Garden – Page 26 – Bifurcated Carrots

31 August 200813 December 2018

Dog Beans

I had a pretty good crop of Dog Beans this year. We had several large servings of the green beans, and I guess I ended up with a kilo or two of dried beans. This is really a good tasting bean, both dried and green, and the plants are among the most prolific of any bean I have ever seen.

If you want to see something strange, have a look at Jardim con Gatos, he grew exactly the same beans (I sent him some of my seeds), but in his garden the colors reversed. Where my beans are red, his are white, and vis-versa. I’ve never seen a color reversal in these beans before (but this is common in some other beans). He also didn’t get any beans with the same color pattern as mine.

I’ve been growing these off and on for a couple of years now, and honestly I’ve never noticed any germination problems. That is until now. It’s possible I’ve just gone back and planted some more seeds when I noticed seeds weren’t germinating, because I do this with beans sometimes.

Before starting the year I germination tested them, as I was going to give some away to other people, they were a couple of years old, and I wanted to be sure they were still good. The results of the germination test were 100% out of 30 seeds or so. Hard to get much better than that, I thought.

Everyone I sent the seeds to reported poor germination. I also got poor germination rates in my garden this year. I thought this was because the seeds I had were old, so I replanted some of the seeds I saved this year. Guess what? Poor germination again. I even dug up some of the seeds to verify they weren’t eaten by a mouse or something, and they all seemed to be in the ground still.

If you are willing to go back and replant some of the seeds that don’t germinate, or sow heavily and thin, it’s still a great bean. I wonder what it is about being genetically predisposed to poor germination, that doesn’t go away on it’s own as the result of being selectively seed saved. Maybe it just needs a few more years of selection. Maybe I need to sprout them in a paper towel before I plant them.

I grew these beans as companion plants in a few places in my garden this year. This ended up working very well, because this variety is agressive enough to smother most weeds, but not so tall it gets in the way of many other garden plants growing.

25 August 200825 August 2008

Garlic Planting Stock

As I usually do every year around this time, I have some extra garlic planting stock to offer to people reading this blog.

This year I grew 90+ varieties, and harvested them at the beginning of August before we left on our trip. With around 1000 bulbs in total, it’s going to take me a while to go through them and figure out exactly what I have. I probably won’t be sending any to anyone for at least a month or so. Planting time is usually November (at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere), so there’s still plenty of time.

I can’t send any garlic to the US! Sorry. If you’re interested, I can reccommend some places to buy garlic planting stock. I also can’t send it anywhere else with import restrictions for this kind of thing. The European Union is no problem, and many other places are also no problem.

If I have traded seeds or planting material with you before, I will pay part of the postage. If you have something to trade now, I will pay all the postage. Otherwise you have to pay postage. Contact me for details. I accept cash in most common currencies, certainly US dollars, Euros and UK Pounds. People in the EU can also pay by bank transfer (payment in this way outside of the EU is also possible, but the bank fees are at your own expense).

If you’re interested, please send me an email (see the contact page) or leave a comment below making sure to fill your email address in the field provided. I’ll get back to you with more details, including estimated costs and some information on the varieties I have.

For people coming to the Oxford meeting on 20 September, I’ll probably have some garlic planting stock with me then, hopefully enough for everyone who wants some. You could still send me an email and arrange this in advance if you want to.

8 August 200814 June 2009

Oxford – Please Confirm!

It’s been a little while since I last posted an update on the status of the upcoming meeting in Oxford, so I thought I would do a quick post.

Please Confirm Your Attendance by 20 August

The following bloggers have said they may attend.

Those marked with a * have already confirmed, or I’m pretty sure are going to come, and don’t need to reconfirm.

The number next to the blog name is the number of seats I have reserved for you.

Bifurcated Carrots (2)*
MustardPlaster (2)
Spade Work (1)
Daughter of the Soil (1)
The plot thickens (1)*
Joanna’s Food (1)*
Growing Our Own (2)
The smallest smallholding (2)
A Blog Called Fuggles (2)
Veg Plotting (1)
Soilman’s Allotment Blog (1)*
My Tiny Plot (1)
Manor Stables Veg Plot (1)
Fluffius Muppetus (2)*
NomeGrown (1)
A Nice Green Leaf (1)*
Hills and Plains (1)*
Horticultural (1)
Speaker: Real Seeds (1)*

Total people attending: 25

Total number of seats available: 25

Please check to make sure the information I have here is correct, and let me know if it’s not as soon as possible! If you need an extra seat, I can probably figure something out. If you have an extra seat, please let me know!

If I don’t hear from you by 20 August, I will try to contact you directly. If I can’t get a firm answer from anyone by 1 September, I won’t necessarily cancel your reservation unless someone comes along who says they want to come. If you are still unsure by 1 September, you are welcome to wait until the last minute to see if there’s still space available.

If there is anyone else who wants to come, let me know. If I have unconfirmed seats on 1 September, I will happily offer them to you. At the moment I have no waiting list, and it seems likely at least one or two people listed above won’t attend.

It’s still the intention to find a place for everyone who wants to attend, if at all possible.

Speaker

We have one speaker already arranged. The Real Seed Catalogue have said they would send someone to meet with and speak to us.

We might consider a second speaker if anyone has concrete ideas. The best thing would be if you contacted the person you were thinking of first and get an agreement in principle they would be available, then give me contact information and I will confirm it with them.

It needs to be clear to me the person is appropriate for our meeting.

Costs

I am still expecting the costs to be between £10-15. It depends on how many people show up to share the costs, so I will calculate it on the day.

The cost of entrance to the Oxford Botanic garden is included in the price of the room we have reserved. Please don’t pay the usual entrance fee, just tell them you are there for the food growing get-together.

Place and Time

20 September 2008, 9:30am – 5:30pm

Oxford Botanic Garden, High Street, Oxford

Please arrive between 9:30am – 10:30am for coffee and tea. We will begin shortly thereafter.

Closer to the time I will publish a proposed schedule for the day. Much of the time will just be spent socializing, and perhaps visiting the gardens, but there will be a few planned speakers as well as the picnic and seed swap.

Picnic

Rain or shine we will have a picnic, so bring any food you want to share with others. Since most of us are gardeners, consider bringing something from your garden, but anything you want to bring is fine.

Also bring something to sit on, and anything else you want for the picnic.

Our room can be locked, so personal belongings can be left inside while we go outdoors.

In case of bad weather, we can eat indoors.

Seed Swap

Be sure to bring any seeds or other propagation materials you want to share with others. I will bring some seeds and other things from my garden.

The most interesting of course are seeds you have grown and saved yourself, but don’t be afraid to bring any seeds you think anyone else might be interested in.

You don’t need to bring seeds in order to receive them from others.

We Have a Banner

FoGroBloMe

For more information see Simon’s post.

Phone Number

I will have my mobile phone with me on the day, and you are welcome to call anytime until then if you have any questions: +31 6 40109417.

5 August 200813 December 2018

Achocha Fat Baby

Okay, it’s cucumber time. Emma already posted about her achocha ‘mouse melons’, and even devoted an entire podcast episode to it on Alternative Kitchen Garden last year, as well as a squidoo lens.

[update: I just realized Emma probably posted about something else, ‘Melothria’, a few days ago. Achocha is something she grew and reported on last year]

A look in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook shows my friend Frank in Belgium as the sole member offering seeds for it. I suspect he’s been growing it for years, and probably one of the people who introduced it to Europe.

I feel behind when it comes to posting on this one.

The insides look like this:

Achocha Fat Baby

The black things are the seeds, which you take out before eating and save for replanting.

Raw they taste something like a cucumber, and after being fried a bit like green pepper.

Except for the seeds, you can eat the whole thing. I’m looking forward to trying this in different foods. I’m not sure if I like it yet.

2 August 200813 December 2018

Japenese Trifele Tomatoes

These are Japanese Trifele Black, Yellow and Red tomatoes. In spite of the name, these tomatoes come from Russia. Apparently a scientist involved in the development of these tomatoes was Japanese. At their largest, the red ones are about 5cm wide and the others 2-3cm.

The black version is available from a number of seed companies now, and have become a popular tomato to grow. Just out of curiosity, I tracked down the red and yellow versions from a seed saver in Sweden and planted them too. I also got an orange version from a seed saver in Belarus, but it came too late for planting this year. Perhaps next year I’ll give it a try.

Green spots and uneven ripening seems to be a common trait of these tomatoes. At first I thought it was intentional, but now I realize it’s more of a problem than a feature. This isn’t as much of a problem with the black version.

The flavor of the black version is really excellent. It has a very complex taste that’s a little on the sweet side, but there’s plenty of acidic taste too. Rumor has it this is Raymond Blanc’s favorite tomato. For those reading this from outside of the UK, Raymond Blanc is a French born TV celebrity chef who owns a chain of restaurants in the UK.

At best I would say the yellow one is uninteresting. The plant is the earliest of the bunch, and probably the most prolific. The plant is also a nice compact size.

The red one is not nice. The flesh was very mealy and tasteless. Perhaps this is due in part to the uneven ripening, so perhaps after I’ve had a chance to let some others get riper I will have a more positive impression.

I’ll certainly grow the black one again!