Selfsufficientish.com

Radishes are indeed ancient. They were cultivated here by the Saxons, not just as food but for medicinal reasons: they were thought to ward off 'women's chatter' for one thing, and to cure depression!

On holiday in the last fortnight in the Isle of Wight, I was struck by the number of lengthy hedges, particularly on public footpaths, which consisted almost entirely of brambles, with a a smattering of blackthorn (sloes) and wild damson. The brambles were a compact upright sub-species, not one of t...

You could try salsify (vegetable oyster) and scozonera. They are long roots, like thin carrots (they are white, scozonera has blackish skin), and were grown by the Victorians. They can be stored over winter like carrots or potatoes. I tried growing them years ago when we had an allotment, but the la...

As far as I know, elderberries are only red when not ripe - don't know of any that are actually red when ripened. To go back to the 'smelly' part of the strand, I was always told there were at least two kinds in this country - the ones that stink and the ones that smell nice, although there seems to...