Early Witer bits and bobs.

[robo]

That would not have been a nice experience motherwoman, hope you are high and dry now

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Motherwoman, what a horrible thing to happen, i do hope things soon dry out for you.

It's not a leaking watermain is it!!!!!! But so saying that, the water table here is also at ground level at the moment, with the water running down the lane out the front of our house.

[oldherbaceous]

On a brighter note, it was lovely to be able to work to five o'clock last night, with just enough day light left to get tidied up. The Blackbirds were still singing away too, so rather a special moment, so things are on the up.

[Motherwoman]

Thank you all for your thoughts. The spring has stopped flowing for the moment but the water table is still very high. Letting the wind blow through when it's not raining to get rid of the moisture in the floor, smells damp and musty but at least it was clean water.

The central locking packed up on the car and the kettle developed a major leak... is that the three things? I do hope so...

MW

[Clive.]

I got the Sturon onion sets, yellow and red shallots too from our local small garden centre yesterday, they look good and firm, now counted out in to trays.

Had a trip down to Boston this afternoon to get some seed potatoes. I came away with Charlotte, Arran Pilot and Maris Peer as normal.

Whilst in lieu of my regular choice of the last few years, Ambo and Harmony, that weren't stocked, I decided to try Blue Danube and Setanta...neither of which I now anything about.

That was after looking 3 times, taking a walk around the whole site, looking again and only then going in search of a shop basket... It still rates as a very swift impulse buy by my book.

I wanted 2 other types of onion plus a few red and white but it was very warm in this centre and some of the large range of onions were starting to be a little shriveled.

My regular haunt, to stock up at, at this time of year closed last summer for a total rebuild and hasn't yet, as far I know, re-opened, I must have a ride down the road to check on progress...I do hope it will be progress.

Away now to count out the potatoes into the ubiquitous mushroom trays.

Clive.

[oldherbaceous]

So far i have bought, 25kg of Lady Christl for £23 and 25kg Charlotte for £25, and am very pleased with the price.

[Pa Snip]

Clive

I have not tried Blue Danube but last year I did try, amongst others for the first time, 'Salad Blue'. Will not be growing them again.

Of the 8 varieties we tried as part of our experiment, Salad Blue was the worst performer. Poor yield, riddled with worm holes & slug damage, much more so than the other varieties.
Found them very difficult to see against colour of soil when digging them up. Very quick to turn to mush when boiling.

A minor final nail in its coffin from an aesthetic point of view, Salad Blue retained its colour both externally and internally when cooked and didn't look appealing on the plate.

OH
Sounds like you have done well there. Unfortunately we do not have that sort of space available to devote to just potatoes, you are lucky.

We thought we were doing well having found a nursery in Berkshire that sells loose seed potatoes at around £1.50KG (don't know if there is any increase for this year yet). They usually have between 60 > 80 varieties to chose from.

One we are definitely going to grow again this year is 'Winston'. Couldn't fault it for rate of growth, size and quality.

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Pa Snip, the seed potatoes are not all for me, i have just bought that large amount for the discount.... i will let others (mainly my friend Old Codger) have them at the price i bought them for.

A win, win situation.....

[Pa Snip]

And good morning back to you OH

Good idea on the buying front. I like win win situations
There are 6 of us on our plot site who have started to do the same to take advantage of discounts offered for group orders

One item we are having trouble sourcing though is manure delivered to site from local sources. Not too keen on paying, around or over, a hundred quid for anything between 750kgs and a tonne of the nationally advertised stuff.
Despite the number of farms and riding stables in this area none, that we can find, wish to deliver anymore.

[Motherwoman]

I'm sticking with the old favorites again this year, Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple. Having made a decision to cut down on the spuds a few years back I avoid temptation by only growing the salad ones and it leaves me room for lots of beans on the plot!

Manure is a problem I know, nobody wants to deliver any more or if they do it's a hefty cost. The only solution seems to be 'bag-your-own' and they are happy to give it away. One chap on our site does hundreds of bags, all moved by car. I've struck lucky since my brother started keeping a couple of horses! I give him the empty bags and get filled ones by return.

MW

[Pa Snip]

I avoid temptation by only growing the salad ones and it leaves me room for lots of beans on the plot!

MW

Also means by getting them out early you limit blight risks and slug damage as well I imagine.

Since we grow for both ourselves and daughters family we grow first early through to late maincrop varieties.

We get more than enough of french & runner beans to see us through the year, however what we would like to do is somehow expand the space we devote to peas.

[Motherwoman]

Hi Pa Snip,

We're sort of bean freaks, broad, french, runner, heritage, all get a look in on the plot. And I always grow a couple of hundred outdoor toms, sometimes it's a failure but other years I can have jars and jars of pulped toms which are a boon in the winter and taste far better than any tinned ones.

I think it's a matter of growing what you want to eat and what you can't get in the shops if push comes to shove. Awful temptation to grow what everyone else does...but why if you prefer something else? So ditch a row of spuds and plant peas! Winter spuds are cheap...

The Charlotte spuds are pretty good on missing the blight and the Pink Fir, although a late potato, don't seem to suffer as much as other varieties. Remember never, never, ever spray water of the spud tops in hot weather, might as well hang a sign out saying 'blight here!'.

MW

[Pa Snip]

Hi MW
I would be most interested to hear what method you use for preparing and jarring your toms. As yet I have never successfully managed to carry this out.

We're not ones for growing items just for the sake of 'following the herd' and whilst potatoes may be regarded as 'cheap as chips' in the shops we are of a mind that home grown spuds do taste better.

We were discussing the pea issue this morning and decided to cut back on space devoted to brassicas to allow more room for peas.
We recognise that we tend to plant far too many brussel sprouts for instance. Cabbages tend to be full of slugs (refer to my '2014 Slug Invasion' thread) so until we master the slug problem we do question why on earth we plant so many of them as well.

Good advice about the watering, which I also extend to the tomatoes as well. Both only ever get watered at the base.
The depth of my potato furrows between rows has been the subject of mockery on our site in the past. However it is my method of watering, or getting rainwater to the plant roots, and whilst digging deep furrows adds to the seasons workload I have suffered far less blight problems than many of those who mock.

[Motherwoman]

Ditto on the spud furrows, I run the hose in and go do something else, visiting it every 5-10 mins (depending on if we have any water pressure!) to pull the hose back a few feet.

I was running out of freezer room for toms so experimented with bottling the pulp and it seems to work. I fill a BIG steel pan with roughly chopped toms, nothing else, and let it come up to a boil and simmer for 10-15 mins. Take it off the heat and let it cool down for a bit then push it through a sieve to get rid of skins and seeds. Doesn't take long as it's cooked down nicely by then. I then fill cleaned mayo jars (using the same cleaning routine as for jam) pop on new lids, tighten and then go back just a smidge. I fold an old tea towel and place in the bottom of the now washed out pan, stand in about 5 jars and wind another tea towel around them to stop them rattling about. Fill with water to about the jar shoulders, bring to boil and simmer for an hour. Cool down enough to handle and then remove the jars and screw the lids as tight as possible. I've kept them for about a year, they might go longer but I've used them up by that point! They will separate in the jars into solids and clear liquid, this is normal, just shake before use.

MW

[Pa Snip]

Thanks MW

I tended to make more work out of it than I needed to by the sound of your reply. First off I dipped the tomatoes in boiling water to split the skins, removed the skins then simmered the remains down in a large preserving pan without doing the rough chopping at the beginning.

I pulped them down using a potato masher and think I simmered them for far too long, result was far too liquid with no discernible strength of taste.

This season I will have a go using your method

Appreciated, thanks.