18 KEY PLANTS CONTINUED
3 10 Stachys affinis (Chinese artichokes or crosne) Small edible tubers, pearly white in colour with a juicy, crunchy texture. Blanch in boiling, salted water with a little added lemon juice to preserves their colour, then finish in a brown butter. Perfect with wild mushrooms, or dressed with olive oil in an autumnal salad of earthy beets, bitter chicory, walnuts and sorrel. Seed tubers are expensive to buy so keep some harvested crop back for stock and store in sand over winter for next year’s spring planting. 60cm.
11 Brassica oleracea Capitata Group ‘Gonzalez’ (baby cabbage) This ball-headed cabbage is perfect for mini vegetable production – harvest and strip away the outer leaves to use the tennis ball-sized heart. Picked young and fresh gives this cabbage a tender, sweet, crunchy leaf unlike larger cabbages that have a strong iron flavour. Once steamed the hearts have a soft, buttery texture. Flavours enhanced in a seasoned brine that soaks into the cabbage and gives it a meatiness. 30cm. AGM*. 12 Tagetes minuta (apple marigold) An unusual and unique-flavoured herb, light apple with citrusy, fruity undertones. Leaves, both fresh or dried, are perfect for making a refreshing infusion and can be infused into cocktails. Flavour is strong when grown as a microherb and used to garnish tropical fruit desserts. Seeds can be sown in spring and grown into a tall plant when leaves can be harvested and dried. 1.8m.
13 Mertensia maritima (oysterleaf) Flat, fleshy, succulent blue-grey coloured leaves with an oyster-like flavour with mineral notes, reminiscent of its natural habitat of the seashore.
The spoon-shaped leaves are perfect as a vehicle to serve as a canapé. Mimic its natural growing environment, which is a Scottish coastline, and provide good drainage and sandy soil. A low-growing plant it does not like root disturbance. 50cm.
14 Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group ‘Ruby Crunch’ (red sprouts) ‘Ruby Crunch’ Brussels sprouts taste as good as they look. The buds have a milder, sweeter flavour than their green counterparts. Picked fresh and quickly blanched in seasoned water they retain their purple colour, and are a great accompaniment to seasonal game. Alternatively, shell the individual, tightly bound leaves apart and add them to a warm, autumnal salad with chestnuts, bacon and a honey dressing. 75cm.
15 Pastinaca sativa (baby parsnips) Ivory-coloured baby parsnips not only look beautiful served whole on a plate but have the same mild celery-like fragrance and intense sweetness of a traditional large parsnip. The benefit of harvesting them small is that the flesh is fine grained with no hard core. Baby parsnips are easily steamed whole, cooked in duck fat or roasted in a butter to caramelise and enhance their flavour, or with a garden honey glaze. Sow in June and July for autumn cropping. 60cm.
16 Beta vulgaris ‘Detroit Dark Red’ (beetroot cress) These delicate, vibrant, neon-pink beetroot shoots have an intense, earthy beetroot flavour and retain a high nutritional content. The fragile shoots require careful handling, but create an elegant dressing for an autumnal goats’ cheese salad – which they will complement in both colour and flavour. The beetroot seeds are excluded from light while growing to force the tender pink stems in seven days. 5cm.
17 Fragaria vesca ‘Semperflorens Alba’ (white alpine strawberries) The creamy white berries are harvested from late summer onwards. The delicate berries need to be fully ripe when picked to appreciate their fragrant strawberry flavour with hints of pineapple and vanilla. Slightly larger than a wild strawberry, it lends itself well to both sweet and savoury offerings and a perfect pairing with patés and terrines. 15cm.