Kitchen Garden Forum

Anybody enjoy the "Harvest" programme last night? And who has grown pepper plants anywhere near that size? I wish they had told us more about varieties of everything.

Primrose, was that in the East or the West Wing?

Hi Geoff

I watched it and found it interesting. Pretty impressive harvests & machinery. I was surprised how the growers have changed their main harvests so many times as well to find that niche that can make a profit.

Yep varieties would be good to know. I see it's on again tonight so will be watching.

Westi

Oh, our ancestral pile is pretty modest. It's based next door to the therapy swimming pool for the polo horses !!!,

Just watched the Harvest programme on iPlayer. Seeing that lovely loam soil on the lettuce farm made me weep with envy! Yes, I would have loved to know more about the chilli varieties. Some of them look very similar in shape and size but are obviously very different in degree of heat.

Isn't it odd that when we buy apples in supermarkets we probably almost always buy by named varieties, yet the supermarkets rarely name and label other fruit and veg which I find very frustrating. Perhaps as customers we should start being more demanding about this kind of information although it's probably only people who grow their own veg who would want this level of detail about the tomatoes, beans or sweetcorn they buy.

You have a spare bath? I have to keep moving the bucket from the bath to the shower....then when in demijohn, it will go in the spare room with the boiler.

I just brew it in the tin bath in front of the fire and go without for a few weeks.

LED light bulbs have improved a lot recently.

We'd replaced all our halogen GU10 down lighters with LED ones about six years ago. The halogen ones were a pain, one would blow every few months and trip the downstairs lighting circuit. The LED replacements never blew, BUT, they made our kitchen a ghostly grey zone unless the small under top - cupboard light were on as well, literally a grey - blue dim light.

Yesterday I saw some new ones, with fewer, larger LEDS in, which were labelled as "warm" and bought two to see what they were like.

Went back today and bought eight more to finish the job and have a spare.

Oh boy, I can now see the dirt that's crept into some out of the way corners and my DW is asking if she can wear sunglasses to go in there at night!

Yes, the latest LED light bulbs have improved tremendously in recent time. However I find them a very mixed blessing when used for car headlights. When used in unlit country lanes, they can be totally blinding. Do they really need to be this bright?

re peppers. go to battlesbridgemills.co.uk or info@battlesbridgemills.co.uk all questions to Alan. A very helpful soul. PS. Don't grow them myself.

You're up early Pa Snip.....

So are you OH, and the clock on here, or on my settings, isn't self correcting. Seems like that's my next job, set the time right.

Sorted !!!! (until March anyway)

I'm just re-setting the time too, Pa Snip.

I love gaining an extra hour, but just wish it was light.....but l suppose i can't have everything i want....

Unfortunately no you can't.

It wont be long now before my wife is travelling to and from work in darkness.

Well, could be worse. We could live in Siberia or some similar location where you hardly ever even see decent daylight during winter months . At least we do get some welcome sunshine from time to time, and even some clear blue skies. I always think it's quite spectacular when you see the bare skeletons of the trees against that backdrop.

I can live with the cold temperatures although I don't like them. It's the leaden grey skies which send my spirits plunging.