Chef de la Maison Peterborough - Community garden

What fruits and vegetables can I grow in spring time?

Chef de la Maison’s community garden recommendations:

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SPRING (March – May)

Main focus: sowing, planting out, early crops

Sow/Plant:

• Vegetables: carrots, beetroot, peas, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, radishes, potatoes (early varieties), onions, leeks, brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower)

• Herbs: parsley, coriander, dill, chives

• Fruits: strawberry plants, raspberry canes, rhubarb crowns

• Other: salad leaves, spring onions

Harvest (late spring):

• Rhubarb, spring greens, early radishes, baby lettuce

Which fruits and vegetables for the summer season?

Chef de la Maison’s recommendations:

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SUMMER (June – August)

Main focus: harvesting and caring for crops

Harvest:

• Vegetables: courgettes, peas, broad beans, new potatoes, onions, garlic, beetroot, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers

• Fruits: strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, cherries, early plums

• Herbs: basil, mint, thyme, rosemary (peak time)

Sow for autumn/winter:

• Kale, winter cabbages, carrots (for late crops), swede, turnips, chard

Other:

• Mulch beds, collect rainwater, feed plants with compost tea or organic feed

Which fruits and vegetables can I grow or hear eat in the autumn?

Here are Chef de la Maison’s recommendations:

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AUTUMN (September – November)

Main focus: harvesting, preparing for winter, storing

Harvest:

• Vegetables: maincrop potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, leeks, parsnips, carrots, kale, chard

• Fruits: apples, pears, plums, blackberries, sloes, damsons, elderberries

• Preserving season: pickles, jams, chutneys, dehydrated fruit

Plant:

• Garlic, onion sets, broad beans (for early spring), overwintering spinach, hardy lettuce

Garden tasks:

• Compost building, cover beds, protect tender plants, save seeds

Which fruits and vegetables can I grow or harvest in the winter months?

Heres Chef de la Maison’s recommendations for the winter:

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WINTER (December – February)

Main focus: maintenance, planning, hardy veg harvest

Harvest:

• Vegetables: leeks, kale, brussels sprouts, parsnips (especially sweet after frost), swede, winter cabbage

• Fruits: some late apples (stored), forced rhubarb in Jan/Feb

Garden tasks:

• Prune trees and bushes, build compost bins, clean tools, plan crop rotation

• Order seeds and prepare growing schedule

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Products to Grow or Use All Year Round

• Compost: make your own with kitchen and garden waste ✔️ Chef de la Maison have worm farms at our community garden!

• Wormeries: excellent for small spaces and food waste recycling

• Microgreens: grow indoors any time Chef de la Maison highly recommends micro greens, absolutely delicious too!

• Herbs indoors: thyme, basil, chives, mint

• Kefir grains / fermentation kits: for gut-healthy fermentation at home - Chef de la Maison recommends this, it’s incredibly fun, rewarding and incredibly good for your gut! Dishes like kimchi can transform your meals quickly and affordable!

• Cold frames or polytunnels: extend the growing season

At Chef de la Maison, we find gardening and maintaining the crops is very therapeutic. It’s a bit like cooking in a sense. You have high focus on what you are doing, a care, a craft and it reduced your raving thoughts and anxieties. In a similar way to when you have walked a distance. You get a release of tension, a release of pressure and get that feel good factor. Sometimes in our community garden sitting a reflecting, watching the world go buy, taking in the aromas, the sounds, the bees, the flowers, the natural connection is its own therapeutic setting and does your mental health a great service! It’s like hitting a small reset button. The connection between kitchen, gardens, nature and full circle to humans is incredible. Stay connected and think simple! How do things grow, why? Why and where do we or should we buy ingredients? Where do we put our food waste and what happened to it? How is the soil important? The questions are as deep as you can imagine and fascinating! And best of all, they reset your mind and relax you, heal in some ways and create a calmness of thoughts. If you would like to know more, learn more or you would like some help to reduce anxiety or you are simply curious. Speak to Nathan Higgins CEO Chef de la Maison. A nutritionist Chef, commercially since 1998, Nathan is super passionate about gut health, sustainability and the power of the mind! WhatsApp Nathan 07864866426, it’s free, no strings, simply an opportunity to connect.