Orto di Casa Cecconi

My first allotment, and then one thing leading to another…

L’orto di Casa Cecconi Plants Recipes Me & Kew One Year at Wisley

Year: 2013

  • All the goodness in those lemons

    Citrus limon. I adore it. And lemons are so useful in the kitchen, in Italy we say you should always have at least one at hand. You can drink their juice, full of vitamin C (also containing vitamin A, calcium and phosphorus) and hot, sweet lemonade is an Italian traditional cure for indigestion; the same…

  • Finding the right recipe for your produce

    It is very important to find the right recipes for your produce, the ones that bring out the best of its qualities – if you want to enjoy it. I am pretty sure that everything edible can be enjoyed if prepared in the right way. Just a few minutes ago I was talking to someone…

  • Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

    Taraxacum officinale are beautiful wild flowers, laden in pollen (I remember a spring in the mountains when everything was covered in yellow “dust” as dandelions all came into flower) and last year, after reading about someone having the largest botanic collection of them, I started noticing the different leaf shapes… I even considered devoting them…

  • Because bread just goes beautifully with most homegrown produce…

    I have been making my own sourdough bread since Carl Legge taught me in beautiful North Wales then sent me home with a little bit of his starter to set me off. Over the months, I have learnt some more, among others from Sonia and Joanna. And, with time, I have come up with my reliable recipe…

  • My last week at Kew (Week 21, Tuesday to Friday)

    I started the week thinking I would not manage to tackle the last bed any further than I had already done. It was supposed to rain and – because of the Summer Bank Holiday – the week was only four days long anyway, one of which was team day. My plan was therefore to concentrate…

  • Micropropagation (Week 20, Friday)

    I had the honour of a private visit to the micropropagation lab, or “microprop” as it is familiarly known. As I had not managed to go on the interns’ tour last month and, since the next one is after I’m gone, my tutor suggested I ask the department if they could see me on my…

  • My last Rubus… (Week 20, Wednesday and Thursday)

    A stem of Spiraea canescens I am glad I only decided to tackle this bed now, with a few months of experience, because it is really daunting: Cotoneaster, Rubus and even Spiraea (canescens) seem to have gone really wild and taken over all the available space, growing tall, growing wide, getting one inside the other,…

About Me

M.Paola M.Paola, that’s me

I got my first allotment in the UK in 2007 and started gI got my first allotment in the UK in 2007 and started growing my own food. Learning as I went along was not enough, so I studied horticulture. Faced with the horticultural warfare, I became a conscientious objector: I use no chemicals and support organic principles and regulations.

Brexit gave me a new life in the Netherlands, three new plots by a nature reserve and an MSc in sustainable food systems.

I write in my personal capacity and, as a language perfectionist and a non native speaker, I keep reviewing my entries’ text for clarity.

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