MustardPlaster

Sunny Sixteen Degrees

2012-02-25T17:13:00.004Z

I peeked in on the bees yesterday. They were very busy foraging and returning with at least three different colours of pollen in their baskets - white, lemon yellow and goldenrod. There is still a fat heavy frame of honey stores and the queen is laying again as I saw both eggs and grubs.
So the colony seems to be in rude health and, hopefully, will expand this spring to full size.

R.I.P. All My Hens

2012-02-22T19:22:00.003Z

The thing I didn't think possible happened last night. Fort Fox was breached and all the chickens slaughtered. I salvaged the bodies of the three young ones and spent the morning plucking, cleaning and eviscerating. Woglinde's first egg of the season came out intact (see below). The shell of Flosshilde's was too soft and it got scrambled in the poop chute. All that's left is a big pot of Brunhilde soup, a meal of Flosshilde au Vin and Woglinde is in the ice box for a later date. So tragic. We must rethink our defenses before getting more.

To Pull a Chicken for the Sick

2012-02-20T18:47:00.005Z

"You must take as much cold chicken as you think proper, take off all the skin, and pull the meat into little bits as thick as a quill; then take the bones, boil them with a little salt till they are good, strain it, then take a spoonful of the liquor, a spoonful of milk, a little bit of butter as big as a large nutmeg rolled in flour, a little chopped parsley as much as will lie on a sixpence, and a little salt, if wanted, (this will be enough for half a small chicken,) put it all together into the sauce-pan, then keep shaking it till it is thick, and pour it into a hot plate."
Hannah Glasse 1747

Illustration from AgenceEureka

I am just decamping my sick bed after two weeks of fever and catarrh. I did manage to set the potatoes to chit and last week in a feeble state I drew lines in a dirt tray and sowed peppers, aubergines and 5 new varieties of True Potato Seed from Tom Wagner @ New World Seeds & Tubers.

5 Eggs...

2012-02-06T13:06:00.003Z

... this year. All laid by dear old Doris. I'm getting a bit impatient with the other freeloaders and thinking this weekend there might be Poule au pot on the menu.

SnowBound Chickens

2012-02-05T13:48:00.006Z

Doris on the left and her doppelgänger Flosshilde on the right.

*Werner Herzog clearly hasn't met the right chickens. Just look at these clever faces...

The Big Freeze

2012-02-04T13:42:00.003Z

We finally have a little taste of winter, freezing temperatures at night for several days now and some snow on the way tonight! That adds up to a Level 3 Cold Alert from the Met. I have to chip through 3/4 of an inch of ice on the hen's water bowl each morning and I've put a blanket on top of the hive. I'm thinking maybe this would be a good time to get out the ice skates and head for the fens. I've just listened to a reading of Roger Deakin's 'When Fenland's Finest Raced with Jack Frost' on Caught by the River. And I've learned about champions 'Turkey' Smart and his brother-in-law 'Gutta Percha' See who reigned during the golden age of Fenland Skating in the last half of the nineteenth century. Inspirational stuff.
Or I could put the fire on and make another pot of tea...

R.I.P. Ronald Searle

2012-01-03T23:11:00.004Z

From The Great Fur Opera (Annals of the Hudson Bay Company 1670 - 1970)

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T12:17:00.002Z

Via Ugly Renaissance Babies

Turnip Prize

2011-12-05T16:22:00.005Z

Last year's winner was the (then) topical 'Chilli'n'Minors' (pictured below) by Doug Pitt.

Group Of Seven

2011-11-20T21:52:00.004Z

We went today with a few friends to see 'Painting Canada' - a good selection of Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven's output on show at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. It's made me a little homesick which is good as I'm heading back for a visit on Tuesday. However the fall colours are long gone and the predicted weather for Fredericton is 1° and snow flurries. Urghh!

'Wineskins of Brown Morbidity'

2011-11-19T00:10:00.004Z

I harvested medlars today and set 125 of them, bottoms uppermost, in the greenhouse to blett. And then? Another round of sticky brown glorps?

Another Ho Hum Harvest

2011-10-25T20:17:00.004Z

For pottage and puddings and custard and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.

Pilgrim verse circa 1630

TPS No.16 & 25

2011-10-22T16:28:00.002Z

No.16 French Fingerling x Magic Molly and No.25 Thumbertime x wild species

TPS No.11

2011-10-22T12:10:00.003Z

Bolivian landraces Pirampo x Khuchi Akita

TPS No.6

2011-10-22T12:01:00.002Z

F2 Pam Wagner

Women With Cows

2011-10-16T23:39:00.004Z

I've just been to see a great film - Women With Cows. Don't miss it!

Teapots of Note - No.1

2011-10-11T09:14:00.007Z

"The first cup moistens my lips and throat, the second cup breaks my loneliness, the third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some five thousand volumes of odd ideographs. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration, - all the wrong of life passes away through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified; the sixth cup calls me to the realms of immortals. The seventh cup - ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of cool wind that rises in my sleeves. Where is Horaisan? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither."
Lotung Tang poet

The ingenious patented SYP (Simple Yet Perfect) teapot - with a little perforated shelf for the leaves and two little teats that allow for steeping in a supine position. Once the required strength is reached, the pot is righted and the leaves are held on the shelf out of the brew.

A Green Sort of Complete White

2011-10-07T10:47:00.003Z

'I saw colours often on eggs,' I observed, 'colours which have no names. Some birds lay eggs that are shaded in a way too delicate to be noticeable to any instrument but the eye, the tongue could not be troubled to find a noise for anything so nearly not-there. What I would call a green sort of complete white. Now would that be the colour?'
The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien

Alice laid her first egg today (middle), Brunhilde (right) started last week!

Phew!

2011-09-30T15:35:00.001Z

Henry II R.I.P.

2011-09-27T21:49:00.002Z

Yesterday's alarm clock... tomorrow's Coq Au Vin.

The Treachery of Vegetables

2011-09-18T11:53:00.001Z

Red, White and Blue

2011-09-14T18:35:00.004Z

Last year I saved all of the tubers that I grew from true seed. This year I get to taste them. I dug a couple that were just starting to die back - No.16 French Fingerling x Magic Molly - and cut and cooked the ones that got damaged with the fork. The white fleshed ones are much more floury and prone to fall apart than the ones with coloured flesh, but all taste superb. Most of the plants are huge, still very green, some still flowering and I will leave them in as long as I can stand the suspense.
Carol Deppe has posted about living on a steady diet of potatoes here.

Adventures with Potato Seed Continued

2011-09-12T16:10:00.005Z

I've selected some fruits from the potato plants growing from last year's TPS harvest from which to save seed to grow on next year. Coloured yarn kept with the seed corresponds to bits that are tied around each of the plants so that once dug, I can record the colour and qualities of the mother potatoes. As the bee hive is right next to the experimental potato plot, the results will be anyone's guess. Maybe as quirky as those pictured on Home of the Potato (via ABW)

"Autumn is Near..."

2011-09-06T16:46:00.003Z

"... Autumn is here. Sing shed sing."
Listen here to this seasonal song. (You might have to put up with an ad first)

Saint Fiacre's Day

2011-09-01T14:50:00.003Z

... Patron saint of gardeners. And taxi drivers. And sufferers of fistula and venereal disease.

More Peppers

2011-08-29T09:54:00.001Z

A Mammal's Notebook

2011-08-27T21:42:00.005Z

"My only nourishment consists of food that is white: eggs, sugar, shredded bones, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coco-nuts, chicken cooked in white water, mouldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausages in camphor, pastry, cheese (white varieties), cotton salad, and certain kinds of fish (without their skin).
I breathe carefully (a little at a time) and dance very rarely. When walking I hold my ribs and look steadily behind me.
I sleep with only one eye closed, very profoundly."

Erik Satie 'A Mammal's Notebook'

Slim Pickings

2011-08-24T20:51:00.003Z

It's a disappointing year for tomatoes in my back yard. They started looking sorry for themselves quite early on and that caused me to get cross with them. So I punished them by cutting short their water rations... Anyway, very few fruited in the greenhouse (yellowhouse) before I removed them completely but some of the outdoor ones are beginning to produce now so all is not lost. It's a mystery because under the same conditions in the same soil the peppers have flourished (and continue to) and yielded bumper harvests. Possibly the pot size?

I Heard an Owl...

2011-08-08T14:46:00.004Z

Walking back from the pub last night through the remains of the Great North Wood we saw two short-eared owls - about 30 feet above us, mesmerized by M.'s bright torch. The calls that we initially heard were the squawking sounds that follow the hooting on this RSPB webpage. I notice that the Wildlife Trust runs a night time 'nature prowl' there on August 26th. But for great owl watching go HERE.

August

2011-08-07T10:58:00.004Z

"Sow the principal spring crops this month. Cabbages and endive are best sown early in the month, and cauliflower and lettuce towards the end. Sow giant rocca and tripoli onions (to stand the winter), hardy green-top stone and orange jelly turnip, and a final sowing of winter spinach."
The Horticultural Notebook J.C.Newsham 1914

Outside I've just sown Purple Top Milan, Japanese Hinona Kabu and Golden Ball turnips and Green Meat Daikon radish.

Name That Nutrient Deficiency

2011-08-01T13:04:00.004Z

Certain of my dwarf beans are looking a bit peak-ed and yellow round the gills. Please lend your help by participating in the poll below so that I can nurse them back to tip-top condition.

Three Months On

2011-07-24T19:54:00.006Z

Portraits of the five that have reached adolescence - two elegantly bouffanted Cream Legbars, one Rhode Island Red ~~Soup~~ Rooster, one Barnevelder and one Buff Orpington. They have outgrown their cradle and their three big ugly stepsisters still won't let them roost in the loft so they are sleeping in the nest boxes for now. Click to enlarge.

Sunday Peppers

2011-07-24T11:31:00.002Z

A - Pasillo Bajio, B - Chinese Five Colour (just like it says on the pack), C - Paradicson Alaky Sarga Szentes, D - Serrano Tampequino, E - Hungarian Hot Wax, F - Anaheim

Bee-clothed

2011-07-19T14:29:00.002Z

More pictures of China's BeeMan contest here.
Our bees have settled in and are very active foraging right now, but it's a small colony and we will probably have to feed them to get their stores sufficiently built up for the winter.

Stop the Rot

2011-07-15T12:31:00.003Z

"The decay usually makes it's appearance in the form of a spot on the surface of the fruit. This should be scooped out and the hole filled with plaster of Paris formed into a paste to the consistency of thick cream by the addition of water.This will set quite firm and arrest further decay. The contents of the fruit-room should be examined at least once a week."
The Horticultural Notebook J.C.Newsham 1914

Advice on Pruning

2011-07-10T09:26:00.005Z

"Ye should prune and train wall-trees like the ribs of a skreen fan or ye fingers of a hand displayed." Anon. c.1700

*A very thorough book on the history and art of Verdant Sculpture can be accessed on-line by following the links at Hooting Yard.

Potato Blossom

2011-07-03T11:06:00.003Z

Variety of colour in the flowers of potato No.21 - John Tom Kaighin x Negro y Azul.

Image Recognition

2011-07-01T14:54:00.004Z

In order to track down Jeremy's forgotten cucumber (see comments below) I have employed Google's new image search tool. I just drag and drop my cucumber photo into the search window and - hey presto! Click on image to enlarge.

Cool as a . . .

2011-07-01T10:55:00.003Z

"In the time of our English George the First , a want of courage was popularly imputed to tailors, insomuch that nine of these pusillanimous worthies were needed to make one man; and, as report went, 'Tis the opinion of our curious virtuosos that their lack of bravery ariseth from the immoderate eating of Cucumbers, which too much refrigirate their blood.' "
Meals Medicinal W.T.Fernie

Mud Poultices

2011-06-28T21:55:00.004Z

After a full season of beelessness, this evening we housed a nucleus in our chicken-loud glade. And I got stung thrice on the head for my trouble. I remember my first ever sting when I was about five and by way of a remedy my mother pressed a spoonful of mud on it - a sort of poultice to draw the poison out. Unfortunately I didn't remember until a long while after I was set upon - too late to find out whether it's effectiveness wasn't largely dependent upon the presence of mother.

"Restore the Honour of the Cucumber!"

2011-06-07T22:55:00.002Z

"We need to restore the honour of the cucumber."
Spanish delegate Fransisco Sosa Wagner to the the EU Parliament

Blue Pod Capucijners

2011-06-05T19:30:00.003Z

Q departed Thursday, and just now the peas that I had hoped we would be eating during her stay are beginning to form. It rained today!

Tonight @ The Horse Hospital

2011-06-03T12:08:00.001Z

We rescued one (stag beetle) from the water butt Tuesday.

The Drought of 2011

2011-05-26T09:06:00.004Z

Less than 10% of the average rainfall for April following March with only 20% of the average and now a very dry May has meant that I've spent many an hour watering in my crops. The ground is bone dry everywhere else and much of the landscape around the South East is brown at the edges. Today they promise a shower. On the up side, slugs have not been a problem so far this year.

Six Chicks

2011-05-09T22:57:00.003Z

They are two weeks old now (this picture was taken 8 days ago) and have their wing feathers. I'm certain that one Rhode Island Red is a male and possibly one Cream Legbar is of that persuasion. I don't like to count my chickens even after they've hatched but it looks like we have at least four future egg layers. Many an hour can be lost watching these little fluffballs. Official portraits soon.

Surrogate Mother

2011-04-18T20:56:00.003Z

Doris is egg-sitting again! Sometime around May 1st or 2nd they should start hatching.
*Update! I was thinking of swans when I calculated the incubation dates, there are critters trying to tap their way out today - Monday April 25th.

It's all happening!

2011-03-29T19:35:00.004Z

The first radish seedlings have broken through the ground outside and all of the brassicas have germinated in the greenhouse. I spent the weekend debrambling and unearthing roots to enlarge the vegetable beds. Lots more to do. M. lopped off the tops of some shrubbery to allow more light through along the south border. And I sowed tomatoes seeds (10 varieties) in a tray on the dining room radiator.
4 Eggs today.

Spring is Sprung

2011-03-21T22:19:00.004Z

This weekend just passed I sowed Cabbage seed Mammoth Red Rock & Savoy Piacenza, Brussels Sprout Sanda, Broccoli Waltham and Leek Monstrueux de Charentin in trays in the greenhouse and Parsnip Tender & True, Radish Sicilian Red and Blue Pod Capucijners Peas out of doors. AND potted on Peppers and Aubergines.

Leonora Carrington's painting of a cabbage (the alchemical rose?) which we saw last autumn in an exhibition entitled 'Surreal Friends' at Pallant House.

Be Careful With a Spud

2011-03-11T10:25:00.002Z

Soviet Accident Prevention Posters @ How to be a Retronaut

Looking Up

2011-03-09T09:54:00.003Z

This month is starting to look a bit more promising in the sunshine department. This is the third day in a row that we've woken to a blue sky. S. gave me a little lemon tree (pictured on the left) which she grew from a pip and it's been spending afternoons in the greenhouse where temperatures have been up to 20°. And the wild plum by the garage is in full bloom. The Met has now published figures for last month which show South East England to have had one of the dullest Februarys since records began.
Indoors, peppers and aubergines are forming their first true leaves.

Buds and Shoots

2011-02-27T19:51:00.002Z

The soundtrack to accompany this picture can be heard here . Scroll down and click on 'Buds & Shoots', listen and enjoy.

Grey Matter

2011-02-22T10:54:00.006Z

Here is what this week's weather looked like on Saturday. I have taken to screen grabbing these BBC forecasts and filing them away for some, as yet undetermined, purpose. But I've had the feeling that for many months now we've been shortchanged in hours of sunlight. It turns out I'm not wrong. The Met anomaly maps show (Click to enlarge and then go here when you still can't make it out) that our little corner of the country (circled) has been deprived over the past six months. Quick calculation - 50% of November's average 60 hours = 30, 30% of December's 37 hour average = 12+, and 50% of January's average of 45 hours = 23. That means we've had 65 hours sun in the past 3 months. That would be about 8 sunny days I guess - 1 day in every week and a half.
On a brighter note, I sowed many peppers and aubergine seeds on Monday.

Burn's Night Etiquette

2011-01-25T13:54:00.003Z

'Burnish no bones with thy teeth for this is unseemly, neither belch thou near to a man's face with corrupt fumosity. Scratch not thy head with thy finger whilst thou art at meat, and blow not thy nose on thy napkin, where you should wipe thy hands, but cleanse it in the handkerchief. Fill not thy mouth too full, least thou perhaps of force must speak, neither blow out thy crumbs when thou dust eat. Blow not thy pottage nor drink, for it is not commendable; for if thou be not sweet in thy body, thy breath is corruptible. If you must spit, keep it out of sight; let it not lie upon the ground but tread thou it outright.'
Words of advice (predating Burns by a few centuries) in a little pamphlet of Scottish recipes 'Friends Cook Book' I got many years ago near Glencoe. There is also a helpful guide to measures. 1 1/2 Pints - 1 Lippie; 4 Lippies - 1 Peck; 4 Pecks - 1 Firlot; 4 Firlots - 1 Boll.

Happy Burn's Night and if you have to spit be sure to smear it into the carpet while your host is looking the other way.

Accomodation Available

2011-01-22T13:29:00.007Z

High rise living with views out over the city for south London's stag beetles at Nunhead cemetery - part nature reserve part burial ground. They don't offer 24 hour security which is a pity as a magpie or crow can pick off emerging bugs in their dozens. Maria.Fremlin has posted some particularly macabre footage of the aftermath of such an attack which could be animated out-takes from a Svankmajer film. She also very helpfully provides a guide to the larvae of several beetles which is worth consulting before stomping in disgust any and every grub one unearths. Size would seem to be the big giveaway for indentifying a stag beetle larva - 8 centimetres!

Do Not Make Cucumber

2011-01-21T13:29:00.003Z

Found on the world wide interweb @ eatliver.com

Signage in Yorkshire No.2

2011-01-16T23:45:00.004Z

'Life is an old cabbage wrapt up in newspaper'. Photo taken by Nev in the late 70's.
One week until the South London annual Potato Fair!

One Egg

2011-01-13T13:40:00.001Z

Hurrah! Doris has ended our 10 weeks of egglessness.

Least of All

2011-01-12T11:49:00.003Z

"This is the least of all birds found with us in England, weighing not more than one single drachm... The top of the head is adorned with a most beautiful bright spot (which they call a crest) of a deep saffron or pale scarlet colour. Hence it got those ambitious titles of Regulus (little king) and Tyrannus (tyrant). This crest or crown (if you please so to call it) it can when it lifts, by corrugating its forehead, and drawing the sides of the spot together, wholly conceal and render invisible."
The Ornithology of Francis Willughby John Ray 1678

I saw the goldcrest again yesterday foraging in and around the currant bushes. So, one has survived the cold snowy December weather.

A Quiet Sun!Day Afternoon

2011-01-09T14:04:00.012Z

... at nearby Nunhead. Hirsute and snag-toothed, this wooded necropolis is a good place for a wander. Last year I saw one of Britain's rarest mammals here - the black rat.

Me New Bamboo

2011-01-04T18:02:00.004Z

I took home a bundle of MH's* thinnings when we visited last week - raw material for pole bean supports which will be arranged artfully (?) in the spring.
*A founding father of the Bamboo Society, you can see some of his bamboo illustration here.

'Natural History of Selbourne' the Musical Play

2011-01-01T20:00:00.007Z

Scenes from my little paper theatre play 'Entries from Reverend Gilbert White's Diary in December' performed last night for Nev, Iz & M. And they, each in turn put on their very own, very idiosyncratic plays. Much fun was had.
Pictured here are such entries as - December 3 1788 Good mackarel brought to the door. And December 17 1774 Mrs. Snooke's tortoise, after it had been buried more than a month, came forth & wandered round the garden in a disconsolate state, not knowing where to fix on a spot for it's retreat.

Update

2010-12-28T11:29:00.002Z

Six Days off Work...

2010-12-27T16:36:00.009Z

Five Hens NOT-Laying...

Four Pigeons Poaching (the chard and kale)...

Three Magpies Watching...

Two Swans A'Fighting...

2010-12-11T14:41:00.005Z

I witnessed a tremendous mud wrestling match at low tide last week with two swans trying their darnedest to kill each other. They spent a long while between sodden flapflapping locked beak to pinion as illustrated above. Finally after having been nearly drowned head first in the Thames ooze, the weaker one escaped upriver.

... and a heron hunched amongst the reeds.

Cold Front

2010-11-28T20:44:00.006Z

Fierce frost. It's not yet December and they've just salted the road for the third time. The ice was an inch and a half thick on the water butt this afternoon and tonight we fired up the wood stove.

Caper Substitute

2010-11-11T22:08:00.003Z

The climbing (clambering, sprawling) nasturtiums I sowed in June were a long time getting any ambition to go anywhere. But from sometime in late August until now they have been blooming continuously. I've been adding them to salads and now there is a small jar's worth of seeds to pickle for which I have found the following recipe -

Gather the nasturtium seeds immediately after the blossoms have faded and put them to soak in cold salt water for 2 days, stirring them twice each day. Peel and slice 1 shallot, 1 horse-radish, 2 red peppers, and quarter 1 nutmeg. Place these in a glass jar with white wine or simply vinegar, adding salt, pepper, and a few cloves. Put in the drained nasturtium seeds, then cork and seal.

They Can't Ration These by Vicomte de Mauduit, 1940
("All those possessing a roof in the country together with the necessary sticks of furniture and apparels of clothing will be able, if armed with a copy of this book, to live in comfort, in plenty, and in health even if all banks, all shops, and all markets be closed for indefinite periods.")

Dug-Up Potatoes

2010-11-07T22:27:00.005Z

A splendid day today. Above, passing through the Horniman Gardens after retrieving the last of the potato crop from the allotment. Below, my beast of burden, saddled with the Aran Victories, pauses for breath.

Vote for Cabbage

2010-11-02T21:04:00.008Z

Graphics from the Philippines general election via designKULTUR

Bubble & Squeak

2010-11-01T20:04:00.002Z

Take of Beef, Mutton, or Lamb, or Veal, or any other meat, two Pounds and an half, or any other Quantity; let it lay in Salt, till the saline Particles have lock'd up all the Juices of the Animal, and render'd the Fibres too hard to be digested; then boil it over a Turf or Peat Fire, in a Brass Kettle cover'd with a Copper Lid, till it is much done. Then take Cabbage (that which is most windy, and capable of producing the greatest Report) and boil it in a Bell-Metal Pot till it is done enough, or if you think it proper, till it is done too much. Then slice the beef, and souse that and the Cabbage both in a Frying-Pan together, and let it bubble and squeak over a Charcoal Fire, for half an Hour, three Minutes, and two Seconds. Then eat a Quantum sufficit, or two Pounds and a half, and after it drink sixteen Pints of fat Ale, smoak, sleep, snoar, belch, and forget your Book.
A Lecture In Cookery in The Mid-Wife: or, the old woman's magazine
Christopher Smart, 1753

Squash Harvest '10

2010-10-26T22:29:00.003Z

Two hens invigilating. (We had to buy eggs this week. They've begun their annual shutdown.)

Further Adventures with Potato Seed

2010-10-25T19:35:00.004Z

This weekend I exhumed the rest of the spuds from Tom Wagner's TPS. And I think that they hold great promise not least because, although it's been dry this summer, it is now late October and there's still no blight. I am most excited by the tiny round daughters of No.11 as they look very like 'Kuntur warmi' which is Andean for 'Like a Woman with the Colours of a Condor's Neck'. Note, one of the purple offspring of No.6 was a victim of the fork and it's interior is on view.

36 Views

2010-10-24T12:22:00.005Z

Between 1826 and 1833, Katsushika Hokusai published his 'Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji'. While back for Thanksgiving (Cdn.) last week I resolved to make a series of views of the omnipresent CN tower. Yes, well, below are 15, and now that I've published them I can move on. (If you have any interest at all, click on the image for enlargement)

Adventures with Potato Seed

2010-10-04T20:57:00.005Z

This year I've been growing some potatoes from true seed obtained from breeder Tom Wagner via Patrick. Although I got started a little late they have now developed into large healthy looking plants. But, what with all this rain and cooler weather around the corner, I'm getting increasingly anxious about disease, pestilence and the like. So as not to have all my potatoes lost in the same basket of blight, I unearthed the above yesterday. The still small but perfectly formed tubers of No.16 (French Fingerling x Magic Molly) and No.21 (John Tom Kaighin x Negro y Azul). Yet to harvest are No.25 (Wild Species x Thumbertime) and No.6 (F2 Pam Wagner) & No.11 (Pirampo x Khuchi Akita) which are just now flowering and setting fruit. I'll leave them for another couple of weeks with fingers crossed. Now, how best to store? I've read 5-10°C and 95% humidity. Is packing in wet sand as you would carrots and beets a good idea? Or perhaps the refrigerator? The plan is to chit and set out next spring for a full crop with taste testing a year from now.

Late Runner

2010-10-03T20:50:00.002Z

I pushed a few seeds of Runner Bean 'Streamline' in the ground in late July and we're eating them now.

2012 (Peasant) Olympics

2010-09-29T22:07:00.004Z

I've been in training all summer for the 'Water Carrying To Protect The Seedlings Amidst Drought' event at the next Peasant Olympics. Now that the ceiling has lowered and everything is sodden I think I'll work on some '60-metre Snatch the Grain and Get It Into Storage' drills.

Capsaicin

2010-09-27T20:01:00.002Z

According to 'Science and Lore of the Kitchen' by Harold McGee, researchers have isolated five capsaicinoid components that have different effects on the mouth. Three give 'rapid bite sensations' in the back of the palate and throat, and the other two a long, low intensity bite on the tongue and mid-palate. Capsaicin accumulates in the fruit concurrently with the pigment during ripening and is primarily found in the white placental tissue to which the seeds are attached. So you can moderate the heat by scraping away all the white bits.
This year my peppers have grown really well, much better than anything else. The two smallest are the most fiery - Gelbe Kirschen & Pretty in Purple. These are really very attractive plants, small and bushy and covered with fruit, but they are fiddly to prepare. Doe Hill is sweet and the other two are mildly spicy. (The slate is ruled in one inch squares.)

Equinoctial Entries

2010-09-21T22:50:00.005Z

Aah, the majesty of summer now fades...(click here for the rest)

Myriads of Insects sporting in the sunbeams. September 21 1789
Showers, rainbow, bright. Barley in a sad condition about Basingstoke. Rams begin to pay court to the ewes. September 21 1775
One little starveling wasp. September 20 1782

Gilbert White Natural History of Selbourne

Here in London 2010, the weather stays warm, 25° expected tomorrow.

T.G.I.F.

2010-09-17T13:36:00.001Z

F for Fall that is. Time to draw a line under this rubbish summer. Too little rain - not enough time to water, tomatoes that grew taller and taller without fruiting, early kale and beets that ran to flower, squash that sat looking miserable and refused to swell...

Underground

2010-09-12T21:35:00.004Z

A picture of my garden's soil structure is beginning to emerge based on the shape of these recently unearthed beetroots (Medwyn's Extra Long Selection of Cheltenham Green Top).

Chirp!

2010-08-15T22:24:00.003Z

If you haven't seen it already, click here, watch and marvel. Pictured above the pheasant(?) at the end.

In The Castle Keep

2010-08-08T15:34:00.004Z

... I assemble my stores; everything over and above my daily wants that I capture inside the burrow, and everything I bring back with me from my hunting expeditions outside, I pile up here. The place is so spacious that food for half a year scarce fills it. Consequently I can divide up my stores, walk about among them, play with them, enjoy their plenty and their various smells, and reckon up exactly how much they represent. That done, I can always arrange accordingly, and make my calculations and hunting plans for the future, taking into account the season of the year. There are times when I am so well provided for that in my indifference to food I never even touch the smaller fry that scuttle about the burrow, which, however, is probably imprudent of me... I find a certain comfort in having all the passages and rooms free, in seeing my stores growing in the Castle Keep and emitting their variegated and mingled smells, each of which delights me in its own fashion, and every one of which I can distinguish even at a distance, as far as the remotest passages. Then I usually enjoy periods of particular tranquility, in which I change my sleeping place by stages, always working in toward the centre of the burrow, always steeping myself more profoundly in the mingled smells, until at last I can no longer restrain myself and one night rush into the Castle Keep, mightily fling myself upon my stores, and glut myself with the best that I can seize until I am completely gorged.

The Burrow Kafka

Signs of BonkerDom

2010-07-27T10:00:00.004Z

Packets of sugar and mustard from the hotel breakfast room. As usual, click on image to make readable.
P.S. I'm not the only one that reads the fine print. More allergy advice here.

Signage in Yorkshire

2010-07-26T21:57:00.003Z

Squash Map

2010-07-12T20:47:00.007Z

TKK - Thai Kang Kob, FU - Futsu, BB - Bush ButterCup, LWP - Luxury Winter Pie, TSSP - Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato, CWH - Chicago Warted Hubbard

Key to the Cabbage Patch

2010-07-05T21:41:00.004Z

Four out of the six 'Couvé Tronchada' have run to flower prematurely and were removed, unceremoniously, by me this weekend. Apart from that the brassicas are all looking rather picturesque (see below). The cabbage white hasn't found her way into the netting yet.

Midsummer Update

2010-06-27T22:59:00.003Z

Cucumber 'Kaiser Alexander', Squash 'Buttercup', Sweet Pepper 'Doe Hill', Cucumber 'Bianco Longo' and Squash 'Winter Luxury'. Meanwhile the weather remains very hot and dry just like last year at this time. Phew!!

XXXL

2010-06-24T21:53:00.004Z

This week Doris squoze out an extra big egg, with two yolks! Here it is next to a normal sized egg.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

2010-06-11T20:58:00.006Z

'Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo' coming to a cinema near you?

Found this one loitering around the back door.

Indolent Piles & Incipient Quinsy

2010-05-31T19:33:00.006Z

"A Capsicum ointment, or Chilli paste, will almost invariably serve to mitigate the painful stiffness of chronic rheumatism if rubbed in topically for ten minutes at a time with a gloved hand. This paste is to be made with 'capsicin', the oleo-resin of the pods (half an ounce), and sheep's-wool (lanoline), five ounces, melting the latter, and after adding the capsicin letting them be stirred together until cold. Indolent piles which have extruded, and the circulation in which is stagnant, can be stimulated to reduction by the use of this ointment when so diluted as to cause only moderate smarting.
For incipient quinsy, before the tonsillar abscess breaks, a basin of hot gruel well seasoned with Cayenne Pepper, if taken soon enough, will often give ease, and resolve the swelling."
Meals Medicinal W.T.Fernie, M.D.

First chili peppers (Black Hungarian and Jemez) are already forming! Relief is at (gloved) hand.

Dead as a Dodo

2010-05-27T20:07:00.005Z

I found him/her(?) on the way home. A baby pigeon but you can see the family resemblance.

Committing To The Seedplot

2010-05-25T21:26:00.004Z

"When you sow your peas, when you sow your beans, when you sow your potatoes, when you sow your carrots, your turnips, your parsnips and other root vegetables, do you do so with punctilio?...

...No, but rapidly you open a trench, a rough and ready line, not quite straight, nor yet quite crooked, or a series of holes, at intervals that do not offend, or offend only for a moment, while the holes are still open, your tired old eye, and let fall the seed, absent in mind, as the priest dust, or ashes, into the grave, and cover it with earth, with the edge of your boot in all probability, knowing that if the seed is to prosper and multiply, ten-fold, fifteen-fold, twenty-fold, twenty-five-fold, thirty-fold, thirty-five-fold, forty-fold, forty-five-fold and even fifty-fold, it will do so, and that if it is not, it will not."

Watt Samuel Beckett

Happy Walpurgisnacht

2010-04-30T20:10:00.003Z

Squash-Thing-Unbound

2010-04-26T20:41:00.000Z

Just eating the last of last year's.

Squash-Thing-Bound

2010-04-21T19:26:00.004Z

"In preparation for planting, we first sprouted the seed. I cut out a piece of tanned buffalo robe about two and a half feet long and eighteen inches wide, and spread it on the floor of the lodge, fur side up.
I took red-grass leaves, wetted them, and spread them out flat, matted together in a thin layer on the fur. Then I opened my bag of squash seeds, and having set a bowl of water beside me, I wet the seeds in the water- not soaking them, just wetting - and put them on the matted grass leaves until I had a little pile heaped up, in quantity about two double-handfuls.
I next took broad leaved sage, the kind we use in a sweat lodge, and buck brush leaves, and mixed them together. At squash planting time, the sage is about four inches high.
Into the mass of mixed sage-and-buck-brush leaves, I worked the wetted squash seeds, until they were distributed well through it. The mass I then laid on the grass matting, which I folded over and around it. Finally I folded the buffalo skin over that, making a package about fifteen by eighteen inches. We call this package kaku'i kida'kci, squash-thing-bound, or squash bundle."
Advice from Buffalo Bird Woman

Squash germination has been very poor (see above), I guess due to the cold weather in our back room. I've started some more seeds in the airing cupboard. If that fails I'll be looking for a tanned buffalo robe.

Hoverflies on the pebbledash alash.

2010-04-20T09:24:00.003Z

Twitching

2010-04-12T12:45:00.006Z

We went along to the Barbican yesterday to see the zebra finch installation. Great fun, see it if you can. Click on the link and there's a little film that will give some idea of what to expect.
And another ornithological sighting here - Owl Hats !!

Fluffing Out

2010-04-09T12:24:00.003Z

Everything is finally leafing out, a little later than usual. I know that the apples and pear have been in blossom before now in past years, but they look to have another week until they blow this year. Peas 'Uncle Fred' are about an inch and a half out of the ground and 'Egyptian Turnip Rooted' beets have just germinated. Inside though, the peppers and aubergines are about half a foot tall and ready to be potted into something bigger.

This Year's Beans

2010-04-01T15:38:00.004Z

"I was determined to know beans."
Henry David Thoreau who went on to sow 7 miles of bean rows

A Sticky End

2010-03-30T20:09:00.003Z

Well, our bees didn't survive the winter after all. They expired sometime between January 17th and the end of February. I suspect their numbers were not great enough to generate the necessary warmth. The queen was not a good layer and it was still quite a small colony in the autumn so I left them all the honey they had made and put in an extra dummy board to decrease the area that they would need to warm. Maybe in a normal winter they would have managed. Anyway, we weren't the only ones. I'm cleaning the hive, putting in fresh brood foundation and getting my name on a list for a swarm.
Meanwhile there is some bee-inspired art to see at the Contemporary Applied Arts. (sample below)

Boscoop Glory

2010-03-17T14:47:00.004Z

"Half a bunch of grapes, and a couple of spoonfuls of jelly (lemon, or wine) left over from dinner, do not by themselves look particularly attractive, one has to admit; but just melt the jelly, and set the grapes therein, using a small pudding basin, or brawn basin, as a mould, and see how glad some sick child will be of the morsel, though your servants would probably disdain to touch it."
Epicure 1898
I have just planted out a grape vine, Boscoop Glory, having thought about doing so for longer than I care to think. Single-handedly I might add, as my left (drawing) hand is in an ulna gutter slab due to a spiral fracture of the 5th metacarpal. Anyway I'm looking forward to some sweet black grapes in the future.

Sill Life with Cardoon, Francolin, Grapes and Irises by Felipe Ramirez, 1628

* On this day in 1780 "Brought away Mrs.Snooke's old tortoise, Timothy, which she valued much, & had treated kindly for near 40 years. When dug out of it's hybernaculum, it resented the Insult by hissing." Mrs. Snook died and was buried on the 15th of March and her nephew Gilbert White took over his care. A little biography of Timothy (actually a female) can be read here. Or listen to a reading of Mrs. Snooke's Tortoise here.

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