Secret gardener - Caroline Quentin
When she’s not acting, The Men Behaving Badly star’s big love is gardening. This is lucky as having moved to a Devon farmhouse over a decade ago with her husband, Sam Farmer, and children Emily and Will, she has plenty of acres to cultivate. She has described working her land as her ‘hobby’ and ‘passion’ in an interview for The Times. ‘I have planted an extensive orchard and I grow all my own vegetables…I also pick sloes to make gin,’ she added.
The couple moved to Devon from their previous home in Suffolk in search of some rolling hills, and now Caroline has wonderful views of the surrounding Devon landscape from her large raised vegetable beds. She even has an Instagram account devoted to her Devon garden where she proudly shows off her produce, including pumpkins and tomatoes, and shares her recipe ideas.
In one live real, we see Caroline mid-passata-making, popping out to her lovely terrace under a timber pergola to gather some herbs, from oregano to an unusual small-leaved basil variety. Other highlights of her garden are her fabulous dahlia beds, a real showstopper of rich pink and peaches.
Caroline also has an enviable huge timber greenhouse with vines and pelargoniums, which she calls ‘a guilty pleasure’. ‘It takes up more of my time than it should... When I should be learning lines, I’ll be out there potting sweet peas.’
She is very enthusiastic about growing chillies, proudly showing off her Jalapeno chillies in an Instagram reel, which she recommends stuffing with cream cheese, bacon and cheddar. ‘There’s nothing like inviting friends around for lunch and cooking with ingredients that were picked that morning. Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, radishes… and they taste so much better than anything you can buy in a supermarket,’ she said in a Saga interview.
