Seed Swap Update

After reviewing stocks and quality of my saved tubers I think I'm able to offer a very few small packs of 3 ulluco and maybe one or two oca tubers per person. Have a quick look at my seed swap page for contact details and to see if there is anything you'd like to try - click here.

And yes, I am turning into a kitten bore. They are exhausting because their favourite time to play at the moment is between midnight and 2 a.m., just when we'd rather be asleep but here they are gathering strength for later.

Gratuitous Kitten Blogging

Yes, it's true! Last night I became the mother of kittens!


Two boys and girl, all from the same litter.

The boys look very similar, the girl has long hair and a flatter face. All have very different personalities but they are healthy, unafraid and already keen to bond with us and explore their new surroundings. They were born on Hallowe'en 2008.


One of the boys and the girl.

We got them via the RSPCA, so had a nominal cost to pay for their first jabs and microchips. We've had to undertake to have them neutered as well but that won't happen for a few months yet.

Names are yet to be decided. Suggestions in the comments will be welcome, we're beginning to get a bit desperate although after their first 'quiet' evening with us in the lounge we're considering Sid, Johnny and Nancy.


Sleepy babies.

Green Woodworking

We think a lot about old skills, renewable resources, making do with what we have and being creative.

Over the winter break Paul progressed with some of the projects he's planned for green woodworking. I don't often write about this because it's something he does and mostly I don't, except when a bit of weight comes in handy to hold something steady but he did a lot over the holiday and I took some pictures recording it.

In the picture above you can see some of the tools of the trade. There is a froe, a side axe and a billhook. There is also a hand made wooden mallet, shaped from a single piece of wood, and a book. No one is born knowing these old skills and in the absence of a master, the only way to learn the craft is from knowledge recorded by others. Paul's been working using Mike Abbott's Green Woodwork which is pretty much the standard primer for all new woodworkers.



One of the things he's been working on is this shaving horse. Apart from the use of a chainsaw to cut the trunk of the Ash tree that provided the wood, all the work has been done with hand tools in a traditional manner. The main beam of wood was split from the log with the aid of an axe, wedges and a sledgehammer. The shaping has been done with a side axe, the bill hook and various wood chisels.

The shave horse isn't very exciting in itself but it is an essential tool for preparing wood for turning on the pole lathe.



Most of the work was carried out in the freezing cold. In this last picture you can see the pole lathe in the shelter of the tractor shed. On it, Paul turned the pins that hold the shave horse together, which is a bit confusing really because he could have done with the horse to prepare the wood for the lathe.

Now, we have nearly everything we need to start working green wood into useful items. We have apple, cherry and box woods on the farm which will make all sorts of furniture and kitchen tools. My dream is to be able to turn bowls but it's extremely skilled work and I'm not actually able to turn a rolling pin yet!

Bleak Midwinter

It's cold, bum numbingly cold and it's been like it now for nearly two weeks. The forecast suggests it will continue to be this cold until at least the middle of next week and even then, it won't be much better.

Which is a bit of a blow because three weeks ago, although it was a bit chilly, the soil was soft but I only had time to lift a tiny proportion of the late Andean crops. I expected to be able to collect the rest during the xmas break.

I've barely been able to get a fork into the soil because the top three inches are frozen solid. Which means the garlic has missed its deadline and the precious unusual tubers of the oca and ulluco may have become write offs.

However, in desperation I've hacked my way into the frozen wastes and extracted a handful of the ulluco. The main crop of oca may have been lost entirely as mice have laid waste to the whites in the back garden and the soil in the open plot by the field has resisted my every attempt to breach it.




This picture shows the tubers I hope are free from frost damage and will survive to become next year's seed tubers. By luck it looks like all three possible 'varieties' are gathered, the plain(ish) yellow, the orange with pink spots and the yellow and pink striped but really there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of difference in the colours and it might just be natural variation.

Information about yield and performance is therefore somewhat restricted but the most important test, the edibility quotient if you like, has been performed. We tried a few tubers sliced into a chilli bean dish and they were quite good. Lovely crisp texture, slightly earthy taste but it grows on you.

I've left the rest of the plants in the ground in the hope that the deeper tubers will survive and come up as volunteers next year. It seemed safer to let them take a chance in the warm underground than risk damaging them with a fork or thawing them too quickly and inducing rot.



It's very beautiful here but we are beginning to hope for some warmer weather soon, before all the wood stocks run out.

Crème de la crème

I've been agonising a lot over this year's selection of seeds for the garden - do I select for novelty? heirloom qualities? rarity? and it's easy to forget that a long time ago it was possible to pick up a seed catalogue and become totally overwhelmed by the choice available.

Rather that publish a long list of stuff that I hope to cram into the garden this year it seems more practical to share the selections that we've found reliable year after year. I might not be growing these this time but if you asked me for a safe recommendation this is what I'd say.

The selection may seem idiosyncratic but represents the sort of vegetables we actually use. Where there are omissions it's because they are impossible to grow (like cauliflower), only for very specific purposes (like pickling cucumbers), of such limited available variety that recommendations are pointless (like salsify) or needed in such small quantities that buying half a dozen plants is more sensible (this is how we do cabbages and it works).

They are all (I think) variously available from mainstream suppliers like Chiltern Seeds, Unwins, Tuckers, Suttons, Realseeds and the rest and although you may not find them in the garden centres there should be no difficulty in getting them mail order.

Broad Beans - I really love Red Epicure (and will be growing them this year).

Dwarf French Bean - Annabel is quick and very tender.

Climbing French Beans are my nemesis. If you are growing for drying Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco (also Barlotto) are strong, pretty and have a good name. Young pods are edible whole. If you're growing for pods choose a round or pencil podded green variety. The purple ones go green when cooked anyway and the yellow ones always look a little sickly to me.

Runner Beans, for me it has to be White Emergo. The pods are rough and relatively short but the flavour is the best. Painted Lady is fun and pretty but tougher.

Beetroot. Unless you are a huge fan you won't want that many of these. Forono is an excellent long rooted sort. Egyptian turnip rooted has always done well for me and the thinnings are excellent in salad and stirfries.

Broccoli. It's not worth trying to compete with commercial green broccoli (which is calabrese anyway) but if you have space and butterfly netting to spare Early and late Purple Sprouting is a food of the gods and doubly useful as it crops in March and April.

Carrots - don't waste money on F1 seed but get Nantes and/or Autumn King selections. Cover the rows with fleece to stop carrot fly or make little fences around your rows (the flies are a bit stupid) or try the rhythm method and sow at times when the flies aren't flying.

Courgettes, I love the long white Cousa types but almost any available will be just fine. I usually have at least one round fruited plant.

Squash/Pumpkins. I try to grow a Musquee de Provence type every year, they are gloriously fleshy, orange and long keeping. However, if your household can't cope with the size of these then Uchiki Kuri, Melonette Jaspee de Vendee or Sweet Dumpling are excellent smaller fruits.

Onions, buy sets from a reputable supplier and follow the instructions on the packet for guaranteed success but I also like to sow some Long Red Florence in early August. Thinnings are great for salads and they will usually overwinter to give an early crop of torpedo bulbs which are excellent for cooking.

Garlic, again buy only firm healthy looking heads from seeds suppliers, garden centres or supermarkets. I have sown eating garlic from UK and French supermarkets (Spanish sourced stock) without any disease problems but you might not want to take that chance. Planting early, like now or even earlier, is a good plan but you'll be o.k. up until the beginning of March if conditions don't permit this.

Lettuce. Call me old fashioned but Webbs Wonderful is the one for me. We've also had great success with Marvel of Four Seasons and there are good mixtures available which help to break the monotony of single variety sowings.

Parsnip White Gem has always worked for us.

Rhubarb Chard either Red or Mixed is much easier than either Spinach or summer cabbage and looks beautiful too. Swiss Chard with white ribs is also excellent.

Tomatoes. There are far too many of these for any meaningful recommendation to be made. Stick a pin in the catalogue. My default choices in the past have been Roma for plum/cooking/paste (as good as San Marzano in our climate) and Marmande for salads and I have no complaints about either but ask locally for opinions and see what you get.

Potatoes. We recommend Ambo to everyone for general purpose use. They are strong growers, heavy yielding and keep well if you can stop the mice from getting them (of which, more later). Stroma are excellent clean second earlies and I like Epicure as first earlies. If you want Jersey Royals try International Kidney but they are only as early as they seem because the climate on Jersey is so good, they don't perform any better than the other earlies on the mainland.

This selection won't be everything you need but it's a good start. After a year or two you'll be ready to branch out into all sorts of experiments and these varieties will be yawn making and boring but you'll come back to old favourites like these time and time again when you want to be sure of success. Good luck.

To Old Acquaintances and Happier Days

I've been trying hard to climb out of this pit of despondency, each time I get half way up the slope the rain starts and washes me back to the bottom again. It's cold down here, and very muddy. Enough to make anyone cry.

Been trying to formulate the words for this blog entry. I wanted big plans, empire building, hope, light at the end of the tunnel, enormous erections and all the rest. Couldn't find any of those words but this evening, waiting for the clock to tick over and after a bottle and a half of good wine at least I have the energy to start.

So where to next? If only the weather would turn the corner into warmth the pull of the spring tide might drag me along. Seedlings of hope, blind faith in the future exhibited by all nature, the tingle of sunlight in my veins. I yearn for these things.

That's not to say that the weather now is not fit for the season, clear and crisp and cold it should be bracing. It's also killing plant pathogens and discouraging pests. A silver lining masked by the frosty indifference of winter but essentially I was built for a Mediterranean climate. I want to kick my shoes off and run on the sands of summer.

There is a big birthday coming for me in October. It's undeniably time I got a grip. Resolutions are futile and I regularly resolve not to make any but this year, this year really must go somewhere.

Happy New Year. Normal self sufficency blogging will be resumed soon, probably, but for the moment I want to reach out to anyone there and say Hello for new beginnings.

Seedy

Part of the failed bean experiment from last year.

It's that time of year, and although I'm mostly concentrating on a huge midwinter festivity blowout for the family, it's impossible to ignore the seed catalogues dropping onto the mat along with the cards. It's exciting, and my enthusiasm for finding new varieties to try is only tempered by the logistics of making so many small orders in so many directions. I expect to use at least six different suppliers and have seeds on promise from various seed swappers and friends abroad.

A few days ago we received the Heritage Seed library list and I've been poring over that, anxious to find something that is both worth saving and fits in with my plans for planting next year.

I've been a member (or on a shared membership) of the HSL for many many years and have always felt they were worthy of support for their aims, but as time has gone on I am beginning to develop doubts. As I write this I'm aware that these issues are not limited to the HSL so should be read as a general essay on my feelings about seed saving although I have used them as my example.

Tbere are, I think, three main issues that bother me.

I'm not comfortable with the way material is included in the seed bank. Seeds for preservation are acquired in several ways, sometimes remaindered stock from a certified supplier is donated but other times seeds are offered by members of the public who have inherited them, been saving them for themselves over a period or have brought them back from holiday, the greengrocer's or whatever.

When the provenance is reasonably well documented e.g from a commercial source some confidence can be placed in the identification and purity of the variety to be saved. Several of the older heritage seeds have had learned academia researching them and are supported by this in their identification but the seeds supplied by the general public from private resources are almost entirely anecdotal in their history. I look at the massive variety of tomatoes or beans and cannot but have doubts that some of these seeds are not unique strains but a mish mash of misremembered names, crossed accidents and duplications.

Then we have the actual method of preserving the varieties. I know myself how difficult it is to maintain any particular strain in a amateur garden. With, genuinely, the greatest respect to the Seed Guardians who I am sure try extremely hard to protect the purity of their charges how certain can we be that the actual characteristics of the varieties are being preserved? Indeed, with the poor histories of many types, do we even know what those characteristics are?

Secondly, has the direction of the organisation become muddled? The need to protect diversity in the gene bank is well established for sound scientific reasons even if we ignore the simple joy of revelling in the wonderful multifariousness of nature but by including any and all possible genetic material for general distribution is there a risk of swamping the pool with stuff that might just as well have been left behind? Not all heritage vegetables are delicious. Some are difficult to get right under any conditions. Some are barely improvements on the wild stock and as I said above, some of the varieties offered seem to have been compromised or offer no advantage over other stronger candidates. There is a dichotomy between selection for the gardener and pure scientific rigour and I think the line has become blurred.

Thirdly, the aims of the organisation are to maintain old varieties and distribute them. Weird terms and conditions of use make me uncomfortable but do nothing to actually protect the open source material. I don't want to become responsible for policing a good will system, nor do I want my participation trammelled by vague stipulations, half voiced obligations or unspecified intimations of legal proceedings. Either there is a clear legal contract or the stuff is out there. I do sympathise with organisers and abhor commercial exploitation of private effort but find the unloading of these concerns onto the member's remit to be distressing and unnecessary.

So all in all, I think seed savers are losing their way a bit. Easy to bitch and now I'm a bit more settled again I should probably volunteer to help by growing some varieties for seed and generally trying to support rather than criticise but my feelings on this are really quite strong. We must not become complacent because any one organisation has taken on a general responsibility and we must not allow British good manners to prevent us from identifying problems, getting them corrected and achieving excellence.

Do support the HSL and other seed saving initiatives. Do plan for diversity and variety in your gardens but have some awareness of what you're doing and why it is being done.