Greengages are one example of a gage – the yellow gages are equally good.
yellow-gage
Gages are a type of plum but are smaller, rounder and sweeter than dessert plums. Gages are very, very juicy.
greengage-with-stalk
Gages are more tender than most plums and prefer to be grown against a south wall.
Greengages make excellent jam.
There are four signs which tell if Victoria Plums are ready to pick:
victoria-plums
ripe&unripe-plum
The plum on the left of the picture is not quite ripe. It is greener than the plum on the left which has turned more yellowy as it has ripened.
ripe plum with loose stone
If the stone is still firmly attached to the flesh and difficult to separate, the plum is not ripe. The photo below is of the green plum in the picture above. The stone would not come away from the flesh.
unripe plum cut
Victoria plums do not all ripen at once, so they are not all ready to pick at the same time & the tree is usually picked several times.
Seeds to sow now for winter production:
Chard – Sow in August & harvest throughout winter as required, picking only a few leaves per plant
Carrot Adelaide – smooth skinned, cylindrical carrots suitable for autumn planting & ready in very early spring
Lettuce – Arctic King or AllYear Round Butterhead are suitable for autumn sowings
Onion White Lisbon Winter Hardy is a spring onion which will be ready in May if sown in August
SpringOnionBunch
Chinese Radish - China Rose will be ready for winter salads
Salad Leaves
Spring Cabbage- Pyramid F1 hybrid can be sown all the year round & may be used as greens or hearted greens.
Winter Salad Leaves are useful to provide green leaves throughout the winter.
Mustard---Mizuna
These seeds will provide plenty of variety in the vegetable garden over the winter
Two of our 30 Elisa F1 cabbage have finally split.
cabbage-split
The cabbage have been ready for several weeks, with hard, compact, round shiny heads.
Mature-Cabbage-Elisa
Most F1s, including Elisa cabbage, have good standing – which means they stay in this firm state for many weeks. Even though Elisa is not generally prone to splitting, the long period of dry weather experienced when the heads were mature, followed by a heavy downpour, has caused the cabbage to crack and split wide open.
The main causes of cabbages splitting are:
Ways to avoid cabbages splitting
cut the roots, by pushing a spade down either side of the cabbage, so that it cannot take up too much water
or, lift the head & twist to one side so that the roots break – but the cabbage will have to be harvested quite soon after this
split-cabbage
Harvest split cabbage heads as soon as possible because the open surface will allow disease to enter & the head will deteriorate.
We left a flower of rhubarb on the plant in the vegetable garden so that it could develop into a head of seed.
rhubarb-flower
rhubarb-seed-head
rhubarb-seed
The usual way to get a new rhubarb plant is to replant a piece cut off the crown (or root). It will take a long time to establish a useful rhubarb plant from a seed.
Marsh samphire ( latin name – Salicornia europaea) is in season now! Samphire grows on the tidal marshes of East Anglia and the Humber. Washed by the tides, it is bright green and has a salty taste.
samphire
The simplest (& best!) way to use samphire is to treat it like asparagus. After washing it well, simmer in boiling water, then drain & cover with melted butter. Hold the end of the stem in your fingers and draw the shoots through the teeth, peeling the succulent part from the thin central core.
SamphireCore-Remains
The kind neighbour who shared her foraging with us suggested making samphire rissoles, with a mixture of cooked potatoes, onion & samphire moulded into a cake and fried.
SamphireRissole
It is fun collecting the Samphire at low tide & even more fun eating it!
When is the right time to pick pears? Pears will ripen according to variety, weather and location.
picking-pearsPears are ready to pick when they are:
pick-pearPears should never be allowed to ripen on the tree because:
Pears ripen best off the tree.
Jargonelle is an early variety of pear which is ready in early August, Beth is usually picked in late August.
Gorham & Merton Pride ripen in early September. Beurre Hardy & Onward ripen mid-September. Beurre Superfin, Conference, Durondeau, Fertility Improved, Seckle, Thompsons & Louise Bonne de Jersey ripen at the end of September.
Williams‘ Bon Chretien are usually picked in September.
Doyenne du Comice, Packham’s Triumph & Josephine de Malines are ripe in mid-October. The time to pick Concorde & Winter Nelis, late pears, is the end of October.
T
Sara from FarmingFriends has had this comment on her website about black substance on bay leaves & asked if TopVeg could help.
“I have two standard bay trees in pots and have kept them like this for three years. Recently, I have noticed a black substance on the leaves which washes off with just plain water but keeps coming back! Do you have any idea what this is? Or what I can do to prevent this reoccuring? Mia”
Malcolm Allison, our plant consultant, has answered:
“This would be a result of aphid infestation ~ the aphids secrete honeydew which provides a substrate & nutrition for the black mould. I’d recommend spraying the aphids with soapy water (or water with a bit of washing up liquid in it), hopefully this should deal with the problem.”
This has been a bad year for aphids – they like it hot and dry. So it is not surprising to find some bay leaves with black mould.
2010 has been a poor cauliflower season. The cauliflowers have not grown well and the one in the photo below is only half the size it should be.
poor-cauliflower
The cauliflower is past its best, but one always hopes they will get a bit bigger! The curd is a poor colour and the insects have had their fair share. Perhaps the cauliflower season has not been too bad for them!
Our runner beans are surrounded by hoverflies, and their larvae will eat & so control the blackfly on the runner beans.
hoverfly
The hoverflies mimick wasps by having the same colouring, so they are left alone and avoided by other animals!
The following photo shows a hoverfly on a runner bean flower – it is on the top left of the photo.
hoverfly-&-blackfly
Unfortunately it is much easier to see the blackflyon the runner bean plants!
There is always a time lag whilst the controlling insects build up their numbers, & the pest increases. Hopefully the hoverflies will soon have the blackfly on the runner beans under control!
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