Author: Seed Pantry

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December SOW, GROW, EAT

Brussels Sprout Purple 2SOW – GROW – EAT

Veg growers – here’s what to do inside and outside this month!

SOW

Indoors & outdoors veg seed sowing

No outdoors sowings this month:

Sow indoors for high flavour winter greens

  • Salads in window boxes /pots: mustards, lettuce, mizuna
  • Micro veg in trays: basil, coriander, radish, pea shoots, sunflower shoots, mustards, lettuce

GROW

Young plants outdoors – keep them protected once any frosts arrive.

  • VEG: kale, pak choi, chard
  • SALAD: lettuce, rocket,  spinach, chop suey greens, mustard

​

EAT

What to harvest and eat this month:

Harvest crops! pick what you need, so you don’t have huge amounts to cope with, enough for today’s lunch or dinner.

  • VEG: Brussels sprouts, beetroot, celeriac, pumpkin, butternut squash, jerusalem artichoke, leeks, chicory, cabbage, kale, broccoli, carrots, parsnips
  • SALAD: pak choi, mizuna, chard, spring onions, winter lettuce, spinach, rocket, cress, mung beans, alfalfa
  • HERB: parsley, chives, garlic chives, coriander
  • FRUIT: apples, pears

 

INDOOR VEG – salads, parsley, coriander, chillies

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November SOW, GROW, EAT

Parsnips

SOW – GROW – EAT

Veg growers – here’s what to do inside and outside this month!

SOW

Indoors & outdoors veg seed sowing

Sow outdoors for early spring crops:

  • VEG: broad beans, peas

 

Sow indoors for high flavour winter greens

  • Salads in window boxes /pots: mustards, lettuce, mizuna
  • Micro veg in trays: basil, coriander, radish, pea shoots, sunflower shoots, mustards, lettuce

 

GROW

Young plants outdoors – keep them protected once any frosts arrive.

  • VEG: kale, pak choi, chard
  • SALAD: lettuce, rocket,  spinach, chop suey greens, mustard

​

EAT

What to harvest and eat this month:

Harvest crops! pick what you need, so you don’t have huge amounts to cope with, enough for today’s lunch or dinner.

  • VEG: leeks, celeriac, parsnips, pak choi, indoor chillies /peppers, chicory, squash, pumpkins & gourds, beetroot, main crop potatoes, peas/mangetout, cabbage, kale, broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic
  • SALAD: chard, spring onions, radishes, lettuce, spinach, rocket, watercress, cress, mustards
  • HERB: basil, parsley, chives, coriander, sage, thyme, rosemary
  • Fruit: apples, pears

 

INDOOR VEG – salads, basil, parsley, tomatoes, chillies, peppers

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Spotlight on Parsnips

Roast Lamb and sweet roast parsnips.

Baked, boiled, pureed, roasted, fried, mashed, steamed or even raw, parsnips are a sweetly flavoured a highly versatile root vegetable, native to Britain. Perfect with a roast dinner, they are a good source of essential vitamins and November is a great month for harvesting your parsnips.

Parsnips
Great British parsnips, fresh out the ground.

Did you know?

  • In Roman times, parsnips were considered to be an aphrodisiac
  • Parsnips can be made into a wine that has a similar taste to Madeira
  • In some parts of Scotland, parsnips are called white carrots
  • The word parsnip is from the Latin ‘pastus’ meaning food and ‘sativa’ meaning cultivated
  • In Europe, parsnips were used to sweeten jams and cakes before sugar became widely available
  • Parsnips are packed with vitamins, minerals, nutrients and fibre including Vitamin C, potassium and dietary fibre

 

Pick up parsnip seeds in our winter veg kit

 

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Eat more plants!

Neil's Mini Allotment sWorld Vegan Day is celebrated on 1st November and marks the start of Vegan Month.

This year, the organisers, The Vegan Society, are hoping that a record number of people will pledge to try plant-based eating for at least one day, a week or – for a real challenge – the full month.

The seven-day and 30-day pledges are featured on the website and give simple and practical steps on how to begin your vegan journey. It can make you feel healthier, lighter and more energetic, it reduces your effect on the environment and on animals and can have a positive effect on you and on many other people.

At Seed Pantry we like to encouraging our green-fingered fans to sow, grow and eat more plants, their own vegetables, salads and herbs. This month is a great time to start thinking about setting up your own food plant space either in the garden, or if you don’t have the space, our popular kits let you grow your own in even the smallest of outdoor and indoor spaces such as balconies, window-sills and yards.

As well as being cost-effective and environmentally friendly, growing your own veg, salads and herbs means you can eat completely organic, highly nutritious, produce, grown and picked by you.

So during Vegan Month, why not start growing your own vegetables, salads and herbs at home and eat more plants.

There are events taking place around the UK on Saturday 1st November and during the whole month so visit the website to find out more: http://www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/events

Let us know if you take a pledge, experiment with a vegan lifestyle and do share any tasty recipes you find for plant based dishes.

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Competition to WIN organic gardeners hand cream

Gardeners scrubGardeners[1a]

We have teamed up with Organic Surge natural beauty products to give you the chance to win some of their lovely products to care for your hands. We’ve got a Lime, Basil and Rosemary hand cream and hand scrub set to cleanse, protect and soothe tired hands up for grabs for one lucky winner!

The competition will run on our Twitter and Facebook pages, or you can email us to be entered into the draw – info@seedpantry.co.uk

Complete the sentence: My hands need the Organic Surge treatment because…

Open to UK residents only. Winner will be notified by 30th October.

We’re also running an exclusive 20% discount* on all Organic Surge products from Friday 17th to Friday 24th October. Place your order now and enter the following code at the check out: SEED20

For more information on the Organic Surge range of beauty products, visit the website: http://www.organicsurge.com

Good luck!

*Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers.

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Take action against hunger this World Food Day

World Food Day takes place on 16th October and is a day for people around the world to come together to take action against hunger.

This year, the theme is Family Farming: Feeding the world, Caring for the earth. The UN estimates that there are 805 million hungry people in the world[i] with over 70 percent of these living in rural areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Near East. Many of them are farmers, especially smallholders.

The organisers on the UN committee are asking people all over the world to toast a farmer to thank them for their hard work everyday to ensure our food is grown with care and is safe and healthy for us to eat. Just post a photo of yourself with a raised glass on Twitter or Facebook with the hashtags #ToastAFarmer and #WFD2014. Or share one of the photos of farmers from around the globe from the World Food Day website  – http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/take-action

In addition, there are activities and commemoration ceremonies taking place around the world, including sponsored Hunger Walks, World Food Day Dinners, Hunger Banquets as well as food drives, rallies and more.

Here at Seed Pantry we strongly encourage growing your own as much as possible, reducing waste, and eating wholesome, fresh, organic foods. Now is a great time to start growing, sowing and planting your own vegetable, herbs and salads and our seed kits and plants let you grow your own in even the smallest of outdoor spaces – from balconies, window sills and yards.

As well as being cost-effective and environmentally friendly, growing your own veg, salads and herbs means you can eat completely organic produce, grown and picked by you.

World Food Day was set up by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and 16th October is the day the organisation was founded in 1945.

Follow World Food Day on Twitter @WorldFoodDayUSA and use the hashtags  #WFD2014 and #ToastAFarmer to raise awareness of the day, or visit the website: http://www.worldfooddayusa.org

[i] Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 2014

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Seed Pantry supports Dig the City Manchester

Flower-LogoWhite_V2If you’re looking for fun, family friendly activities over the school holidays then head to Manchester for Dig The City – the city’s urban gardening festival.

From Saturday 2nd to Sunday 10th August, Manchester will enjoy gardens galore, pop-up picnics and horticultural highlights from floral, historical and edible gardens as well as a sound garden at The Bridgewater Hall and a Dig the City Disco at the St Ann’s Square Festival Hub.

There will be a country fete in association with the Manchester WI with prizes awarded for jams, flowers, crafts, baking as well as homegrown vegetables. There is also a photography competition with prizes awarded for best wildlife, best family photo, best selfie and best urban gardening photo.

We’re excited to be getting involved in the competitions and will be supplying prizes for the Best Vegetables and the Best Urban Gardening photograph.

For more information on the competitions, to view the activity calendar and workshop schedule, and for full details about the event, visit: http://www.digthecity.co.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digthecitymcr

Twitter: https://twitter.com/digthecitymcr

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Seed Pantry teams up with Organix and the Goodies Explore Tour!

Explorer Pack - BadgeWe have teamed up with Organix and on their exciting Goodies Explore Tour this summer!

The tour will highlight nature, arts and crafts, and storytime events as well as food and grow your own activities, featuring our very own Seed Pantry products!

Look out for the tour coming to a town near you and bring your little ones along to plant carrots, runner beans and lettuce in their own pot to take home.

In addition, we’re giving away ten Goodies Organix tins packed with healthy, tasty snacks including crunchy carrot sticks, mini oaty bites, mini cheese crackers, animal biscuits, sweetcorn salsa snappy crocks and delicious raspberry and apple fruit moos! Look out for the giveaways running on our Facebook and Twitter pages or email us with your name, address and contact number to be entered into the draw to win a tin of Goodies Organix snacks for your little ones. Email:

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Appy times for Seed Pantry

Seed Pantry® App Crop Clock® ScreenThis month, we’re launching a fantastic new Seed Pantry app – a brilliant new way to monitor and keep track of home-grown vegetables, herbs and salads.

Featuring a handy ‘crop clock’, the app lets you set a timer that will guide you through the growing process, from sow dates through to harvesting. Whether it’s for basil and beetroot or snap peas and sweet corn, the smart timer allows you to set a sow date and monitor progress of seedlings and receive alerts as reminders of key dates for transplanting and harvesting.

The app also offers growing tips and techniques and is packed with illustrated veg growing information. It provides instant access to the unique Seed Pantry range of seed kits, plants and equipment and to the Seed Pantry ask a question service using Twitter, just tap the share icon to post what you’re growing or go to ask a question for our experts to answer.

The app is available to download for free from the Apple app store with an Android version to follow soon.

Click on the link below or search for Seed Pantry in your app store.

free-app-download

Appy growing!

Seed Pantry® App Splash

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Waitrose chooses Seed Pantry for flagship ‘Grow and Sell’ scheme

Waitrose has re-launched its flagship national ‘Grow and Sell’ scheme to get school children growing their own fruit and veg and has chosen Seed Pantry as its long term partner to supply seed kits and an educational mobile app.

The scheme, which has trebled in size since last year, was so succesful in many communities around the country that it will run again over the Spring and Summer seasons.

Following the successful pilot Seed Pantry will provide the ‘Grow and Sell’ seed kits for schools across the UK to set up and maintain their own vegetable patches. They contain seeds for the children to plant and grow vegetables such as lettuces, beetroots, basil, courgettes, snap peas and all the pots, compost, dibbers and equipment they need as well as step-by-step instructions. The new kit features the addition of wild flower seeds, which will help boost the number of bees, butterflies and other pollinators in school hedgerows.

Also new to this year is an educational mobile app that teachers, children and parents can download to access information on where food comes from, and understand how it’s produced. The app features a crop timer that is set when seeds are sown and reminds you via alerts what to do when and when your plants will be ready to harvest and sell at Waitrose.

For 7 – 11 year olds in primary schools, the initiative aims to inspire over 100,000 children to grow their own produce this season. Children will learn about where food comes from, the impact and importance of the seasons and develop entrepreneurial skills by selling their produce directly to Waitrose shoppers.

Neil Whitehead, founder of Seed Pantry says: “Due to last year’s success we’re delighted that Waitrose has re-launched Grow and Sell and chosen Seed Pantry as their partner to supply the seed kits and app technology. It is a fantastic project for us to be involved with and is testament to our brand and product range that is already in thousands of homes across the UK, inspiring a new generation of food lovers to grow their own healthy produce. By working with Waitrose it really helps to grow our business and employ people to support the ongoing scheme.

Growing food locally is something we are passionate about and want to encourage among people of all ages.”

Tina Varns, Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing Manager at Waitrose said: “Having seen the success of last year’s project, it brings us immense pleasure to re-launch the ‘Grow and Sell’ scheme and support a small entrepreneurial business, which fits very well with the ethos of our business. We hope it will encourage children to choose to eat well, and inspire entrepreneurial minds to flourish, which I know is something Seed Pantry is passionate about too.”

More details are available on the Waitrose website: Waitrose press centre.