What We Do | Five a Day Market Garden

The Five A Day Market Garden is a community project.

Growing and selling fruit and vegetables:

Corporate team building:

Community education:

For all – both the young and the old

Volunteering:

We are staffed by volunteers, and are always on the look out for more assistance:

Welcome to the garden

At Five a Day we’re digging Jerusalem Artichokes which, along with butternut squash are on sale at the Garden Centre, and also from the Garden on Wednesday and Friday mornings through November and December.

‘Tis the season to decorate our homes with pretty natural festive wreaths. Come along to our workshops in December. See Events page for details.

Watch this video made by Penny Locke from Penny Post at the end of April; meet volunteers who help to keep the garden looking good.

Would you like to join them? Volunteer sessions in the garden are on Wednesday and Friday mornings, usually from 10am to 1pm although times are flexible. If there is a lot of interest for volunteering on other days we will do our best to set up new sessions.

Discover how you can grow vegetables and flowers, meet interesting people, have fun and enjoy the peaceful environment of Five a Day.

Read the Summer Newsletter, full of news, ideas and stories.

Please contact Wendy Tobitt, Chair of the Five a Day Management Committee if you have any queries about the garden.

Tips from our head gardener

VEGETABLES

We’re still harvesting a few runner and French beans in October, and sorting out which broad beans to plant for harvesting next spring!

Choose a variety like Aquadulce Claudia which can be sown now directly into the ground. They will germinate and grow well to survive the winter weather before flowering in the early spring sunshine. Sow some in pots to plant out in January and then more in February directly into the ground to ensure you have broad beans throughout spring and summer.

FRUIT

Rhubarb is a very popular dessert fruit, although strictly speaking it is a vegetable! In the autumn the leaves die back and remaining stems are soft.

Clear these away before they rot (they do well on the compost heap), and then pile on manure and straw to feed the rhubarb crowns during the winter.

You’ll be rewarded with delicious pink stems of rhubarb from early March for several months.

Monthly Seasonal Recipe

Roasted stuffed Red Kuri Squash

Ingredients:
• 1 Red Uchiki Kuri Squash
• olive oil for roasting and frying
• your favourite root and leaf vegetables, chopped
• herbs and spices to complement the vegetables
• your favourite cheese for melting

How to make it:
Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5/170°C fan. Cut the Kiri squash in half with a sharp knife from top to bottom, and then cut again into sections. Scoop out and discard the seeds.

Rub the sections with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place on a roasting dish. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until tender.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a frying pan. Add chopped onion, garlic, your favourite root and leaf vegetables, chopped small, e.g. cut Brussels sprouts and carrots in half, and season well with herbs and spices to complement the vegetables. Cover and cook gently until tender.

When the squash is cooked remove the dish from the oven and spoon the stuffing into each section of the squash.

Grate over your favourite cheese and put the dish back into the oven for 5 – 10 minutes until the cheese melts and bubbles. Serve immediately with warm crusty bread.