Late October gardening tips: force endives

The forced endive is an easy enough vegetable to achieve over here, despite being a feature of the French table

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Endives
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The forced endive, a pleasant feature of the French table, is an easy enough thing to achieve over here. Grow a suitable cultivar from seed in the kitchen garden, then lift a few plants around now, pushing them into a big pot of damp compost, and cut the green tops off, leaving an inch proud. Invert a pot on top, block the drainage hole with a slate, put it in a cellar or cool shed, and wait. In a month, pale, firm and shapely cones will arise. Cut, chop, apply a vinaigrette dressing and sprinkle with walnuts. Simple and lovely.

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Country Life
Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.

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