Growing South... Notes from Plot 14

'Avin It Large

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 adds another string to Manchester's bow with the Table Carrot.
BW

‘Avin It Large

Oh Manchester, so much to answer for. In this instance, it’s carrots.

The chromatic dominance of the orange carrot has given way in recent years to a paint-box riot of rainbow hued roots of purple, yellow (Eastern/Asiatic anthocyanin carrots) orange, red and white (Western or carotene carrots), which reflects a re-acquaintance with its long history, domestication and global distribution via trade routes some time around the 10th century.

I’ve grown the whole Daucus Carota ssp. sativus colour spectrum over the years, and I like to grow a good selection of varieties to pick through the seasons, but for me, the standout carrot in terms of flavour and performance has to be the Manchester Table Carrot.

Every year, come sun, frost, heat wave, deluge or drought it dutifully delivers whopping great big, beautifully flavoursome carroty leviathans from early autumn right through the winter, leaving me with only a small carrot ‘hungry gap’ before the Amsterdam Forcing’s come into their own in April.

I have to confess that I picked the first Table Carrot this week with some trepidation, nervous that this years extreme weather conditions might have checked its growth. My fears were assuaged when reliably, robustly and with a swagger somewhat reminiscent of Shaun Ryder in his pomp, a defiantly mighty root emerged from the ground, mocking my lack of faith in the strength of the Mancunian. Truly, I was foolish to doubt it.

Sure, big isn’t necessarily better, but when I want to get as much out of my plot as possible and one of these beasts will easily do the culinary job of a pretty, polite bunch of three or four Nantes, earmarking space for a couple of rows of Table Carrot is always on my mind as I plan in early summer what I will be picking and eating in winter.

It’s highly likely that the Manchester Table Carrot (recently made available again by Real Seeds) is related to the commercially extinct Altrincham (sic) Carrot, a popular variety originally grown in Altrincham, Cheshire in the early 19th century, and also known at the time as the Superb Carrot.

Superb.

That seems about right to me.

And like the King of the North, I’m standing firm in that view.

Jane Wilbraham, 31st Dec 2020
@lnallotmentsse26
Longton Nursery Allotments