Controversial diet matters.

[robo]

I dug all my earlies up last week only problem was the size very few new potato size some were nearly 6 inches across

[Ricard with an H]

(Smile) Research done some years ago showed that wine has been part of the Mediteranian diet for generations and that wine and beer were preferred to water unless got washing clothes and other utilities. More recently some idiot pointed out that even an egg cup full of wine is bad for us. This bombardment of sensational research finding has got to the point where any reasonably balanced person has become numb to the these results.

Right now I'm parked and enjoying a long weekend In my motorhome in Gloucestershire, but I'm downwind of the M5. What is that doing for my health ?

Vegetables that are not grown organically probably contain Glyphosate and other Shiite that is killing me but it's a lot less fun than a bottle of wine alongside a rice pilaf done with onions, turmeric, garlic, cinnamon bark and a bit of fried chicken. The rice will have poisoned me because I didn't soak it in water, rather I fried it in butter and and onions.

The butter is ok now and Biilocks to the the naysayers and the Pino Gris I'm about to consume with it. Is it the wine that causes me to limp and walk poorly?

Regards
Richard mobile but not moving.

[peter]

I dug all my earlies up last week only problem was the size very few new potato size some were nearly 6 inches across

What variety are they?

Charlotte here are coming up large, 2nd early and oftimes called Salad Bakers.
This is on plots other than mine, I'm still on the Foremost.

[Geoff]

the Pino Gris I'm about to consume

Sun Jul 16, 2017 9:43 am

Oh dear! Hope you are staying parked up.

[robo]

Pentland javelin and rocket were really good ,Aran I won't be bothering with again very disappointing the largest were the pentland

[Ricard with an H]

Driving home tomorrow Geoff, I wonder if I could get a crop of spuds by planting now so I don't get hit with disease ?

What I love about this forum amongs many things is that we don't have 'Topic-police' which means blabbing and digressing which is what I do a lot seems ok. Nice.

[Monika]

Our potatoes Kestrel, grown in large pots at home, have done really well this year as have the carrots Norwich, also grown in a large pot. After being unable keep the carrot root fly off our crop on the allotment, I just sowed a few in a large pot and, by golly, have they done well - large, clean and very tasty.

If our pheasant problem continues on the allotment, we may just give it up and only grow stuff at home, much of it in containers. We do have some vegetable beds at home already.

[Ricard with an H]

This has been my first season that I used chemical fertiliser, mostly growmore but I did use bone meal on the hedging plants. Garlic doesn't like growmore, nor do onions. Everything is growing though after using cow muck for years I got used to cow muck performance.

I didn't use comfrey this year because I killed a lot of planting in previous years though getting the mix right does produce happy plants.

I suppose this whole season has been poor for me because I've been lazy.

[Westi]

Hi Richard!

Most things that are bad for us in one year of sensational press is disproven the next. Go back to the 'All things in moderation' mantra. I find mostly I crave something I need, be it meat or veg, even processed at times as they have been loaded with vitamins. I joke about it being chocolate but it can be loads of other green stuff as well!

All our soil & conditions are different - I've mastered brassica's after 11 years of trying! Do what works & don't deviate to all those benign sad attempts at doing what others do - take note, maybe experiment but be prepared for losses!

[snooky]

Had to change my diet.Ran out of rum,now on brandy!!!

[Ricard with an H]

Ahhh Westi, always so-so sensible.

Cravings just cannot be relied on though there is evidence, anecdote and scientific, that we crave what we need. On the one hand you crave for sweet stuff if your blood sugar goes low, that's unreliable. Fat people eating sweets and chocolate go hypoglycaemic even more quickly that slender folk but they don't need those simple sugars. I dehydrate but I rarely feel thirst like I feel a yearning for a glass of wine as soon as I start slicing onions or other food preparation.

Snooky. Never be tempted to add water, sacrilidge.

I had potatoes that I kept in a black plastic bag, they have good strong sprouts. If I have the energy to clear a bed is it it too late to plant them ? Those enviromesh covers I successfully use for keeping carrot fly and other bugs at-bay could be substituted for polythene to give me a sort of huge cloche.

So. My early two cups of coffee are leading to a long life, Eh ? What about the period of hypertension every morning made worse by the coffee. It appears that mostly men have early morning hypertension and is why most stroke victims get one in the morning. How would two cups of strong coffee to kick-start my day help increase my life-span ? Maybe as a stroke victim I will forget all my bad habits, stop driving, do as I'm told to do and increase my life span.

Yea-publish it. (Huge smile)

[tigerburnie]

My Dad used to put 2 or 3 tatties in the ground in his cold frame, we had new tatties with our Christmas dinner pretty much every year. Planted when he lifted his crop, can't remember what varieties they were though he did like King Edwards.

[Westi]

On the other hand Richard if you are diabetic you know you have to listen to your cravings - or go ketotic & die from acidosis?

Anyway my point is why should you listen to research from those trying to make a buck? You must check research out there for their test subjects, numbers in the study & really, really - can most of them meet the validation criteria when millions on the planet? Not having a go just look more carefully at the data. (& you have my noting of the coffee stuff- I'm a coffee girl).

Anyway back to gardening - plant the spuds, give it a go! What's to loose? Let's live dangerously & eat what we grow - we know it's providence & whether it makes us live longer or less it will be enjoyable as will the cup of coffee!

[oldherbaceous]

I planted 2 30 foot rows of Charlotte a couple of weeks, so as long as we don't get a bad bout of blight they will be fine....

Spent a couple of hours watering yesterday, so what happens last night, a deluge of rain .....but at least the rain will have gone into the ground easier.

[Ricard with an H]

Isn't blight a summer thing that comes with moist/ warm spells ? By the time you have foliage won't the danger be past OH ?

I may get to clearing a bed for spuds and carrots today if the weather is cloudy, I'm not good at manual work for more than two hours but if it's sunny and hot I sit down in the shade a lot. We have biting flies, or horse flies. If there isn't any wind the buggers are merciless and bites sometime erupt into sores. Worse than Scottish midges but not as many at the same time.

My garlic is very sad this year, I think it's down to my lack of industrious work with composting, usually I will have collected sea weed from the harbour and mixed it together with comfrey and borage into the composting. The only place that had any proper compost is under the French climbing beans, they are doing very well.

I always thought that a balanced fertiliser along the lines of Growmore at 7-7-7 was the standard if you couldn't compost. The only other planting that is doing well are the flowering plants fed with tomato feed. I need to do comfrey again but get the ratio correct.

All the soil that was heavily treated with cow muck when I started gardening 3/4 years ago is lovely open and light though in one case doesn't grow nice garlic now so the nutrients were washed away. Yes ?