By Anna Sayburn
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.
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.
I particularly love picking the tomatoes at the Edible Garden, where bunches of red and orange cherry tomatoes hang enticingly, covering my hands in that gloriously tomato-ey smell that you just don’t get from supermarket tomatoes. The scent reminds me powerfully of ‘helping’ in my grandmother’s greenhouse as a child, where I ate orange and yellow tomatoes by the handful. Digging up the carrots and beetroot was fun, too. The purple-red heritage carrots had grown into a weird variety of shapes and sizes, so you never quite knew what was coming up next.
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.
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.
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