Aztec broccoli & The Gloucestershire Echo

We had a visitor during our last session at the Annecy Garden, Mikel a photographer from The Gloucestershire Echo, the Cheltenham newspaper. He asked us about the Annecy Gardens & took lots of photos ~ look out for them, they're bound to be better than any I'd take.

Mikel, the Gloucestershire Echo photographer interviews Annecy Gardener, Lorraine.

Taking note, while Anne weeds the Zea mays 'Quadricolor'

We're still getting a lot of flowers on the allotment. One interesting plant is Allium hookeri 'Zorami', a primitive onion grown in remote areas of the Himalayas. It comes into flower late in the season & like may Allium species is very attractive to pollinating insects:

Allium hookeri 'Zorami', now flowering at the Annecy Garden

The beans climbing on the wigwams are doing well, they particularly seem to benefit from our watering them heavily each Monday evening.

Borlotto bean, pretty lavender flowers & interestingly coloured pods

Tagetes 'Paprika', this is pretty but rather small & has only just come into flower, six weeks after Tagetes 'Linnaeus', an altogether larger & more striking plant

Another interesting crop is just coming into production now. This is huauzontle also known as Aztec broccoli, or botanically as Chenopodium berlandieri.

Chenopodium berlandieri, also known as huauzontle or Aztec broccoli

The plant is in the spinach family, but in this case it is the immature flower spikes (pictured above) that one eats. It's a pleasant tasting vegetable with an interesting texture, in fact, I've just enjoyed some of this lightly sauteed with oil & a little chopped tomato & seasoned with salt & freshly ground black pepper ~ made a nice vegetable accompaniment to supper this evening.