Some Brief information for you or anyone who is thinking where to start growing your own.

So, let us dive straight in. For each one I am going to give you some brief points on the health benefits,
growing guide and its use in cooking.

Beetroot

Health benefits:

  • Low in fat
  • Packed full of vitamins and minerals
  • Packed with powerful antioxidants 
  • Its good for the heart and your blood pressure

Growing guide:

  • Easy to grow
  • Suffers from very few pests and diseases
  • Grow in a nice loose, fertile soil full of rotted organic matter
  • Grow in pots around 20cm in diameter and 20 cm deep
  • Fill with multipurpose compost just short of the top

Cooking Use:

  • You can pick the leaves and eat raw when young or cook when older to which they taste like spinach
  • Can be roasted whole (in a little olive oil and sea salt to bring out the flavour)
  • Used in soups
  • In a juice drink

Potatoes

Health Benefits:

  • Excellent source of vitamins and minerals
  • May improve blood sugar control
  • Great for bone and heart health
  • Blood pressure

Growing guide:

  • In beds dig a narrow trench 5 inches deep so it is easier to ‘earth up’
  • If in beds in autumn/winter dig in organic matter ready for the next year (cracking for the soil)
  • If growing in containers like Bags or pots, plant 5-7 inches apart cover with 3 inches of soil as they start to grow keep topping with soil.
  • Harvest the crop once they start to flower

Cooking use:

  • Roast, mash, boil, chip, soup
  • Lemony Potato salad is spot on in the summer
  • Buttermilk mash potato with chives, banging!
  • Roasted Rosemary potatoes

Peas

Health Benefits:

  • Packed with 8 Vitamins, 7 Minerals, Protein and fibre
  • Excellent source of Vitamin K
  • Good for Blood Sugar control
  • Nutrients in Peas may prevent high blood pressure

Growing Guide:

  • Easy and quick to grow
  • Can be sown from late Feb to June 
  • You sow a second round in the summer
  • Select a sunny spot
  • Soil must drain well
  • Add bonemeal to soil before planting as peas need phosphorus and potassium
  • Set up the poles at the time of planting to support some pea varieties 

Cooking Use:

  • Any cooking method can be used for peas
  • Make a soup, bang them in a stew or simply toss them in some pasta
  • Can be difficult to cook as they are eaten before they reach the pan, they taste so good fresh.
  • Match with Bacon, Egg, Beef, Chicken, Lamb, Shellfish, Fish and just about any spring vegetable.

Tomatoes

Health Benefits:

  • Another great source of Vitamins. A single tomato can pack as much as 40% of the daily recommended minimum of Vitamin C.
  • Supports immunity, vision and skin health through Vitamin A it packs.
  • Protects the Heart Why? They contain Lycopene (responsible for the red colour) so it is more effective to eat tomatoes than take supplements.
  • Helps with diabetes management

Growing guide:

  • Choose the best varieties to get started (Tigerella, Super Sweet 100, Incas, Red Alert, Moneymaker, Sun Gold) to name a few
  • They need at least 6 hours of sunlight a day
  • Will grow in many different types of soil but needs to drain well
  • A bush or dwarf variety work best in pots
  • Keep the soil moist in containers as they dry out quickly

Cooking use:

  • Tomato cocktail drink, surprisingly good!
  • Slice and place on a homemade pizza 
  • A nice Greek Tomato salad on a hot sunny day, spot on.
  • Homemade Bruschetta or Salsa

Lettuce

Health Benefits:

  • Low Calories and almost no Fat
  • High in Fibre and Cellulose
  • Healthy for the old Ticker (Heart)
  • Some varieties have Omega 3 fatty acids and total protein (Romaine Lettuce)
  • Helps with Insomnia (think I’ll add more to my diet)

Growing Guide:

  • Very Easy to grow 
  • Can be grown in both containers and the ground
  • Can be cut and left to grow again and again to get a constant harvest
  • Good drainage with lose cool soil
  • Goal is to keep soil moist so light consistent watering

As I said it’s some brief information for you to start giving it a go to grow your own without all the jargon that confuses you. Over the next few weeks I’ll break each one down giving you an easy to follow guide on how to start, might even bang up a video if I’m feeling brave.

X