8 October

The first twilight gardening of the season last Thursday was successful with 9 members and 3 children watering, weeding, and harvesting. We sowed tubers of saved galangal in one of the iron tubs.

On Sunday 18 members picked a vast amount of parsley and rocket as we were thinning it out. We also picked varieties of kale, lettuce, broad beans, carrots, celery, silver beet, radish, broccoli, land cress and cape gooseberries. We sowed three varieties of climbing beans (Lazy housewife, purple king, Fredrico). We welcomed Jack as a new member.

Plant of the week is the herb angelica (Angelica archangelica) belonging to the Umbelliferae/Apiaceae Family along with parsley, carrots, celery, coriander, dill, fennel and parsnips. It originates from the cold, wet climate of Lapland where its peeled stems are regarded as a delicacy. It is a biennial flowering in the second year. The large greenish-white flower heads attract useful insects like hoverflies and ladybirds. All parts of the plant are edible (leaves, stems, seeds and roots) but use sparingly. Young leaves have a spicy flavour and can be added to salads but are more often dried for a tea. Peeled young fresh stems/leaves add a sweet fragrant flavour to stewed rhubarb, jams and jellies. Stems are also candied. The seeds are used in liqueurs (chartreuse and vermouth). The roots have medicinal uses. It is a majestic stout-stemmed plant with large bright-green serrated leaves (photo). It is in bed 6 with the rhubarb.