First lift of my Vegetables for a Talk for Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir 20th June

June 18^th Blog

I have an exciting couple of days ahead of me this week as I’m travelling down to Oxfordshire tomorrow morning to give a talk at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Church Road, Great Milton, Oxford for Raymond Blanc. This is undoubtedly one of the top restaurants in the Country and I’m really looking forward to my evening meal tomorrow night as well as lunch on Wednesday.  The talk is for around 50 people on Wednesday morning 19^th July at 11am followed by a special lunch.  If you fancy coming along please ring Sarah Eaton on 07860 632 175 to see if there are any vacancies.

For this special event I decided to grow a few special veggies such as long Beetroot, my own Long Carrots and the new parsnip to replace Polar as well as two Pendle Blanch Leeks. When I was invited to give the presentation it was on  the 13^th of February this year so on the 14^th I sowed all the above roots, Four of each kind in six inch pipes using Levington F2S to fill the pipes.  The carrots were really exceptionally long and slowly carrying their weight down measuring 7 inch in circumference around the shoulder and every one had gone down the 4ft length of pipe. The Long beet were really good and I only pulled Three from the four sown. The parsnips were  a little small as, Ideally they should have been sown earlier in the New Year, the quality was good though.

The Two Pendle Improved Leeks were from a batch that I am growing for my stand at the Royal Welsh.  I now have 11 left and as they are a good size already, 7 or 8 is all I will require to fill my centre piece stand for leeks. These leeks have been on their final 18 inch collars for over a fortnight now. By the time I pull them, probably on Thursday the 19^th of next month, the day before we all travel down to the show, they should have reasonable length.