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Oxford: Final Update

For those of you coming to the Oxford meeting on 20 September, here is a little last minute information.

Important! Don’t pay the entrance fee at the Botanic Garden.  Just tell them you are there for the Food Growing Bloggers Get-Together.  The entrance fee is included in the price of our room, and I will collect 15 pounds from everyone later to cover our expenses.

There are a few spaces available if anyone still wants to come.  Please email me, leave a comment here or call my mobile number below.  After Thursday it’s safer to call, because I may not have regular access to the Internet as I’ll be traveling.

Tentative Schedule

9:30 – 10:30  Coffee and tea.  Please arrive at this time, and spend a little time chatting with everyone.

10:30 – 11:10  Ben from Real Seeds will give a presetation about seed saving in general and the seeds he sells.

11:15 – 11:30  I will talk a bit about the garlic I’m growing.

11:30 – 11:45  Simon will talk about allotment related things

11:45 – 12:30  Seed swap

12:30 – 1:30  Picnic (indoors if necessary)

1:30 –   5:30  Time to visit the Botanic Garden, or use our room for more coffee and tea.

Route information to the Botaic Garden is here.

My mobile telephone number is:  +31 6 4010 9417

For the picnic, be sure to bring everything you need to eat or drink with (plates, cups, etc).  It also might be handy if you bring something to sit on.  Please try not to bring excess trash, because we are responsible for disposing of our trash ourselves.  We can accommodate a reasonable amount of trash.  Remember to think about bringing things from your garden to share, but don’t worry if you don’t have anything along these lines to offer.

A simple kitchen is available for our use, but we have been asked not to prepare any food there because it is not licensed for catering.  If you need to rinse a few vegetables, need some hot water, or need to do a little washing up afterwards, these should be no problem.

A few people have not yet confirmed.  There is still space if you want to come, but please get in touch first to confirm, because it is still possible we could run out of spaces.  I would also appreciate hearing if you have decided not to come.

People with a * next to their name have confirmed.

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)
A Blog Called Fuggles (2)
Veg Plotting (1)*
Soilman’s Allotment Blog (1)*
My Tiny Plot (1)
Manor Stables Veg Plot (2)*
Fluffius Muppetus (1)*
NomeGrown (1)
Hills and Plains (1)*
Speaker: Ben – Real Seeds (1)*

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Amsterdam Farmer’s Market

Local Market

I’ve been meaning to post some pictures of our local Saturday farmer’s market for some time now.  Last Saturday I took my camera along.  Honestly it’s mostly locals who shop at this market, and someone with a camera really stands out and kind of gets in the way, which is why I haven’t made this post earlier.  Above is a picture of the entrance.  Everything sold at this market is supposed to be organic, but much of it is not certified.  As far as I know, there is only one other organic market in the city, and mine is the only true farmers market as the other is simply run by independent market stand operators.

The horse was just dumb luck.  We don’t normally have horses at the market.  There are however a couple of horses that ride around the city giving rides and tours to tourists, and just as I picked up my camera one went past the market.  A photo moment!

This market has a Dutch language website here.  You might have some luck using Google language tools to translate it.

Local Market

Above is my favorite cheese stand.  They are a farm, and they do sell some of their own cheese.  Mostly what they have done is collect organic artesian cheeses from small farms around Europe, and sell them.  They are really expensive, but also have some very nice cheese.

Local Market

The honey guy (above) is usually there, selling honey and honey related products.

Local Market

There are only about 4 or 5 stands selling vegetables regularly, and this is one I like because it’s reasonably priced and of good quality.  This market is actually on the small side, when all is said and done.

Local Market

The most exotic stand there sells only mushrooms.  Besides being very expensive, I honestly haven’t found much use for them.  I like mushrooms, but I don’t really know how to cook most of these.

Besides these stands, others sell fruits and juices, grains, house plants, cheese, olives, breads and meats.  Almost all the food related stands have farms behind them, but often sell other products that aren’t their own.  There’s a stand that sells vegetarian goodies like handmade sushi, pate, sandwiches and so on.  On the back side there are stands selling things like clothes and household things.  There’s a woman who runs a Scottish baked goods stand, and there is a power foods stand where you can stock up on wheat grass juice and goji berries.  Other stands come and go, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few.

I guess what I don’t like are the many non farmer’s market aspects to this market.  Many stands sell things that aren’t their own, and these things often come from far away.  I saw oranges this week, and these must have come from the southern hemisphere.  I was hoping to get a picture of some the the large bunches of bananas that often adorn the market and must come from elsewhere, but there weren’t any this week.

You often see things like chestnut mushrooms, which all the food stands sell, all look exactly the same, cost about the same, and you know come from the same wholesaler.

While I sometimes appreciate being able to buy these things while I’m shopping at the market, and I have a lot of respect for the need for farms to work together because it’s pretty hard for one farm to provide enough variety year round to stock a single market stall by themselves, this really goes far beyond that.  This is really a local farmers market, integrated with large scale food wholesalers.  Also while I say local, many farms come from far away and are on the large side.

Also none of these farms offer Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions, at least via their market stalls.  What sort of a true small farm would not choose to offer a CSA?

In fact, as far as I know, true CSAs are not available in Amsterdam.  What we have here instead is the polar opposite, and it’s called a ‘Vegetable Subscription’.  It’s run by the country’s largest organic produce wholesaler and is simply a selection of their choosing of all the leftover products that goes unsold through other channels.  Real CSAs couldn’t compete with this on a price basis, and I think most Amsterdammers wouldn’t understand the difference, so it’s unlikely CSAs will take off here anytime soon.

What I just said about CSAs only applies to Amsterdam and probably most large Dutch cities.  In the outlying areas I think there are lots of CSAs available, but I’m not really sure.

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Dog Beans

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.

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Lots of Tomatoes

The tomatoes really started coming as we were going on vacation, and we ended up leaving a lot behind for friends to eat while we were gone. We also managed to get a load into the dehydrator in between our two trips to Germany and Spain.

Diversity in Tomatoes

One of the things I really enjoy about growing heirloom tomatoes is the diversity. It’s not so much which one tastes the best, or worrying about growing one that isn’t as good as the others, it’s just really nice to have a mix of different kinds and tastes. I’m growing about 25 different ones this year, and while a few were a little disappointing, nearly all have something that makes them special.

Some of my favorites so far are Black Sea Man, Matt’s Wild Cherry, Brown Berry, Hillbilly Flame (the large one in the front of the picture), Emerald Evergreen (the green one in the middle), Nebraska Wedding and Taxi.

For those of you attending the Oxford meeting, I’ll probably have some seeds with me then. For anyone else who would like some seeds, send me an email and we’ll try to work something out. I saved some seeds from several of the varieties, although I’m not sure I have enough for everyone who might want some. I can’t send seeds to the US! If you live in the US, I can tell you where to buy seeds if you’re interested.

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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.