The End of the Hungry Gap
Our Market Garden is thriving at the end of the Hungry Gap...
A few weeks back, we headed down to our Market Garden to chat to our team of Gardeners about the Hungry Gap. We discovered that our team were working extremely hard to battle the gap, utilising changes in the weather and growing seasonally to keep our Farm Shops and the Dartmoor Inn in good supply of organic vegetables. And now, the proof is in the pudding as we’ve launched a handful of our very own Market Garden organic veg online, available for nationwide delivery. As we turn into June, the official end of the Hungry Gap, we took a trip back to the Garden to find out just what was growing on...
The Hungry Gap: A Recap
For those who may have missed it, the Hungry Gap is a time in spring (anywhere between early March to the end of May) which sees a lack of fresh produce growing in British fields. This is due to the temperate oceanic climate of the UK, as a gap appears between the winter crops, who can survive the cold weather, and the lighter summer crops who prefer warm days. The history of the Hungry Gap stems far back in British history, to a time where this gap really meant going hungry.
Out the Other Side
Whilst our team of Gardeners bridged the gap extremely well, working with micro changes in the weather and as always, growing seasonally, we’ve really come out the other side in a flourish. The team kept our Farm Shops and the Dartmoor Inn in good supply through the hungry gap, but now they’re producing more organic fruit and vegetables than ever. So much so, that the biggest news to come out of our garden this time around is that we’ve launched a handful of Market Garden produce online!
The Market Garden team’s hard work means that you can now add our very own organic veg to your next organic veg box delivery, available nationwide. A classic choice for organic online food deliveries is our Market Garden Mixed Leaf Salad, perfect to pair with a variety of dishes in the warmer weather. All of our Mixed Leaf Salad bags come with edible flowers too, meaning your dinner won’t just taste great, but will look amazing too.
Our Market Garden Rainbow Chard keeps the colourful theme going, again ideal for summer salads and sure to impress at family barbecues. The organic Little Gem Lettuces also make a pretty salad, with its charming, compact shape and sweet flavour, these lettuces also make a fine addition to an organic beef burger. The Garden has also been producing organic herbs, including Chives, Sage and Parsley, lovely for finishing off the result of your culinary kitchen skills.
If you’re lucky enough to live close-by, our Farm Shops in Tavistock, Totnes and Marlborough offer our biggest range of Market Garden vegetables, which now have their very own dedicated fridges. Some notable new additions to the Shop collections are organic Agretti and Chioggia Beetroot. Agretti is a Mediterranean green with a mild, slightly salty flavour similar to spinach and a firm, succulent texture like that of samphire. Agretti is also known as Monks Beard, and we love using it in place of sauteed spinach in a variety of dishes, such as with smoked pancetta and butter or blanched and dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan. Both dishes are lovely served with your favourite organic pasta. Chioggia Beetroot is an Italian heirloom beet, with a hypnotising circular pattern when cut open giving it the nickname of cane or candy stripe beetroot.
What’s even more impressive is that the team’s work is meaning our organic vegetables are picked on the same day that they’ve available to buy at our Shops. It really doesn’t get fresher than this. Our head Market Gardener, Kelvin, has also been visiting both the Dartmoor Inn and our Marlborough Farm Shop. He’s provided the inn with small potted plants for the tables, whilst at Marlborough he’s replanted their flower beds using organic soil from our very own organic farm.
We think the start of summer and the end of the Hungry Gap should be celebrated with an organic veg box, packed with Market Garden produce, now available both online and in our Farm Shops. And don’t forget, you can always give it a try our the Eversfield Organic Dartmoor Inn, Merrivale.
