Kitchen Garden Forum

The season seems to have flown by this year but, luckily here i’m still planting stuff out to try and get some late crops….you do a really good job, Burnie with your growing season being so short…….

This gardening lark never fails to surprise me.Went on holiday in March and before I went planted two x six metre rows of Lady Christl potatoes and two rows of Golden Wonder,all failed,too wet, too cold?A few "volunteers" from previous plantings so where I could I let them grow on and yesterday from two plants Iifted 10lbs of Caledonia Rose and from two plants 15ibs nearly of Kestrel.From where I planted the Golden Wonder it seems that one potato survived to give a yield of almost 7lbs!!
And not a sign of scab which I would normally expect to see from previous years' experience

Lifted some of the main crop tatties, King Edwards, and they look like salad potatoes. You’d think with all this rain they’d have at least, even if few, put a little effort into size.
boiled some yesterday and decided not one to try next year as they are too floury and fell apart relatively quickly in the pan. I suppose if I were making a pot of stovies that would be exactly what I would want. Might have to make a pot, not had stovies in ages.
The caterpillars have stripped the nasturtiums bare but seem to be happy enough.
As if the garden hadn’t had enough water this year, my niece and nephew were over yesterday and had great fun with the hose. There was some pretence that they were watering the garden but given both my hubbie and I ended up having to change our clothes I think that the pretence wasn’t very good. A good time was had though and I managed to persuade them to clean the windows at the same time, woohoo. The little karcher window vac ran out of battery they were so enamoured with it.

Afternoon Myrrk, I used to grow King Edward over 30 years ago, and had marvellous crops but, tried them again a few years ago, for a couple of years and was very disappointed each time…..so haven’t bothered trying anymore!

Sounds like a good time was had by all….kids keep you young!

What are stovies, by the way?

Mince and tatties, a favourite at our village bonfire night do.

Ah, might not try them again then OH. My Papa used to swear by Maris Bard. Do you have any experience of them?

Stovies are something we ate at the end of the month when money was tight.
A nice floury potato with onion and sausages, boiled in water until the tatties fell apart making the water quite thick (can’t remember if my Gran put stock in or not).
Used to love it with some brown sauce over the top, nom.

A local chef used to do fancy stovies with ham hock and tatties cut into cubes that kept their shape, tasted amazing but nothing could beat my Grannies stovies. A definite winter warmer