Autumn Bits and Bobs.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, Cook is often amazed by my knowledge….trouble is, she knows I have got it from somewhere else….

Not being a cook, I was wondering about not pre-heating for Yorkshire puddings….or am I just being to clever for my own good…

[robo]

I paid threw the nose for two packets of blight resistant tomatoe seeds ,my tomatoes all but a couple have succumbed to blight one of them mountain magic I bought the same last year and had two leaves showing signs of blight I snipped them off and burnt them this year I’ve lost around 7 plants no sign of any resistant makes me wonder if they were just ordinary seeds

[Primrose]

That was unlucky robo as I don't think this has been a particularly bad blight year although others may disagree.
Our tomatoes were a few Prima Bella small ones but we had a dozen Ferline which are supposed to be blight resistant.
But I was cheating and our seeds plants were from saved Ferline seeds from last year and I gather the true blight resistant qualities may not necessarily be maintained if you use this method.

However, I'm curious because if this is the case, how are the commercial blight resistant seeds collected, dried and marketed if not collected from original plants. Surely it's the same process for F1 varieties, albeit on a much larger scale.? Perhaps somebody can relieve my ignorance?

[Geoff]

Just wondered what an ex Prime Minister's pension entitlement is, couldn't find much there is this:

How much did each former PM claim?

John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Cameron all claimed more than £100,000 through the public duties cost allowance (PDCA) in 2020/2021, according to the Cabinet Office accounts for that period.

Major and Blair both claimed back the maximum available allowance, of £115,000, while Brown claimed just under, at £114,712, and Cameron slightly less again, at £113,423.

Theresa May, the only former prime minister who still serves as an MP and therefore already receives a taxpayer salary to carry out ‘public duties’, claimed £57,832.

I half remembered it was quite generous, must have been this I had heard:

In the past, there were separate arrangements for the pensions for the three great offices of state – the Prime Minister, Speaker of the House of Commons and Lord Chancellor. These gave entitlement to a pension of half the final office-holder’s salary on leaving office, regardless of length of service. The Public Service Pensions Act 2013 abolished these arrangements for future office-holders.

Would have been quite a benefit for a few weeks work!

[Westi]

My blight resistant ones got caught by blight as well. I only had a few leaves nipped but there was some stem involvement so I just cut off the leaves & took any ripe or unripe fruit growing off the bits of stem that got caught. They grew through it so the new growth at the top was fine & it didn't spread any further up the stem.

Interestingly I got an e-mail from Franchi seeds this week about drought resistant varieties with a pic of Tomato Plum from Eden Project seeds but grown in Naples. Now I think I'm brave leaving my blight resistant one growing but I would be terrified with the dried out vegetation on these but right in the mix are all these bright red toms ripening nicely.

Franchi Seeds 1783 <[email protected]> ( Won't let me download the link nor the pic but this is the e-mail address it came from as about Pantone for Xmas first).

[Primrose]

Geoff. No wonder there are so many candidates for potential PM role if you don,t have to worry about length of tenure before picking up the allowance.!

[Shallot Man]

Dear Primrose, Cook is often amazed by my knowledge….trouble is, she knows I have got it from somewhere else….

Not being a cook, I was wondering about not pre-heating for Yorkshire puddings….or am I just being to clever for my own good…

O.H. As you joined prior to me, I am unable to claim any of the credit.

[snooky]

Filled a 240 litre council garden waste bin with acorns and leaves,mostly acorns,and now I need it emptied so that I can fill it again!!!
Thankfully my Council(i have to pay seperate from rates)provide a year round service for garden waste collection unlike some e.g. Cardiff,who stop it during late Autumn and Winter months.

[Primrose]

Pity you don't have a wire cage somewhere Snooky to rot the leaves down for some valuable mulch.
Our council recycles/composts down green waste and then sells the finished products back to residents so they pay for it twice - once for the cost of hiring the bins and then again for buying back their composted down green waste. All very worthy from an environmental point of view but good to cut out the middle man and not have to pay to get your own back!

At least you,re not reduced to making ersatz coffee with the acorns in these hard times!

[Primrose]

Showing my age here but Snooky's post about food prompted a lunchtime conversation about eating Snoek. Anybody remember it? My mum served it up once when aI was a small child during the war. - it was the most vile food I ever ate.
Awful grey tinned oily fish with a horrible taste. Can only think the war food office must have promoted it when food was short and lots of convoy boats were being sunk.

[Colin2016]

Had a builders bag of cuttings with buddleia branches on top read for shredding for compost pile.

Bin men came round today and took the lot.

Fortunately I have loads more from neighbors'.

[snooky]

Normally by now Primrose I would have set up one of the 1 ton builders bags to put the leaves in to rot dowwn for next year but with all the hospital appointments lately I have not got around to it and as it is garden waste pickup week(fortnightly)it was easier to dump the lot in the bin.With three Oaks,a Silver Birch,Goat Willow and various shrubs surrounding my garden i shall have plenty of leaves to compost
Regarding the fish,Snoek,I have eaten this(how could I not!)in South Africa and Mexico.I had it fresh and my memory of it was that it tasted of Mackerel on steroids!My Mam mentioned that like you ate it during WW2,not fond of it but was fairly readily available and the way to eat it was to disguise it somehow.When my Mam was pregnant with me she wouldn't touch it!!!

[retropants]

I'm still picking the odd tomato, they are in a little plastic shelter to protect from blight. I got my seeds from tomatofest.com which sells heritage organic seeds. I requested blight resistant varieties, and they recommended a few to choose from.

[Shallot Man]

Primrose. Sorry don't know what snoek is. Seem to recall during WW2 eating whale meat. haven't a clue where Mum got hold of it. Though my generation, you scoffed down what was put in front of you.

[tigerburnie]

Snoek is a tropical game fish a relative of the Tuna, see here for some info
http://thewartimekitchen.com/?p=191