Our kitchen garden (and why I don't touch it)
Wolves Lane Centre, the benefits of growing your own vegetables, and how to start at home.
If you read my last post about bean-rich recipes to save the earth, you've seen my interest with ingredients that tread lightly on the planet. But there's something even more direct than cooking with planet-friendly produce – growing it yourself. Which, admittedly, isn't my strong suit.
Watching seedlings push through soil, harvesting them at peak ripeness... But the truth? I can barely keep houseplants alive. My surviving plants persist through sheer resilience rather than any skill on my part.
Thankfully, there’s Wolves Lane Centre. This extraordinary space in north London is a community garden – nine glasshouses and sprawling outdoor beds where different growing projects flourish side by side. There are fruit patches, vegetable plots, local flower businesses, and initiatives like Black Rootz, who somehow produce 400 meals weekly for those who need them most.
Our relationship with Wolves Lane began in 2018 when we were opening ROVI. Our co-founder Noam and Neil, ROVI's opening Head Chef and now our Executive Chef, had this somewhat ambitious idea of growing produce specifically for the restaurant – both to ensure we had the absolute best ingredients and to reduce our environmental footprint. After searching, they found Wolves Lane, a community-owned garden that embodied exactly what we were looking for.
Max is our head grower there. He's brilliant – turning compost scraps into gold, finding ingenious ways to reuse plastic, and getting everyone excited about the garden..
What I find most liberating about this arrangement is the reversal of the typical restaurant process. We don't decide what we want to cook and then source the ingredients – it's the other way around. The garden dictates the menu. If you happen to see runner beans at ROVI, it's because the garden delivered a surprising 500 that morning.
The garden is bursting with life right now. Mustard leaves are growing strong. Lemon drop chilli seedlings are ready to start sprouting. Baby beetroots are developing their deep earthiness underground, and a lot of spring garlic is coming through too.
What I love about this time of year is watching spring's promise come to life. Broad beans are just starting to flower. Pea shoots stretch toward the sun. And soon, the first radishes will add their sharp crunch to our salads.
Growing is a bit of a gamble – that's what we've learned. Some seasons are brilliant, others less so. That unpredictability is what keeps me excited.
If you're feeling inspired to grow something yourself, even with limited space, spring is the perfect moment to start. On a windowsill, you could easily grow herbs like mint, basil, or coriander. If you have a small balcony, try growing greens: rocket, spinach, kale. For those lucky enough to have even a small patch of garden, radishes are wonderfully rewarding – from seed to plate in just a few weeks.
For proper growing advice (not from me, obviously), Martha Swales has just released a fantastic book called Give it a Grow.
If you're curious about getting involved at Wolves Lane – whether you're a seasoned gardener or a complete novice like me – they're always looking for volunteers. You might just find yourself part of something bigger than a garden. You might find yourself part of a community.
For those of you who do grow things at home, I'd love to know what you're planting this spring. Send me a photo – your successes and failures. We've had plenty of both at Wolves Lane and on our window boxes in the Test Kitchen..
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Tracy...thought this was right up your alley!!