One that was hidden away under foliage and hanging over a bed.
Category Archives: success
You say to-may-to, I say tomato #2
Bit of a tomato humdinging special for you all today. Thought it might be useful to take some photographic evidence. I like taking photographic evidence, and it makes you all pay some welcome, loving attention.
I have never grown so many tomatoes, or had this level of success with triffid like vines and bush habits. These are, with the exception of the Ukrainian Purple; the tiddler tomatos who had tantrums from the classroom. The weather has helped, and we have a sprawling mass of foliage and fruit. A feat of engineering is required to truss up….the trusses.
It would be nice to actually get some ripened, red and yellow fruits. So to facilitate that, I have been trimming off the excess foliage. This should help the air pass through, and stop the leaves getting sweaty and horrible; as well as prevent any of the fruits being shaded. There are some large fruits, and also some diddly ones. A testament, to the different varieties that were sown. It is very hard to believe, that these are the tiny tiddlers that were started off in the classroom. They aren’t particularly pretty, either! You would never associate the fruits cropping here, with the smooth, shiny fruits that you would find in the supermarket. I think there are some yellow and black ones in there. Again, you wouldn’t see these very often in the supermarket. Will be intrigued to see the yellow ones and the black ones. The black ones are cherry tomatoes, I think.
Some silent movies for you, to peruse at your leisure. I do hope that they are not like watching paint dry. You might have to spot the tomato, and look very carefully.
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A bit wonky, yes. How many of you tilted your head to the left to watch it? 😉
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The colour is a bit off. The green is starting to change, actually. Going from green to yellow.
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The plum shaped ones-the wonky ones-are ukranian purple. That was an adopted one. There is a non-wonky ones in there too.
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I couldn’t tell you, what is which variety. One day I will label. I did actually find that one of the beasts is still in a paper pot. This has in turn rooted out of the paper pot and into the dirt of the raised beds. Had to dig it in a bit without pulling it out.
Shall see what happens
Yours in anticipation,
Horticultural Hobbit
Roll Over, Oscar and Bafta: Liebster Award
Why, thank you!
“The Liebster Award is for bloggers with under 300 followers and the rules of the award is that the nominee must link back to whoever awarded them, write 11 random facts about themselves, answer the 11 questions from the award giver, and then nominate another 11 bloggers and make up 11 questions for them to answer. It’s a great way for new and undiscovered bloggers to meet new people, get more followers and find some blogs that they want to follow.”
I was very kindly given a Liebster award from the lovely Gardeningvix at gardeningvix.wordpress.com
If I ruled the world I would…
Send every girl to school, to actualise her potential.
Where is your most favourite place?
The plot for pottering around.
My idea of fun is…
Anything which makes me smile, and my brain not hurt.
What is the weirdest thing you have ever done?
Thrown a slug and watch it bounce back. At snails place.
What makes you smile?
Young people actualising their potential, applying what they have learned.
If you could go back to yourself aged 10 what would you say?
Don’t do that. You’re meant to do something far more interesting.
What’s the most useful thing/product you have ever bought or been given?
Dibber from the p^undshop.
What is your best tip?
Work with Mother Nature, and she will work with you. No good fighting her.
What’s the best thing about your life right now?
Being able to change the universe.
How do you switch off and relax?
Read or play on the plot.
What was the last book you read?
Lady of the Rivers, by Phillipa Gregory.
My nominations
Theearthmama.wordpress.com
Outofmyshed.wordpress.com
Digginwivdebb.wordpress.com
jonesgardenblog.com
notjustgreenfingers.wordpress.com/
allotmentadventureswithjean.wordpress.com
http://craftygardenhoe.wordpress.com/
http://sophiecussen.wordpress.com/
http://allotmentgrowing.wordpress.com/
gardeningvix.wordpress.com
http://gardeningkiwi.wordpress.com/
My questions:
1:You have 100 of your local currency, what would you do with it?
2:Who would win; caveman or astronaut?
3:Spade or shovel?
4: Zucchini or courgette?
5. Would you kill a slug, or lob it?
6: What is your favourite flower?
7: What would save from a sinking ship?
8: What will you never grow again?
9: What do you want to always grow?
10: If you could turn back time, where would you go?
11: Jam or jelly?
Yours in anticipation,
Horticultural Hobbit
Mellow yellow
Got a cob on?
Crystal a-mazed
Cucumber sandwiches, anyone?
Tastes, well like a cucumber. Cool, refreshing and neutral! Didn’t get a lemony zing. Perhaps next time!
Yours in anticipation,
horticultural hobbit
Glut-ted
We also had another marrow. The second in a week. In a week, we have harvested 8 different courgettes. Still have a patty pan, with which we need to so something.
Mama H curried the marrow, with striato di Napoli and summer ball courgettes. Making a 3 squash curry.
Yours in anticipation,
Horticultural Hobbit
Ah growed myself a space ship
Jelly in a jar
Having collected a handful of purple rainbow chillies, I wanted to do something with them. Whilst a single solitary one, made it into a courgette chutney ( http://www.rivercottage.net/users/Pam%20the%20Jam/blog/1281015134-courgette-aid-and-jam-fest/ ). I wanted to make further use of the rest. The chillies are small, berry like. And quite full of seeds. There are additional chillies in the wendy. I have been impatient, and harvested a few non green Nigels, as well as some green frauzauber, These are a lovely lime colour. I have yet to ascertain, whether this is a sweet or a spicy chilli. it went in regardless.
The recipe that I used is as follows : http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chilli-jam-2692
There was some nervousness about this recipe. In particular, with the quantities. I didn’t want make too much of it, and how would I know if it had boiled properly to then set. The home grown chillies, were padded out with two large red chillies, and one and a half sweet red peppers. I did panic abit, with the boiling, and the mixture was boiling for 15, rather than 10 minutes. Wobbled beautifully, whilst cooling. There was the flecking floating too, of the chopped up chillies. Definitely in the wobble and the flecking.
The verdict. It tastes lovely! Consistency wasn’t bad. Depending on how much you have, it either wobbles like jelly, or splodges like jam. The flavour is a lot like a sweet chilli sauce, just with a different texture. Goes lovely with the dipping crisps, we know that for a fact. It is also wonderfully more-ish.
Might try it again 🙂
Yours in anticipation
Horticultural Hobbit
Space Invaders
Is it a plane, is it a bird, no it’s a funny shaped courgette!
To most people, a courgette is a courgette. A nondescript vegetable, shiny, straight and available from your local supermarket. Alas, they have clearly never grown their own veg. I must admit, that I too started off with a straight, relatively typical courgette. The courgette Astia, simple, straight forward and green. Then, I moved onto yellow ones, rounds ones, stripy ones, as you are aware of. Only recently, was I aware of another creature. Yellow Scallop and patty pan. You can argue that these are the one and the same. They may well be, I’m covering my bases here, with synonyms and semantics.
There have been daily explorations of the Esther Bucklee bed. Trying to find down these curiously shaped creatures. These are housed, between the Incredible Sweetcorn, all eight plants of them. I have three of these, I think, and a sweet dumpling, in the confines of a raised bed. This bed is one metre squared, and foray into two out of three sisters. The bed is heaving, you’d think I was growing triffids. This is exactly, what it looks like. A mass of green leaves, the size of dinner plates. Vines making an escaping, with eight long, willow corn plants, standing above a parapet. When the wind blows, the bed appears to be dancing and shaking it’s thing.
As you can see, the courgette is tiny. I almost missed it, but espied the small alien saucer like shape; and had to inspect it further. Not quite sure what I will do with them. As it stands, there are two courgettes in the kitchen. Despite having chutneyed two yesterday.
In other news, have harvested some curly kale and nero di toscano for dinner.
Yours in anticipation,
Horticultural Hobbit
horticultural 'obbit 