TopVeg – growing veg,fruit&herbs

August 29, 2009

Vegetable Crisps

Filed under: root veg — Tags: , — TopVeg @ 2:52 pm

Vegetables make healthy snacks – vegetable crisps are delicious.
Most root vegetables make tasty crisps:

  • potatoes
  • parsnips
  • carrots
  • sweet potato
  • beetroot
fresh-carrots

fresh-carrots

Recipe for vegetable crisps:

  • slice veg thinly with a potato peeler
  • if using potatoes – wash the slices
  • dry all vegetable  slices with kitchen roll
  • place in a bowl and mix with extra virgin olive oil, so all slices are covered
  • places slices in a single layer on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper
  • bake at 200C/gas6 for  4 mins for parsnips, carrots & beetroot and 5 – 7 minutes for potatoes
  • cool crisps on a wire rack

Farmer-in-France on the farmingfriends forum suggests:

‘ sliced very thinly and fried for just a couple of minutes, beetroot makes great crisps!’

Medes-Broad-Bean

Medes-Broad-Bean

Roasted & salted broad beans are a good snack to go with the vegetable crisps.

August 28, 2009

Jobs for September.

Filed under: calendar — Tags: — TopVeg @ 9:38 am

Sow

  • directly into the vegetable garden: swiss chard, perpetual spinach & mixed winter salad leaves
  • under cloches: lamb’s lettuce, salad onions, mustard & cress for winter salads

Plant out (later in the month) seedlings:

Perpetual spinach, radicchio, spring cabbages, & chicory.

Harvest:

onions-neck-over

onions-neck-over

Broad, French & runner beans, peas, cabbages, onions, carrots, lettuce, courgettes, tomatoes, marrows and sweetcorn.

branch-runner-beans

branch-runner-beans

Other jobs:

  • pull soil up to celariac and leeks
  • cut off canes, of blackberry & raspberry that fruited this year, at ground level AND tie in new canes
rasp-belt

rasp-belt

  • order new canes for winter planting

Bean flowers

Filed under: pea&beans — Tags: , , , , — TopVeg @ 9:15 am

Bean flowers are beautiful and so variable. These photos show french bean, broad bean and scarlet runner bean flowers.

french-bean-flower

french-bean-flower

broad-bean-flowers

broad-bean-flowers

runner-bean-flowers

runner-bean-flowers

August 27, 2009

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-27

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 11:59 pm

Powered by Twitter Tools.

The origin of the potato

Filed under: potato — TopVeg @ 7:49 pm

The international year of the potato witnessed an Andean war of words over where exactly the potato originated.

Peru and Chile have each been laying claim to the origin of the potato, but now Bolivia have entered the fray.

Chile dispute the bulk of scientific evidence — and the UN potato website — suggesting the potato was first cultivated near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. Chile claim the potato first grew on Chile’s southern Chiloe Island, citing DNA tests showing that almost all the 7,000 potato varieties in the Netherlands have Chilean origins. The Chileans say the studies show that more than 90 percent of modern potato varieties outside the Andes have a common origin in potatoes once found in the area around Chiloé Island, in southern Chile.

Peruvian potato experts point to genetic studies showing that all potatoes currently eaten in the world originated more than 10,000 years ago from a single ancestor, Solanum brevicaule, found on the north shore of Lake Titicaca. That would be on the Peruvian side, not in Bolivia.

Bolivia do not agree. They say they have evidence that the potato originated on their side of Lake Titicaca. The origin of the potato is in dispute!

Marjorie’s Seedling Plum

Filed under: fruit — Tags: — TopVeg @ 7:46 pm

The variety of plum called Marjorie’s Seedling (Latin name – Prunus domestica ) is self fertile.

Marjorie's-Seedling-plum

Marjorie's-Seedling-plum

Large oval blue-black plums

Juicy yellow flesh

Heavy cropping, vigorous tree

Marjorie’s Seedling is used for cooking but also a great desert plum.

How to grow carrots without pests

Filed under: root veg — Tags: , — TopVeg @ 7:40 pm

Ros has sent a cry for help:

How can we grow carrots without the dreaded pests. Think it’s carrot fly, but not sure. For two years now we have had to cut alot of (holes & black marks) away to be able to eat what’s left.
We only grow in one 3m x 3m raised bed.

TopVeg replied:

It is tragic to loose your carrots to pests – our sympathies.

It does sound like carrot fly.

damage-carrot-rootfly

damage-carrot-rootfly

There are 3 things you can do to protect your carrots grown in raised beds:

1. grow varieties resistant to carrot fly- such as

  • Resistafly – mid to late season use
  • Flyaway – early
  • Early Nantes – suitable for early sowing under glass

2. Raise the sides of your beds to over 2 foot – Carrot fly travel close to the ground, and a barrier 2 foot high will interupt their flight path, forcing the fly to take another route. If carrots are planted in a container at least 2 foot off the ground, the carrot flies will just zoom past the side of the container, and not bother the carrots growing inside.

3. Cover the beds with enviromesh which will keep the flies out. This has transformed our carrot growing & would be easy to do with your beds.

Hope that helps!

Growing Carrots on Heavy Soil in the Vegetable Garden

Filed under: root veg — Tags: , , — TopVeg @ 9:36 am
Nairobi-Carrots-growing

Nairobi-Carrots-growing

It is difficult, if not impossible, to grow carrots on heavy soil in the vegetable garden. It is hard to produce a seed bed, with very small soil crumbs, suitable to enable the carrot seed to germinate. When it rains the soil goes like concrete, and then when it dries out, it cracks.

On our heavy soil we have incorporated coarse sand to make it more friable. The sand particles help to keep the clay particles apart. You need a lot of coarse sand to have any effect. You need so much that it is not really practical.

Adding a lot of organic matter does not solve the problem, because you need to add so much to have any effect.

Carrots have always been grown on sandy soils, or sandy-loams. But gardeners with heavy soil could try growing carrots in a container – which can be filled with the perfect growing medium!

Containers make it possible to grow carrots on heavy soil in the vegetable garden.

Veg Gardening Course

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — TopVeg @ 7:32 am

The Vegetable Gardening Course

This hands on course will include:

  • Vegetable Gardening aims & objectives

  • Soil.

  • Kitchen Garden design. .

  • Materials available to make a garden & footpaths.

  • Tools.

  • Fruit & Vegetable Plants.

  • Choosing what to grow

  • Planting .

  • Garden Maintenance.

  • Pests and diseases.

  • Fertilizer.

  • Propagation.

The one-day course is from 10am-4pm with a break for lunch which will include sampling vegetables grown in the TopVeg garden!  Cost £25 per person.

A Poetry Workshop will be held at the same time as the veg gardening course – for anyone & everyone – who is not into gardening!

Regular weekday or weekend courses available.   Contact us to arrange a suitable day.

Please bring warm clothes and wellies!

Shrubbery Farm, Sunk Island, Hull, East Yorkshire. HU12 0DY

http://topveg.com/

How to Deal with Potatoes that Look Ready.

Filed under: potato — TopVeg @ 6:57 am

The potatoes in the vegetable garden have been bulking up, and there are now more potatoes than the family can eat.  Should they be lifted from the ground or will they be safe left in the ground?

It is better to leave the potatoes in the soil until October, when the temperatures cool down.

The potatoes will be quite safe left in the ground as long as ridges are covered with soil
& the potatoes are protected from slugs.

slug

slug

Check the potato ridges daily for signs of slugs, & if seen, take action to get rid of them.

Wet weather does lead to diseases like blight and Blackleg in the stems, which causes them to rot.

Potatoes should not be lifted for storage until their skins have set. If the potatoes are large enough to provide the planned yield, the haulm may be removed from the plant so that the skins will start to set . This will take about 3 weeks.

If the potato leaves get blight, cut the haulm off, & remove, it as soon as possible. The blight spores will wash off the leaves onto the soil and get into the tubers, causing tuber blight. Once the haulm is removed from the plant, the skins will start to set , so that the tubers can be lifted when the skins are set in 3 or more weeks time & stored.

If the potatoes have been flooded out, some of them will have died, literally drowned. Leave the area to dry out, & some potatoes might survive to be lifted. The drowned potatoes will rot away, and can be ignored. When next year’s crop is planted in this part of the garden (not potatoes!) , the rotted potatoes will have disappeared & be no problem.

potato-row

potato-row

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress