Tag Archives: garden of england

Produce-d in Kent

Posted on April 18, 2012 by | Comments Off

Congratulations to Giles Coren and the BBC2 team for a delightful programme  ‘Our Food’-  get it on iplayer download whilst you can. Giles takes us through the history of foods traditionally associated with Kent. The thread running literally, through the piece is the River Medway, Kent’s most important river viewed from the lovely Lady of the Lea river sailing barge.

We are introduced to Kent’s  traditional food stuffs and how they are being adapting to today’s demands with some marvellously scenic shots of Kent at its Bucolic Best.

There are few better adverts for the Kentish countryside and the Garden of England than this programme, use it as a taster and then come and see and sample for yourselves.

As Pop Larkin said; ‘Perfick!’ 

Or if your literary taste is a little more highbrow; Kent, Sir- everybody knows Kent- Apples, cherries, hops and women’ -Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1837 

Link to i-player:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2012/16/Our-Food-ep-3.html

 

Blue Badge tourist guide

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Posted in Kent

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Kent – Garden or vineyard of England?

Posted on April 11, 2012 by | Comments Off

For hundreds of years the county of Kent has been known as the Garden of England, originally because it supplied nearby London with much of its produce, but should we be thinking of changing that title in light of recent evidence? Last year the Chapel Down vineyard supplied their award winning Rose Brut sparkling wine to HM the Queen for Prince William’s & Catherine’s wedding festivities and now another vineyard’s sparkling wine has achieved success, not with the Monarchy this time but with Parliament.

The Kentish sparkling wine Herbert Hall Traditional Method Brut  2009 has been selected to represent the ‘Best of British’ wines in the House of Commons in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics.

Herbert Hall is a pocket sized four-hectare gravel & clay vineyard in Marden & is regarded amongst those  who know as one of the most exciting new vineyards in England. The wine style has been described by one writer as a “wistful & romantic creation”, whilst another reports it as ”a scented apple orchard in a glass” . Rather charmingly the wine production has been described by its owner as “‘garagiste”. It is from such small acorns as this that majestic oak trees grow, or am I mixing just too many metaphors?

 

Blue Badge tourist guide

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Posted in Kent

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Happy Birthday Dickens!

Posted on February 6, 2012 by | Comments Off

Today is the day we have been waiting for..…the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Victorian author Charles John Huffam Dickens and in Kent we are going to celebrate the whole year long. We know that Dickens was not adverse to a party, “I arrived home at one oClock this morning dead drunk, & was put to bed by my loving missis”.

Here is just a small selection of the literary celebrations in store over the year. Rochester, the town Dickens made his own, has already started its Dickens celebrations:

5th – 11th February: Celebrating Dickens in Rochester & Chatham

A host of celebrations including a parade, a Traditional Pantomime at Dickens World, a celebration at St Mary’s Churchyard and a Dickens cream tea at Eastgate House in Rochester.

9th February, The Bicentenary Dinner at Dickens World, Chatham
Dickens World is hosting a sit down meal in Victorian costume dress to celebrate the Bicentenary.

7th March, 11am: Why Dickens still matters; Gravesend Visitor Centre
Author Lucinda Dickens Hawksley talks about her new book on her great, great, great grandfather, Charles Dickens. Lucinda looks at the man behind the books, his journalism, his social campaigning and how he made a difference to the world in which he lived and why his ideals remain relevant today.

8th – 10th June: Medway Dickens Festival

A spectacular event when Rochester turns back the clock to the Victorian era and the streets throng with locals dressed in Victorian costume & parades take place through historic Rochester each day.

16th – 22nd June: Broadstairs Dickens Festival
Charles Dickens loved Broadstairs & visited regularly for over 20 years describing the seaside resort as “Our English Watering Place”. In 1937, to commemorate the centenary of the author’s first visit, a festival was planned and, with the exception of the years of World War 2, has been held annually in the third week of June ever since.

28th November – 16 December: Dickens Christmas Festival & Market in Rochester Castle
Back in Rochester again, and a Victorian Christmas Market held in the grounds of the Norman  Castle, built to protect the River Medway crossing. Visit an array of wonderful German ‘style’ Christmas market huts selling Christmas gifts, hand-crafted goods and festive fayre. Street entertainers and Dickensian characters mingle amongst the revellers, whilst bands, and carol singers entertain visitors to the market.

If you are looking for something a little more personal, then South East Tour Guides can plan trips according to your Dickens interests. Click to see our brochure on Charles Dickens in Kent and how you can travel around the beautiful Garden of England discovering settings described in Dickens novels or following the influences of Kent upon Dickens, including many of his favourite places.

Contact enquiries@southeasttourguides.co.uk to request more details on how you can book your bespoke private tour.

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Posted in Events, Kent

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A tropical mini-break Wisley style

Posted on June 24, 2011 by | Comments Off

Photograph: Michael Walter Troika

The Gardens at RHS Wisley looked spectacular today.  The rain held off and there was the bonus of a tropical mini-break in the Glasshouse  – wonderfully steamy and exotic – all that was needed was a hammock strung between the palm trees.

Some of the plants growing in the Glasshouse are truly extraordinary.  Check out the ‘Dutchman’s Pipe’ (Aristolochia giganteae) whose flower has been called ‘fleshy’, ‘meaty’ , ‘sinister’ and ‘rude’.  In the past it was known as ‘birthwort’ and used to help in childbirth and Native Americans used it to cure wounds and snakebite, although it is now known to be both poisonous and carcinogenic. 

The Hyophorbe verschaffeltii’s hair-do was pretty eye-catching too,  not forgetting the stunning orchids.

The Glasshouse at Wisley, opened four years ago by HM The Queen is incredibly high-tech with all sorts of innovative technology and sustainable design features.  But greenhouses are nothing new.  I had not realized that the Romans protected crops like cucumbers with sheets of mica, a mineral that splits easily into thin transparent sheets, filling trenches around the plants with rotting dung to warm the soil. An early greenhouse was even found in the ruins of Pompeii.

When citrus trees became fashionable in the Middle Ages in colder climates wealthy owners had temporary shelters built around them and moved them underground or into buildings in the winter. Permanent shelters eventually replaced these temporary ones: orangeries with large windows on one side and furnaces behind the walls to warm the plants became status symbols.

The repeal of a costly glass tax in the mid 19th Century meant more glass could be used and the invention of wrought iron made it possible to build curved glass shapes culminating in the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

During the 1900s wartime restrictions meant maintenance became unsustainable and many great glasses fell into disrepair and were demolished.  Fortunately some such as the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew were restored.

Our walk back via the glorious new Prairie Meadow (left), the Glasshouse and Mixed Borders, Country and Rose Gardens was a heady feast for all the senses with wonderful sights and scents at every turn.  There is nowhere quite like an English garden in midsummer.

Back in Kent in addition to the region’s many well-known gardens there will be even more to enjoy over the next month or so in visits to some of the hidden gardens that will be opening for charity under the National Gardens Scheme.  Kent truly is The Garden of England.

               

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Posted in Events, Kent, Royal Family

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From dandelions to elderflowers

Posted on June 4, 2011 by | Comments Off

Our site stats continue to show that our Dear Reader is still interested in dandelion jelly so here is another recipe using the natural produce from Kent, the Garden of England.

The hedgerows are burgeoning with blossom, so armed with
a troop of tallish teenagers we ventured out to pick elderflowers – bribery once again being employed, with tales told of my aunt’s delicious recipe for elderflower champagne. As auntie’s champagne wouldn’t pass current EU regulations and none of the teenagers are old enough; cordial it will have to be, but never mind, mission accomplished, I now had a couple of baskets of elderflower heads albeit with slightly grumpy teenagers having realised too late that they have been duped.

We followed Hugh F-W’s recipe with a little help from Mrs Beeton
as well, just to check that Hugh was on the right lines, and within twenty four
hours a rather dubious looking liquid was transformed into a wonderful smelling
cordial – the exact smell of the flowers only more so, if you know what I mean.

The recipe is as follows:

20-30 heads of elderflowers (steep overnight in just enough
boiling water to cover), strain.

Zest of 2 lemons & 1 orange

Up to 200ml lemon juice

Up to 1.5 kg sugar

To every 500ml strained liquid add 350g sugar & boil to
dissolve the sugar. Cool, strain & use. Dilute to taste approx 5:1 ratio.

The scent is lovely, the colour a pale lemon green but the  cordial is way too sweet for our taste. As Hugh’s recipe is similar to Mrs B’s  ancient recipe, I am assuming that the high sugar content is utilised for its  preservative properties and that is all but unnecessary today now that refrigeration can be used to extend longevity of food items.  I suggest reducing the sugar to 275g per 500ml liquid and freezing the cordial in ice cube trays or in ¾ filled plastic squash bottles and then using as required.

When serving the cordial, do as the French do with their citrons pressés and provide sugar on the side to be added according to individual taste – so much more stylish & fun with a tall glass and knickerbocker glory spoon!

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Posted in Home, Family & Fun, Kent

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