Over the course of the spring and summer I'll be introducing the gardeners at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons and they'll be talking about the seasonal tasks performed in the vegetable gardens and orchards.
This week meet Amy Cartwright and Kelly Murray who are working in the Kitchen Garden for the next six months.
"We're working with the veg team as part of the Soil Association's Future Growers scheme. Despite only having been here a few weeks we've been involved in many aspects of the garden.
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| Soil Association 'Future Growers' Amy Cartwright (left) & Kelly Murray (Right) |
While the heritage garden is under construction we've been busy sowing some heritage varieties, a lot of which have really interesting stories and unusual names. Some of our favourites are Mummy Pea (pea), Tall Telephone (pea), Beryl (broad bean) and Orange Banana (tomato).
We're discovering a lot about the provenance of seeds and vegetables. While planting Rose de Roscoff onion sets we learnt that people from the town of Roscoff (France) used to come across to the UK, often on bicycle, to sell their onions to the British, even roaming as far as Scotland. This is where the stereotype of a beret-wearing Frenchman with garlic and onions hanging around his neck originates!
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| French 'Onion Johnnies' Copyright: untappedcities.com |
One of the best things about working in the garden of Le Manoir is growing a range of unique and unusual produce for the kitchen that the chefs might otherwise struggle to source. At the moment we've been supplying the kitchen with forced seakale. It's incredible to see and taste the difference that excluding the light makes to this vegetable.
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| Sea Kale harvested from Belmond Le Manoir Kitchen Garden Copyright 2014 Anna Greenland |
Spring and summer are the busiest and most abundant seasons for any productive garden, and with so many great projects on the go it's an exciting time to be a part of the team."
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