My dad was a great veg grower - had an allotment but when we moved to a corner-plot house he gave that up as our garden was so big. I used to love digging up the potatoes - treasure!
We too had to finish everything that was put on the plate otherwise - no pudding!
Don't mind the term 'kids', especially for older children who are desperate to appear more grown up than they actually are. They don't like being referred to as children but don't mind kids. Although in our case its 'the girls' and I don't recall ever referring to them as kids.
Just because you’ve found a few references to it in the papers doesn’t mean it was generally available … it absolutely certainly wasn’t … we were here … we experienced life here then .., you weren’t and you didn’t. You don’t understand the context of what you are reading.
If you read the context of the first paragraph you quote you’ll see it is actually explaining what ‘calabrese’ is … not something that would be necessary for a plant that was generally grown.
The first years of my life were spent on a family farm growing brassicas for Covent Garden market and the London restaurant trade. The farm still exists and I’ve been in regular contact with the farmers there who have extensive connections in the trade across the UK. I can assure you Calabrese was not generally grown in the UK in the 40s and 50s.
My understanding is that it began to be grown here due to Italian POWs marrying here and settling in the UK after the war and introducing some Italian varieties of vegetables. However it was very much a rarity and only became more generally available when we in the UK began to import more fresh vegetables from Europe due to the increase in ferry traffic across the Channel and the availability of refrigerated lorries. It was only after it had become more popular in the UK that it began to be grown here commercially on a larger scale.
Haven’t you ever heard the saying ‘don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers’ ? Not now and not then.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I can't remember having broccoli ever as a child, think it wasn't until I was looking for something 'different' to grow in the late 70s that I came across it. In the brassica family I can only remember sprouts, cabbage and cauli when I was growing up . Nor can I remember having much of a choice between what type of cabbage, or lettuce come to that.
There was also Curly kale and Purple Sprouting Broccoli for ‘the hungry gap’ @Jenny_Aster 😊
Lettuces were either Cos or Butterhead … then in the 60s the Iceberg type began to be imported (from Holland and Spain) and UK gardeners began to grow the recently available variety Webbs Wonderful which was a crispy type which ‘stood’ inn the garden longer than the butterhead types, if the slugs left it alone 😂
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
@war garden 572 … I hope you don’t mind me asking, but when did you last spend any length of time in the UK and whereabouts was it? I’d be interested to discover what you thought of the places you saw and the people you met. Have you visited any of our great historical gardens? … I’m sure you’d find the walled vegetable gardens and hothouses very interesting.
There was also Curly kale and Purple Sprouting Broccoli for ‘the hungry gap’
Don't remember the Purple Sprouting Broccoli as a child, but maybe the Curly Kale was 'lumped' in with the big handfuls of greens we could buy. I expect the 'greens' were a blend all sorts of leaves.
Used to fight with my brother for the cabbage water, we thought it was delicious. It probably had all the nutrients in the water after the cabbage had been boiled for goodness how long. Mum was never a good cook, she even used put a teaspoon of bicarb in the water to make the cabbage 'tender'
Posts
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We too had to finish everything that was put on the plate otherwise - no pudding!
Don't mind the term 'kids', especially for older children who are desperate to appear more grown up than they actually are. They don't like being referred to as children but don't mind kids. Although in our case its 'the girls' and I don't recall ever referring to them as kids.
being sold or grown in uk.
Birmingham Mail - Friday 30 June 1939 p15
Daily Mirror - Saturday 18 September 1948 p2
Daily Mirror - Saturday 03 April 1937 p 15
I can cite 10 other sources easily in uk newspapers before 1949.using search term :calabrese broccoli
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
Lettuces were either Cos or Butterhead … then in the 60s the Iceberg type began to be imported (from Holland and Spain) and UK gardeners began to grow the recently available variety Webbs Wonderful which was a crispy type which ‘stood’ inn the garden longer than the butterhead types, if the slugs left it alone 😂
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Used to fight with my brother for the cabbage water, we thought it was delicious. It probably had all the nutrients in the water after the cabbage had been boiled for goodness how long. Mum was never a good cook, she even used put a teaspoon of bicarb in the water to make the cabbage 'tender'
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My Mum was a good cook, our cabbage was never soggy.