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