23/07/2015
Pennie Latin visits Culross Palace Garden in Fife to find out what people were growing, cooking and eating in the 17th century.
Pennie Latin travels back in time to the 17th century this week on a sojourn to Culross Palace Garden in Fife. It's time to relax and enjoy this beautiful, sensory experience; take a walk along the shell paths, smell the apothecary roses and listen to the tweeting birds and cockerels crowing.
Gardener Mark Jeffery gives Pennie a tour of the garden where they encounter the medicinal plants and the old planting styles, described by Mark as a 'hangover from monastic times'. Dan Holland gets a tour of the old house from Manager Paul Foley, whilst Fife chef Christopher Trotter excitedly gathers ingredients for lunch like a kid in a sweet shop. Christopher cooks up a mackerel dish in the gardens whilst Pennie has a rummage in the dressing up box. Also, Dan travels east to the coastal town of Pittenweem where Georgina Stutchfield is practicing Permaculture in her small back garden.
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Christopher Trotter cooking a mackerel dish
Duration: 12:32
Kitchen Garden Plot Blog - The diary of a 鈥榞row your own鈥� enthusiast.
Whilst there isn't much going on with planting or sowing just now (with the exception of the salad crops), I have taken the opportunity to help a friend out in his garden.听 The lawn; oh my, the lawn!听 It did have grass here and there, but it is mainly moss.听 With such a proliferation of non-grass, I would normally be tempted with starting from scratch, but who knows?听 With a bit of effort, we may well sort this out.听 I have raked a good deal of the moss out, and then using a garden fork, I have aerated everywhere by simply digging in and lifting a centimetre or two.听 We then did a good bit of weed and feed with the understanding that we might have to start from scratch after all.听 Let鈥檚 see鈥�
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He has a few fruit trees, including plums, apples and pears.听 In the past, he has always had a good crop but fairly small fruit.听 So we spent some time removing some fruit where there was several hanging in a cluster.听 I am sure he was crying at one point thinking about what we were doing, but he will be happy with the results, I am sure.听 Unfortunately, he has had an attack of Sawfly grubs on his gooseberries - whilst the fruit is still there, the leaves are all gone.听 Hopefully, we will catch these nasty little grubs next year with a spray of fairy liquid and water.
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One thing I love about his garden is the now wild sweet pea wall.听 Left to their own devices, the sweet peas have re-seeded themselves year after year.听 The plants now cover a huge area of his back wall and the smell is gorgeous 鈥� but alas, the colour range is now pretty limited.听 We spent some time cutting the flowers and removing any that had flowered and were starting to go to seed.听 I reckon he will have a good harvest this year.
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His veg patch is very small, but I had a few leeks left over from my planting, so we put those in.听 He has also just sown some swedes, and planted a couple of broccoli and sprout plants.听 There is nothing wrong with continuing to sow such veg and spinach beet will still come on a treat.
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Back to my own allotment 鈥� I am looking to pull up the shallots as they have yellowing tops now.听 I will keep at least one bulb from each cluster for next year鈥檚 planting; once you start to grow shallots, you should never have to buy sets again.听 I have sown more radishes in my gutter system and all is looking well.听 Trying to keep on top of my tomatoes is a time consuming task; it seems that if I leave them for a day or two, the side shoots take advantage and become huge and triffid like.
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Well back to the weeding 鈥� great weather for them!听 Really, harvesting and weeding is the order of the day just the now.
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Broadcast
- Thu 23 Jul 2015 13:30大象传媒 Radio Scotland
