Friday 29 August 2008

YES! we have some tomatoes

tomatoes at last

These aren't quite the first but it's the first time I've been able to go to the patch and pick a ripe tomato from every plant. Enough to fill a washing up bowl. Even the later fruiting Potiron now have properly sized fruit (that's big) and stand a chance of ripening. I thought it would never come.

Of course, now I have to decide how to process them.

ulluco

In an effort to get my sense of direction back I've narrowed my horizons down a little to getting the heritage bed and back garden tidied. Here's a picture of the ulloco after weeding. It grows pretty thick and strong but there were a few weeds that had got between the plants and a certain amount of chickweed just growing over them. These interlopers are now gone.

The plants put out little adventitious roots all along their stems. I suspect in an intensive garden it would be beneficial to give them a light earthing up at some point but I haven't done so with these. Partly I'm too lazy but mainly since there is almost no literature in English on their cultivation I'm having to make it up as I go along with the help of the brief notes provided by Realseeds. So far everything is looking good but the crop won't be ready for another 10 weeks or more. It really is a voyage of discovery. I don't even know if we'll enjoy eating them, which is the main reason for growing any vegetable.

More about the back garden next time.

2 comments:

joker the lurcher said...

yum! i just had a salad made from the little cherry toms here that have just started to ripen. they are lovely! what is ulluco? it looks interesting!

Catofstripes said...

Hiya, Ulluco is a tuber, bit like potato and from the same part of the world, the high Andes. They're rather unusual for the UK, at least for the moment.

Picture and some notes at
Lazy Day. Follow the link to the irresistible reading at Lost Crops. It's really fascinating stuff.