Eden Project/Chris Saville/apexnewspix.com

This book came out of support from the Big Lottery Fund for a

project called Seeds, Soup and Sarnies that gave the Eden Project a

chance to work with local families and communities to explore the

benefits of growing and sharing food together.

Growing our own not only gives us good things to enjoy, it

encourages us to stay active. Gardening and cooking things

together is also a great way to get to know people and make friends.

It is even possible to grow things for sale and make really helpful

bits of money to contribute to group activities, buying tools and

generally keeping things going.

Our experience of growing is not always perfect though - often you

either have a disaster with some crops and bring home nothing but

some slug-chewed remnants, or things seem to go too well and you

get buried under a glut that you can’t possibly get through.

Swapping, sharing and selling are all brilliant ways of dealing

with shortages and gluts, but it works even better if there is a bit

of planning ahead. That way everyone

isn’t faced with trying to get rid of jars of

green tomato chutney at the same time!

This is a book of ideas of things to grow

and make, things that other people will

love when harvest time comes, and

things that are more interesting, fun to

grow, and nicer than the stuff you can

find in a supermarket.

Enjoy. Eden Project

1

very veggiewho needs to grow carrots

and potatoes when you can

grow stripy?

Stuart Spurring

missyredboots

2

raymortim

1 Got a tomato glut?

Don’t just make a brown tomato chutney like everyone else. Try slow roasting tomato on a really gentle heat until they are semi-dried and then put in jars of oil.

2 Green tomato ketchup

Not enough summer sun to ripen your tomatoes? Trying to think what to do with them? Thankfully there are lots of options on the internet, including green tomato salsa, chutney, cake and green tomato ketchup!

4 Grow a gourd, Sow a SQUASH...

...they’re so weird! Gourds and squashes come in all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes and sizes and they can be dried, even varnished, and turned into decorations that will last for years.

3 Microgreens

If you’re looking for something that’s quick and easy to grow and that can happen in the smallest of spaces, then microgreens may just be the thing. There’s a big world of microgreens outside of cress. You won’t find them in the supermarket and they can be an unusual, healthy addition to the kids’ lunchbox.

US Department of Agriculture

raymortim

Nurettin Taskaya

Nick Saltmarsh

Scott D. Welch

4 5

Erin B

5 Any colour as long as it

,s black

One way of adding variety to your vegetable growing is to choose a more unusual colour. Black gives you black kale, black tomatoes, black carrots.

black corn

black kale

black beans

6 Growing for the jar

How about making fresh horseradish? Very easy to grow and as long as you know about its appetite to take over your garden you can plant accordingly – in a container or somewhere you don’t mind it spreading. Young plants won’t give much of a kick but after a few years you will have perfect stock to make a punchy relish. For a more unusual mix, combine with beetroot to make the Russian dish khren.

7 Vegetable marmalades and jamsNo need to let the fruits take the stage when it comes to jam making, there are lots of tasty options with veg. Sweet ones like carrots and squashes and soft flavoured ones like courgettes combine well with spices like cloves, ginger and nutmeg. And why not use up your surplus tomatoes (technically a fruit but used as a vegetable) in a tomato and chilli jam?

micromoth

Pamela J. Eisenberg

peachyqueen

Lila Dobbs

6 7

Biswarup Ganguly

Jimmie

9 Chutney

You can make chutneys from just about anything so they are a great way of using up surplus vegetables. Try more varied and unusual combinations to make your chutney stand out from the crowd – beetroot and spice, pumpkin and ginger …

8 Veggie printing

Solid vegetables like potatoes

and carrots make great printing

blocks and all you need is some

dye and some cloth and away

you go. Tea towels are a great

start then why not branch

out to bags, cards or even a

full veggie picnic set with a

large canvas picnic sheet and

smaller napkins?

10 a touch of colour

Make more money from what you sell by growing things that are eye-catching and can’t be found in the supermarket. Not everything that looks unusual is hard to grow. It can be as simple as different colours of radish or carrots for a fun rainbow effect, and you can find varieties of all sorts of veg in fancy colours and shapes.

Stuart Spurring

Masha

storebukkebruse

Max Straeten

8 9

12 Got a marrow

glut?

Turn your marrow glut into an opportunity for multi-making. The good news is the internet is full of ideas for recipes involving marrow – veggie stock, chocolate courgette cake, courgette and potato cakes, marrow fritters, chutney, ginger marrow jam, Lebanese stuffed marrow and marrow pickle. You can even carve them into weird and wonderful shapes!

11 Surprise sprouts

All sorts of different seeds can be sprouted to make a great addition to a salad. Try red onion, purple cabbage or broccoli seed for eye- catching and colourful results that are also delicious. Buy organic seed or order from a specialist seed supplier (lots on the internet) so the seeds aren’t coated in any foul chemicals.

13 Buried treasure

Tubers are great, they are generally easy to grow and keep well. But there’s more to tubers than potatoes (as lovely as they are). Looking for more unusual ideas? How about the Egyptian Walking Onion that gives you a combo of spring onions, shallots and onions all in one plant. Or if potatoes, choose more unusual varieties like pink fir apples and earlies which will have a higher value than your standard potato.

14 Veggie crisps

From the more familiar potato crisps, to the more unusual like kale, beetroot and even courgette sliced lengthways. Very simple to make and plenty of options for making crisps you wouldn’t find in a supermarket by adding alternative combinations of spices and oils.

pink fir apple

egyptian

walking onion

Vladislav Sabanov

Stuart Spurring

Cyclonebill

Amanda Slater

Julie Gibbons

H. Zell

10 11

15 Variations on a veg bag

There is lots of scope for putting a different spin on the standard veg bag. Themed mini veg bags for example. Maybe a bag of fresh herbs and leaves that are high value and not always easy to get. Or a make-it bag with vegetables that can be used for a specific recipe or cuisine, an Italian selection perhaps? Or a curry bag?

16 Classy produce

Sometimes you can add value to your produce by choosing veg that is expensive to buy, like asparagus, or by picking veg when it’s young. Courgettes are just young marrows and squashes picked when young and tender are a tasty alternative to the full grown ones. Or why not try something unusual, like a curly green courgette called Trombocino - the plant is a climber so it can be grown wherever there is a bit of wall space.

trombocino

Aurelien Guichard Maena

Nanao Wagatsuma

Nadiatalent

Adam Wyles

12 13

Garitzko

Thegreenj

17 Dyeing for a change

Food dyes are fun to experiment with and can be used for lots of things - creating striking icing, making pretty play dough, brewing up magic potions, colouring wool and fabric and decorating Easter eggs. What colours could you make from the veg plot? Peelings are a fantastic free way to experiment, try boiling up some beetroot or carrot skins.

The trick is picking out the winners from the mass of plants that produce various underwhelming colours and there are plenty of links on the internet to get you going. If you’re feeling more adventurous you could try growing Japanese indigo (Polygonum tinctorium) to sell the processed dye or to make things from it.

indigo

beetroot

celery

carrot tops

mizuna

pea shoots

18 spectacular salads luscious leaves gorgeous greens

There is more to salad than iceberg lettuce. There are masses of fantastic leaves that are good to eat and grow, from the Asian varieties such as mizuna and tatsoi, to the younger leaves of crop vegetables such as beetroot and pea shoots and even the bits we often throw away like carrot tops and celery leaves - pretty as a garnish at the very least!

Stuart Spurring

Popolon

Jane Stoneham

Jane Stoneham

14 15

19 get with the beet

Grate them raw for pink coleslaw, pickle them, add the colourful baby leaves in a salad, great for a colourful curry, sweet enough for baking a rich dark chocolate cake. And then there’s the golden ones, the white ones, ones with rings and baby ones. Boiled, roasted, pickled, there’s no end to what you can do with them.

20 ...but maybe not five a day!

Pumpkin pie, carrot cake, rhubarb tea bread, beetroot brownies, veggies can be part of pudding as well! You can experiment with root vegetables and squashes, they’re cheap and add moisture to your baking.

rhubarb yoghurt cake

mini pumpkin pies carrot cake

Liz West Dichohecho

Beet man

Downtowngal

Michel Chauvet

Michel Chauvet

Beck

Garry Knight Danielle Scott

Laura Rezepte-wiki

16 17

Floweryflowers make the world a better

place. bees and butterflies love them.

Some of them are lookers,

others are all about the smell,

some of them even taste good.

Yukiroad

Chamomile

rollingroscoe18 19

21 Everlasting

flowers

Flowers for drying such as

statice are incredibly easy

to grow, but amazingly long

lasting and useful in all

sorts of ways - bunches and

also as part of decorations

and even jewellery.

Extreme dried

flower arranging!

The Christmas dried flower garland at Cotehele in Cornwall. Blimey!

painting

witH petalS

22 Pressed

flowers

This opens up a whole world of creative gorgeousness and it’s not limited to flowers, you can get great effects from using leaves and buds too.

24 SUCH PRETTY PAPER!

In Ambalavao, Madagascar, they press fresh flowers into handmade paper which they dry in the sun

23 perfumy POT

POURRI

Dried petals and flowers, seeds, nuts, even pieces of bark - add a few drops of an aromatic oil. Couldn’t be simpler and a great chance for the kids to try some different ideas.

Manfred Heyde

Deng Yingyu

Nick, puritani35

Julie David

Jean-Louis Vandevivère Leonora Enking

Leonora Enking

20 21

26 Festive

flowers

Got a wedding coming up? Have you thought about how much the flowers are going to cost? How about growing some (or all!) to save money and add a nice natural touch to the whole event. Using home-grown and wild flowers to decorate wedding tables, buttonholes and bridal bouquets is becoming increasingly popular.

25 Make a cutting garden

Why not go a step further and set up a cutting garden that can supply flowers and foliage for all sorts of events and functions, or even just sell them to your local neighbourhood. Flowers can sometimes be easier to grow and more reliable than vegetables and worth more. Not everything cuts and lasts well but look on the internet or in a florist for ideas, or just experiment.

27 Flower confetti

Confetti made from flower petals is a lovely alternative to the traditional paper and is free of the clear-up problems as it will quickly degrade afterwards. You can use flowers like roses, delphiniums and hydrangea to give you combinations of pinks and blues. Marigolds and sunflowers are good for bright orange and will lend themselves to festivals like Diwali.

dehydrate your

own flowers

micromoth

Jane Stoneham

Tracey & Doug22 23

OX-EYE FRITTER?And let's not forget

lovely lavender...

30 Edible flowers

Make your salads the envy of your neighbours by adding some flowers. There’s a good range that are safe to munch (always check which ones are) and they add some lovely flavour too. Nasturtiums are an easy choice, simple to grow and free flowering. Make crystallised flowers for cakes, add flowers to bottles of

vinaigrettes, and small flowers in ice are great for adding summer sparkle to drinks. Place a large flower like hibiscus in a glass and use as a dish for dip. For the more adventurous, the day lily (Hemerocallis) is a nice edible choice, good flavour and a garden perennial so it will come up every year. Others include rose petals (remove the bitter white bit), rose hips, pansy, sunflowers. If you search for ‘edible flowers’ on the internet you will find plenty of ideas.

PANSy SALAD?

flower cupcakes

28 what a lovely

bunch...

Bunches of flowers can be a lovely gift, a nice addition to a local produce stall or the whole focus for selling. It’s a good plan to choose ones that are more unusual or pick your own bunch of flowers and foliage for flower arrangements, bouquets for weddings, local cafés etc.

29 ...of greens

Its not just flowers that are good for cutting. Foliage is important too. If you have a piece of unused land it can be a great idea to fill it with shrubs that are good for cutting. Holly is special but slow growing and there are other plants like Eleagnus and Euronymus that grow faster and work well.

Drilnoth

Jack Berry Dendroica Cerulea

Kakisky Chamomile

24 25

Jebulon

26 27

Fruity

sweet and juicy, firm and tart,

berries and cherries, apples and

pears. a summer pudding, a winter

crumble, pies, jams, jellies

and sweets.

give me my five a day!

Bert Kaufmann

Alexandre Dulaunoy

28

31 Berrytastic mixes

Get the best of berry fruits by choosing some that are a combination of two or more, like a loganberry (raspberry and blackberry cross), jostaberry (gooseberry and blackcurrant cross) and tummelberry. Or ones that tend to be expensive to buy like blueberry, cranberry and goji berry.

BLUEBERRIES

SUPER TASTY SUPERFOODS!

JOSTABERRIES

GOJI berries

CRANberries

32 Japanese wineberry

Worth a mention in its own right, Japanese wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) is related to the raspberry and even easier to grow. Grow it like you would a raspberry. It produces vigorous canes and fruits in the gap between

summer and autumn raspberries. It produces bright, glistening fruit that can be eaten fresh or used for preserving and cooking. It grows well in shade too, what’s not to like?

Alexander Van Loon

Daveeza

Keith Weller

I, Zualio Dladek

Jamain

30 31

34 Fruit curtain

Dried orange slices stitched together with lines of invisible nylon thread make a great fruity curtain or window decoration.

33 Sorbet

Sorbet is basically fruit juice, sugar and water mixed together and frozen. It couldn’t be much easier to make – puree your fresh fruit with a blender or by hand, freeze it a bit, beat it a bit, freeze it a bit, beat it a bit, freeze it.

35 strange fruit

These are the fruits you won’t see in the shops. Supermarkets steer clear of fruits that bruise easily and that means we miss out on some of the most amazingly tasty fruits like mulberries and medlars. With some of these you won’t get instant results but once established they need very little attention and deliver a regular bounty that can be used for jams, cordials and more.

white raspberries

marvellous

MEDLArs...

... and mulberries

Benjamin Esham

Beck

Quinn Dombrowski

Eric Schmuttenmaer

Andrew Dunn

32 33

36 Cordial AND MORE

Sugary syrup infused with flowers and fruits. Drizzle it over warm cakes, freeze it in ice cube trays for fragrant cooling spritzers , stick a stick in it and make your own lollies. Oh, and it’s basically sorbet waiting to happen. Oranges, lemons and limes for sure, elderflower for free,

36a Mix it up. Oranges, lemons and limes. Blackcurrants, and elderflowers, absolutely. Rhubarb? Raspberries? Gooseberries? Beetroot and Ginger? Sweet and sharp seems to be the key.

36b Cordial ice cubes for a spritzer with a slow flavour release.

36c Home-made lollipops.

36d Drizzled over warm cakes, breads and muffins.

36e Just add cold water…or take it hot.

36f Pour over ice cream – everyone has their favourite flavour!

how about white

raspberry cordial?

38 Tisanes

Tisanes have been used around the world for nearly as long as written history extends. Documents have been

recovered dating back as early as Ancient Egypt and Ancient China that discuss the

enjoyment and uses of tisanes.

Tisanes can be made with fresh or dried flowers, leaves, seeds or roots, generally by pouring boiling water over the plant parts

and letting them steep for a few minutes.

Some popular versions: mint, lemon balm, nettle, citrus peel - great for using up the leftovers after making lemon or orange cake.

37 Fruit leather

You can make fruit leather from all sorts of fruits and it’s a great way of turning your surplus crop into a something delicious that will keep well and that you can make into gifts or produce to sell. Think about more unusual fruits like fuchsia.

Matthieu Deuté

Selena N.B.H.

rajkumar1220

Julie

kahvikisu

Liz

34 35

39 jelly for your belly

Of course you can always make jam, but what about a jelly infused with herbs and spices with seeds, leaves and stems trapped like prehistoric flies in amber? Stunning and stunningly good!

EVERYONE

LOVES

jelly! Dennis Jarvis36 37

40 a CLASSY TOUCH

Make your event stand out from the crowd by

using a classier fruit like white strawberries.

41 Fruit tattoos

Add a tattoo to your fruit as a sure way to make it stand out from the crowd.

This is surprisingly simple to do and although it’s cheap in terms of materials, it does require a considerable amount of time. And timing is crucial. It works by blocking out the sunlight as the fruit skin develops its colour so you need to get the stencils on early enough. Ideally use a stencil that stretches as the fruit grows so you can put them on when the fruit are still quite small.

42 Fruit ON A STICK

Make your ice lollies, sorbets and ice creams very fancy by adding fresh fruit slices and juices.

44 i want to grow the best pear in the world

The Merton Pride pear won’t give you the biggest crop but it will deliver the juiciest,

more gorgeous fruit, simply the best you will find, well at least in our humble

opinion. Of course there are others, the point is to choose something different to

the ones you will find in the supermarket. Check which ones need other varieties to

pollinate. If you only have room for one tree you need to choose a self-pollinator.

43 Crabapple

Crabapples are easy to grow, beautiful and useful too. They can be planted as pollinators to help other apples give a good harvest but the crabapple fruit also makes fabulous jellies and cordials.

Jane Stoneham

Eliza Adam

Andrew Fogg

crabchick

38 39

WATE

R

sugaR

CORDIAL

drizzle

tisane

teaLOTS

LOTSnone

jellY

sweets

SYRUp

Lollipops

sorbet

decorations jam

marmalade

compote

candies

snackmixleather

Davburns 1970

GaborfromHungary

Davburns1970

Eliza Adam

Liz

Selena N.B.H.

Matthieu Deuté

Benjamin Esham

40 41

taSty Spicy + herby

the language of taste and flavour, masters and mistresses of spices,

mysteries and secret ingredients for curries, chutneys, kasundi, pickles,

Ken Cook

Thamizhpparithi Maari

Jane Stoneham

thebittenword

42

45 Herb salt

Salt, herbs and a fancy pot. Perfect on your lovely new potatoes. The powerfully punchy herbs are good for this: sage, rosemary, fennel, thyme, or heat things up with a touch of chili or pepper.

46 Posh pastes

Pesto is for more than just pasta - herb butters and savoury spreads, a swipe of flavour on sandwiches, a dollop on baked potatoes. Pesto can be made from more things than basil - wild rocket, wild garlic or parsley all work really well.

47 Basil

Expensive to buy, great for

making pesto. If you don’t

want to wait for seeds, try

repotting a few supermarket

basil plants in good potting

compost, and keep them

somewhere warm with

plenty of sun. Feed regularly,

pinch off flowers as soon as

they appear and the plants

should last for months.

Gloria Cabada-Lem

Goldlocki

Paul Goyette

44 45

52 not just a

tea ball

No need to fish around in your curry for the stray cardamom. Tea infusers will help keep your spices under control.

48 A whole bunch

of flavour

Bouquet garni – a herby classic from French Cuisine used in stews, soups and sauces. Thyme, bay, parsley are traditional, but try rosemary, tarragon, peppercorns, celery leaves, onion ... Tie up with string or pop them in a muslin bag. You can even use a coffee filter.

51 TISANES AGAIN...

A book in itself! Tisanes are a wonderful way to make the most of your fresh or dried leaves, seeds and flowers. Mint, peppermint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, ginger, fennel, sage - the list is endless. Just make sure you identify the plant correctly and check for possible toxicity. The best plan is to go out with an experienced forager, at least to start with.

49 Sweet or Savoury

Bay, fennel, mint, basil...try them with fruit, not just with meat.

50 Infused sugars

Lavender, mint, fennel. Your pancakes will never taste ordinary.

bronze fennel

citymama

Jane Stoneham

Hustvedt

663Highland

Tomi Knuutila

46 47

53 Help! My coriander has bolted!

Save the seeds for more coriander next year, for pickling, infusing or for toasting and grinding. Ever tried a pinch of ground coriander with coffee? Interesting new flavour!

LET a bed go to seed...

celery fennel caraway Aniseed

sunflower poppy mustard carrot

Lovely! Lots of fresh coriander leaves for your curries, salads and salsas...

...or plant and sprout again...

...the flowers are pretty... ...fennel will go to seed too...

...but the seeds are the real prize, packed with powerful, citrusy flavour...

...there are loads of exotic spice mixes, you could grow your own...

...or take it a step further. This sugar coated spice mix (mostly fennel seed) freshens your breath like an Indian after dinner mint!

H. Zell

H. Zell

H. Zell

Takeaway

Takeaway Theornamentalist

Martyvis

Thamizhpparithi Maari

48 49

Dichohecho

55 flavour,

cubed

Keep your surplus fresh herbs

for use all year round by

freezing them. Make sure the

herbs are clean, chop them,

add to an ice cube tray, fill

with water and freeze. That’s

all there is to it.

54 SOS - Save our

sweaters!

Those dastardly clothes moths don’t like fragrant herbs! Dried herbs work too, but put them in something porous, like a muslin bag, or it can get a bit messy.

Or you can soak cotton wool balls in essential oils such as lavender, rosemary or clove. When the balls are dry scatter them round wardrobes and drawers.

58 Chew mint,

not gum

As a healthier option, just pick some (clean!) fresh mint and chew away.

57 Peppermint and

beyond

Mint is one of the easiest things to grow and comes in a huge range of flavours. Peppermint and spearmint are the obvious ones, but now you will find flavours like strawberry, chocolate, pineapple, lemon, apple and even banana. They are invasive so people often grow them in containers. Use them to flavour drinks and foods, freeze in ice cubes.

56 space saversWant to keep your fresh herb supply going beyond the summer? There are some you can grow easily on a sunny windowsill. Chives, parsley, chervil, mint, basil...

chive flower

Aiwok

Diana House

Jane Stoneham

Pharaoh Hound

Pauline Moir

50 51

Line1

Joy

59 tea with a twist

Add something a little special to an everyday drink. Hot milk with honey and bay, chai teas with coriander, green tea with fresh mint.

Miansari66

Arne Hückelheim David R. Tribble

60 Thugs

Sage, rosemary, fennel, mint.

You just can’t kill them (unless

you forget to water them) and

they certainly pack a powerful

punch. Use them to infuse salt

for roasting and play with them

in dried bouquets. An infusion

of sage leaves can help with

mouth ulcers.

saGE AND APRICOT

BISCUITS

52 53

H. Zell54 55

Authors: Stuart Spurring, Jane Stoneham, Tony KendleEditor: Mike PettyDesigned by Stuart SpurringFirst published 2014 by the Eden ProjectText and design © 2014 by the Eden ProjectISBN 978-0-9562213-2-2Many fine photographers, whether professionals, Eden colleagues or Eden friends, have contributed to this edition. Copyright is reserved to the photographers and/or the Eden Project, to whom requests for reproduction should be directed in the first instance.Front cover: penywise (morgueFile)Wikimedia Commons: 663Highland, Aiwok, Andrew Dunn, Arne Hückelheim, Beet man, Biswarup Ganguly, Cyclonebill, Danielle Scott, Davburns 1970, Daveeza, David R. Tribble, Deng Yingyu, Dichohecho, Dladek, Downtowngal, Drilnoth, Eric Schmuttenmaer, Garitzko, Goldlocki, H. Zell, Hustvedt, I, Zualio, Jamain, Jean-Louis Vandevivère, Jebulon, Joy, Keith Weller, Laura, Line1, Liz West, Manfred Heyde, Martyvis, Matthieu Deuté, Miansari66, Michel Chauvet, Nadiatalent, Nanao Wagatsuma, Nurettin Taskaya, Paul Goyette, Pharaoh Hound, Popolon, Quinn Dombrowski, Rezepte-wiki, Scott D. Welch, Selena N.B.H., Takeaway, Thamizhpparithi Maari, thebittenword, Thegreenj, Theornamentalist, Tomi KnuutilaFlickr: Adam Wyles, Alexander Van Loon, Alexandre Dulaunoy, Amanda Slater, Andrew Fogg, Aurelien Guichard, Beck, Benjamin Esham, Bert Kaufmann, citymama, crabchick, Dendroica Cerulea, Dennis Jarvis, Diana House , Eliza Adam, Erin B, Garry Knight, Gloria Cabada-Lem, Jack Berry, Jimmie, Julie, Julie David, Julie Gibbons, kahvikisu, Ken Cook, Leonora Enking, Lila Dobbs, Liz , Masha, Nick Saltmarsh, Nick, puritani35, Pamela J. Eisenberg, rajkumar1220, storebukkebruse, Tracey & Doug, US Department of Agriculture, Vladislav Sabanov, Yukiroad

morgueFile: Chamomile, GaborfromHungary , Kakisky, Maena, Max Straeten, missyredboots, peachyqueen, raymortim, rollingroscoeallfreedownload: Pauline Moirrgbstock: micromoth

Produced in partnership by the Eden Project and the Sensory Trust.The Eden Project is owned by the Eden Trust, registered charity no. 1093070 and all monies raised go to further the charitable objectives.Eden Project, Bodelva, St Austell, Cornwall PL24 2SGT: +44 (0)1726 811911 F: +44 (0)1726 811912 edenproject.com

Sensory Trust, Watering Lane Nursery, St Austell, Cornwall PL26 6BET: +44 (0)1726 222900sensorytrust.org.uk

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