The Winter Garden

As we think about the past year and before we start to map out the one ahead, a great success story to recount is our salad leaves. A simply dressed plate of seasonal leaves picked that morning is a delight to all senses, but it’s important to remember just how much work goes into producing what seems at first to be a very simple offering. Not just the sowing and the growing, but the harvesting too are things that take time and real care to do well. Our gardeners pride themselves on their harvesting technique and it’s always  so rewarding to see the array of beautifully picked leaves on their way to the kitchens at the Ox Barn and the Swan. In the deep midwinter, when frosts and rising ground water make life in the garden very challenging, it is the unglamorous but much loved polytunnel that becomes the star. Here, sheltered from wind and frosts, we have a selection of winter leaves including puntarelle, mustards, rocket, land cress and kales that ensures a continued supply through the lean months.

We are also excited about our frost-hardy radicchios – Treviso in particular – a radicchio with a gorgeous ruby red leaf from the town of Treviso just outside Venice. We’re also looking at forcing the Treviso to create the exquisite curling light seeking leaves that will look so beautiful on the plate in the Ox Barn. This is the first time we will have done this so watch this space (and your plate)!

I love these strong bitter leaves of winter, so perfect for January and February salads. Bitterness is a much-underestimated taste sensation – it provides a good way to soothe, cleanse, balance and refresh the palate and reset the digestion, following the rich indulgences of the festive season. We can add Jerusalem artichoke to this list of seasonal gut-friendly vegetables; it is delicious in soups, purées and, when roasted, it’s a perfect partner to game. With a sweet, nutty and earthy flavour, its high fibre content provides an extremely effective prebiotic to help nurture the gut’s microbiome.  Two other plants that we will be forcing are rhubarb picked from January onwards and cardoons later in spring. All these require different horticultural skills and we will share their stories as they unfold in the menus here at Thyme.