Paul, Emily and the beanstalk: today’s harvest offering

To celebrate Eden’s Harvest Festival this October, we’re bringing you a selection of recipes, ideas and creations to celebrate this special season. Today, we share with you a harvest offering from the amazing rooftop garden that sprang up this summer at the Southbank Centre.

What was a bare patch of concrete early this year is now an abundant garden bursting with life – just have a look at this picture of Emily Hegarty and Paul Pulford and their amazing tipis of runner beans.

Paul and Emily of the group Grounded Ecotherapy are among the gardeners who have worked with Eden to transform the rooftop of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre in London as part of the centre’s Festival of Britain 60th anniversary celebrations.

Late summer has seen the productive gardens come to fruition with the beans in particular creating their own dramatic London skyline.

Paul built the towers himself, carrying the birch and sycamore trimmings in from East London on his bike.

Paul, Emily and the rest of the team have been sharing their gardening knowledge with the many visitors. Some who have wandered by have been lucky enough to go away with a handful of fresh produce and cooking tips to go with it.

By David Rowe

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How to feed birds and give nature a helping hand

As more and more countryside and open land is built on and developed, our gardens become increasingly important for birds. By providing food and water for birds all year round you can do your bit to encourage and support their growth and wellbeing. They’re also wonderful to watch and make everyone feel a bit more chirpy!

It’s a good idea to use a birdtable or hanging feeder, rather than putting food directly on the ground. By doing this you prevent rats, who may otherwise be attracted to their food. When the weather becomes severe it’s good to feed birds twice a day, if possible: first thing in the morning and early in the afternoon.

Birds require high-energy (high-fat) foods during severe weather to help maintain their body reserves and survive the cold, frosty nights. Use only good-quality food, nuts and scraps, and remember to adjust the quantity according to the demand. If the food takes days to clear reduce the amount of bird food and never allow uneaten foods to build up around the feeders. To encourage regular visitors try to keep to the same feeding routine.

We’ve selected a large range of different bird feeders for our shop, which means that you’ll be adding a new feature to your garden as well has helping out your little feathered friends. Here’s a round-up of our favourite feeders.

Bird ball peanut feeder, £42.50
The simple yet beautiful design means it will look great in your garden and it will allow small birds such as tits, sparrows, nuthatches, finches and woodpeckers to feed, and deter greedy larger birds and the naughty squirrel.

Window bird feeder, £12.25
An attractive and colourful window bird feeder that simply sticks to the outside of any convenient window. It’s a great way for the whole family to see garden birds up close and to watch their fascinating antics.

Hanging bird feeder, £19.50
This colourful hanging bird feeder is just the thing for enticing wild birds into your garden. It’s created almost entirely from recycled plastic, including waste food containers and old computers. Put it near your house, and the whole family can enjoy watching different birds feed throughout the year.

Flowerbed cup bird feeders, £3.50
These award-winning flowerbed cup bird feeders are brightly coloured flower look-alikes.
Made from dried fruits with a bamboo stem, they come with their own luxury wildbird seed pack.

Classic bird feeder, £23.50
Our classic bird feeder is an attractive, wooden, hanging bird table suitable to hang from a branch, balcony or wall. It features intricate woodwork in a distressed green finish with a verdigris copper roof. The ultimate classic pad for a birdie!

Birdie bistro house, £5
The birdie bistro house is a fun, colourful way of providing garden birds with a reliable source of food all year round. It comes complete with its own nutrition bar – an excellent winter food.

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How to make a corn dolly

To celebrate Eden’s Harvest Festival this October, we’re bringing you a selection of recipes, ideas and creations from the people who know all about harvest and its wonderful traditions. Today, learn to make your own corn dolly.

Get into the swing of harvest by trying out the age-old tradition of straw craft. You’ll be joining a long line of folk who used to create them as a token of love, to be worn by a courting lass in her buttonhole.

They were also made as a badge of trade at hiring fairs, where men and women would decorate them with a wisp of wool or horse hair to signify that they were a shepherd, for example, or a waggoner.

The instructions for this simple Four-straw Compass Plait come from Gillian Nott, of the Guild of Straw Craftsmen.

What you’ll need

For this simple decoration you’ll need four hollow stems of wheat. You can either cut these yourself with shears or a sickle, having obtained with permission from the farmer, or contact a local thatcher, who will have sheaves cut by a reaper or binder (combine harvested corn won’t work). Read this advice from the Guild of Straw Craftsmen on the best stems to use.

You should also prepare the straw by soaking it in warm water until it’s pliable enought to plait, fold twist or bend without splitting or cracking. The amount of time varies between several hours and over night, depending on the weather conditions the wheat experienced during its growing season.

You’re best to check them every half an hour, to test if the butt ends can be bent without cracking. When they’re suitably pliable, remove the straws from the water, drain off excess mositure, and wrap them a damp towel, which will prevent them from drying out while you’re working.

Instructions

1. Use a piece of tough thread – such as button thread or fine crochet cotton – to tie four straws together with a clove hitch just under the heads. (If you’re not familiar with the clove hitch knot, click here for an animated instruction.)
2. Plait until you have about 8cms of straw left.
3. Bring the four straws up to meet each other, and tie firmly at the end of the plaited section with another clove hitch.
4. Bring this tie down to meet the other tie just under the heads, to form a loop of plaited straw, and tie the two together.
5. Spread the wheat ears out between the wheat stalks and allow to dry flat, preferably under a weight.
6. When dry, you can clip the stalk ends decoratively, and add a ribbon bow or a small sprig of dried flowers.

Once your plaiting is completed and the straw has dried out, you’ll find that your piece of straw work will hold its shape in whatever design you have made, and will be virtually indestructible. Because it was common practice to break up corn dollies from the previous year and sow its grains in the spring with the new planting, it’s unusual to see many old ones around. However, a couple in one Devonshire church, at Martinhoe, are reputed to date from 1897 and 1916.

Come along to our Corn Craft session, part of Eden’s Harvest Food Festival, for a free demonstration. These take place in the righthand side of the Eden Bakery from 10am – 12 noon, daily from 1 – 7 October 2011.

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Gardens for Life offers glimmer of hope in east African drought

If you took a plane over the Rift valley in Kenya this autumn, you’d see that another dry year has turned much of the land into desert – but that, now and then, there are still pockets of green amongst the brown. Some of these are school gardens which are continuing to produce food despite the east African drought.

They’re working with Eden’s international Gardens for Life network to establish vegetable plots which provide nutritious food for their pupils, as well as help them learn about sustainability and biodiversity.

At Munyaka School, in the slums of Kenya, a whole field is producing a rich harvest of spinach, kale, carrots and potatoes – and helping reduce school fees.

Students from Gatimu school have set up their own horticulture businesses, thanks to their involvement in the programme, and are now helping other schools start their own gardens.

Through the scheme, British, Kenyan, Indian and Gambian children get the chance to collaborate and learn at first-hand about not only gardening, but food security, biodiversity, and different ways of life. Because anyone can grow something, whether on a windowsill or in a field, everyone is equal and has a story to tell – whether it’s about greenflies in your school garden in London, or an elephant flattening your plot in Kenya.

We also have a global network of schools that share stories, photos and use our lesson plans to collaborate. Schools from the UK, USA, Asia and Africa are encouraged to work together. As the network continues to grow so will they.

Listen to Monty Don’s Radio 4 appeal for Gardens for Life, which aired this week. Or see a slide show of photos about the project on our website.

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Education, Harvest, Horticulture

Soused Cornish Fairmaids, a recipe from Sanjay Kumar

To celebrate Eden’s Harvest Festival this October, we’re bringing you a selection of recipes, ideas and creations from the people who know all about harvest and its wonderful traditions. Today, chef Sanjay Kumar breathes new life into an ancient Cornish pilchard recipe.

Harvest and a good catch of Cornish pilchards (young sardines) have been closely linked for centuries in fishing communities. An old saying goes: ‘When corn is on the shock, pilchards are on the rock’.

In Cornish villages a successful harvest would be followed by Crying the Neck, a ritual glorifying the season’s produce, followed by a feast of all things local and seasonal (known as Gooldize). Joints of meat, sides of fish and artisan breads would be washed down with gallons of freshly brewed tipples.

While combine harvesters mean we don’t need all hands on deck anymore to gather in the grain, we can still enjoy a good feast together. Here’s my take on a simple classic, which harks back to those old Cornish traditions.

Soused Cornish Fairmaids (Pickled Sardines)

Ingredients (for 2):

• 12 fresh Cornish sardines, boned and scaled
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• handful fresh coriander leaves
• 100ml cider vinegar
• a few peppercorns
• slices of lemon

Method

1. Sprinkle the sardines with salt on both sides. Roll them from the tail to head and secure with a toothpick.
2. Place the roll mops in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle on the coriander leaves and peppercorns. Add the cider vinegar and bake in a warm oven (180 degrees Celsius) for 15 minutes.
3. Allow to cool, then serve the Souced Fairmaids with a slice of lemon and a salad on the side – drizzled with the cidery juices from the oven tray. Enjoy the dish with a hearty glass of ginger beer (the Cornish drank it with Spruce, a zingy homemade beer).

Bengal-raised, Cornwall-based chef Sanjay Kumar is passionate about fresh, community eating. His experience ranges from cooking for the King of Saudia Arabia to serving up delicacies at Falmouth’s oldest hotel, the Greenbank, to heading up Cornwall’s Slow Food group.

On 4 October at 3pm, at Eden’s Harvest Festival, he’ll be recreating Cornish harvest dishes of the bygone era, with a contemporary twist – featuring stuffed autumn vegetables, local pilchards and a rustic Italian-style dessert. Visitors to Eden can also see the Crying the Neck ritual take place on the morning of 3 October, near our giant WEEE Man sculpture.

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How easy is it to live an ethical life? Leo Hickman in debate

Guardian features writer Leo Hickman, who grew up close to the Eden Project, will be talking about the practicalities of going green on Wednesday September 21, at 6.30pm, at the St Austell café.

It’s the latest Eden Café Conversation which is part of the St Austell Live programme funded by Cornwall Council and aimed at attracting more people to the town centre.

The theme of the evening is ‘How easy is it to live an ethical life?’ and will also feature Oliver Baines of environmental campaign group Groundswell Cornwall and Eden’s Sue Hill in the chair.

Leo is the author of several books on ethical living including A Life Stripped Bare, in which he chronicled the year-long experiment he and his family conducted to see whether it was possible to live a ‘normal life’ while being as ethical as possible for the family, neighbours and the environment.

Everyone is welcome at the free discussion evening. To book a place contact friends@edenproject.com or phone 01726 811932. Get more information on the Eden Café, situated in White River Place.

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Sustainability

Spelt risotto recipe from Mat Follas

To celebrate Eden’s Harvest Festival this October, we’re bringing you a selection of recipes, ideas and creations from the people who know all about harvest and its wonderful traditions. Today, MasterChef winner Mat Follas shares his locally sourced version of risotto.

This recipe for ‘Spelt risotto with confit wild rabbit’ contains two fantastic British products, organic pearled spelt and Old Winchester cheese. Spelt is an ancient grain and a distant cousin of wheat, introduced to England, it’s thought, by the Romans. I had been looking for a British alternative to rice for our restaurant, and the pearled spelt is as good as, if not better than, rice.

It doesn’t have the stickiness of risotto rice, but retains an al dente centre which gives a wonderful bite to the texture. Old Winchester is a vegetarian, hard cheese, with a delicious deep flavour which I use in place of Parmesan.

For the confit, I use vegetable oil or duck fat, with a few herbs to infuse a great flavour to the meat. The rabbit itself is seasoned with brine before slow poaching for a few hours to create a delicious flavoursome meat. Rabbit works brilliantly, as it is a lean meat and the method of cooking stops it drying out.

Ingredients (for four people)

Spelt risotto:

• 120g pearled spelt (available from Sharpham Park)
• two onions
• 75g Old Winchester cheese, finely grated (available from Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers)
• 500ml stock (chicken or vegetable)
• 250g bag of spinach or 200g nettle leaves (if in season)
• knob of butter
• pinch of salt

Confit wild rabbit:

• one wild rabbit (cleaned and quartered by your butcher)
• 100g salt
• 1.5 ltr vegetable oil
• small bunch of thyme

Method

Spelt risotto:

1. Finely chop the onions and sauté in a pan with a little butter and salt until translucent.
2. Add the spelt and mix. Add about 1/3 of the warmed stock and bring to a low simmer. Stir while it’s simmering, until the liquid is absorbed.
3. Add another 1/3 of the warmed stock and stir. Once the liquid has been absorbed, you have a choice; it’ll only take 10 minutes to finish the dish, or you can store the risotto for up to 48 hours in the fridge.
4. Add the remaining stock. Simmer and stir until most of it has been absorbed, then add the finely grated cheese, and stir.
5. Add the spinach or washed nettle leaves, then stir until all the liquid has been absorbed and the leaves are cooked.

Confit wild rabbit:

1. Make a brine by mixing the salt with 1.5 ltr water. Place the rabbit pieces in a bowl and pour the brine over until the rabbit is well covered. Put in a fridge for 24 hours.
2. To make the confit, take the rabbit out of the bowl of brine, wipe off excess moisture and place in a suitable large pan (where the rabbit pieces have enough space to not be touching).
3. Pour the vegetable oil over the rabbit until it is covered, and throw in the thyme.
4. Bring the pan to a temperature of 80–90 degrees Celsius (this might be best to do in an oven). Leave at this temperature for four hours.
5. Remove the pan from the oven and take the rabbit out. Dry off any excess oil.
6. Flake the meat from the bones
7. To serve, spoon the risotto into a large bowl and place the rabbit meat on top. Decorate with a sprig of fresh thyme.

Mat Folas is passionate about using ingredients that are naturally delicious, whether foraged, farmed, or hunted. He uses traditional methods, from pickling to smoking, to imbue vibrant combinations of flavours. You can taste his creations at The Wild Garlic restaurant, Beauminster, Dorset, where he also offers wild food foraging courses, which include a lunch made with some of the ingredients.

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How to make a compost heap: 10 top tips

At Eden we believe passionately in composting: we compost over 150 tonnes of waste each year, which is used to improve the soil in our Biomes and on our gardens across the site.

One of the large compost heaps here at Eden

For anyone new to composting, or those who simply want to improve their existing compost heaps, we’ve prepared a round-up of top tips and great stuff that will help you get on top of your compost.

1. Buy a decent compost bin
If you don’t fancy building a compost heap like the large ones we have at Eden, try a compost bin. They’re compact, so they’re perfect for smaller gardens and yards.

We’ve tested the Aerobin at Eden and found it to be one of the best domestic composting bins we’ve tried. It’s especially good at producing decent compost in a relatively short time. We’ve been so impressed that we now use the Aerobin as part of our training programmes where we teach gardeners how to make good compost.

2. Pick the perfect spot for your compost heap or bin
It’s best to site it on a level, well-drained spot, which will ensure that any excess water drains away easily. This also helps worms to get in and get on with the job of breaking down the content.

3. Let the worms do the hard work
Nature has provided us with the perfect waste disposal unit in the humble worm. They can live their whole lives in the dark and love the moist atmosphere of a wormery or compost heap, eating the waste material you put in and converting it into liquid feed and compost. The brilliant tiger worm (Eisenia fetida) is the most efficient little worm we know, and loves nothing more than eating its way through organic waste. We post them out from our shop in worm-friendly pouches so they get to your compost heap ready for action.

4. Put the right stuff in
Good things to compost include vegetable peelings, fruit waste, teabags, plant prunings and grass cuttings. These are fast to break down and provide important nitrogen as well as moisture. It’s also good to include things such as cardboard egg boxes, scrunched up paper and fallen leaves. These are slower to rot but provide vital fibre and carbon and also allow important air pockets to form in the mixture. Crushed eggshells can be included to add useful minerals.

5. Don’t put the wrong stuff in
Certain things should never be placed in your bin. No meat or dairy products unless you’ve opted for a digester. No diseased plants, and definitely no dog poo or cat litter, or babies’ nappies. Putting any of these in your compost will lead to unwanted pests and smells. Also avoid composting perennial weeds (such as dandelions and thistle) or weeds with seed heads. Remember that plastics, glass and metals are not suitable for composting and should be recycled separately.

6. Get the balance right
The key to good compost lies in getting the mix right. You need to keep your ‘greens’ and ‘browns’ properly balanced. If your compost is too wet, add more ‘browns’. If it’s too dry, add some ‘greens’. Making sure there is enough air in the mixture is also important. Adding scrunched up bits of cardboard is a simple way to create air pockets that will help keep your compost healthy. Air can also be added by mixing the contents.

7. Give it a good airing
A well-cared-for compost heap requires regular turning, which can be a tricky job without the right tools. The Eden Project aeration tool is great and with the help of its long handle, you’ll make light work of the job. Turning your compost helps to aerate and mix up the waste and cuttings, which leads to faster composting.

8. Boost to the system
You can encourage the correct enzymes in your compost by using a compost activator. It helps to turn your grass, leaves and garden waste into dark, rich, crumbly compost in less than half the time. You mix a small amount into water, pour it onto your compost and after 10 weeks of rotting your compost is ready to use. It can also be used to revive partially composted or dead heaps.

9. Turn fallen leaves into compost too
As autumn seems to have come early to many of us you can use fallen leaves as a good source of compost. It’s fine to add these to your compost bin but if you have large amounts of leaves, these large biodegradable leaf bags are perfect. Once you’ve gathered up your fallen leaves they can be left to turn into a brilliant source of moisture-rich soil improver that’s great to use for potting mixes as an alternative to peat. The leaves will be kept neatly in one place and the sack will biodegrade, leaving you with a rich pile of wonderful compost.

10. Getting the best out of your compost
When your compost is ready you’ll have a dark brown, almost black soil-like layer the bottom of your bin. It should have a spongy texture and will be rich in nutrients. Spreading the finished compost into your flowerbeds greatly improves soil quality by helping it retain moisture and suppressing weeds. It also reduces the need to use chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

We really believe that composting is the easiest way to make your garden grow more beautiful.

For all these products and other composting accessories take a peek at our full range of composting accessories in the shop.

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BBC scientist to be sealed in plant-filled ‘bell jar’ at Eden

Scientist and presenter Professor Iain Stewart will live inside a sealed, airtight chamber in our Rainforest Biome for 48 hours as part of a major new BBC Two series provisionally titled How Plants Made the World.

The chamber will be crammed with more than a hundred plants and Iain will be entirely dependent on the oxygen they produce to keep him alive. The chamber is intended to be a powerful demonstration of how plants act as the lungs of planet Earth, providing all the oxygen that sustains us.

Visitors to Eden tomorrow (Friday 16 September) and the next day (Saturday 17 September) will be able to witness Professor Stewart living in the custom-built clear Perspex chamber that measures only 6m by 2m by 2.5m.

Among the plants, he will have a hammock to sleep in, a laptop to work on and a small chemical toilet. Temperature and humidity will be kept at an optimum level for the plants. Powerful lights will be placed both inside and outside the chamber to ensure the plants are continuously lit throughout the day and night, providing the energy for photosynthesis to take place.

Monitoring Iain’s health

Iain will be attached to various medical sensors which record his vital signs. Specialist doctors from University College London’s Centre for Altitude Space and Extreme Environment Medicine and the Royal Free Hospital will be on site at all times and will be carrying out various tests on Iain to explore the effects of reduced oxygen.

The levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen inside the chamber are critical – they will be monitored closely and full safety procedures are in place if they drop too far.

The importance of plants to our survival

Alistair Griffiths (pictured), Eden’s Horticultural Science Curator who is one of the scientists working with the BBC on the experiment, said: ‘As we go about our daily lives we often take the thousands of plants around us for granted, especially with regards to the oxygen they produce so that we can breathe.

‘This experiment is a direct illustration that there would be no human life on earth without plants. This is why we need to be good stewards of the plants and the planet that sustains us. I am really excited about the outcome and the learnings that will be gained from this experiment.’

Historical experiment with a mouse

The experiment echoes the experiment first tried by the pioneering scientist Joseph Priestley. In 1772 he showed that a mouse could survive in an airtight chamber full of plants yet could only live a short time in a box without them. It was an early demonstration of the importance of plants in creating the oxygen essential for life on earth.

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Plants, Science

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Environment, plants, Rainforest Biome

How to make the perfect crusty white loaf

To celebrate Eden’s Harvest Festival this October, we’re bringing you a selection of recipes, ideas and creations from the people who know all about harvest and its wonderful traditions. Today, bread specialist Sue Hudson shares some tricks of the trade.

I have been giving bread workshops in East Anglia over the last few years, and am constantly being asked which loaf is my favourite. I have to say, it would always be a lovely, crusty white loaf of bread, warm from the oven with lashings of melting butter. Here’s how to make it yourself.

Ingredients

• 500g white strong bread flour (or extra strong bread flour)
• 300g warm water (that’s 300ml, or 1.3 cups)
• 1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon quick yeast (Doves or similar) or 10g fresh yeast

Method

1. Mix the dry ingredients together, add warm water and mix well with your hand until it forms a rough ball.
2. Tip the dough ball on to a clean, lightly floured work surface, and knead for about 10 minutes, until elastic and pliable.

Kneading tip: With your knuckles push the ball into a rectangular shape, then take the long side nearest you, and bring the edge to the centre of the rectangle. Repeat with the long side furthest away. Now bring the small edge to your right across one third of the rectangle, then the small edge to your left across the top of the whole of the dough.


3. Pop the dough back into a clean bowl and cover with cling film or a tea towel and allow it to rise for about an hour or an hour and a half, until doubled in size.
4. Gently tip out the dough on to a clean, floured work surface and shape into your favourite loaf, and place it on a well buttered baking sheet or loaf tin.
5. Allow it to rise again for 30-45 minutes, while you heat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
6. Slash the top of the loaf with a very sharp knife, place the loaf into the oven, and cook for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 200 degrees Celsius and cook the loaf for a further 20-25 minutes until it’s lovely and brown on top.

Special tip: For a really crusty loaf, use a plant mister filled with water to moisten the inside of the oven before placing the dough inside.


7. Remove from the oven immediately, place on a cooling rack – and enjoy!

My husband and I are delighted to be joining the good people of Cornwall this year for their Harvest Food Festival, and are bringing a flour mill with us all the way from Norfolk. We both believe that you are what you eat, and you eat what you know – so join us for some milling practice on this beautiful, wooden flour mill and seive. During the workshop you can either make some delicious bread using this flour, or take it home to bake later.

Sue’s workshops will take place in the Eden Bakery at 11.30 on 1 and 2 October 2011. They are free (included within the price of admission to Eden). Find out more about the bread making workshops Sue runs throughout the year.

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