The Edible Garden Show and a Royal Visit

For at least 8000 years humans have been cultivating a thin and delicate layer of the earth’s surface; soil, built up over billions of years from long decayed organisms and eroded rock. 

The Fertile Cresent - The origins of Agriculture 8000 years ago.
Copyright: Browse the World Mr Dowling
http://www.mrdowling.com/603mesopotamia.html

Intervening in nature by saving seed from the first wild species of edible plants and selecting from their progeny for the most useful characteristics, we have grown and developed a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables that provide us with all the nourishment we could ever need.  You would think by now that we’d have mastered it but, it seems, not quite. Over the last few centuries the industrialisation of agriculture seemed to offer a final solution to providing abundant supplies of food for everyone and nowadays we are accustomed to finding it conveniently processed and ready to eat on supermarket shelves. 

A modern ready meal
Copyright: PorkFork6
http://www.flickr.com/photos/porkfork/2251023090/

Where once we had an intimate connection with our soil, saved the best seeds from this year’s crop to sow in the next and worked within the bounds of our natural environment to grow what the season, soil and climate granted us, now we know little about where and how our food originates, yet expect it to be ever available and inexpensive to boot.

However it seems unlikely that our 8000 years experience of farming could be scrubbed from our DNA overnight like soil from a muddy old spade. The Edible Garden Show at Alexandra Palace was thronging with gardeners for whom growing their own food is something deeply ingrained and connects them to the earth, nature and their communities. There are allotmenteers, school children, garden designers, permaculturists, seed merchants, poultry and bee keepers, celebrity chefs, botanists, first time GIYers, urban farmers, journalists and a royal or two, all connected by their love of growing “good, clean and safe food”.  Yes it’s a trade show, stuff is for sale, celebs sign books and so on, but there is a real sense that people want to reconnect with nature and reclaim some control over their environment and the food they eat.

Of course Belmond Le Manoir are in on the show, joining with our partners Garden Organic to raise awareness of the amazing Heritage Seed Collection and our fabulous new Heritage Garden at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.  

Plan of the Heritage Garden at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons

Raymond Blanc has no sooner arrived than he is enthralling a group of London school children with tales of ‘Henri le Worm’ and his subterranean adventures. He tells them that they must save the planet since he is getting on a bit and has a hotel to run!  He is so involved with his new superhero friends that he fails to notice that Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have stopped by to say hello. I give him a gentle nudge just in case he misses the opportunity to tell them about our Heritage Garden and he reluctantly excuses himself.

Raymond Blanc OBE enthuses about soil with London School Children

Prince Charles is the Patron of Garden Organic and RB is the Vice President of the charity.  Both are powerful and passionate advocates for sustainable, organic practices and for conservation.  They both have wonderful gardens, Highgrove and Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons respectively, which are beacons for organic growers at home and abroad. The Prince and Duchess are relaxed and jovial and so not too alarmed when RB produces a bright yellow ‘Delicata’ squash, a heritage variety from the Belmond Le Manoir kitchen garden, and suggests they have it in ravioli for supper.  If it was their kebab night they didn’t let on and accepted it whole heartedly.

Raymond Blanc OBE enthuses about 'Delicata' squash to HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.
HRH The Prince of Wales and Garden Organic CEO James Campbell can be seen in the background

Talking of kebabs, have you ever noticed young tomato plants growing from cracks in the pavement close to kebab shops?  If not keep an eye out this summer. The EGS guest speaker, botanist James Wong, has spotted them and he says they grow from seeds that germinate after falling to the ground in the salad of greasy, late night doners. Isn’t it funny how nature insinuates its way into the urban environment? More and more, especially in our larger cities, people are inviting plants in, making room for urban allotments, edible schoolyards, guerrilla gardens and green roofs. Garden Organic recently ran an exciting project called 'Sowing New Seeds', designed to find new varieties of exotic and interesting vegetables introduced to UK allotments and community gardens by recent immigrants. We will be welcoming one of these new arrivals, an Amaranth called ‘Tower Hamlets’, into our Heritage Garden this year.  It is a relative of beetroot and spinach and is grown for its edible seeds and leaves.  The seeds are especially interesting since they are gluten free and high in protein, making them a tasty substitute for couscous and a nutritious addition to salads, soups, curries and stews.  In Latin America they are toasted and combined with honey or chocolate to make a sweet snack. Yum.

RB's vividly coloured squash made for some great press photos in the hands of the amused Duchess of Cornwall but it also represented that connection between all gardeners, the calling to love, grow and conserve the fantastical bounty that nature gifts to all of us.  Furthermore it symbolises that complex simplicity involved in producing food: the unfathomable wonder of nature’s scheme and the simple process of cause and effect that is planting a seed, nurturing it and reaping the rewards.