and I would like to read a bit more about it. I know that discussing the health benefits was the hardest part of writing Beetroot, because there is so much flaky stuff out there. The general health benefits of consuming beetroot are not in doubt, however. If Team Britain does consume concentrated shots of beetroot juice as a “secret weapon” (oops!), then they should probably be warned about beeturia (that’s red pee, to you and me).

Interspersed with his peripatetic wanderings, Carluccio cooked a three-course meal using beetroot: A Beetroot Soufflé with Anchovy Sauce, a Timbale of Beetroot (white sauce, ham, leeks and cheese), and a Panna Cotta Dessert with lime syrup and beetroot.

Simon Hulstone, the Michelin-starred head chef at The Elephant in Torquay, likes to cook with beetroot. His Beets and Curds features a range of heritage beetroot varieties, including Chioggia (white with red stripes), Golden, a white variety (possibly Albina Vereduna), and a dusting of red beetroot powder. The heritage varieties are all grown especially for him by a local farmer. The dish looks great and I’ll certainly be ordering it if I ever find myself in Torquay.

This was another excellent edition of Great British Food Revival.

I am currently harvesting beetroot from a deep bed in my Welsh garden. My personal preference is for the cylindrical varieties (which actually predate the globe ones), with Forono being my favourite. At the time of writing Beetroot (2004), I had an allotment in Stevenage, England, where I grew a range of modern and heritage varieties. You can see photos of them in the final section of the e-book, which comprises a dictionary of cultivated varieties (The photos included here are of the heritage variety Bull’s Blood).

Beetroot (2004):
http://www.stephennottingham.co.uk/beetroot.htm

Dictionary of Beetroot Varieties:
http://www.stephennottingham.co.uk/beetroot8.htm

Farm to Fork: The Pork at St Fagans

We took visitors to St Fagans National History Museum yesterday and had Sunday lunch in the museum’s Vale Restaurant.

The open air museum, on the edge of Cardiff, is Wales’ most popular heritage attraction. The large site contains over 40 historic buildings from all around Wales, which have been moved and rebuilt. They show how people have lived in Wales over the ages. Our visitors are never disappointed by St Fagans.

I had the roast pork for lunch, which came with boiled and roast potatoes, cabbage, fluffy mashed Swede that had an unexpected hotness, some parsnip and stuffing, gravy and apple sauce. The meat was delightfully tender.

All the pork served in the restaurant is from pigs reared at St Fagans: at the Llwyn-yr–Eos Farm just a few hundred yards from the restaurant. The farm is in its original site, with the farmhouse preserved as it would have been at the end of the First World War. The pigs are traditional Welsh pigs, kept in traditional sties. The larger pigs have access to a field. You can see that the pigs and other animals are well-cared for.

I approve of the trend for suppliers to be listed on restaurant boards and in menus. I think that knowing more about how your dinner has travelled from farm to fork really adds to the dining experience.

In addition to the home-reared pork, St Fagans sources ham and potatoes from Pembrokeshire, butter from Swansea, and cheese from south Wales: Smoked Caerphilly, Welsh cheddar and Perl Lâs. The latter is described by its makers, Caws Cenarth of Carmarthenshire, as a mature Caerphilly cheese that has become naturally blue.

St Fagans: National History Museum, Cardiff CF5 6XB

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans/

Cowbridge Food & Drink Festival

Large crowds turned out today for the seventh annual Cowbridge Food & Drink Festival / Gŵyl Bwyd a Diod Y Bont-Faen (29-30 Oct 2011), in the heart of the Vale of Glamorgan. With over 80 exhibitors, cooking demonstrations, food and drink talks, entertainment and children’s activities, it has become one of the regions top food festivals.

We arrived early and parked in a farm on the edge of town – part of the free park and ride service. The main marquees were bustling with activity by mid-morning. Although the festival is centred on these marquees, events occur throughout the market town.

In the main Festival Marquee and the Cheese & Wine Marquee there was a great selection of fine food and drink to sample and purchase. We seemed to sample a lot of cheese, and lingered at Teifi Farmhouse Cheese, Cothi Valley Goats (cheese), Caws Cenarth Cheese, Slade Farm Organics, Wernddu Wines & Vineyard, and many more stalls besides. You can see Cardiff’s The Parsnipship in the foreground of the photo taken down the main marquee.

There was some tempting cooking smells emanating from the hot food marquee. Glam Lamb and the Venison Burger stalls, and the hog roast, were attracting sizeable queues. We opted for Taste of Persia, sharing a Lamb Kebab and a Pomegranate Chicken with Walnuts and rice. Based in Llanbadoc, Monmouthshire, they are regulars at Cardiff’s Riverside Food Market.

Taste of Persia’s owner Kamran Khanverdi was among the chefs doing demonstrations today in the True Taste of Wales exhibition trailer, in the Town Hall car park. Others included Kurt Fleming of ffresh Bar & Restaurant. Martin Cowley (Cowley’s Fine Foods) was demonstrating historical meat-drying techniques.

Bev Robins from the Otley Brewery and Deryck Mathews of Preselli Coffee are among the contributors to the drinks talks programme in Cowbridge Town Hall. A Real Ale Festival was well underway by lunchtime today at the Vale of Glamorgan Inn.

Other events around Cowbridge include a Craft Fayre, a Champagne Marquee & Bar, and a circus (from the Belgian twin town of Mouscron). The festival continues tomorrow (Sunday 30 Oct: 10am-4pm). Entry to marquees: £4 adults (under 12s free).

Last year the event was awarded the National Tourism Awards Wales: Best Community Event 2010. If it continues to be this successful, the organizers might have to get bigger marquees to fit in all the visitors (they already have many more applications for trade stands than they can accomodate). 

Cowbridge Food & Drink Festival is already pencilled into our diary again for next year, with a note that we need to spend much more time there to do justice to all the events!

Cowbridge Food & Drink Festival:
http://www.cowbridgefoodanddrink.org/