sime42
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Everything posted by sime42
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Done! I made about 8 jars of chutney a month or so ago. Had a few outdoor plants and it got to the stage where there was a rook of green tomatoes going bad or attacked by slugs before they went red. It's great with cheese in a sandwich. I made a load of marrow pickle last week as well. Using a couple of monster courgettes from a glut in the summer.
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Yep, does seem very late for tomatoes. We've still got some slowly ripening. They're sweet and taste good but the skins are very tough, too tough really.
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I think it might all be a case of swings and roundabouts. Things like poplar, willow, Leylandi etc all burn rapidly so could be construed as not good firewood, but on the plus side they all grow rapidly and dry rapidly. All that said I'd rather have a nice solid stack of oak or ash, but beggars can't be choosers! Since I don't have to grow it, and have time and space to season it as required. It's a bit of an arse to have to keep reloading the fire with quick burning stuff, but that's mainly what I've been cutting down these last couple of years.
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Beauties. Are they as sweet as they look?
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Nah, too tasty! Golden Delicious must be my least favourite apple, so little flavour.
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Cheers gents. Some good suggestions here. I'm still favouring the first one, the Pitmaston Pineapple, as the strongest contender. All others are not the right size, colour or shape. (I agree Stere; I'm looking at a roundish conical verging on oblong). I think the Mrs has already pre-ordered a PP for early next year anyway, so that's the decision pretty much made! This little IDing exercise has piqued my interest in heritage apple varieties. I'll try to make it along to an Apple Day somewhere next year.
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Another great name! There really are some fantastic names amoungst old apple varieties. It doesn't look like what I'm after though, a bit too big and there was no red in mine. Thanks anyway.
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Nice, thanks. Good suggestion, that's a strong contender certainly. Visually it seems spot on. Taste wise though not such a good match; we didn't detect any hints of pineapple. Though these things are obviously subjective and also some descriptions of PP say the pineapple flavour is a fallacy anyway. I salute your Googling prowess!
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Are any of you out there knowledgeable on obscure or old apple varieties? We scrumpted some at the weekend that turned out to be absolutely delicious. I want to grow my own so hoping to procure a tree or some scions to graft with. Only problem being that I've no idea of the name I'm looking for!They've got a very definite vanilla flavour, strange but nice. They're small and yellow so quite unusual. I've looked through a couple of apple databases but not found it yet. Any ideas please? Or recommendations for websites to check? Thanks. Simon
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With a decent strong handle so you can chuck it up on your shoulder..
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Not work but some nice colours .............
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Yep, some beautiful autumn colours around at the moment. We went to visit a lovely garden and arboretum yesterday: some of the acers were stunning.
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Short of weedkillering or physically digging it out I'm not sure how you could kill off a laurel hedge. It'll always come back no matter how hard it's cut. Any gaps left after trimming will rapidly refill, in months normally. Though the only caveat is light. If the area is in deep shade it may not refill properly.
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Good point, I forgot that vital detail. It's 4 inch diameter. I also found a cherry stone and an acorn by the nest so that suggests a blackbird.
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It'll be that or insects in the not too distant future I reckon.
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Anyone have any idea who this belonged to? I found it on top of one of our wood piles, just under the corrugated plastic roof. It's beautifully constructed. I guess robin or blackbird.
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Interesting little job yesterday; a small tree but severely restricted access. Not just one but two greenhouses right up against the trunk! On two sides. The closest was less than four inches away so couldn't even fit the bar in there for the back cut. I've been trimming/maintaining the tree for the guy for years so I'm glad to finally put it out of its misery and get shot of it.
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Biometric scaling- elaborate?
sime42 replied to Tony Croft aka hamadryad's topic in Training & education
I'll second the request for an idiot's guide please! Fractals are pretty fascinating in themselves so I'd be interested to hear about them in the context of tree biology and structure. I was thinking only yesterday that the patterns on cyclamen leaves are reminiscent of the Mandelbrot Set. -
Cheers Steve. I'll have to make sure I'm wearing my reading glasses when I have a go!
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Must have been a bad year for it this year, brown rot. We had it in apples, pears, damsons and even medlars.
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Or maybe a little piece of paper carefully folded up with some white powder inside.
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This has been my motto for the last few years as well; dependable, high yield, low effort fruit and veg. Plus a couple of "cash crops" like strawberries, blueberries and garlic, (though garlic is very low effort anyway). I normally can't resist one or two novelty fruit or veg as well. I grew these little pumpkins for the first time this year, "Sweet Dumpling". Small but perfectly formed! Really good to eat. We had one last night. Firmer and more creamy than a butternut squash.
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Good work there. What a behemoth of a hedge! How were your shoulders feeling after that? Long reach work like that always used to bugger mine after a few days.
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How do you sharpen your drill bits?
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Screwfix Drill/Impact Driver Twin Pack Bargains - DeWalt vs Makita
sime42 replied to carbs for arbs's topic in The Lounge
Glad to see Erbauer getting a mention. Well worth considering in my opinion. I've had various of their tools over the years, cordless and corded. They've all been great, very hardworking and long lasting. Can't fault them for the price, real value for money. The last couple of years I've decided to upgrade to Makita tools, got a couple of drill and impact drivers now. Not at all sure that I'm getting the same value for money as Erbauer though.
