Great British Food Revival

[veggiechicken]

Tonight BBC2 8pm - 9pm New series of this show exploring British Food. Tonight its strawberries (includes a visit to East Malling) and watercress.

[Bren In Pots]

Thanks VC it looks interesting so I had a bit of a google and found this clip :-

Great British Food Revival | Series 3 - 1. Strawberries and Watercress | Radio Times

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Bren. Like the soup idea

[Bren In Pots]

Me too, so I've set the program to record.

[VirginVegGrower]

OOh ta, sky box duly set. Programme on Wales on beforehand for the Welsh amongst you

[veggiechicken]

I enjoyed it - I like strawberries and watercress too
When I were a nipper we used to pick watercress from the streams - but that is frowned upon now because of liverfluke or summat. You could buy bunches of watercress, tied with string, that once, memorably, had a tadpole inside it! Now, its impossible to buy bunches of watercress around here. The supermarkets sell bags of leaves, no stalks, that are usually going yellow and slimy.
If they want to promote the sale of watercress they should address the packaging issue for a start.

[VirginVegGrower]

Grow your own watercress VC in seed trays, which you can float on water butts. We still have it in the streams round here - just got to put your wellies on Hampshire watercress should be available in markets during the season. I make watercress sauce for salmon and love it in a sandwich of white bread with french seeded mustard.
I watched with interest and was pleased they showed Cambridge Favourite, which is the one I grow.

[veggiechicken]

It does grow in the streams here VVG, but there are too many sheep around to risk eating it because of liverfluke. I grow some in an old sink under a downpipe from the greenhouse and landcress in the greenhouse. I love it in a bread and cheese sandwich.
I grow Cambridge Favourite too

[VirginVegGrower]

It does grow in the streams here VVG, but there are too many sheep around to risk eating it because of liverfluke. I grow some in an old sink under a downpipe from the greenhouse and landcress in the greenhouse. I love it in a bread and cheese sandwich.
I grow Cambridge Favourite too

Good taste buddies! I can't believe more people don't eat watercress. We are about to lose our market here because people don't shop there anymore. I hate supermarkets for the monopoly they hold.

[Patchninja]

Can't get good watercress here either. If it was sold in better condition, I'd buy tons of the stuff.

[Farmer_Gyles]

glad that GBFR is back ... was good last year ...
i have never thought to look at varieties of strawberries ... i have no idea what variety the red ones are in my garden, but the birds and slugs normally get them before i do ... i definitely need to do something about that!
i'll definitely keep an eye out for varieties in supermarkets too ...
can't remember the last time i had watercress ... might try growing it ....

[northepaul]

Damn I was out, and the iplayer is very tempremental......is it on every wednesday? (I cant find the listing...)

[veggiechicken]

It was the 1st of 10 episodes. Same time next week when its raspberries and rabbits

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016pbs9

[Bren In Pots]

I'm not sure of my strawberry variety either Farm Gyles, daughter gave me 3 runners from a plant she had for a present, so next year I'm going to look at extending my season.

About watercress there's lots of info and recipes here, plus they send out a handy news letter:-

Watercress | Healthy Watercress Recipes

[veggiechicken]

Thanks for the link Bren
Thinking about my gripe about bagged leaves rather than bunches, it must be the change from manual picking of watercress to mechanised, as was shown last night. From the watercress website:-
"When the watercress is ready for harvesting, highly specialised harvesting machines cut up to two to three tonnes of watercress an hour.
The plant is then transferred to highly sophisticated pack houses, located close to the watercress farms in the south of England, so within hours, the plant has been chilled, and packed into ‘washed and ready to eat’ bags."
So unless there is a small scale producer who handpicks, we are forever doomed to chopped up leaves and sprigs.
I'm planning my own little watercress farm