fruit « TopVeg – growing veg,fruit&herbs

November 7, 2011

Free Strawberry Plants plus Fertiliser – worth £19.98

Filed under: fruit — Tags: free, plants, strawbery — TopVeg @ 9:05 pm

Thompson & Morgan are offering free Strawberry Plants plus Fertiliser – worth £19.98

Strawberry Elegance

They are offering 12 runners of Strawberry Elegance and 100g of Strawberry Fertiliser FREE* for every visitor – worth £19.98!

*Just pay £4.95 postage

Strawberry ‘Elegance’ – A fabulous garden variety producing enormous, tasty strawberries that are up to 30% bigger than the supermarket standard, with a high percentage of Class 1 fruits. Strawberry ‘Elegance’ is well suited to growing in containers for a space saving crop on the patio. Strawberries can be planted out as late as November. Plants supplied as runners.

Enter Offer Code: AF11211
Enter code in the box labelled “Enter catalogue or newspaper code:”

Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer code and is only valid with orders placed online at www.thompson-morgan.com.

OFFER END DATE: Midnight Wednesday 16th November 2011

Click this link for your free strawberry plants plus free fertiliser.

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Doyenne du Comice Pear

Filed under: fruit — Tags: pear, variety — TopVeg @ 8:49 pm

Doyenne du Comice is one of the finest eating pear varieties. Comice is often grown against a wall in the UK, and the delicious, juicy ripe pear just melts in the mouth.

Comice-Pear

The Doyenne du Comice pear fruit is

large
broad
an irregular shape
yellow in colour, with a greenish tinge and a scattering of red brown spots and blotches
very juicy with creamy white flesh
aromatic with a tangy, sweet flavour

ComicePear

Gardening Direct will supply Comice Pear Trees. The Doyenne du Comice is known as the Queen of the Pears.

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November 4, 2011

White Fruit & Veg lower risk of Stroke

Filed under: fruit — Tags: apple, health, pear, white — TopVeg @ 9:42 pm

Consumption of White Fruits and Vegetables Is Associated With Lower Risk of Stroke.

A study by Oude Griep et al, published in the September issue of Stroke, examined the association of fruit and vegetable intake categorized according to the color of the edible portion with 10-year incidence of stroke. They found that higher intakes of white fruit & veg protect against stroke; while coloured fruit & veg do not.

conference-pear

Apples and pears are better sources of potassium. The study found that each 25 gram/day increase in consumption of white fruit and veg was associated with a 9% lower risk of stroke.

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November 2, 2011

Cherry Juice Improves Sleep

Filed under: fruit — Tags: cherry, health, juice — TopVeg @ 9:36 pm

Drinking tart cherry juice concentrate significantly improves sleep according to the latest research from Northumbria University.

Their sleep research department has found that Montmorency cherry juice improves both the quality and the duration of sleep. Dr Ellis, a member of the research team, said: “…. the melatonin contained in tart cherry juice is sufficient to elicit a healthy sleep response.”

cherry

Sour cherries are:

grown in North America
used for cherry pies, jams, and juice
too tart to eat raw
smaller, more globular & softer fleshed than sweet cherries

The Montmorency cherry is a variety of sour cherry (Prunus cerasus). It was the The Montmorency cherry that was shown in the latest research to have a beneficial effect on sleep.

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September 29, 2011

Juicy Mulberries

Filed under: fruit — Tags: mulberry — TopVeg @ 8:29 pm

Black Mulberries are so ripe and juicy that they just melt in your mouth.

juicy-mulberry

This is a bumper year for mulberries.

mulberries-on-tree

The trees are laden and the fruit is of excellent quality.

mulberry-tree-harvest

The tree in this picture was grown from a cutting – the mother tree was in Patrington Rectory.

Mulberries

So many mulberries are found in Rectories. The story is that Queen Anne decreed that all rectories should have a mulberry tree – to support the silk trade!

mulberry leaf, fruit & 5p-piece

Silk worms feed on the mulberry leaves.

We will certainly be able to feed on the juicy mulberries we have put in the freezer over the winter!

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September 28, 2011

Lincolnshire Scad Plum

Filed under: fruit — Tags: plum — TopVeg @ 7:36 pm

The Lincolnshire Scad Plum may soon be available for sale!

This very late, small, wild plum has almost disappeared. But Paul Davy has sent me the news that young specimens grown from a Lincolnshire site may become available from Autumn 2012. Stock will inevitably be limited for several seasons.

Please click this link to enquire in Autumn 2011 for an update on the Lincolnshire Scad Plum.

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July 16, 2011

Starlings take Sweet Cherries

Filed under: fruit — Tags: cherry — TopVeg @ 1:36 pm

The Sweet Cherry tree was full of ripe cherries in the morning, by the afternoon the starlings had stripped the tree of cherries and leaves. All that was left of the cherries is shown in the photo below.

plate-of-cherries

The ripe cherries have sweet, firm flesh. There are many recipes using cherries, but our favourite is cherry clafoutis.

single-cherry

We have put old tights over the cherry branches in the past, to keep the birds off. We will have to be on our toes next year to stop the starlings taking the sweet cherries again!

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July 11, 2011

Ripening Plums off the tree to beat the wasps.

Filed under: fruit — Tags: plum, ripen, wasp — TopVeg @ 4:24 pm

Jean has asked if Victoria plums will ripen off the tree. She wants to pick them before the wasps ruin the crop.

TopVeg has replied:

Victoria plums will ripen a little off the tree – if kept at room temperature. Ripe bananas in amongst them will help speed the process.

Nothing can beat a plum ripened on the tree – but wasps seem to get the plums just before they are ripe enough – so they always beat me to it.

Better to pick the plums and save them.

Have you tried enviromesh? It depends on the size of your tree – but if you can totally enclose the tree, or part of it, in enviromesh the wasps will be kept off.

Reducing the wasps will also help. Try to track down the nest by following the wasps home. They often nest quite close to plum trees. Once the nest is discovered, it can be eliminated. Jam jar traps full of sweet liquid can be covered with paper. Then a hole in the paper will let the wasps in, but not out. There are various commercial versions of this. Lakeland have one at http://www.lakeland.co.uk/2851/Wasp-Catcher?src=gpgar.

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July 10, 2011

Sonata Table Top Strawberries

Filed under: fruit — Tags: strawberries, table top — TopVeg @ 10:29 am

The Sonata Table Top Strawberries are ripe – 60 days after planting as promised!

ripe-60day-strawberries

These Sonata Table Top Strawberries were planted in May to replace those lost in the cold winter.

sonata_strawberries

They were purchased as “waiting bed plants” from the continent. They are designed to give the maximum yield in the first year, and to crop in 60 days after planting.

”Waiting bed plants” are an expensive option, but a heavy crop in 60 days will help the cash flow!

The Sonata Table Top Strawberries are available for Pick Your Own at Skylark Farm, near York.

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May 17, 2011

When to pick gooseberries

Filed under: fruit — Tags: gooseberries, gooseberry, pick — TopVeg @ 9:14 am

When to pick gooseberries depends on the variety.

Picking usually starts in late May – before the gooseberries are fully ripe. The first picked gooseberries are hard and tart; these are used for cooking crumbles, pies and tarts. If the gooseberries start to fall of the bush, they need picking.

Picking some gooseberries early will thin the crop, and allow those remaining on the bush to grow larger and ripen. They will get softer and sweeter as they become ripe.

gooseberries-on-bush

Dessert gooseberries are particularly large, soft and sweet when ripe and change to a pinky colour. They are usually ready in late July or August and can be eaten when picked, without cooking. But it is worth picking a few desert gooseberries in late May , which can be cooked, so that the fruit is thinned out.

The gooseberries will not all ripen at the same time, so gooseberry
bushes have to be picked several times to harvest the ripe gooseberries.

*Leveller is a popular desert gooseberry which is ready in August.
*Leveller has thin skins.