Chris Staines- Head Chef at Foliage
Anyone who has had the pleasure of eating at Foliage in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge knows just what superb modern European cuisine Chris and his team produce every day without fail. One of our favourite restaurants and one of our favourite chefs, Chris has swapped spatula for keyboard to give us his monthly thoughts.
Spring is a time so jam-packed with events that it is difficult to know where to begin. It is the time of the Grand National, the Ideal Home Show, The Six Nations championship and the London Marathon to name but a few and depending on your lifestyle and interests, all of these events have the potential to influence your daily routine to a greater or lesser extent.
So it is quite possible that this Spring you will have little or no time to squeeze in any additional worthwhile pursuits. However, may I personally recommend to my green fingered friends that you find a way to put aside an hour or two this month… an hour or two of investment now that will reap in the rewards come the summer months. What on earth is he rattling on about you may be thinking? Well, we have of course reached the time of year where the gardeners among us need to start preparing our flower pots / beds / gardens so that we can get the best out of it this year, ensuring a bumper crop when the time comes.
There are so many things you can be doing this month to help your garden along. The first crucial thing you need to be thinking about is cultivating your beds; this involves nothing more complicated than covering the bed with a clear polythene bag or even an old bit of carpet, which raises the temperature of the soil those all important couple of degrees, so that they are warm enough to start sowing your seeds. Next you need to think about which herbs, fruits or vegetables you are going to want to grow, this will of course depend on the amount of space you have, you’re personal tastes and preferences, your experience and your level of commitment to your garden.
Only you will know what works best for your garden. Last year I grew tomatoes, peppers, French beans, artichokes, cucumbers, strawberries and sweet corn, as well as all of my usual herbs and the lesson I learnt is that for my garden sweet corn takes too much room so this year I will not be growing sweet corn!
Even if you have a postage stamp sized-space as many of us Londoners do, you can still grow an amazing variety of vegetables and there are many dwarf varieties that are not only full of flavour and goodness, but do not take up much room and look great. You can literally buy thousands of different types of seeds and there is little in life that is more rewarding than picking your own fruit and vegetables and cooking them for your dinner.
I will be buying all of my seeds this year from Suttons . Here you will find all of your seed needs under one roof and not only that but you can get growing tips, seedlings as well as all the equipment you could possibly need. In addition to this there are handy tit bits telling you what’s in season and what you should be doing each month to ensure that your cup runneth over……
Chris Staines
This piece first appeared in The Resident Magazine
