‘Grow Your Own’ – May already on it’s way

by Allotinabox

WOW what a very wet April and a pretty dismal start to May, but here at Shedquarters that hasn’t dampened our spirits, it’s the Jubilee Year after all, and of course we’ve got the Olympics in London, so we are going for gold and all of the seedlings that we planted earlier in the year are sprouting and sprinting to the finish line!

Grow Your Own the ALLOTINABOX® Way

May is a really busy month when it comes to growing your own food, but we think it’s definitely worth putting the effort in now, even a few herbs on the windowsill, or a couple of pots sown with salads will give you a great crop of delicious home-grown vegetables to look forward to in the coming months. If you are a balcony gardener, then it’s also a great time to start thinking about what crops to grow.

ALLOTINABOX® Super Seed Box - packed full of our NO1 Seeds.

If like us, you have a bit of space to plant out your vegetables then May is all about clearing out the weeds, back breaking stuff, but worth the effort. Now is also the time to transport your crops out into containers on your balcony, or to think about transferring your indoor seedling into other containers. We are just putting out our Pepper Plants, Courgettes and Aubergines which should be all ready to eat in early summer.

ALLOTINABOX® Grow your Own tasty peppers

Generally we find that in the damp weather weeds tend to shot through, even our window containers need a good MOT, so last week we pulled up all the weeds from the kitchen garden, scrubbed up our pots, and had a good general tidy up which will save us a bit of time for when the sun decides to finally shine once again. We think that the risk of frost in most areas has now past, but it is not unheard for a frost in May, so just remember if you are putting our your seedling, be prepared to bring them indoors overnight, just in case. Who knows, with all the strange weather that we have been having in the UK, anything is possible!

In May we always try to start planting out onions and potatoes. We like to grow them in deep pots or containers which usually keeps them safe from all but the harshest of frosts, but if you’ve got a patch or share one with your neighbor, then you can get them into the ground this weekend.

Right now we are sowing our Radishes, which for those of you who have bought our Urban Rooftop Edition will know are included in our Secret Seed Club pack, and we’ve had some amazing success with Growing our Own Chilies, in fact we can’t believe how well they are doing, so much so, we are going to create a Limited Edition ALLOTINABOX Chili Box!

ALLOTINABOX® Chilli Box - coming soon!

As well as the usual salad crops, we’re also getting spring onions sown, and experimenting with lettuces, which will be part of our Grow Your Own Salad box released later this year (so keep em peeled) The thing to remember with salads is to stagger your sowing, by that, we mean sow a small handful of seeds now, and then sow again in a couple of weeks. This will ensure that you have a plentiful supply over the summer months, promise!

Carrots, caulis and parsnips can be put in to the ground now too – again, remember to sow every other week otherwise they will all be ready at the same time. Next week we are also getting ready to sow cucumber and some more courgettes, as we wanted to wait that little bit longer, as they need protection from the heavy rain that we’re currently suffering from down here on the Solent, then it’s onto our strawberries, we’ve set ourselves a goal to have these harvested in time for watching Wimbledon, there is really nothing like munching into these sun warmed fruits, knowing that they have just been picked from your back door or balcony !

Happy Growing, enjoy the rest of May!

 

Asparagus trouble, reaching for the Sun

by Allotinabox

ALLO Growers..This week as we enter into May, and recover from one of wettest Spring that we can remember at Shedquarters, it’s worth sharing our concerns over the UK Asparagus season with you all, and to also say it’s still a good time to get your seedlings sown indoors no matter what the weather.  In comparison, we think it’s nice and easy to pop a few seeds into a pot, made even better via our wonderful Grow Your Own Boxes, vs the poor Asparagus industry, which has suffered due to recent rain and floods.

Allo Growers - I'm GUMMAGE - The ALLOTINABOX® Scarecrow

We hear that this strange weather has also had an impact on Worcestershire’s fantastic Asparagus festival, which normally has thousands of people flocking to the Vale of Evesham to sample everything from Asparagus toothpaste to sweets, there’s even a Asparamancer, who reads people’s fortunes using the vegetable!

Ironically, the British Asparagus Festival was started as a way of helping the area recover after the severe floods back in2007. So we send you all our best wishes to the good folk of Evesham, and feel sure that the sun will shine soon, chin up, we’re British after all!

For those interested in some Asparagus facts, The British season traditionally begins on 1 May and runs for around seven to eight weeks, until the end of June. A really tasty and very British crop, this beauty has us all creating dishes in kitchen, and magazines, the world over featuring this crop on trendy front covers, plus the usual recipe cards freely distributed in all of our supermarkets.

As some of you might know Asparagus is very climate dependent –we found out that the soil temperature must be around 10C before it starts to grow, and relies on a warm Spring to make it possible for us to buy our first asparagus spears in late April. Fascinated by our findings we wanted to learn more about this crop, so we popped an email to Jamie ‘Asparagus Man’ who appeared on our blog last month and is an all round expert. We asked him to share his thoughts with us once again, like “what it’s like to be a grower” and so he sent us back a note to talk us through this season.

UK Asparagus Season 2012

Asparagus Season - Nearly there

Asparagus seasons come and asparagus seasons go, but one thing is for certain, no two seasons are ever the same. 2011 was characterised by a very early start, generally 2-3 weeks earlier than “normal”. Up until the end of March, it looked like 2012 would be much the same. However a month is a long time in an asparagus crop. Since then we’ve had a hosepipe ban, drought warnings and then almost constant rain for the past 10 days, not to mention a handful of frosts. The poor little asparagus plants don’t know if they’re coming or going. Those asparagus spears that were brave enough to raise their heads above the parapet in early April have been severely disappointed, and many have still not been consumed.

Here at Asparagus Central, we are testing a whole range of varieties and we have seen enormous differences in terms of spear emergence in the past four weeks. The speed of growth of an asparagus spear is determined by a number of factors, but soil and air temperatures are key. If the soil is warm enough, a bud on top of the crown will break into a spear and rise up through the soil profile. If the air temperature is then sufficiently warm, that spear will develop into something that can be eaten. This is where the problem of spring 2012 has laid so far. Air temperatures have been cool so most of the asparagus has remained under ground.

Just imagine all of those spears queuing up beneath the soil, waiting for the sun to come out. As soon as it does, there is going to be a multitude of green soldiers bursting forth, ready to be eaten. I personally cannot wait for this. I am really hoping that this will happen by the beginning of this month, in fact on the 1st May we have officially declared this as #greenasparagusday!

We want to encourage everyone to send us all of your asparagus related pics, this might be spears in the garden, asparagus recipe preparation or asparagus meals ready to eat.

Share these on our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/asparabuddies

We very much look forward to engaging with you over this 2012 asparagus season. Although it is late starting, it is going to be worth waiting for. We know this because it always is!

ALLOTINABOX® Kitchen - fork to plate

Thanks Jamie, it looks like we are becoming blossoming scholars on all things Asparagus here at Shedquarters, thanks for your wisdom. We are praying for the summer to arrive and the Sun to wash over your crops to accelerate their growth.

ps: The AsparaBuddies team is also primed and ready to answer any asparagus related questions you may have this new season. As well as Facebook, you can find them on twitter, www.twitter.com/asparabuddies and our their profile page, www.bit.ly/asparabuddiesprofile or just send us a message here at ALLOTINABOX® via our carrot phone, or on our social channels such as Facebook, where we try to encourage all of you to grow your own, no matter what the crop!

Happy Growing!

 

 

GROW YOUR OWN – A PERFECT EXAMPLE FROM AN URBAN GROWER

by Allotinabox

So after a busy month of sending out our fabulous boxes, we rested for a moment with a nice cup of Tea supplied by our friends at Tea Pigs. We all wondered what our customers would do when ALLOTINABOX® popped through the post, how they would tackle sowing the seeds, and what type of space everyone would have to grow food.

How would they adapt, what conditions would they have, big window boxes in town apartments, or small bijoux balconies, or just a handy grow bag…hmm we pondered.

So we headed onto Twitter to ask everyone, when holy mackerel, we spotted a tweet from Jo Corall. Not only had she ordered one of our boxes for her boyfriend, but she had taken Grow Your Own to a different level!

Indeed the pictures that accompanied her tweet and the link to her blog just about tipped us over the edge!

Ben, Jerry, Jo and ALLOTINABOX® perfect combo

We leapt for Joy, for if there was ever a picture that could optimise the spirit of growing food with ALLOTINABOX®, then surely these were the prize contenders, not only does it capture the essence of the fun that can be had, but it draws upon the idea that no matter what space anyone, yes anyone, that’s you folks, can Grow Your Own Vegetables.

We asked Jo if we could share the article with our fellow grower, and somehow we got to a point where more picture were emailed across and before we could sow a few carrots seeds, Jo had obliged with this brilliant entry.

So it’s a big  big thank you to Jo ( and your Boyfriend) for these fantastic pictures, and for the effort and support in writing this for us, it’s straight from the growers mouth.

Happy reading and happy Growing, over and Sprout….. Here’s the article for your enjoyment, it an inspiration .

ALLOTINABOX® seedlings set sail in these brilliant newpaper pots

This year for Christmas I bought my boyfriend an Allotinabox. In all honesty, it was more a present for me than for him. Yes, he did express a wish to start an urban garden on our balcony, but he also told me he was going to start hoovering without me asking him to so it’s fair to say that he doesn’t always mean everything he says.

However, his excitement over this cute little box of seeds matched mine and we spent a sleepy, tipsy Christmas afternoon planning our vegetable patch.

Over the coming months I horded more than usual. Anything vaguely pot-like would be put to one side as I impatiently waited for sowing season to start. Milk bottles, grape containers, mushroom boxes and Tetra Paks all got stored at the bottom of our pop up greenhouse in preparation for our planting. We filled our calendar with dates to sow seeds and finally the day came when we could get our hands dirty.

We started our seeds off in tiny (and utterly adorable) newspaper pots. They couldn’t be simpler to make. When you pack them with compost they are perfectly sturdy and a brilliant place to kick start your vegetables. When your seedlings are bigger you can either rip open the newspaper or, if the roots are more delicate, you can repot the whole thing into a bigger container. The newspaper will break down and your plants will have plenty of room to grow.

While I scrabbled around to find more newspaper in a fit of feverish, folding excitement, my boyfriend did the adult thing and read the instructions on the back of the seed packets. Newspaper pots are perfect for peppers and chives but salad leaves need more room around than down.

The answer was old milk bottles, cut in half length ways. For seeds that don’t need deep soil to bed down into, these make-do plastic seed trays are perfect. We poked some drainage holes in the bottom and that was it. We can reuse them again and again each year or recycle them.

Cut out cartons to Grow Your Own

Another milk bottle became our watering can. Simply poke a few holes in the lid and that’s it.

Credit Crunching watering can

We placed our newly sown seeds on the windowsill and watched excitedly over the following weeks as green shoots started to pop up. Eventually the vegetable seedlings became too big for their newspaper homes so we dove into our collection of ‘these could be plant pots’ and picked out some larger containers.

Two such pots were bowls made from old records that were originally intended as Christmas presents. (It’s easy. Just pop them in the oven over a mug for about 20 seconds and they shape themselves into bowls). These ones were a bit wonky though and didn’t quite make the cut as gifts. However they made perfect new homes for the chives and spring onions. The peppers we repotted into old plastic tubs (left empty after I accidentally killed the bonzai trees my boyfriend had been lovingly growing in them for the past 4 years. Whoops) and more seeds were planted, this time in a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream tub and a few tin cans.

Celebrate record store day with a few chives planted in old Vinyl

It’s fair to say that I am not an experienced gardener. In fact I have already killed some spring onions and it’s true, I did ring up my dad to ask how much I need to water spinach (no more than any other plant, in case you’re wondering). We don’t have a garden, we didn’t spend tons of money on fancy-pants pots and tubs and we don’t have a dibber (that’s what fingers are for, surely?).

Have a Go, go on,we told you it was Fun

But with a bit of creative thrifting and barely a penny spent, we’re already well on our way to a few delicious, home grown meals this summer. Who said you need to buy boring old plant tubs to be able grow your own food? Our upcycled urban garden is the envy of all our friends and I’m proud of our mismatched and recycled veggie patch.

ALLOT of seed all ready to roll, LOVE Growing Food ? easy peasy eh

Words and Pictures by Jo Corrall – April 2012

 

ALLOTINABOX® April Food Hero – Tea Pigs’ Expert International Taster of Tea – Louise Allen

by Allotinabox

Tea, Tea, everywhere, but is it good to drink? Well, we’re rather honoured to have Teapigs head tea taster Louise in Shedquarters, we love drinking a strong cuppa after a day out sowing and tending to our kitchen garden here at Allotinabox HQ. It’s a perfect blend, Grow Your Own and Tea, what a combo.

Louise is a fully fledged tea extraordinaire for the magnificent Teapigs, purveyors of fabulous green, white, black and organic teas and a company who are at the forefront of the ‘DRINK REAL TEA!’ revolution. Louise’s love of tea has taken her around the world, so if there’s anyone who knows a good cuppa, it’s gotta be her!

So put the kettle on, and then settle down and enjoy this great insight into a taste expert.

What, exactly, is a tea pig?

A tea lover, someone who is greedy for tea – we are all teapigs here in pump alley, Brentford.

Being a tea taster sounds like a career we could get used to! Can you talk us through a day in the life?

Best job in the world. The best thing is that there isn’t really a regular ‘day in the life’. I have found myself sipping oolong in Taiwan, hanging out in the foothills of the Himalayas whilst enjoying Darjeeling tea or slurping cup after cup blending and checking new recipes in Brentford.

You must have tasted 1000s of cups of tea over the years! Which one is your most memorable?

One of the most memorable was freshly picked oolong tea accompanied by freshly cut pineapple in Taiwan – amazing!

Tea has taken you around the world, what is it like seeing tea grown at source and meeting the growers involved in cultivating it?

Inspiring. There is a real art to producing great tea, knowing how to care for the tea bush in the field is the beginning, selecting the finest leaves and then taking care of the quality green leaf the whole way though the drying process requires a talent.  If you have got your name as being a good tea grower, you are battling with the elements constantly to make sure that you keep the quality of your tea high and consistent.

Where do you think the best tea in the world comes from?

Well that is all down to personal taste, the fascinating thing about tea is that it green, white, oolong, black tea all comes from the very same plant (camellia sinensis) but it is the location, soil, weather and processing methods which dictate the end taste. The range is huge you just can’t compare a Darjeeling to a Kenyan CTC to a Fujian white tea. You just need to give as many teas a try as possible and then you will find your favourite – there is a whole load more out there beyond the great British brew ( although I still drink 4 cups a day of that!)

We think your community work with the Noel Orphanage in Rwanda deserves an extra special mention. Fantastic! How can we encourage everyone to get involved, where and how can they help or make a contribution to what you do when they buy your products?

Thanks. We are working with the point foundation to help support the orphanage in Rwanda, home to more than 600 orphans. There are 3 ways to help – buy our everyday brew and a donation is made on every pack, add a 49p donation at the checkout with your online order (and we will match it) and lastly sponsor the teapigs personal fundraising efforts which are featured on the blog – for example Nick cycled 500 miles in 5 days, not bad for an old guy!

Pfunda Tea Estate in Rwanda

If you pop into Shedquarters, chances are you’ll find Head Gardener guzzling down cup after cup of black coffee in-between tending his plot! How can we convert him into a tea lover?

He clearly hasn’t encountered our matcha queen Katie and her super power green matcha. An all natural energy boost, a few shots of that and the coffee will be out. Once we have weaned him off the hard dark stuff we can start introducing some more exotic teas and eventually we will have him knocking back the liquorice and mint.

Growing your own cuppa sounds like it could be very satisfying.  Any tips on how to grow a tasty tea and could you give our Allotinabox home grown tea a little taste for us when it’s ready?

If you want it to really take of….  move to the tropics, plant tea bush and wait 5 years! Very happy to give your homegrown brew a try when it is ready. You need 4 kilos of green leaf to make 1 kilo of tea, it takes a little while to get the bush to produce this much leaf…. I am happy to wait though!

We hate to waste useful things at Shedquarters, what’s the best thing to do with our old teabags?

Compost please.

We love Teapigs ‘DRINK REAL TEA’ mission! We’re on a mission ourselves at Allotinabox. ‘GROW MORE VEG!’ Can you tell us a little bit more about yours, and how can we get involved?

Ban the slop, we call ourselves a nation of tea drinkers yet we knock back cup after cup of very bog standard brew. It is time to demand a better cuppa from all those places serving tea and retailing tea, a soggy paper tea bag just doesn’t cut it any longer. It is time to ask for real tea, whole leaf tea, quality whole flowers and herbal infusions. There are some amazing teas available in the UK now (including teapigs obviously) it is time to demand better.

Cosmo is our office mascot and likes a good dig around the plot here at Shedquarters; we notice that your dog Harvey plays an important role at Teapigs HQ, if you were to make a blend for dog lovers, what would you call it?

Oh yes, Harvey the receptionist, he is pretty hands on like Cosmo. We already have the perfect brew for dog lovers our Darjeeling earl grey – I think 50% of the sales comes from sausage dog owners, just because they feature on the pack. It does taste great too and doesn’t contain any sausage or dog.

What’s the best slice to have with a cup of teapigs? Victoria Sponge or Carrot Cake? We know what we would choose!

Hmmm can I say both.. no… carrot cake – yum!

And finally, Milk? And how many sugars?

Everyday brew, milk.. keep the sugar thanks.

A huge thanks to Louise for that fascinating insight into the world of a tea taster and of course to all the team at Teapigs. Be sure to head to Teapigs to learn more about their wonderful range of teas, or to get involved with their inspirational fund raising efforts.

Allotinabox and Tea Pigs Competition

We’re thrilled to reveal that we’re running not one, but two competitions with the team at Tea Pigs this April, with both Allotinabox and Teapigs goodies up for grabs! Make sure you follow us on Twitter and give us a like on Facebook for all the info you’ll need to get involved or just head to the Teapigs website to get involved..Get Growing!

Belvoir Cordials refreshing competition with ALLOTINABOX®

by Allotinabox

Allo Growers!  just a quick update from Shedquarters to tell all of our fellow Grow Your Own, enthusiasts,  Balcony Veggies lovers and Balcony Gardening experts about our terrific competition. We have teamed up with Belvoir Fruit Farms this month to offer you a chance to win a year supply of Growing Goodies.

If you are thinking of starting that tasty window box in the next few weeks, or starting your very own mini veg patch, then this is your chance to win a years supply of our Magnificent Grow Your Own Seed Boxes. Just head to the Grow Your Own Competition on Facebook of for your chance to participate check out the lovely Belvoir website here

GOOD LUCK GROWERS, FROM ALL THE GANG AT SHEDQUARTERS

 

ALLOTINABOX® – Seedy Sunday’s guide to saving those seeds up!

by Allotinabox

We lovingly choose our seeds each season. Making sure they fit into our Grow Your Own boxes, and are simple, fun and easy to grow. What’s important is that no matter what space you have, you can give it a go… Grow Your Own Food, go on, you’ll be hooked.

On the subject of seeds, here at Shedquarters we are proud to say that all of our seeds are from UK plantsmen and not from overseas, so we have seeds that can claim some heritage, and that the end resulting flavour is a lot more flavoursome. Recently we were excited to come across Steve Bustin and his seed swapping events, a great idea. When visiting Infinity Foods down in Brighton we came across one of his flyers with all the info. This has to be one of our favourite places to shop, it’s a co-operative ( just like our friends at The Peoples Supermarket) that has been around a while, its got a fantastic range of vegetarian products from store cupboard essentials to freshly baked bread and seasonal fruit and vegetables.

As mentioned Steve runs a brilliant Seed Swapping event in conjunction with Infinity Foods, and as we picked up the leaflets, immediately we wanted to get in touch and get involved. So we jotted down phone details and the very next day popped a few questions to him via our carrot phone!

So Steve, over to you, why do you think saving and swapping seeds makes sense?

All you need is one plant, one envelope, some patience – and someone to swap with – and you too can be a seed swapper. There are now seed swaps all over the country but the UK’s first (and still largest) seed swap is Brighton’s Seedy Sunday which takes place on the first Sunday in February every year.

We’ve been swapping seeds at Seedy Sunday for 11 years now and this year we welcomed over 1500 people who swapped tens of thousands of seeds, from Aubergine to Zinnias.

A seed swap is a sort of fair, where growers exchange seeds from plants they have grown themselves, meet kindred spirits, and reassure each other that preferring home-saved seeds to bought ones does not mean that they are just stingy or eccentric.

Seeds are for sharing

In return for a donation or in exchange for seed they have saved, growers can choose seeds from dozens of traditional varieties of garden vegetables, to take home and grow. These open-pollinated, ‘heritage’ varieties are often no longer commercially available, but are naturally well adapted to local growing conditions – as well as being tasty and colourful. At Seedy Sunday we also have experienced local growers on hand to advise on the practicalities of seed saving and growing from seed, and there are films, displays and talks to inspire you to go home and get growing.

Nothing beats the satisfaction of growing a fruitful crop from seeds you have gathered, dried and sown yourself, unless it is the pleasure of sharing them with other growers, and sharing their successes in return. And beyond this, there is the larger knowledge that by saving these garden varieties from extinction, you are helping to protect not only your local community’s but also the planet’s biodiversity.

As well as the annual Seedy Sunday event in February we can be found at a number of food, seed and community focused events around the country throughout the year. Our website www.seedysunday.org also includes full instructions on organising your own seed swap event so as the sowing season gets into full swing, why not also start thinking ahead to saving some of those seeds then swapping them for next year’s crops?

Thanks Steve wonderful stuff!

We will be thinking about how we can encourage some of this in our next range of boxes, maybe next time someone buys a credit crunching seed box from ALLOTINABOX® perhaps be good enough to save a few back, and then take them along to the next event, we will see you there!

Happy Saving, Happy Sowing and Happy Growing everyone!

ALLOT OF SEEDS
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ALLOTINBOX® Asparagus Buddies and Bunnies

by Allotinabox

So we like to have a good tweet or three here at Shedquarters, especially if our friends are updating us about the weekend, talking recipes or Grow Your Own, or generally sharing a joke or picture.

So it was just great to finally meet and tweet with Jamie from Hargreaves Plants Finesse (Mr Asparagus Man) and an all round world expert on Asparagus.

 

It's all about the soil

Asparagus has to be one of our favourite ingredients to grow and eat, ever!  We got around to asking Jamie about UK Varieties and what we got back was an incredible story about his search for the perfect tip. He was also kind enough to write a wonderful article for us, so we offered to publish it on the popular ALLOTINABOX® blog. We would like to say a huge thanks to Jamie, we are positive that our paths will cross in the near future, who knows he may even become our regular expert, for the time being enjoy this incredibly knowledgeable guy, fascinating and wonderful dedication, which is what all fellow growers need!

Thanks from all of the gang here at Shedquarters Jamie, we loved reading your article and read with interest about all the incredible varieties, oh and the fun bit about the Rabbits!…

Asparagus Varieties for the UK

Asparagus varieties have been revolutionised in the UK in the past 10 years. In general there are two main types of asparagus grown in the world, namely green and white. The key difference is that green asparagus is harvested above the soil and white below ground. In addition to this, the range of varieties available have different traits making them more or less suitable for green / white asparagus production. Generally white asparagus should have very thick spears, and green is more slender. It is essential for green asparagus to have heads that stay closed as it grows longer in the spring sunshine. As white asparagus is harvested under the soil and is therefore not exposed to sunshine, then its heads do not get the chance to open.

As a result, the two key quality elements involved in selecting new green varieties are head / tip closure and ideal spear diameter. It is taken as a given that high yields are important. A further interesting aspect is flavour. Taste is very difficult to measure objectively as it often comes down to personal preference. However it is possible to carry out regular taste samplings to get longer term opinions on flavour. It is important to remember that minimising the time between asparagus harvest and consumption increases freshness and generally improves flavour.

I first got interested in the opportunities with new asparagus hybrids about 10 years ago. At that time, I realised that almost all of the green asparagus grown in the UK was produced from varieties that were bred for white production. This seemed very strange to me, so I decided to carry out a worldwide search for new varieties that were bred specifically for green asparagus. It took more than a year but eventually I found 17 major breeders from 9 different countries, such as New Zealand, Canada, USA, Italy and even Taiwan.

The next stage was to get these breeders to send me seeds of their hybrids so that I could germinate them, grow some plants and get them in the ground to observe how they grow in our conditions. In the end, the project was much larger than I had initially planned. More than 200 individual selections were planted in spring 2004. This made it the largest asparagus variety trial in the world. Harvesting of these hybrids started in 2006, and today I am still looking at the best of the best. After all, asparagus is a long term crop.

This work showed that there were better varieties available than those that were considered as standard types in the UK. The two best new varieties that were discovered were Mondeo and Guelph Millennium. Mondeo was bred in Northern Germany and Millennium in Ontario, Canada. Both varieties are high yielding, with excellent quality and superb taste. They are now extremely widely planted in the UK by the largest growers. For more information on these two, you can visit www.mondeoaparagus.com and www.millenniumaparagus.com

Other really interesting new varieties were unveiled, such as Pacific Purple, a beautifully sweet purple variety bred in New Zealand, www.pacificpurpleasparagus.com, Pacific 2000 – another variety from New Zealand also with great flavour, and Ariane, a green variety with fantastic tip closure.

The best news is that in addition to these new varieties, I identified even newer types, with just numbered codes without variety names. These are now in development for commercial release in the near future. Look out for new varieties with improved flavour, quality and yield in the near future. One part of the whole story that I still really like is that rabbits absolutely love asparagus. A couple of spring bunnies found their way into the trial site during the first harvest season and made a beeline for the purple asparagus. Purple is sweeter and more tender than green types so the rabbits totally knew what they were doing!

Stay tuned for more asparagus news this season and beyond:

Twitter

@AsparaBuddies

@asparagusman

Facebook

www.facebook.com/asparabuddies

Arrested by Rhubarb – Honest Officer

by Allotinabox

We love Rhubarb here at ALLOTINABOX®, it just fun to grow and it makes us smile and our toes curl up when we think of a homemade crumble with custard. Even Cosmo, our company mascot, loves a nice yoghurt flavoured with the UK’s favourite after his dinner. But when we heard this tale we had a little giggle. We knew that some varities of Rhubarb grow up to be nice and tall, but apparently now you can avoid having your house burgled by planting them out in your front garden!

Whilst cycling to shedquarters, our Head Gardner heard on his wind up radio that London’s police force have released a list of “abrasive foliage”  These are ranges that you should plant in your front garden to put off would-be burglars. He he, genius

The varities include giant rhubarb ( one of our favourties) and other varieties which have nice spikey branches, or at least can cause a nasty accident if you fall into them should you be up to no good!

As soon as he told us the story we headed onto our HQ computer to  investigate and pull up more details. We actualy thought this might also be a great way to keep them off your Allotment or at least out of the garden and away from your tools, or window-boxes.

According to the Met” Most burglars are lazy. They look for easy ways of getting into a house or garden and by taking a few simple precautions  you can reduce the risk of being burgled and make your house and garden more secure.”

Thinking about it, it’s not such a bad idea, not only do you get the benefit of eating your own crops, but you get the chance to throw any prying eyes on your property…ahh plants are clever eh..mind you we would challenge anyone to overcome the hurdle of our Mister Stinky Garlic:)

ALLOTINABOX® Grow Your Own Garlic

Here’s a list of the recommended plants to fend of those intruders

 

Allotinabox – February Food Hero – Joe and Seph’s Gourmet Popcorn

by Allotinabox

We’ve decided to bring you something a little out of the ordinary for February’s food hero, growers. This month we invited Joe and Seph, a chef and a connoiseur of gourmet popcorn respectively, into Shedquarters to give us the big scoop on that wonderful snack. Joe and Seph have masterfully taken the classic sweet or salty cinema treat to a complete different level, fusing flavours as exotic as mirin, soya and sesame to one of their many delicious popcorn creations. Here’s what they had to say..

Joe & Seph's Gourmet Popcorn

Allo Joe + Seph! So, how exactly does one become a Popcorn connoisseur and a Popcorn chef?

I guess it is by my love of both creating the flavours and my love of ensuring that each flavour we develop gives a unique taste experience never achieved before.

We still get that magical little feeling when we see our seedlings we’ve planted pop through the ground, do you get the same when you’re popping your lovely corn?

For me the real magical moment is when we are sampling in stores or at shows and the reaction of people who are trying the popcorn for the first time.

You’ve come up with some wonderfully inventive flavour combinations for your popcorns, Auvergne Cremeux Blue Cheese, Walnut and Celery.. Delish! Where does the inspiration come from?

I am a very light sleeper and the ideas just seem to come to me at some unearthly hour of the morning, and I am then off to the kitchen trying to create it.

We want to take the flavours of our beautiful home grown Allotinabox vegetables and wrap them around your popcorn, a possibility?

I have never yet declined a challenge!

Our head gardener has been known to munch through a barrow-load of popcorn in front of a great movie. What’s your favourite way to enjoy Joe and Seph’s popcorn?

The cheese popcorns with a glass of wine.

Can you give us the big scoop on any new flavours in the pipeline?

Our new Easter flavours Ginger Caramel and Trio of Chocolate (a mixture of Milk, White and Cookies with cream)

We’ve not had a go at Grow Your Own popcorn, but we’ll definitely have a pop this summer! What do you look for in your raw corn to ensure it’ll burst into something beautifully tasty?

Size of the kernel (expansion ratio) and we only use Mushroom corn as this expands into really nice balls of corn ideal for coating.

You’re invited to the world premiere of our film debut: The Day After To-marrow.. [See what we did there?] Which bag of Joe and Seph’s are you going to take with you and why?

I think I will have to create a new vegetable popcorn specially for that, or it may be the one we are trialling garden pea and wasabi.

Finally, we’ve noticed you like to get out and about, touring your popcorn like rock stars! Where and when can we next find Joe and Seph on the road?

The next two events are trade shows Hotelympia and Food and Drink expo, just finalising the consumer shows now and as always we will have a few new surprise flavours for each show…

 

A huge thank you to Joe and Seph again for stepping into Shedquarters this month, be sure to catch them out and about as they take their popcorn flavours around the country this year, or pop into their online shop and have a browse through their incredible selection of popcorn pouches!

ALLOTINABOX® visits the Design Museum London

by Allotinabox

Proudly, we are now moving into retail with our ALLOTINABOX® Urban Growing Concept. We think it’s fair to say that city dwellers deserve to enjoy growing food at home, so we can’t think of a better thing to do than pick up one of our Urban GYO Boxes on the way home from work, after a trip to museum or even when out shopping for a gift, who knows we might even end up in your food shopping basket. For now we can be found in a few select stores. From February our Limited Edition Urban GYO Box and our new seasonal Urban Box can be found retailed in the Design Museum shop in London.  Chuffed, not half. Let’s hope all who visit get into sowing a few of our carrots seeds, or our lovely N01 aubergines… here’s a nice screenshot, and a rather splendid mention on the homepage, right next to one of our all time design heroes Sir Terence Conran!

If you have never visited The Museum, then jump on your bike and head for the exhibition to celebrate Sir Terence’s 80th Birthday, what an influence he had on our way of living and also on our inspirations for food, great design and ethics.

 

ALLOTINABOX® Urban GYO Box - Ethical, Recyclable, I am