Press releases

Celebrity chefs join the RHS Grow Your Own Campaign

March 14 2007

Refresh the taste of things to come! Delia Smith, Raymond Blanc and Antony Worrall Thompson are the latest celebrity chefs to join the RHS Grow Your Own Veg Campaign (1) with three delicious recipes using fresh vegetables to inspire foodies and gardeners alike.

Try Delia’s ‘Chinese stir-fry prawns with purple sprouting broccoli and cashews’, a mouth-watering way to cook these late-winter cropping greens. Or Antony Worrall Thompson’s ‘Root vegetable gratin dauphinoise’ which includes pumpkin and Jerusalem artichoke as a special autumnal treat. Alternatively, Raymond Blanc suggests ‘Maman Blanc’s vegetable and chervil soup’, a French favourite in tribute to his mother (and his father’s vegetable garden!). The recipes, which will be available to view on the RHS website from 2 April, join BBC Masterchef presenter Greg Wallace’s regular veggie treats at www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables. If you are new to growing vegetables, the website also includes heaps of practical, easy-to-follow advice on growing some of the vegetables mentioned in the recipes.

RHS Garden Harlow Carr’s series of kitchen garden notes, ‘From Potager to Plate’, is also available to view on the RHS website at www.rhs.org.uk/harlowcarr, and focuses on recipes for some unusual produce including mizuna, epazote, quinoa and microwaveable mini pumpkin - the ideal fast food!

April will also herald the start of the new ‘Taste’ series in the RHS members’ magazine The Garden (2) featuring Raymond Blanc, Chef Patron of Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons. Blanc, one of a panel of food and gardening experts, took part in a special exploration of the concept of taste last year by assessing the flavours of a range of fruit and vegetables. The April edition of The Garden examines the perception of flavour and how it can help gardeners boost the taste of their own home-grown produce. The series continues with a focus on strawberries (July), tomatoes (August), salad leaves (September), and apples and pears (October).

The RHS Grow Your Own Veg Campaign runs throughout 2007. See www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables for details of the RHS Gardens, events, news and more.

Notes to Editors

For more information contact Kerry Law in the RHS Press Office on 020 7821 3044 or e-mail kerrylaw@rhs.org.uk

Did You Know…?
Umami is a translation-defying Japanese term to describe a flavour as savoury or meaty, and makes up the group of flavour terms of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and pungent.
No land-grown vegetable can be described as ‘salty’, even those that contain relatively high levels of sodium or are grown on saline soil.
Food has little flavour when you lose your sense of smell. If you hold your nose while eating an apple, then an onion, the taste is indistinguishable.
In an RHS/MORI poll, tomatoes were named as the most grown crop in gardens and allotments. Apples and potatoes where the most popular fruit and vegetable.
Vegetables provide twice as many health benefits as fruit.

(1) The RHS Grow Your Own VEG Campaign runs throughout 2007 with several events and a chance to see the 3x3m veg plots, based on the RHS Garden Harlow Carr plot seen in the BBC programme ‘Grow Your Own Veg’, develop at each RHS garden. The RHS website is full of practical and sound advice particularly for beginners but also more experienced growers. Online users can view the veg growers’ calendar, see the progress of the plots at the RHS Gardens, collect delicious recipes, share experiences on the bulletin board and view the latest blogs of fellow veg growers. To keep up-to-date with the latest veg news and advice, users can subscribe to a fortnightly e-newsletter.

(2) RHS members receive The Garden magazine for free every month alongside privileged entry tickets for RHS flower shows, free gardening advice, access to seeds and much more. To join the RHS call 0845 130 4646 or visit www.rhs.org.uk and click on the ‘Join the RHS’ icon. Individual membership costs £39 per year, plus a one-off £5 enrolment fee.

www.rhs.org.uk/pressoffice

The RHS is the UK’s leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. RHS work includes providing expert advice and information, advancing horticulture, training the next generation of gardeners, helping school children learn about plants, and conducting research into plants, pests and environmental issues affecting gardeners.

An interest in gardening is all you need to enjoy being a member of the RHS. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk or call 0845 130 4646.

Founded in 1804, the Royal Horticultural Society is Britain's largest gardening charity and is committed to being the leading organisation demonstrating excellence in horticulture and promoting gardening. Renowned for its outstanding gardens and inspirational flower shows, the RHS is a key source of advice and information for all gardeners. It encourages gardening through its publications, trials, lectures, education programmes and scientific research and is home to the Lindley Library, which contains the most comprehensive collection of horticultural books in the world.

Membership of the Royal Horticultural Society offers many exclusive benefits including a monthly copy of The Garden magazine; free entrance to RHS Gardens Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex and Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire; free access to a further 88 beautiful gardens across Britain and 20 gardens in Belgium and France; access to seeds collected at RHS gardens; free gardening advice and privileged tickets to 18 RHS flower shows, including the Chelsea Flower Show, the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.

For further enquiries about membership of the RHS contact: Membership Department, Royal Horticultural Society, PO Box 313, London SW1P 2PE; 0845 130 4646 Monday - Friday 9.30am - 5pm or via the RHS website

For more information e-mail the Press Office or visit the online Press Office