How are the veggies coming along?

[Steven P]

Defer to the expert here, isn't forced rhubarb grown outside for a year or so and then moved into the forcing sheds to produce the crop? Supermarket rhubarb always looks a bit disappointing to what I can get out the garden.

[sime42]

Quite a lot of supermarket fruit and veg is disappointing compared to what you can grow in the garden. It's grown more for their convenience, (shipping, storing, consistency of size/shape etc.) Consumer taste is not that high a priority. Even stuff from a proper old fashioned green grocer is way better normally.

 

These were Bramleys. Apparently.

 

The were real Bramleys, from the greengrocer.

 

[Steven P]

Got to agree with that. They know their stuff and asked nicely can often get special orders in.

 

 

I know I am being anal about this..... but how shiny are your work boots in the top pic!! (assume in the workshop you have your boots on)

[Doug Tait]

Are they not going out shoes in the kitchen?

 

Fruit and veg. There's no comparison at all. I got amongst other things some spring onions from someone, fantastic, sandwiches at work were lovely. When they were done I got more at the supermarket and you wouldn't have known you were eating them, tasteless.

I look after a mate's chooks occasionally too and their eggs are a different beast from bought ones, ironically they're ex battery birds!

 

What I did like was when we took a tree down at a high school in a local town. The tree was over an allotment with greenhouses which was done entirely by 1 teacher, a couple of parents and a group of committed volunteer students. They sold everything through their own shop which was a garden shed. You tell them what you want, wait 5mins while the kids dig it up then pay by donation. That was tasty veg. They were talking to a local drinks producer about getting their own brand of juice made from their fruit.

 

Found it all quite encouraging.

[sime42]

1 hour ago, Steven P said:

Got to agree with that. They know their stuff and asked nicely can often get special orders in.

 

 

I know I am being anal about this..... but how shiny are your work boots in the top pic!! (assume in the workshop you have your boots on)

 

Nothing gets past some people does it?!

 

So, to address this, the burning question of the day; they're neither work boots nor going out shoes. They're a pair of clogs I wear for kicking around in the workshop and garden sometimes. They're fairly new so probably were fresh out of the box in that first picture.

I'm not one of these weird blokes that has to have shiny shoes!

 

Second picture was in the kitchen @Doug TaitD. (Probably with slippers on in case you were wondering!)

 

 

 

[daveatdave]

have they got rubber or irons

[sime42]

Soles? Rubber.

[scbk]

Rhubarb doing well here as per usual!

 

 

[scbk]

A few more fruit trees planted this winter, this apple Katy has blossom on it

 

 

 

[scbk]

And in the green house I made these planters to try this year, strawberries in the bottom, various cherry tomatoes higher up.

 

The planting holes are made by cutting a slot, heating it up till it's soft, ram a glass bottle in then let it cool. Give it more of a pocket shape than a drilled hole. There's a water device in the form of two 10" terracotta pots stuck together, with the bottom hole plugged. Fill it from the top and the water soaks out over a couple of days.

 

The tomatoes are from seed, varieties this year are moneymaker, gardener's delight, cherry falls, latah, maskotka.

Strawberries are an unnamed variety from b&m bargains.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11 by scbk