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Strawberries are popular throughout the world – this is a public display in Helsinki, Finland

We’re in the middle of Wimbleldon and the strawberries and cream season here in the UK. In this episode I’m looking into the history of our modern strawberry. Fragaria x ananassa, which was bred from the Virginia Scarlets F. virginiana and the Chilean beach strawberry F. chiloensis. Then I’m off on a round-up of more unusual strawberry varieties, including the wild/ alpine strawberry F. vesca, the green strawberry F. viridis and the musk strawberry F. moschata.

And as if that weren’t enough, I have a look at other edible plants with ‘strawberry’ in the name, do a quick round up of recent events in the chicken run and then make way for our AKG correspondents Robb and Jacqui from the Sustainable Living blog who have settled into their new sustainable home in Hickory, North Carolina. If you’re interested in becoming an Alternative Kitchen Garden Correspondent then read the FAQ, and if you grow unusual edibles then my Vegetable Explorer questionnaire is over on the blog.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

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A compost heap

I have been asked how you choose which type of composting system is right for you, so in this episode I look at the things you need to consider when you make your choice and talk about the pros and cons of each of the main types of composting system.

Many of these systems have been the focus of their own episode, so check these links if you want more information on how to compost, worm composting, making leaf mould/ mold, high fibre composting or Bokashi.

Don’t forget that I have three copies of Wisewoman’s Cookery to give away! To be in with a chance of winning, listen to the show and then let us know which plant you would most want to have with you if you were marooned on a deserted island with your lover. Email me your answer, together with your name and address, before the end of June. Shannon, Mary & I will pick our favourite answers to be the winner, and we may read some of the responses out on the show. We will never pass your details onto anyone else! Shannon & Mary are happy to send the books anywhere in the world, so get your thinking caps on :)

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

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The Biodynamic Garden at Garden Organic Ryton

I have been on a short course at Garden Organic Ryton – an Introduction to Biodynamics, with head gardener Andy Strachan. I learned about the similarities and differences between organic and biodynamic gardening, about the biodynamic planting calendar, the importance of water, the preparations biodynamic gardeners use and the symbolism and spirituality that’s also involved.

For those of you who won’t have the chance to visit Ryton, I have some photos of the biodynamic garden: The Moon Phase Mosaic, The Flow Form, The Pebble Vortex Mosaic and the Lotus Frame that holds up the stained glass panels that represent the solar system.

If you’d like to know more about Ryton gardens, then we visited there in episode 24, just as the biodynamic garden was about to open to the public.

Don’t forget that I have three copies of Wisewoman’s Cookery to give away! To be in with a chance of winning, listen to the show and then let us know which plant you would most want to have with you if you were marooned on a deserted island with your lover. Email me your answer, together with your name and address, before the end of June. Shannon, Mary & I will pick our favourite answers to be the winner, and we may read some of the responses out on the show. We will never pass your details onto anyone else! Shannon & Mary are happy to send the books anywhere in the world, so get your thinking caps on :)

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

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Wisewoman’s Cookery: Food, Sex, Magic & Merriment

In this episode I’m talking about a fabulous book that involves interesting uses of plants. ‘Wisewoman’s Cookery: Food, Sex, Magic & Merriment’ is written by Shannon Loeber and Mary Edwards, and is ‘a guide to aphrodisiac cooking, sensual simplkes and folklore erotica’.

Authors Shannon Loeber and Mary Edwards

Shannon and Mary have come on the show to explain how they came to write this book, to tell us about their garden and their favourite sensual plants , to talk about the links between good food and well-bring and to offer you the chance to win a copy of their book!

To be in with a chance of winning, listen to the show and then let us know which plant you would most want to have with you if you were marooned on a deserted island with your lover. email me your answer, together with your name and address, before the end of June. Shannon, Mary & I will pick our favourite answers to be the winner, and we may read some of the responses out on the show. We will never pass your details onto anyone else! Shannon & Mary are happy to send the books anywhere in the world, so get your thinking caps on :)

If you want to know more about the book then you can read the review on my blog and visit the Wisewoman’s Cookery website. You can buy a copy of the book online via Chapters.indigo.ca or Amazon.ca.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

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Our Seed & Seedling Swap at the Hampshire Green Fair 2010

If you’re looking for free seed saving information then check out Real Seeds, Primal Seeds and, of course, my own podcasts, articles and blog posts on seed saving.

Also mentioned in this show are Seedy Sunday and Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library.

AKG Correspondents Robb and Jacqui from Sustainable Living are in the process of moving to America, so we won’t be hearing from them for a while, but we’ll be catching up with them again when they’re settled. If you’re interested in becoming an Alternative Kitchen Garden Correspondent then read the FAQ.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

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Hen Solo checking out some new plants

Our beloved Hen Solo has died, and we’ve bought two new hens to keep Princess Layer company, but it’s not all smooth sailing in the chicken run.

AKG Correspondents Robb and Jacqui from Sustainable Living are talking about water and their plans for rainwater harvesting.

Next month, Emma will be attending the Hampshire Green Fair at the Sustainability Centre, to run a Seeds & Seedlings Swap and to sign copies of ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z’, so do come and say hello if you’re in the area!

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter. If you’re interested in becoming an Alternative Kitchen Garden Correspondent then read the FAQ.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

akg102.mp3 (right click to download)

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A fig growing in the RISC roof top forest garden

In this episode Emma announces the winner’s of her birthday book giveaway and we find out which of the plants she was offered as virtual gifts were her favourites.

Other items mentioned in this show include:

• How to get your hands on some oca tubers


• the original Bramley apple tree


• Two new gardening tv programmes – James Wong’s second series of Grow Your Own Drugs and Alys Fowler’s The Edible Garden (which will feature Maddy and Tim Harland’s forest garden


• Garden Organic’s new Sowing New Seeds and One Pot Pledge projects


• and the new Forest Garden Fridays blog carnival.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter. If you’re interested in becoming an Alternative Kitchen Garden Correspondent then read the FAQ.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

akg101.mp3 (right click to download)

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Four-leaf clover, photo supplied by AKG listener Leslie Monk Downey

If you want to grow your own Shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day next year then you’ll need to sow a clover species. The most commonly used ones are Trifolium repens and Trifolium dubium (aka T. minus).

If you’re lucky then you may also grow you own four-leaved clover, but even if you don’t those clover plants are really useful – as a ground cover green manure, fixing nitrogen in the soil, and feeding bees, animals and even you!

We also have another segment from AKG Correspondents Robb and Jackie from the Sustainable Living blog, and this time they’re talking about permaculture zones. They mention a fantastic book – The Woodland Way – by Ben Law, who we visited in Prickly Nut Woods in episode 92.

Don’t forget that the closing date for my birthday book giveaway is 16th March – listen to episode 99 for details on how to enter.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter. If you’re interested in becoming an Alternative Kitchen Garden Correspondent then read the FAQ.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

akg100.mp3 (right click to download)

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Edible and beautiful calendula

It looks as though spring is finally on its way to the Alternative Kitchen Garden, and it’s time to finalize the 2010 Garden Plan. There’s going to be edible flowers and tea herbs, but what about the conventional vegetables?

Riley Jordan from the Dig It Down Under podcast is dropping in give an AKG Correpsondent report on what it’s like to garden in Melbourne, and there’s still time to enter my birthday book giveaway if you’re quick.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter. If you’re interested in becoming an Alternative Kitchen Garden Correspondent then read the FAQ.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.

akg099.mp3 (right click to download)

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Sweet Violet, photo courtesy of Wiggly Wigglers

This is a special birthday episode of the Alternative Kitchen Garden show and I’m looking at the birth flower for February – the Sweet Violet, Violet odorata. A wild flower here in the UK, the sweet violet has a long history and is linked to Valentine traditions. It’s also edible – check out the information on PFAF; it even warrants its own PFAF article.

I’m going to be growing sweet violets as part of my edible flower garden this year (and they can even be used as a tea herb!). I have seeds from Chiltern Seeds and a plant on the way from Wiggly Wigglers.

AKG Correspondents Robb and Jackie from Sustainable Living are back to tell us more about their off-grid, permaculture project – in this episode they explain about the permaculture principle of self-regulation.

And because it’s my birthday I’m giving presents – I have two signed copies of my book (The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z) , two copies of Through the Eye of a Needle and a copy of the Book of Rubbish Ideas to give away. Listen out for how to enter at the end of this episode.

Leave me a comment, send me an email or join our Facebook group. You can get real time updates from the AKG on Twitter. If you’re interested in becoming an Alternative Kitchen Garden Correspondent then read the FAQ.

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My book – ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A To Z‘ – is out now. Follow the link for reviews, interviews and more. You can order a copy online from the Green Shopping Catalogue or Chelsea Green or via Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal aims to raise enough money for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank to conserve an entire plant species and the wildlife it supports.