Name:

Paul Bennett Kelly

Profession:

Retired "seedsman"

Location: 

Calne, England

Interests:

Walking, archaeology, reading (biographies, agricultural history, soil regeneration techniques, hydroponics, and particularly gardening knowledge of vegetable growing and forgotten methods).

KGI: Why do you keep a kitchen garden?

PK: To feed ourselves as much as possible from our own efforts in growing veg and fruit.

KGI: How and when did you get started? Who or what has had an influence on you and your gardening?

PK: From the time I was in a pram (American: baby carriage), my maternal grandmother took me into the garden with her while she worked at growing food for us during war time . All of my family gardened. It was down to a really genuine interest to having an array of different foods to make any meat or eggs go a bit further.

KGI: Tell us about your garden or gardens. How large are they? What are you growing this year?

PK: My garden at home (which has heavy blue clay soil) provides year round fruit, by permission of the freezer, including gooseberries, rhubarb, red currants, strawberries, loganberries, Williams and Conference pears, Bramley apple, Cox's apple, Victoria plum. Approximate size: 10*7metres

I also maintain plots offsite in an allotment garden (American: community garden).  There, I'm growing swiss chard, runner beans, lettuce, leeks (for transplanting), beetroot (long round), carrots, Mange Tout, Kelvedon wonder Pea, spring onion (for salad, red and white), main crop large onion, broadbeans, parsnips, shallots, strawberries, red cabbage for transplanting, new potatoes, beetroot for pickling, main crop peas (for freezing), dwarf runner beans (a potential failure this year!), french black long radish, winter hardy turnips, courgettes, celeriac, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, white sprouting Broccoli, summer cabbage (Primo and Greyhound), red cabbage for pickling, marrows (i.e. squash), pumpkin (hundredweight), butternut squash, runner beans (white flowered), beef steak and Money Maker tomatoes, French-style haricot beans and carrots.

KGI: Do have a favorite recipe you'd like to share using a garden ingredient?

PK: It's nothing fancy, but I really enjoy broadbeans in parsley sauce with crispy streaky bacon.

KGI: That sounds good. How do you make it?

PK: It's very simple. You steam your broadbeans and prepare a parsley sauce which is essentially a white sauce (or bechamel, if you prefer) to which finely chopped parsley is added.  You can cook up the bacon and serve it on the side or crumble it on top.