Tags
A Taste of the Unexpected, Lippia dulcis, Mark Diacono, Otter Farm, RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, River Cottage, Yacon
Mark Diacono’s Hampton Court Stand
One of the highlights of my visit to Hampton Court last week was the chance to visit Mark Diacono’s forest garden stand. Mark has a smallholding in Devon called Otter Farm, where he grows the more unusual and a few forgotten plants. Experimenting to see what he can get to grow in the British climate, he has a vineyard, orchards planted with quince, almonds and apricots and a variety of plants most of us have never heard of, let alone contemplated eating.
He has written several books for the River Cottage Handbook series and in 2011 A Taste of the Unexpected won the Guild of Food Writers Food Book of the Year award. I can vouch for all the books being great reads but it is the latter that I found the most fascinating, challenging my ideas about what I should grow on my own plot. Mark believes that it makes more sense to grow the exotic and unusual, the food that tastes great but is expensive to buy and that is often transported half way around the world to reach our kitchens rather than the staples of our diet like onions and potatoes that are so cheaply and readily available from the supermarket. As a result the fields of Otter Farm are filled with mulberry trees, Asian pears and white cherries, Szechuan pepper trees and Egyptian walking onions.
One area has been established as a forest garden with plantings of mirabelle plums, dwarf peaches, mints and bladdernuts. No, I hadn’t heard of them either. Forest gardens are a form of permaculture which mimicks nature and the upper, mid and lower storeys of vegetation in a forest but uses edible crops instead.
Mark used his stand and his talent for cocktail making at Hampton Court to educate his audience a little to his ideas. Was it his cunning plan to get his audience tipsy and then get them to buy plants? Well I came away with 2 plants, a yacon and a Lippia, so it wasn’t a bad plan.
Lippia dulcis
Lippia dulcis or Aztec sweet herb from the verbena family is a tender perennial from Central America. It’s a low growing and spreading plant, with pretty foliage and small white flowers on stalks. It’s not for its looks that you grow it but for its incredibly sweet leaves which can be used as a natural sweetner. Mark used it, and the yacon, to sweeten his strawberry and thyme syrup cocktails.
My yacon waiting to be moved to the plot
Yacon originates from South America and its name ‘water root’ in Inca, alludes to the juiciness of the tubers which, according to Mark, resemble a jacket potato when dug up but taste more like a pear. A tender perennial, it produces large tubers which should be ready to harvest in late autumn and smaller tuberous roots which you can lift and store for planting next year, just as you would with dahlias. The sugars in yacon are indigestible to humans and, as a result, they have attracted the attention of scientists, particularly in America where they are increasingly being grown to provide natural sweetners for diabetics. For more information about yacon take a look at this fascinating article Mark wrote for The Guardian.
Well, it was dry enough this morning for me to get out and plant up the Lippia in my herb planter and take the Yacon up to the allotment where I managed to find a home for it. Growing your own means many things to many people. Some, like the plot holders next to me, simply grow potatoes, carrots, cabbages and leeks wanting to be self-sufficient in the crops they eat the most. I prefer a mix, with some staples that I know will have been produced organically, with a variety of the more unusual such as purple mangetout, yellow french beans and tayberries. I might not be ready to give up on growing new potatoes, peas and broad beans but I do like Mark’s ideas. As humans we tend to be very conservative in what eat, preferring to stick to a quite narrow selection of crops. Who knows how climate change will actually affect the weather and crop production in the future but we will probably need to be more open to new ideas about what we grow and eat. Bananas, for instance, the world’s fourth most important food crop, are at risk from extinction due to their narrow gene pool and vulnerability to pests and diseases.
A Szechuan pepper tree on Mark’s stand
Mark’s ideas about growing Asian pears, Chilean guava and blue honeysuckle may seem a bit out there but most of us think nothing of adding a few blueberries to our cereal or a fruit salad and they were only introduced to the UK in the 1940s. As a child of the seventies and eighties I don’t think I ate an aubergine or peppers until my late teens and yet now I can’t imagine not using them in cooking. And, although we are more adventurous with our food, trying different cuisines when we eat out, many of us have yet to take the leap to growing the more unusual on our plot. But I’m determined to be a bit braver on my own plot. With recent purchases of myrtle, lemon verbena and French tarragon for the herb planter and plans to add a dwarf quince to the plot this autumn, I just need to dig out the recipe books for some inspiration now.
To find out more about Mark Diacono and Otter Farm go to otterfarm.co.uk where you can sign up to his blog, which I can highly recommend for posts as varied as, the opening of his own wine, to close encounters with Kylie’s bottom.
The otter farm blog is always a good read, I often find myself chuckling, as well as learning of new and intriguing things. I was given the book for my birthday last year too, like you I still want to grow some staples such as peas and early potatoes, but am also intrigued to expand to some of the more exotic crops too.
.
The Aztec sweet herb sounds intriguing, as does the yakon, not surprised you came away with those. I’ve yet to try a strawberry thyme syrup cocktail, but they sound marvellous
You’re right, we’re more adventurous at trying new foods, but not so much in growing them, but then the standard seed catalogues don’t offer much in the way of exotic. Maybe they will learn that there is a market for it. I’m inspired anyway, the most adventurous I’ve been until now is growing Pak Choi and Romanesco broccoli. Must try harder! I suddenly feel very boring for growing carrots and potatoes.
Hi Zoe, The Romanesco broccoli sounds pretty exotic to me. They look so beautiful and unusual. May give them a go next year. Of course, my plans for what to grow get ever bigger but the size of my plot doesn’t!
I do agree it is good to try new things but sometimes it is also grow things you know will succed and produce a decent crop. I am still experimenting here; fiinding problems with things that were easy in the UK and more more success with other crops that need more sun and heat. Christina
V glad you enjoyed it…great to meet/see you and you have a fine choice in plants!
It’s interesting that the plants can be used as natural sweetners, it will be especially helpful for diabetics. I couldn’t do without my staples on my allotment, but it’s always interesting to grow something a little different.
It’s good to see plants like yacon getting the attention they deserve. I’ve been growing it for 20 years now and have been gladdened to see it increase in popularity lately.
I would advise a cautious approach to using the Lippia as the sweetness it produces is not entirely analagous to sugar – if you’ve tried stevia you’ll know what I mean.
Luckily I don’t have a sweet tooth so have not been tempted by stevia, etc. I picked up a couple of sweet cicely plants from the city farm before I realised what a great herb it is (all parts edible, including the seeds). I like to strike a balance between the stuff I know and being adventurous. Last year it was achocha, which I’m growing again this year and I’ve also added lablab beans, purple carrots, provence artichokes,climbing courgettes and round lemon cucumbers to the veg patch this year. I think it keeps it all interesting and fun!! I wish I’d had some of Mark D’s cocktails… ! His was the one garden I wanted to see and I’m really sorry I missed it.
Caro, that all sounds pretty adventurous to me. Still after some sweet cicely. The lablab beans sound intriguing. I tried the round lemon cucumbers this year but only one seed germinated and that one has been mauled by slugs. It is literally hanging on to life by a thread at the moment. They were the one I was most looking forward to as well.
I think my cucumbers need a good dose of sun. I’ve got a couple in the veg garden and two more up on my balcony as a back up. Apparently October is going to be nice so I’m hoping for a late harvest!!
My baby cucumber fruits have been about 1cm long for about 3 weeks now. They are just refusing to grow, although I can’t blame them.
I enjoyed ‘A Taste Of The Unexpected’ too and since reading it have acquired a Japanese wine berry and a Chilean guava. My verdict on both is favourable especially when it comes to the Chilean guava, although there was only a tiny crop last year
I have the variegated one which is apparently hardier. Am intrigued by some of the other plants that the book highlights and may be tempted in the future. Hope that your new additions flourish and prove to be useful and tasty.
It is so much fun growing new and unusual things to eat…love the inspiration!!
tispsy! Love it!