I nipped down to the lottie for a much needed weeding session this morning before breakfast, which is really a rather energizing way to start the day. So often at this time of year, the mornings are bright, and it’s cloudy or raining by lunchtime, so I thought I’d slot it in before things got dreary.

My allotment site sits opposite a church, and the vicarage overlooks my plot. I’ve become rather friendly with John the vicar (he’s rather rock ‘n’ roll as vicars go – he wears a leather biker jacket, but his wife insisted he abandon the motorbike when they had babies). John popped over for a chat this a.m. to ask me if I’d like to get involved in a local regeneration scheme, creating an edible garden for a youth club. “It’s not potatoes for Jesus or anything,” he assured me, “I just thought they could use your expertise.”

I consider myself more of an enthusiast than an expert in the garden, but I’ll definitely leap at this chance to inspire local kids and get involved in the community. This all rather auspiciously coincides with a new National Trust campaign, Food Glorious Food, which launches this Thursday (14 May).

Its aim to inspire children to plant, nurture, grow, harvest and eat their own local and seasonal food, in whatever space, large or minute. The Trust will give away over 170 million free seeds, which is equal to up to four million pumpkins, 26 million bags of rocket leaves and 70 million lettuces, and share advice with children through a programme of special events starting during the May half term.

New Urban Farmer

Urban Farmer is back with tips and recipes from her North London "lottie". This week: shared rhubarb via Twitter

• Why we forgot how to grow food

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The interactive website has been developed to support families each step of way, encouraging young growers to register to receive weekly step-by-step advice from National Trust gardeners on how to grow their plants in the form of helpful friendly characters, along with child-friendly recipes.

Back on the plot, I returned from the Bank Holiday weekend last week to find that my rhubarb plant had sprung a humungous flower as tall as me! As this hadn’t happened before, I wasn’t sure whether to jump for joy or reach for the machete. So right away, I announced the news on Twitter via my phone, in hope of getting some advice from my garden savvy Twitter friends. Magic! Within seconds, I had half a dozen answers: “Off with its head!” “Cut it off ASAP!”, along with urls explaining why and how. I never dreamed a social networking site would end up solving my rhubarb problems, but that’s the beauty of it – sharing certain knowledge in real time across cyberspace can indeed be jolly useful, wherever you might happen to be.

www.celiabrooksbrown.com follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/celiabb

TIP OF THE WEEK: If you have too many pea seeds or some out of date ones, plant them in pots and use the shoots as salad greens.

SEASONAL RECIPE: Smoked Salmon, Pea Shoot and Horseradish Salad

Pea shoots http://www.peashoots.com are now being grown commercially in Wiltshire for consumption as a salad green and are available from some major supermarkets. They are sweet, juicy, healthy and versatile – you’ll be hooked.

250g new potatoes, cut in bite-size pieces

3 Tbsp olive oil

1-2 tsp horseradish

2 tsp crème fraiche

100g smoked salmon

100g pea shoots

½ cucumber, sliced in to thin strips

Small punnet of cherry tomatoes

Heat the oven to 220C. Toss the potatoes in 2 tsp olive oil and roast for about 15 minutes, until cooked through and golden. Cool slightly. Meanwhile, mix the rest of the olive oil with the horseradish and crème fraiche for the dressing.

On salad plates, arrange the smoked salmon, pea shoots, cucumber, tomatoes and warm potatoes. Drizzle with the dressing, season with salt and pepper and serve. Serves 4

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