The Brownies Take On Eden

Our last visit to the Eden Project was a run through for this one. This time I had a bunch of young girls with me. I challenged them to find the word Brownies in the plants.

Bamboo

Rough Comfry 

Olive

Waterfall (I know it's not a plant...)

NuMex Twilight (chilli) 

Ivy

East Indian Galingale

Soil

We had a fantastic time.

Eden Inspiration

We love going to the Eden Project in Cornwall. Admittedly the show stopper of the place is the fabulous Rainforest Biome. It's were all my dreams of growing tamarind and climbing trees come from. Also there is a big ass waterfall. But if you can pull yourself away from a rainforest in coastal Cornwall there is a huge amount of inspiration that you can take away with you for your own edible landscape.

The Mediterranean Biome - otherwise known as the one less likely to make you pass out - has more attainable edibles. Especially if you are blessed with the Devon coastal climate like we are. There are the herbs, the rosemary, basils, thymes. Stuff we're all well acquainted with. But have you thought about olives? We've had a single olive charming us with it's old man nature and evergreen leaves out on the balcony for three years or so. We've never had fruit because there isn't another one for it to make babies with so we scooped up two more olive trees in the Eden project shop. They are living on the allotment now and we're hoping to encourage them to perform.

He likes to stare out to sea and complain about the youth of today

Speaking of performances I was enticed by all of the wonderful chillies displaying their best. I've not really explored growing chillies before. I've bought the occasional plant but in more of an impulse buy than any well thought out effort to provide myself with all the heat I'll need. These two changed my mind.

The charmingly named 'Stumpy'

The appallingly whimsically named 'Fairy Lights' 

Of course we picked up seeds in the shop. From Sea Spring Seeds if you are interested.

Our other main inspiration stop was the Global Allotment. Which is the allotment I'd like mine to look like in a parallel universe where I could get permission for a Banana Tree.

Can't exactly get this one past the committee

It was full of stunning edibles that aren't that unusual on our plates but raise eyebrows when they are in our plots.

I'll give you three guesses

I also love the plant markers.

Both of these can be grown from supermarket produce (if your supermarket sells lemon grass and tumeric that is) so I didn't buy any of them in the shop.

So did I mention Eden Project has a shop? Well it does and it's not your average souvenir shop. If it was my local garden centre I'd be there all the time. As it's not I'll just wish it was and drop a bunch of cash each time we go out there. Why? Well...

• The book selection is amazing. They have not just a book but a good book for any aspect of sustainable living you can think of. 
• They have a really cool deli section with lovely local produce. Get a big tub of the Cornish sea salt if you've never had it before. 
• T-shirts. Eden project logo, well made and adorable. 
• All of the ethical goods you can think of 

and then...

• gardening supplies

From the amazing, huge and - frankly - orgasmic selection of seeds and plants we took home... a lot. We promised ourselves a miniature tea plantation as a wedding present and finally got around to buying our first tea plant. It's out on the allotment now, we'll tuck it under fleece in case of cold weather and this time next year I expect to be sipping home grown green tea. The other plant we took home, this time for a life of indoor/outdoor living is a kafir lime. I imagine it's leaves are going to get exploited around here soon too. 

Following on from other inspirations we picked up some Quinoa seeds, some French Beans (Triofono Violetto) recommended by Gayla Trail and some tulip bulbs as fallen in love with on our honeymoon. I've always though tat plants make the best reminder of an amazing trip. 

Incredible Edible Ramsbottom

It's odd when something you grew up with becomes famous. When you see it on TV, read about it in books, when your head Gardener asks you if you know about it. That's how I feel about the Incredible Edible Towns.

Seriously

Incredible Edible Todmorden was the first, and the most well known but the Incredible Edible movement is spreading to many of the North West towns of my childhood. I knew that I had to visit at least one Incredibly Edible town as I stayed with my Dad. Ramsbottom won out. Mainly because of the bad weather and my Aunt who lives there having a new puppy.

Sleepers to match to local steam trains

We took the grown up dogs on a quick tour. Stopping by the raised beds outside a closed pub and the fire station. Peering over backyard fences to peek at Chickens (with permission of course) Even in the winter there where plenty of edibles about. Strawberries and Artichokes getting ready for the new season. Hardy Herbs and over wintered Chard. A public compost bin and a place to swap veg. Taking a look at the events calender gets me excited too. A wassail is to come and, last year, an event celebrating my favourite foraged food; ramsons or wild garlic. After all that's what Ramsbottom is named for. What, did you think it was dirty?

Bins For The Incredible Leftovers

A town I visited almost every week as a kid has placed itself on the front-line of the battle to produce healthy, cheap, local food. And to honour the importance of labour and community as well as fabulous food. I couldn't be more in awe.

Because I couldn't get away without showing you the pup

Garden Visit: Chalice Well

I've wanted to visit The Chalice Well in Glastonbury since I was a baby pagan. I'm not going to pretend I was the only 14 year old planning a visit to Glastonburyno,notthefestivle but, let's face it, we are few and far between. Anyway, like many trips I planned as a 14 year old it didn't happen. But last week we where driving slightly east and passed The Well. I did a bit of googleing to check that it was open in winter and seeing that it was I begged that we stop on the way back.

The Vesica Pool in the Chalice Well gardens