
After all the weeding and watering, it was time to see the fruits of our labours. I’ve been joining Clare, Robin, Charlotte, Rochelle and others for Friday Farming, where we harvest the crops from the Patchwork Farm gardens and prepare them to be sold at the Saturday morning Crystal Palace Food Market.
Secateurs in hand, we cut bunches of fragrant herbs from Tudor Road to be sold in bundles - lavender, rosemary, thyme and oregano - and pick the lettuce and rocket leaves from the salad patch. The market salad is a thing of beauty, with colourful edible flowers brightening up the varied leaves, chives and fennel fronds.
But most exciting was harvesting the pumpkins, over at St John’s Garden. Five enormous orange orbs, each easily big enough to be a Cinderella coach, were carefully cut and lifted onto the wheelbarrow. We sold them on the stall over the next few weeks, cut into pieces. One huge chunk made its way into a delicious pumpkin soup, some of which is now stored away in my freezer for those cold winter nights.
Find out more about the Edible Garden here.