In my gardening blog today

 I am looking at the different ways we can grow plants in our outdoor spaces. Not all of us have a garden with open ground, some have only a patio covered in paving slabs, some maybe only a few window sills or a passage or back yard.

I grow a lot on my patio in a mixture of wooden boxes, ceramic pots, old galvanized tanks and dustbins I have picked up at the recycling centre or down the dump. They look really great with plants trailing over the edges and climbers growing skyward up trellises I have set up behind them.  I have got the local farm shop to save me some olive cans that come in bright green and red. I make holes on the bottom using a hammer and screw driver to allow for drainage, add some broken crocks or some small stones before adding a growing medium and a plant.  I am always on the look out for containers with a difference. Recently I bought some old ammunition boxes for next to nothing, £3 each which I have planted up with tulips for a show in spring. These are fairly shallow but great for lettuces in the summer. The main thing to consider is the depth of the container and whether it is possible to make drainage holes in the bottom. Plants grown in pots and containers get full of roots pretty quickly so the deeper the better.

Watering and feeding

Anything grown in a container is a commitment you have to feel able to take on as the ongoing maintenance is essential to your growing success. They will need watering everyday in hot weather and every other day once they have taken a hold.  Your containers will also need feeding after a month or so of planting out and every two or three weeks after that.

 Keyhole gardening and grow bags

For a long time now Riverford have been supporting a charity called Send a cow who ‘provide livestock, seeds, training and on going support to help families in Africa to leave poverty behind for good’  Guy is a huge fan of this charity and has been out to Uganda several times…… to see what’s happening first hand.  Some of their growing techniques are ingenious such as the keyhole garden and the grow sacks. We have built our own keyhole garden using posts and chicken wire rather than stones. The idea is you have a central shoot into which you chuck all composting materials and water. This in turn feeds the surrounding beds that are planted up with veg seedlings.  It really does work and also is a boon for anyone with back problems as there’s little or no bending down. The grow sacks are great to and can be planted with up to 50 seedlings in each. These are great for that redundant corner somewhere in your outdoor space.

In my next gardening blog

 I will cover preparing the ground and tools and kit you will need as unfortunately run out of space here. So look out for people selling sacks of well rotted manure and take a look at your compost heaps too.

order a box to grow

Now is also the time to grab blood oranges while they’re around – the flavour is wonderful but the season is short. Ours are grown in the foothills of Mount Etna in Sicily and the depth of their colour depends on light, temperature and variety. Try them in Jane’s vibrant lemon and orange tart, or squeezed into some chilled Prosecco for a seasonal cocktail.

make your own marmalade

Last January Guy took a trip to Ave Maria Farm near Seville, where 75 year old Amadora and her two daughters have been growing Seville oranges organically since 1986. Guy reckons you can’t get much more organic than their beautiful orchards and is convinced that the resulting bitter-flavoured fruit makes the very best marmalade he has tasted. Sevilles are at their best between mid-January and mid-February, so dig out some jars and muslin sharpish.
Try our marmalade kit £4.49. It contains 1.5kg of Amadora’s Seville oranges, two lemons and Jane’s marmalade recipe. You’ll need your own sugar and jars.

Introducing myself …

The first week of the new year we had absolutely foul weather here in Devon (and countrywide I think); raining cats and dogs with high winds to boot. Gardening is the last thing one would be doing in such a deluge (spare a thought for the teams out pulling leeks in the fields), but it’s a great time for garden planning. Any keen horticulturist will be pouring over seed and plant catalogues, getting excited at the prospect of how they can improve their gardens , thinking back on past failures and maybe contemplating some different crops for the coming year. Last year was a difficult year for all of us with a severe lack of rain (would you believe it today?) and exceptionally cold temperatures too. We’re hoping for better conditions in 2012.

Boxes to grow – making it all a bit easier
Two years ago Riverford introduced the boxes-to-grow for our customers to try. These are gardening kits for both beginners and established gardeners. The boxes come with organic seedlings grown in peat blocks (very high quality, from Delfland, who grow Riverford’s seedlings), some packets of seeds and comprehensive instructions and advice on how best to prepare the ground and grow them on successfully. Customers report having a lot of fun with these in the past, and we hope to tempt more of you to try them this year.

Make use of me!
In my blog I will be suggesting what you should be doing to get the best out of your gardening, whether this is a full scale allotment, or just a grow bag or a window box. I’ll be here to answer your questions and queries and to improve the range of products we can provide for our gardening customers (I look forward to your suggestions).

I will also be running tours at Riverford for customers coming to see firsthand what we grow here and how we do it, usually followed by a fantastic seasonal meal in our award winning restaurant, the Riverford Field Kitchen.

This week’s suggestions
Have a look at what we are offering this year in our boxes- to-grow. Think about your garden and outside spaces and how you could maximize what you produce from it. You can grow an enormous amount in pots and planters so even if you only have a patio or a window sill the possibilities are endless.

How much space and time do you have? Do you want to concentrate on veg, herbs, salad, or cut flowers? If you have limited space, a herb garden is a fantastic way to boost your veg box, being able to go out and pick some thyme or coriander for that risotto. Home-grown cut flower around the house give me a constant boost in summer, and also make a more impressive present than a bottle of wine!

Next post, I will be making suggestions of the different types of containers that can be used to grow in, other than the ground (if you have limited space), how to prepare and what kit you may need, to be ready for the arrival of your box to grow.

order a box to grow from Riverford

jerusalem artichokes

These knobbly little roots are a farmer’s dream: easy to grow, with no significant pests or diseases. They do particularly well at Wash Farm – in fact our biggest challenge is keeping them under control. They have a nutty, sweet, almost mushroomy flavour.
order jerusalem artichokes

how to cook jerusalem artichokes
Peel or scrub them, then use in stews and soups. They’re also good roasted in olive oil or sliced thinly and eaten raw in salads. Or try our recipe for jerusalem artichokes and mushrooms in a bag with goat’s cheese.

celeriac

Another cosmetically-challenged seasonal root (although who looks their best in January anyway?), grown around our Riverford farms. Celeriac endures winter well and has a delicate, celery-like, fragrant flavour. It will keep in the bottom of your fridge for several weeks.
order celeriac

how to cook celeriac
Use celeriac to add depth to stews, mash and gratins or try our recipe for spiced celeriac with lemon.

kale

Man cannot live on roots alone, so welcome the dark green leafiness of the kales. They benefit from slow growth and are at their best after some hard winter weather. This year our cavolo nero (black kale) is all but over, so look out instead for other varieties, including curly kale, which can be as good as cavolo nero once it has had plenty of frost. Store it in the fridge and eat it within a few days.
order kale

how to cook kale
You will normally need to discard the stalks before cooking – hold the stalk in one hand and run your other hand down it, stripping off the leaves. Curly kale is best boiled briefly or used in hearty, peasantstyle soups and stews. Try our easy ideas for kale.

Nigel Venni, Sacrewell Farm, Cambridgeshire
The battle with the pigeons is continuing for Nigel and the team, so much so that we have had to cover the brassicas with fleece to stop the birds eating the lot. The cabbages have taken a bit of a hit from whitefly too, but things are back under control now and the first crop of cauliflower is set for harvesting in March. The organic spring greens and purple sprouting broccoli are looking really strong, while the wild bird seed plots on the farm are keeping the wildlife happy as the weather gets colder.

Peter + Jo-ann Richardson, Home Farm, North Yorkshire
The mild, dry autumn has made the weekly harvesting of Peter’s organic carrots and organic parsnips much easier this season, but with no cold snap to slow their growth, around 20% of the early cabbages have got ahead of themselves. They are so big they would almost fill the vegboxes if they went in. Thinking back to this time last year it seems daft that we are now hoping for a chilly spell. Back then the veg was frozen into the ground under a layer of snow and temperatures were as low as -15˚C. At least there are fewer frozen toes this year!

Chris Wakefield, Upper Norton Farm, Hampshire
The summer may be long gone, but Chris and his team still have the polytunnels working hard. Half are nurturing overwintering spring onions that should yield around 20,000 bunches at the end of March. They can be grown outdoors, but by bringing them under cover they’ll be ready a few weeks earlier. Meanwhile the rest of the polytunnels have been cleared and composted in preparation for 15,000 Batavia and Butterhead lettuces for planting in January. The perennial herbs are overwintering well after pruning last autumn and we are planning an outdoor mint crop to go with your new potatoes this year.

Guy Watson, Le Boutinard, France
Last year we sowed carrots here in the spring and subsequently were able to harvest some in late May, two weeks ahead of the UK crop. This still left a two week gap after our stored carrots finished. This year, after sowing in the autumn instead, we should be able to have our own carrots for 52 weeks of the year and banish Spanish carrots from the vegboxes. The crop has emerged well and we aim to get it covered with mini polytunnels before the first major rain of the season arrives; if they survive the winter storms we’ll be pulling tasty bunched carrots at the end of April.

Joaquin has been farming organically for 10 years and bio-dynamically for 2 years. He also grows apricots and peaches on his farm, 60km south of Valencia, which he sells in the local area.

Persimmons are best eaten fresh, when still fairly firm. Eat them on their own or try in salads, with poultry, lamb or pork or in desserts.

Have you tried them?

Guy Watson, Riverford on Wash Farm, Devon
Though we grow around 80 different varieties of veg in Devon, the biggest volume by far is potatoes. Along with our co-op of growers we’ve had 250 acres of spuds on the go this year, in an array of varieties selected above all else for flavour. Overall it’s been a good growing season with very little blight. Meanwhile our winter brassicas are looking very healthy too. The damp August got them off to a good start, with plenty of moisture to get them established. The dry September meant there was less fungal disease about, so our leeks are looking in fine fettle too. However all this good work can be undone if we have another harsh winter like last year, when 30% of our purple sprouting broccoli was lost to frost. Fingers crossed for an easier ride from Mother Nature this time.

Nigel Venni, Riverford on Sacrewell Farm, Cambridgeshire
After losing much of our six acre swede crop to a suspected attack of cutworm, and our chard to blackfly, things seem to have turned a corner for Nigel and his team. The beetroot and spinach crops were saved from devastation by an army of ladybirds, which arrived just in time to see off the blackfly and give the plants enough time to recover their growth. The eight acres of leeks planted between April and June this year are looking very strong, and the team expect to be harvesting them through to the end of January. They planted a mixture of varieties that mature at different rates. Meanwhile the last of the 30 acres of red and brown onions grown at Sacrewell (they love the free-draining soil here) have been harvested and are now snug in wooden crates in the drying barn, ready to see you through the winter and beyond. Half the purple sprouting broccoli crop was lost last year, but we’ve planted another four and a half acres for January.

Peter + Jo-ann Richardson, Riverford on Home Farm, North Yorkshire
It’s been a good year for Peter; after terrible crop losses last winter (all his cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli crops were wiped out), the warm spring set the young seedling veg up well for the growing season. For the autumn crops it’s been a ‘forward year’, as Peter describes it, with much of the veg being ready weeks earlier than normal, especially the cauliflower. The ten acres of organic parsnips are looking particularly good, as are the leeks. All we need now is a good frost to set the sweetness in their flavour, but not so much of a freeze that we can’t get them out of the ground.

Chris Wakefield, Riverford onUpper Norton Farm, Hampshire
After a busy year harvesting herbs, chillies and banana peppers (yellow ramiro peppers) from our polytunnels, Chris and his team have cleared them out and now have the winter crops in place. We are growing Butterhead lettuce, which will be harvested for your vegboxes until a little before Christmas, and are overwintering a crop of spring onions, ready for harvesting in March and April next year. The perennial herbs growing outside have struggled over the last couple of winters, especially the rosemary, but Chris is hoping to dry the final cut from the sage bushes, so you can still enjoy it in the colder months. It’s early days yet, though!

Ed Walters, Bower Farm, Hampshire
Many of our organic turkeys are reared by Ed Walters, whose family has been farming turkeys for over 35 years. They are Kelly Bronze birds, a slow-growing breed that reaches full maturity naturally, spending the first five to six weeks snug in a barn under heat lamps, before going out to grass from around eight weeks of age. They are bedded down with fresh straw every day and tucked up in the sheds at night to protect them from foxes. They spend their days trotting and gobbling their way around the organic pasture and popping in and out of their sheds whenever it takes their fancy.

Ross Gardner, Spurtham Farm, Devon
For the first time we have organic geese available for your Christmas table and Ross is the chap charged with rearing them. The Gardner family has been farming poultry for over 40 years, so they certainly know how to keep their birds happy. The geese arrived at the farm as day-old goslings in May and were reared under gas brooders to keep them warm for the first 12 days. They now pad about the fields in a small flock of 250 birds and graze the organic pasture, along with a little supplementary organic feed. They are determined foragers and have plenty of outdoor space to express their natural behaviour, though they prefer to head inside their straw-filled barn at night.

Activities include choosing your own pumpkin for Halloween, pumpkin carving and vegetable games. When that all gets too much, the kids can settle down to paint spooky pictures in the creativity area and take a tractor ride around the farm to see where we grow the veg for your boxes.

There’s lots for the grown ups too. Green-fingered types can meet the farmers who grow your veg and find out more about

organic farming, and keen cooks will pick up a tip or two in the seasonal cookery demos. And everyone will get a sneaky first taste of our Christmas food.

We’ll serve up plenty of organic food and drink for you to buy, including homemade varieties of pumpkin soup (try one of our all-time favourite pumpkin soup recipes on the opposite page).

So, we hope we’ll see you there. Entry is free and there’s no need to book. All welcome – bring a friend or two!

wash farm pumpkin day
saturday 29th october, 11am-4pm
Riverford on Wash Farm, Devon

sacrewell farm pumpkin day
saturday 29th october
Riverford on Upper Sacrewell Farm, Cambridgeshire

home farm pumpkin day
sunday 30th october, 11am-4pm
Riverford on Home Farm, Yorkshire

norton farm pumpkin day
saturday 29th october, 11am-4pm 
Riverford on Upper Norton Farm, Hampshire

kent pumpkin day
saturday 29th october, 11am-4pm
Hartley Lands Farm, Swattenden Lane, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 3PS

see our events page

The award was presented at a ceremony held at London’s One Marylebone, alongside accolades for pubs, restaurants, caterers, supermarkets and fashion businesses who are going the extra mile for animal welfare.

Guy Watson, Riverford founder said, “We are genuinely thrilled to have won this award, as it highlights the lengths we go to ensure that the meat, milk and eggs we sell are as ethically produced as the veg we grow. We want to make it as simple as possible for people to buy good food that is produced with respect, by making information about the journey it has made to their plate as available and as transparent as possible. Gaining recognition of this from the RSPCA will help us enormously in spreading the word about what we do, so we’re delighted.”

Here’s a photo from the awards do in London, with Ben, Rachel, Guy and Mark all looking very smart indeed.

The judges were particularly impressed by the way we communicate our animal welfare story to customers through our newsletters and social media, such as our YouTube video ‘Bucking Bovines’, which has had over 26,000 viewings of the Riverford dairy herd running out to pasture. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here it is:

As the damp autumn winds pick up and leaves start a-whirling outside, the lure of warming casseroles, cosy fires and spicy red wine become all the more tantalising. However, right now you’ll be missing a trick if you reach for the diced beef or cubed lamb; autumn means venison season, and all the rich, deep flavours that come with it.

In the past, the type of venison sold was often from more mature wild deer, whose feral existence and diet of heather and bark did little to make the meat palatable to today’s tastes. A common misconception that has come out of wild venison’s tougher nature is that people often think they need to marinade the meat to make it tender enough to eat.

In contrast to this, all our venison comes from small organic herds reared on Westcountry family farms, where they graze a natural diet of clover-rich grass and wildflowers. They roam the land in natural rutting groups with a lead stag, and are managed in such a way that they have a near-wild existence, without the health issues often inherent in feral herds. The result is a tender meat with remarkable health benefits that needs only light cooking (though resting after

cooking it is really important, to make it as juicy as possible). It’s lower in fat than a skinned breast of chicken, higher in iron than any other red meat and low in cholesterol. It’s also brimming with Omega-3s, which have an absurdly long list of health benefits of their own.

If you’ve been put off by the overpoweringly gamey flavour of old fashioned venison, give ours a whirl. It’s more like a really flavourful beefy taste that even kids will get stuck into.

order organic venison from Riverford