Err - Epsom salts (Magnesium sulphate, MgSO4), as the name implies, a salt. It is neither acid or alkali. Or perhaps I've forgotten my A-level chemistry - it was a long time ago.

Some ideas : Beetroot gratin (beware, alarming colour) - Sophie Grigson "Taste of the times", I think. Beetroot curry - Madhur Jaffery's book from the old BBC series Beetroot / walnut dip - Madhur Jaffery's world vegetarian book. Beetroot and venison casserole. I think it was in Good Food ...

They will seem hotter after freezing because you've ruptured the cell walls letting the hot stuff out to hit your mouth immediately. I made a mistake like this making carrot, apricot and habanero soup ("The Habanero Cookbook", Dave DeWitt & Nancy Gerlach). I could hardly eat it .. but ...

The sort I have are triggered by a passive IR motion detector - so they will only bother a cat that passes in front of it. Cats seem to prefer to avoid them, but not so much as to carry mental scars from the experience ! The ones I have have a number of drawbacks though. They are expensive. They cov...

I rather like Hungarian Wax stuffed with Halloumi and barbequed. I'm fond of "facing heaven" chillies for drying/powdering. I've got a brilliant red Habanero too, which originally came from saved seed of a chilli from a West Indian grocers, which I've been growing/saving for thirteen years...

And whatever your view of these improvements, the purpose as far as the use of chemical sprays is concerned, is actually to reduce their use and that certainly happens in most cases. I'm going to have to differ here. Transgenic seed will only sell to farmers if they offer a financial advantage. The...

Anonymous wrote:Can I make it clear I said "domestic gardener" - I'm not talking about commercial growers.

Just to resolve any confusion - Anonymous in this case was me (Tony). Forgot to log in first - sorry !

I'm also with fen not fen here. I do think the use of agrochemicals by domestic gardeners is quite scary - as well as the lack of protective gear, how often do they dilute with great care - and then proceed to drench the plants with about ten times the appropriate dose. I would bet quite a few home ...

Hum. I quite liked them. I grew them on a VERY sunny patio (light coloured paving, south facing brick wall behind) in pots. Quite sweet. Mother-in-law praised them too, and wants the same again this year. I preferred them to greenhouse grown gardener's delight, which were so thin skinned they were f...

I found them a bit grainy in texture; for flavour Golden Hubbard is superior, in my view.

I tried one of those "Whitefire" florescent growlights out last year. Can't be sure that it works, but I got earlier tomatoes than my neighbours ... I have heard it said that ordinary florescent lights will work OK - though they probably aren't as efficient. As you can tell by eye, green is the part...

Can any parsnip experts help me. Some (only say 10%) of my parsnips show a brown colouration; if cut in half lengthwise it can be seen mostly at the boundary of the "core" and the surrounding flesh, seeming to radiate outwards. It does not appear rotten, no difference in texture (or aroma) from the ...

What did you use to measure soil pH ? I have one of those pH meters which have a probe that should be sandpapered lightly then pushed into the ground. I proceeded for a year or two believing it that my soil was rather acid, until when mixing up potting compost doubt set in; no amount of lime made it...

Are you sure they were dead ? Mine lost pretty much all the leaves, and some of the stems died back a bit, but I got new growth in the spring.

I have sucessfully overwintered a Habanero, despite all the leaves falling off, in a cool conservatory. I found the crop to be the better than the first year; I assumed it was related to the long growing season needed for Habanero. I've not yet sucessfully repeated the experiment though !