Monthly Archives: January 2015

tomatoes

Early-I know-Tomatoes 2015

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early tomato varieties
early tomato varieties

Since we are sowing seeds. Why leave the tomatoes out? I have sown them at time of the year before. Only to have wiry, gangly leggy creatures that I didn’t pot up quickly enough. I’m not very good at both potting on, or pricking out for that matter. I stood in Dad’s loft, it was cold up there, rooted in the seed stasher to pull out the seeds. I didn’t have as many as I had thought, but that didn’t make the selection of seeds any easier. Laying out the packets, it was a cross between laying out solitaire cards and X factor selection. You might think, that a tomato is a tomato. Not quite. Trust me, there are people out there who will have strong views on that matter. There are quite a few heritage/heirloom varieties in this particular experiment. Last year, I had a few that were shop brought plants. Wiry and tall to begin with, with slightly odd leaves. These did actually take sometime to get growing. The plants did grow large well, but were slower to produce the bigger, beefsteak fruit.

The varieties are:

  • Yellow stuffer-This made the lovely yellow chutney last year, so same again, please.
  • Marmande-big beefy beefsteak. Very productive last year, knobbly decent sized tomato.
  • Cream sausage-hilarious name, but actually yellow.
  • True black brandywine-another beefy beefsteak. But what looks likes like a Gothic fruit. Did have a shop brought Brandywine last year, the name escapes me.
  • Moneymaker-I have to have one bog standard red tomato, so mum doesn’t protest. It was toss up between this variety and Gardener’s delight.
  • Cherokee purple. I brought one of these last year as a plant, from a local greengrocer. Big plant, big fruit, but not bad.

I do have a sense of trepidation about sowing this early. Not least of all because they all might germinate like triffids and become leggy.Must keep an eye on them, make sure that they get potted up as soon as possible. Seeds were modularised, twenty four modules. But not a lot of seeds, at this stage. Plus, I have to consider window sill space. If they all do come off, then there is the small matter of them ripening.

Experimental Chillies and be;;s

Experimental chillies 2015: Part two

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photo 2 seeds

With one seedling from the first batch making an emergence, and the poly tunnel being tidied up. A second batch of experimental chillies have been sown today.

We have:

  • Cayenne: fresh seeds, as the previous ones were old, and not necessarily viable
  • Pumpkin
  • Aji Limo
  • Raindrop
  • Pettie Belle
  • Hungarian hot wax
  • Chocolate and orange habanero

Compost was placed into the modules, moistened and kept at room temperature for a while to warm up. There are five seeds per module compartment for most of the above seeds. This was all then placed into an unheated propogator, secured with elastic bands so nothing escapes. Placed then in a warm place.

Have been reflecting a lot on what went wrong with last years crop. I suspect I was too kind. In the past, I have grown chillies, and been cruel to them. Constrained their roots, and kept them in pots. We had lots of lovely leafy plants, last year, but no fruit. With constrained roots, I had fruit, and happy healthy plants. This will translate to the transition to the poly, will keep the plants in pots for as long as possible. I am trying again with the chocolate and orange habanero. The cayenne chilli was the first I ever grew, so  I am hoping to replicate some of that success that I had many years ago. Chillies can take a while, and that is something of a test of patience. No super hot dorset and bengle naga as of yet. Might give that a rest for a bit.

In a bit of pickle

Jam, jellied: the kit

image

When you too many courgettes, and you don’t want to so much as curry one. You have to think of alternatives. Last year was the first time that I made a foray into jams and chutneys. I had wibbly ones, spicy ones, one that set like Concrete. There was a lot of experiments. Especially when I had tomatoes by the tonne.

I soon realised that if I had a proper pan-nothing wrong with mum’s big Dahl pot, except  When you might burn it and have to scrub it-the whole process might be easier. I found the maslin jam pan, funnel and spoon as a bargain special buy. It’s a big pan, and at times I do struggle with getting a “rollicking boil’. I also has a jam thermometer as I can never get the cold plate Wrinkle test right. I tend to panic when I don’t get the setting point of 104 degrees c. That is a deliberate figure, the setting point of jam.

Santa Claus did also deliver me jelly straining kit. Have yet to use it,

So no photo yet. You could always use suspended clean. Sterilised muslin. The same as the one I use for home brew.

I am far from being an expert preserver. I nearly cried when I burned the bottom of the pan with blackberry jam. Thought the pan was a goner.

Allotment Challenge, TV Stuff

Big Allotment Challenge 2015: Epi one

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9pm, a Friday. And the Big Allotment Challenge was back. With baited breath, Britain’s allotmenteering community flicked on BBC2 to see what changes had been made since last years first series.

So I commandeered the family tv, complete with Mama and her knitting needles. I would watch this, on the larger screen, rather than on a portable device on catch up.

Credits rolled, and I could feel myself slipping into observation mode, It’s hard not to be a teacher. There was even my notebook and a pen, I was going to make very close observations.

Plots have changed since the end of the last series, back down to blank canvasses. We saw the series 2 contestants plot and plan out what they wanted to do. One of the opening statements was that these were amateur gardeners. Significant, as a large proportion of other horticultural shows will involve professionals. Important, as amateurs can get things wrong and not necessarily get huffy about it.

Spuds. Spuds, were the first challenge. Can’t say these featured directly in the first series. But with the show being short, the focus was on new potatoes. These would also feature with the eat challenge later with Thane Prince. Okay, so they all grew spuds. What I took umbrage with, was Jim’s dismissive remarks about spuds being the basics of the allotment. why did I get cheesed off? I have issues with my spuds. I plant them, monitor them, and still end up with holey spuds, with the occasional green one. I am clearly failing, with the basics.

What was nice, was there was focus on growing. Advice, techniques and strategies on how to do it. What to expect, and how to do things. There was also experimentation, by Lena one of the contestants. There is nothing wrong with experiments, and if you don’t try, you don’t know. Something Matt was also interested in. Testing the acidity of his soil. I have yet to do that. I am happy knowing I have clay.

And we saw pests! yes, slugs, snails, things that eat your crop before you do. Growing, is not perfect. Things go wrong. Both potatoes, and the zinnia flowers were afflicted by pests. I could have done a small whoop whoop cheer, for the critters that finally got shown to the unsuspecting public. There were twenty minutes of new potatoes, as they went to the show bench. One of the contestants tickled her spuds, I have furtled, but never tickled.

I get that people do grow for show. But the fact that veg has to be perfect, that annoys me. You can see Jamie Oliver’s campaign for ugly veg hit the news here. Perfectly good veg, but not pretty. Is avoided by both supermarkets and consumers. There is nothing wrong with it!

Flower growing, I shall gloss over. I glazed over with that bit. I am not a bouquet or floral basket maker. Glazing and glossing over. I wanted to fast forward to the eat, but couldn’t zap the tv.

Eat. Mustard and another sauce. You can make your own mustard, who knew. Sauces, to accompany a roast dinner. A sacrosanct meal, I tell you.

I wanted to see the reactions of Thane Prince. I like Thane, no nonsense in her approach. There was definitely no nonsense. Holding no punches, Thane gave her verdicts on the sauces. The contestants did appear to have fun in the kitchen, but that didn’t improve the matter. Thane wasn’t overly impressed by some of the sauces. Neither was I, to be fair. Was holding out for jams, jellies, chutney’s and cordials. Think there is syrup next week, insert your own toupee joke there.

Overall, I am not sure what I think. I even had to sleep on it. I may have even dreamt about it. Whilst there are changes. More growing advice, individual contestants who actually get irked with one another. Of course I will watch the next episode. But this still requires improvement.