With an emphasis on seasonality, styled and dished up whilst at its peak, the high-end greengrocer, Natoora is campaigning for a seasonal alternative to roses – the strikingly coloured, hand-grown, radicchio from the Veneto, Italy. Natoora supply restaurants, restaurants and home-cooks, with source seasonal, sustainable, crops, that support sustainable farming practices. They also have their own sustainable farm in Hampshire.
Still grown in the traditional, labour-intensive manner of (sand) forcing, a number of small-scale growers in the Veneto region continue to grow radicchio, against the odds. Highly labour intensive, radicchio is planted outdoors, after which the chicories are re-planted in the dark, in either soil, spring water or sand. Triggered into new growth without photosynthesis, nutrient-dense, bittersweet, strikingly coloured, firm heads form. The result are beautiful, delicious plants grown with impressive human nurturing – the knowledge of which is passed down for generations.
The Natoora ‘Radicchio not Roses‘ campaign is a collaboration with the London-based floral designers Worm Studio and chef Thom Eagle, whom are looking to challenge on finding the flowers of seasonal produce, in this case radicchio, as being more striking and vibrant, than out-of-season grown roses. In addition to their beauty, rather than adding to the 34,700 tonnes of cut flowers that go to waste every year, there is additional enjoyment beyond their vase-life, as they’re delicious to eat, with inspiration provided by Eagle’s recipes.
In the UK, the cut-flower and ornamental plant market was worth £1.3 billion in 2018. Some 86% of the UK’s cut flowers are imported from overseas. Though improvements are being made, the cut flower industry still supports a “carbon-and-chemical-heavy global trade” (FT 2021).
The floral designers, Terri Chandler and Katie Smyth of the London-based, Worm Studio are known to make arrangements and installations using seasonal produce, and commitment to environmental change in the floristry industry.
“Everything is more interesting, exciting and inspiring in season. Flowers that we buy from local growers in May have so much more personality than those flown to us. It’s shocking that we think that it’s okay to have flowers that need to be flown from Ecuador to Britain to make our tables look pretty”, explain Chandler and Smyth.
Now, radicchio may not be to your liking, and admittedly shipped in from Italy, but one can only applaud the creativity and beauty of this campaign. There is no doubt that locally grown, or home-grown flowers are the most sustainable option for a Valentine’s Day gift, but in the cold, wintery conditions of February, we may need to learn to look beyond the traditional. Perhaps it’s time we learn to look to the beauty offered in the kitchen garden….
If that fails there’s, radicchio.