A Garden to Call My Own
One of the great things about living in east London is the Columbia Road Flower Market. I have never been much of a green thumb but visiting this market has now become a weekend ritual.
Every Sunday morning I wake up with excitement about what new plant or flower I will discover. Perhaps a little too excited as I was spending crazy amounts of money and would be taking my latest finds home only to realize I had no place for them – or I didn’t have the right growing conditions. So I changed the rules to fit my budget and now go with only 10 pounds in my pocket and have fun seeing how far I can make it stretch.
This is a fun, loud and colourful market. (I guess the colouful goes without saying as it is a flower market!). Whether it’s the cries of the vendor selling grandpas last peonies, the haggling with customers or the latest east London fashions it’s a great way to spend a morning – even if you are hung-over, as there is fantastic food to boot!
One of the favourite parts of my ever-expanding garden are the fresh herbs. I have mint, basil, oregano and rosemary growing in copious quantities. My latest additions are purple sage and lavender. There is something so satisfying about grabbing your scissors and going out and snipping fresh herbs for a recipe. A handful fresh mint is the perfect addition my cocktail hour gin and tonics, I toss oregano into fresh pasta and love to make pesto when my basil goes wild and I need to use it up.
A party staple this summer has been my rosemary crackers. They are easy to make and are a perfect complement to cheeses, hummus or a nice bowl of soup (yes the weather in the UK means we eat soup all summer long). The thinner you can roll the dough the better – if you have a pasta maker you can run the dough through it a few times. I quite often see similar crackers selling for 5 quid all packaged up. Hmmm…now the banker comes out in me and I start to wonder how can I turn this into a viable business?
Michael Clark
Michael is a banker with a love for bread. His desire was kindled by morning visits to a local bakery while holidaying in France. He was struck by the passion of the bakers and the simplicity of hand made bread— 4 ingredients; flour, salt, water and yeast. He soon found himself experimenting in his own kitchen, before recruiting a master baker to show him the ropes. Wanting a taste of the real thing, he traded his holidays for midnight shifts in one of Canada's leading artisan bread bakeries. To quote Michael, “there is nothing more satisfying then the solitude of waking up early, hand kneading the dough, smelling the aromas coming from the oven and then slathering a hot piece of bread with some delicious butter”. An avid traveler, he seeks out crusty loaves and the people who make them around world. When not working in The City, Michael can be found in his London kitchen or his local pub