Every month has much to recommend it, even November, although I

can’t imagine many people would declare it their favourite. The glorious

autumn colours now clog the drains and with the end of Daylight Saving

Time there’s suddenly no light after work. Despite this, there are still

reasons to be cheerful.

The rst hard frosts are something to look forward to: they nally draw a line

under the gardening year. The lawn stops growing and even the weeds slow right

down. Those rst cold, crisp days with clear blue skies are to my mind among the

most beautiful of the whole year. There’s real satisfaction from getting on with the

task of tidying the garden up for winter. Fallen leaves are collected and piled in

their own compost bin to rot down into leaf-mould, an excellent soil conditioner.

And yes, although I’m a grown adult, I do still kick the drifts of leaves about a bit

before picking them up. As for weeding, the goal is to get the lot done before

Christmas so as to hit the ground running next year.

Garlic can still be planted throughout November. I deliberately stagger mine

between mid-October and early December so that I can send the superior fresh

‘wet’ garlic to Fifteen Restaurant over the longest possible period. Hardy

overwintering peas (try ‘Meteor’ or ‘Feltham First’) and broad beans (‘Super

Aquadulce’, ‘The Sutton’), if sown this month, will be ready in late May/early

June, a welcome couple of weeks earlier than spring-sown crops. That’s ages away,

so it’s fortunate that there’s still plenty to eat in the vegetable garden right now,

with the following crops newly in season.

November in Jamie’s gardenBy Pete Wrapson | October 29, 2015 | In Grow your own, Seasonal

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Jerusalem artichokes are divine roasted or mashed

You can serve Jerusalem artichokes in all sorts of inventive and delicious ways –

mashing, roasting or sautéing them is a good place to start. If you’re unfamiliar

with them, I should start by saying that they have nothing to do with either globe

artichokes or Jerusalem. I imagine that when the British initially encountered

them – they were rst brought to Europe from Cape Cod in Massachusetts by

French explorers – artichoke was the nearest reference point they had taste-wise

and the name just stuck. The similarity is vague at best. Jerusalem is most

probably a corruption of the Italian girasole, sun ower, to which the plant is

closely related. The foliage and tiny owers are similar looking. This is an

example, I strongly suspect, of the British tendency to anglicise foreign names to

align with sounds or words they were more familiar with or found easier to

pronounce. I always think of naranja in Spanish, which we converted rst to

norange and eventually to orange. Ever a nation of linguists!

Under the tall, swaying leafy stems lurk many knobbly tubers, whose avour is

mild and nutty. It’s an easy crop to grow. Like potatoes, pop one tuber in the

ground and you get a dozen back. Be sure to remove every one at harvest time,

however, or the ‘volunteers’ will sprout repeatedly and destructively through

whichever crop you’ve followed on with. Unlike potatoes, however, they contain

inulin rather than starch, which is apparently good for gut ora, but indigestible.

This makes them low in calories, but beware – they can produce lively atulence

if eaten in large quantities.

Deliciously bitter chicory is perfect for tossing in a salad

Every vegetable garden should have some chicory. In terms of timing it follows on

nicely in the crop rotation after broad beans, garlic or early potatoes and provides

welcome winter salad leaves. The taste is bitter, it’s true, but less so after some

frost, and once mixed with other leaves and dressed it becomes rather refreshing

and really lifts the whole lot. There are many varieties out there, many of which

come from the Veneto. Some – ‘Treviso’, for example – are robust enough to grill

or braise. White veined, red-leaved cultivars such as this and the round ‘Palla

Rossa’ are also known as radicchio. I‘ve become a real fan of ‘Variegata di Lusia’

and ‘Variegata di Chioggia’, both round, dense, hardy and beautifully coloured, a

dazzling blend of pink and green. ‘Castelfranco’ is another favourite: looser leaved

with a yellow heart ecked with red. If left to bolt in spring, chicories produce

edible owers.

Endive is a very similar plant to chicory (both are species of Cichorium), but is

non-hearting and less tolerant of the cold. They should be eaten this side of

Christmas. Some cultivars have smooth leaves but the frizzy ones are more

commonly seen in the UK. The centre can be blanched a creamy yellow and

sweetened up by laying a plate over it in situ for a couple of weeks.

Braise endives for a simple dish where the veg is the star of the show

Turnip and swede have historically been important food crops for both humans

and livestock, growing well in the British climate. Turnips mature quickly and the

tops make good greens. I’d recommend picking them when small and nutty and

adding them to a lamb curry. Swedes (short for ‘Swedish turnip’ – they arrived

from Sweden around 1775) are closely related but larger, hardier and sweeter-

eshed. It’s a useful ingredient for winter soups and stews and famously makes a

hearty mash. Before pumpkins became widely grown in Britain, turnips and

swedes were used for lanterns instead. Both store well over winter in boxes of

spent compost.

Roasted parsnips make the perfect addition to a Sunday roast

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pete has looked after Jamie’s garden in Essex for the last six years, growing

organic fruit and vegetables for both the Oliver family and Fifteen Restaurant. A

traineeship at Cambridge University Botanic Garden was followed by a stint in

the organic kitchen garden at Audley End House before he landed the post at

Jamie’s.

Pete Wrapson's blog

NOVEMBER IN JAMIE’SGARDENBy Pete Wrapson

OCTOBER IN JAMIE’SGARDENBy Pete Wrapson

SEPTEMBER INJAMIE'S GARDENBy Pete Wrapson

As long as you can get them to germinate – seed only remains viable for a year, so

always use a fresh packet – parsnips can be relied on from November until March,

when they start to ower. Leave one sometime: it grows tall and sports impressive

ower heads (umbels, in the trade). Cold won’t kill a parsnip, but if the ground

freezes solid during a cold spell, they can become completely inaccessible. It’s a

good idea to dig a few up in advance of any such weather and store as you would

other root crops.

Shred savoy cabbage and cook with a little butter for a delicious and healthy

accompaniment

Savoy is the most nely textured and avoured of the cabbages. Its leaves have

that distinctive crinkled appearance and become progressively more blanched and

tender the nearer the centre you go. The smallest ones are very palatable raw as a

salad ingredient and also exible enough to be stu ed. It would be a culinary

crime to boil them to mush. The plant may not look as thuggish as other

cabbages, but it’s actually one of the very hardiest and will stand all winter. If

you’ve grown a good one, you can be justi ably proud – it’s not that easy!

artichoke, cabbage, chicory, turnip, vegetable

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