Fantastic Winter Vegetables and Where to Find Them

In the UK, we are incredibly lucky to have delicious local produce all year round, even in the depths of winter. And as part of her healthy, sustainable 2016, this week Carine will be sharing some of her favourite winter veg and how you can get hold of them.

Carine’s favourite winter vegetables:

Beetroot, parsnip, butternut squash, all sorts of winter cabbage.

Where you can find them:

Carine grows most of hers in her allotment. Otherwise she sources them from Farmer’s markets in Brixton or Clapham Common- “they have everything I need and I can be sure it is all locally sourced.” If you can’t grow your own - she recommends going to your own local farmers’ market to find what’s seasonal. “These brave growers need the support of their local community to survive”

Tips on how to grow or forage for them yourself:

According to Carine, it has never been easier to grow your own veg. Even without proper outdoor space, great winter vegetables like carrots, beetroot, squash, and salad can be grown in pots - you don’t need large plots of land. This year, Carine will be building a vertical garden using recycled wooden pallets. These are easy to collect - you can even find them on the street! And it takes very little to upcycle them into a fantastic trailing garden space. Keep an eye on the blog for Carine’s blogpost in March on how she built her own vertical garden.

For an alternative to gardening, we suggest you give foraging a go. One of Carine’s greatest passions, she is always looking for edible treasures on streets, commons, and in fields. Foraged produce can even be more nutritious than its farmed cousin. Good things to look for at the moment are green leaves, mushrooms, and some fruits – but make sure you know what you’re looking for before you eat anything! A great book for beginner foragers is Darina Allen’s 'Forgotten Skills of Cooking.'

Carine loves hearty, earthy dishes like slow-cooked stew, which winter vegetables are made for. If you are a fan of warming winter recipes too, keep an eye out for next week’s post where we will be sharing one of our favourite recipes!

Urban Foraging - Chestnuts

Chestnuts are a fabulous, wintry ingredient which can be used in all sorts of Christmassy recipes – whizz them into your stuffing for a little earthiness, add them to a nut-roast for your vegetarian friends, or simply roast them and eat them with a little salt. You can buy chestnuts in your local supermarket for around £1 for 100g, perhaps a little more or less if you go for a trendy farmers’ market, but we’re going to give you a few tips on how to find them for free, right on your doorstep!

Carine loves to forage, be it for windfall plums spotted by someone’s garden, or mushrooms in the woods of Sweden, there is nothing she likes better than to be out of doors, looking for food. And chestnuts are some of her favourites which can be found in the heart of London, so she took us urban foraging to demonstrate.

The two locations she chose this week were Clapham Common and Putney Heath – both medium-sized green havens most commonly used by dog-walkers and families with small children. I’d love to tell you exact locations, but Carine has sworn me to secrecy – partly because part of the fun is stumbling across these treasure troves yourself and partly because...Carine doesn’t want you stealing all her chestnuts! She spotted the trees on Clapham Common one day when she was taking her daughter to playgroup and it goes to show how little these natural foodbanks are signposted.

Here are a few tips to follow to ensure you find a bumper crop:

1) When it comes to nuts, there is a high possibility that a squirrel or two will beat you to it. Since they need the food too, we don’t suggest you fight them off, just try to go early on in the season and there will be enough for you both.

2) Make sure you know the difference between the chestnuts you can roast and eat (“sweet chestnuts” - larger) and the chestnuts you make conkers with (smaller). Take a look at our pictures to be sure.

3) You’re going to need gloves because chestnuts can be very spiky – if you don’t have suitable hand-wear, place your chestnut on the ground and gently prise them open with your feet, rolling them around a bit first with your foot to loosen them up.

4) Try to go for ones which are already starting to open – this shows they are ripe.

5) Chestnuts often come with three or so inside – two little ones and one big one, go for the biggest.

And there you have it! The perfect winter day out – pick your area, bring the family (and plenty of gloves) and go exploring! You don’t need to look just for chestnuts either, while we were out, we also found some apples and Carine plans to whip something up using them both. So keep an eye out for that and, until next time, happy foraging!

And, to see a bit more, check out Carine's YouTube channel HERE.

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