'Training your fruit'

There is still a touch of chill in the air but spring is upon us and the kitchen garden is showing signs of new life as the days get lighter and the soil gets warmer.   With instruction from Jez Taylor, the organic guru in the Daylesford market garden, nine of us gathered together for March’s Organic Farm School gardening course.

Most of the course attendees already have their own gardens.  So to introduce the session Jez began by asking what we grow, or what we would like to grow, and the challenges and queries encountered on our own plots.  In the comfort of the Garden Kitchen (of Chelsea Flower Show fame!) Jez used these prompts to provide helpful advice and anecdotal tips for each scenario in turn.   Topics were wide ranging, including how to start from scratch, key timings for important activities, and the best varieties of fruits, herbs and vegetables to give us the best chance of success.

March’s course focuses on planning the plot for the year ahead.  A recurring theme was filling ‘the hungry gap’; that period around about now when our winter crops are dwindling (or we’ve exhausted the different ways of cooking red cabbage!) and the summer crops haven’t got going yet.  Jez encouraged us to include a sowing of the more hardy salad leaf varieties in October after clearing out summer crops.  This enables a year-round supply of interesting leaves with intriguing flavours of heat and bitterness, like spinach, mizuna and rocket.  In a mild winter, as we’ve just had, many varieties of salads and herbs can be grown right through to spring and into the next growing season.

The second half of the session involved a walk around the organic Market Garden observing the many varieties of fruits and vegetables growing outside and in the unheated poly-tunnels; the senses triggered by regular tastings of different leaves such as red Russian kale, sorrel, Chinese mustard, fennel and more.

'Tasting the hot mustard leaf

Reflecting on a good morning, I felt we gained most from exploring such different scenarios, and feeling so inspired by each other’s experiences.  The cherry on the cake was a tray of salad seedlings to take home; a couple of weeks, tender loving care, and we’ll all be enjoying those fresh leaves on our own plates.

Come and join Jez on our monthly Grow Your Own course on April 20^th and May 25^th. For more information and future dates have a look on our website.

In the meantime feel free to post your questions in the comments below for Jez to answer…