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