Tomatoes and the HUGE Potato

Well… I decided to clear out the greenhouse at the weekend and give it a good old scrub out.

We picked the last of the tomatoes, including the green ones…. they look fab in the dish together, the colours are so vibrant.. I would really like to make some tomato and chilli relish, so if anyone out their has a tried and tested recipe that they would like to share, i’d love toi hear from you

Next I dug some potatoes from the 3rd bed for our dinner… and look what I dug up…. the organic Lady Balfour variety that I got reduced to 50p at the local garden centre turned up trumps…. with this whopper

I took it into my workshop to measure it … it was a whopping 6inches long and weighed in at 1lb 12.1 oz!!!

The Edible Garden..

I have spent a fair bit of time out in the garden today, mowing, strimming harvesting, hanging out numerous loads of washing, taking loads of pictures and generally just keeping busy and the garden tidy.

Here are some of the pictures taken from around the garden today : –

First of all we have the rogue sunflower, this beautiful big flower is the result of a seed falling out of the bird feeder and managing to land in a big flower pot, survive all winter and then germinate to produce this : -)

Next up is the final harvest of Peas for this year, we had these with our tea tonight, nothing went to waste as the chickens and rabbits got the remainder of the plants that I cleared from the garden…. theyre all stuffed full with pea leaves and stalks now 😉

Then I harvested some broad beans, this is the first year I have grown them and I love them, they will be back on the planting agenda for next year!   Still have one more harvest left then I will clear the area.

I found 1 solitary onion that had been left in from last year, I actually thought it was garlic, that was until I lifted it out of the ground, I accidentally pierced it a wee bit, so i’ll use it this week… Once I washed all the muck off it I hung it up to dry on the washing line 🙂

Can you spy the springer spaniels tail in the picture lol…. he managed to get in the act all the time!

Finally we dug up some potatoes… some of them were absolutely HUGE… and a couple of them were stinking and rotten for some reason, so we will be lifting the rest of them this week and having spuds for tea all week 🙂

International Kidney (Salad)

A superb very waxy, new/salad variety introduced in 1879 and one of the oldest varieties still in commercial production, particularly in the channel islands. Smooth skinned, with creamy white, waxy flesh and superb flavour. The most important crop on Jersey produced and sold as the world famous ‘Jersey Royal’.

Plant : April/May

Harvest : July/August

Cost : £0.50 for 12 Tubers (at reduced counter in local garden centre)

Planted : Sunday 26th April 2009

Organic Lady Balfour Seed Potatoes (Second Early)

Organic Lady Balfour Seed Potatoes (Second Early)

 

I got an absolute bargin at my local garden centre yesterday, I picked up 3 x bags of seed potators for 50p each!    I will do a write up for each one individually, so here is the first one.

“Excellent resistance to the major potato diseases including blight scab and virus Y, it also has strong resistance to eelworm. The variety also gives very high yields even in soils with low fertility.”

“This means that in most seasons it can be grown without the use of chemicals and with little fertiliser making it easy to grow and ideal for organic culture.”

“The pink-splashed tubers are very attractive with tasty creamy flesh which is moist and firm meaning Lady Balfour is best suited to boiling and roasting.”

• Yield: High
• Shape: Oval
• Skin: White/Purple eye
• Flesh: Cream
• Cooking: General Purpose – good for boiling, baking & roasting

Plant : April/May

Harvest : August/September 

Planted : Sunday 26th April 2009

How the Veggies are progressing…

A bit of a mixed reaction with the growing season so far… it started out great, lovely and warm, then it kinda went downhill after that.. its not been that sunny and it has rained a fair bit, and I think this has had an impact on the veggies growing both in the greenhouse and in the garden.

Here is an up to date report on some of the veggies growing in my garden..

First of all the peas… I have some planted straight into the garden and also some growing in a trough on the high wall..

Both were sown inside the greenhouse then planted out about 2 weeks apart, the result for both is that they have grown about 10 – 12 inches tall (not really that big), they have produced pea pods, but not that many of them, I’d be lucky if there was enough to serve up onto one plate let along freeze a bag of them so we could enjoy them in winter.. so verdict on the peas 1/10 really disappointed.

Now on to the tomatoes in the greenhouse… I have around 10 plants all seemingly doing well but not a lot of fruits, in fact I had to take 2 off the plant this morning as they had blossom end rot, I always remember my dad moaning about it when I lived at home, cursing the blossom end rot lol, now i’ve got it!

The micro tom tomatoes… I dont think I will be growing these again, for me, its a bit of a messy looking plant and the fruits are too close to the soil.

 

The Potatoes are doing really well (I think)!   Grown in big spud bags, they should be ready to harvest quite soon.

Next… the onions, I’m not sure if they are doing well or not to be honest, I would have expected them to be bigger than they are, but we shall wait and see what happens..

The Carrots seem to be doing ok, must get some weeding done this weekend before the weeds take over..

Courgettes… well they seem to be doing just grand, in full blom at the moment, here’s hoping I get fruit this year, last year they rotted away just after forming because it was soooo wet.

I have some flowers growing in the garden too, which are adding a lovely splash of colour….

 

 

 

Maxine Potatoes

This evening I’ve been out in the garden planting the first batch of Potatoes into my special growing sacks..

I ordered Desiree Potatoes form Marshall’s and they ended up sending me Maxine instead because they had run out.. so I did a bit of research to find out exactly what Maxine spuds were like…

Beautiful round tubers with smooth, bright red skin.
White waxy flesh which stays firm when cooked.
A heavy cropping variety producing large tubers whatever soil it is grown in. 
The flavour as ‘excellent’ and the cookability as almost perfect.

I’m a little bit late in getting them planted, but i’m sure they’ll be just fine 🙂

 

Trip to the Farm Shop…

This afternoon my daughter and I took a trip along to our local farm shop to buy our veggies for the coming week, the cows were outside today so we took a picture of them.

Inside the farm shop there was loads and loads of seasonal produce, we bought:-

Potatoes

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Carrots (normal ones)

Carrots (purple, yellow and light orange variety)

Green and Red Peppers

Ordinary Onions

Red Onions

Shallots

Flat Leafed Parsley

MacIntosh Red Apples

Purple Sprouting Brocolli

and my daughter wanted a pineapple so we bought one of those too :o)

We have friends coming round this evening so i’m heading into the kitchen to make a nice chicken curry, some pilaf rice and some naan bread.

I’m going to make some fresh tomato salsa too, its very yummy, recipe and pics to follow.

 Anyway… if anyone reading my blog is local (fife) here is the details of my local farm shop… its well worth a visit.   Nancy is really friendly, when I was chatting to her today she was telling me she cant believe how busy she is, the more people that buy local and boycott supermarkets the better… !!

Nancy Wishart

Bankhead Farm

Crombie

Fife.