POTTED HISTORIES
A new cookbook sprung from the gardens of Great Dixter is a gourmet gift to green-fingered gastronomes. By Clementina Jackson
Delicious recipe ideas from the walled courtyard of Great Dixter
Christopher Lloyd’s glorious gardens at Great Dixter are never more enticing than during the spring, when green shoots emerge from justthawed soil, fruit-trees start to blossom and the 450-acre estate’s wildflower meadows slowly come into bloom. But for Great Dixter’s vegetable gardener and head cook Aaron Bertelsen, inspiration is most likely to be found in one of the smallest corners of the estate, measuring just a few metres square. ‘I am lucky enough to have plenty of space for growing fruit and vegetables, yet it is the kitchen courtyard that brings me the greatest pleasure,’ he writes in the introduction to his new volume Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Pots, a practical guide and cookbook for hungry horticulturalists. Bertelsen grew up in New Zealand, where he spent much of his childhood helping his grandfather in the vegetable garden and watching his father create ‘weird, experimental’ meals from the produce. He went on to study at Kew Gardens, before arriving at Great Dixter to work under the late, great
Christopher Lloyd, which kick-started his interest in food. ‘Eating seasonally, and making the best use of your ingredients, seems to come more naturally when they are growing right outside your door,’ he explains. ‘I very quickly came to appreciate the benefits of having these things close to hand when cooking, to throw into a salad or add a burst of fresh green flavour to a dish.’
The book is full of advice on mastering the art of container gardening, from growing herbs in window-boxes to cultivating dwarf fruit-trees in pots. Bertelsen offers recommendations on choosing the right container and combining crops (carrots and chives grow well together, and purple kale helps French marigolds to thrive), as well as how to move plants around depending on the weather and stage of growth.
Alongside this wealth of horticultural expertise are more than 50 easy-to-follow recipes, many influenced
by Bertelsen’s travels around the world. There’s a colourful mixed leaf salad inspired by a visit to a Detroit farm, featuring a spicy combination of sorrel, tarragon and dandelion leaves alongside slivers of apple and nasturtium flowers; Slovenianstyle stuffed artichokes bursting with fresh peas and broad beans; and a linguine dish originating from Philadelphia that comes garnished with basil, parsley and ripe cherry tomatoes. For afters, the Tunisian citrus cake is a zesty, syrupy delight, and the rich chocolate mousse is perfectly offset by a delicate orange side salad.
All of the recipes are designed to make the most of ingredients that are in season and are easily available: the lettuce soup, for example, is equally delicious when made with rocket or spinach, while the pesto can be prepared with ‘whatever leafy greens you have, at any time of year’, and in lieu of pine nuts, uses pumpkin seeds that are native to Britain.
Bertelsen is confident that once people realise the difference home-grown produce can make to a dish, they will not look back. ‘If you have never tasted peas popped straight into your mouth within seconds of picking, I would go so far as to say you haven’t lived,’ he says. As spring breathes new life into the world around us, now is the perfect moment to create your own natural larder – and it all starts with a seedling. ‘Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Pots’ by Aaron Bertelsen (£24.95, Phaidon) is out now.