Bitter is better…

JANE
Wilbraham

Jane Wilbraham is a multi-disciplinary artist, proud plotholder of Plot 14 and committee member for the Longton Nursery Allotments Association.

The self-managed Longton Nursery Allotments, a 2-minute walk over the road from us here in Sydenham is one of the joys of our neighbourhood.
Much-deserved winners of the Lewisham Best Allotment Site 2019!

We love being able to use Jane's produce from Plot 14 in our menus, and as she's taught us all such a great deal we thought it was time to start sharing Jane's green-thumbed notes from the allotment with you all.

This week Jane is raving about her radicchio, and is truly looking forward to the agricultural equivalent of watching paint dry.
BW.

Bitter is Better.

I’ve never really understood the gardening convention that veg growing ceases at the supposed ‘end of the season’ in October. Lots of vegetables thrive in our cooler weather - brassicas, salad leaves, winter radish etc - and then there are those beacons-of-hope, Autumn sowings of peas and broad beans that will shoot spring green once the weather warms up again.
And then there is chicory… or radicchio… or endive.

Whatever your preferred nomenclature for Chicorium intybus L., these plants glow as they grow into the winter, changing their colours through yellow, green, pink and red in response to cooling temperatures. I am a late convert to these delectable dandelions, which I admit is a little embarrassing as this plant group has been grown for food since about 300BC, so there’s been plenty of time to get with the programme.

Growing up in rural England in the 1970’s and 80’s, I knew that young dandelion leaves were foraged to eat, but it was the intriguing bottle of ‘Camp Coffee’ that was a permanent fixture on my gran’s kitchen windowsill that really piqued my interest *. It wasn’t until I moved to Amsterdam to study at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in the 1990’s that I became properly acquainted with the culinary delights of chicory. Endive Stamppot is practically the Dutch national dish, and the mini, ghostly, yellow-white submarine witlof was readily available in the farmers market.

I now grow several varieties each year, including Puntarelle, Rossa di Treviso, Palla Rossa, Cuor d’oro, Pancalieri and Rosa to name a few. To add to the fun, I’m growing Brussels Witloof for the first time this year. I will cut and dig the plants in a few weeks and bring them in pots into a dark cupboard in my part-subterranean studio. It may be the veg-growing equivalent of watching paint dry, but I won’t be able to resist getting a torch out to take a quick peek at watching chicons grow.

*Chicory has been used as ersatz coffee since the 18th century, its popularity often fluctuating in response to trade blockades and frost-hit coffee bean harvests eg Brazil, 1976/77.

Jane Wilbraham, 15th Oct 2020
@lnallotmentsse26
Longton Nursery Allotments

Growing South... Notes from Plot 14

Bitter is better…

— 161 Food+DRINK —