Lemon Grass, Chillies & Cardoman

Posted by Mari Nicholson Sep 9, 2007

Most people are astonished to hear that the UK is producing exotic spices such as cardoman and ginger. However, a firm in Lancashire England, is successfully doing just that.

Lancashire is known more for its Lancashire Cheese, Morecambe Bay potted shrimps, and Lancashire Hot Pot. . But now, a small company in Mawdesley, Greenhouse Sensation, has begun growing and selling the ingredients for what is now England's favourite dish, curry.

The UK has had for many years a thriving trade in pick your own vegetables and fruit (signs saying PYO along the roadside mean that you can pull in and do just that). Now buyers can also pick their own lemon grass, ginger, chillies and cardamom - and coming soon, bananas and papayas! In the company's 18 metre greenhouse full of the sweet, citrony smell of lemon grass, are to be found the fresh ingredients needed to make a perfect Thai curry.

According to a spokesperson, people have been travelling from all over the country to visit Greenhouse Sensation for their exotic spices grown in Britain’s notoriously cool and damp weather. So many in fact, that the company has produced a leaflet entitled Welcome to Mawdesley, advertising some of the other things the village has to offer, like freshly roasted coffee at Cedar Farm , a Roux trained chef at The Mulberry Tree, and gastro-pub food at the Eagle and Child.

Tel: + 44 (0)845 602 3774 or email info@greenhousesensation.co.uk .