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Gardening

Behold! Our first allotment produce: forced rhubarb.
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Mine doesn't need forcing these days it's so mild really. Not exposed in the garden like an allotment would be though. Sometimes it gets hail damage where the stones punch straight through the leaves.

 
forced rhubarb.

That's cruel; looks good though. Our 2 plants are tiny but my wife did move them last year. Isn't/wasn't there a triangle of territory neat Pontefract where 1000s of acres are grown and forced or have I got the wrong crop?

Aprpos re-roofing sheds, my 18 x 8 leaked like a sieve for years. Tried expensive appropriate clear mastic, painted on; took many hours. Still leaked, so tried some more; no good. Took a leaf out of my neighbour's book and ordered a very h/duty tarp. for around £50 to cover the now decrepit roof. Still there, 4 years later and the shed's still dry.

A bonus is that I can now collect water, whereas with the bitumen roof, the water was too tainted to use.
 
That's cruel; looks good though. Our 2 plants are tiny but my wife did move them last year. Isn't/wasn't there a triangle of territory neat Pontefract where 1000s of acres are grown and forced or have I got the wrong crop?
They get exposed in summer to recover and then we'll give them two years off after forcing (we have four) so not too cruel.
The Rhubarb Triangle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb_Triangle
 
My great grandad had a field of his small-holding at Loversall near Doncaster given over to rhubarb production. Every year up to WW2 Tickler’s of Grimsby bought the whole crop for jam making.
 
Slowly started the raised beds today... Can't do too much in one go as this bollock issue is really messing with my lower back and left leg mainly... So little n often.

But pulled 5 of the 11 rhubarb crowns out. Split then and planted them in 10 smallish tubs to give out to friends and family to grown their own...

They produce far too much for us and my wife's not it's biggest fan TBH...

Still have 40 parsnips in the ground :D and the main raised bed will get turned over slowly, but by bit this week...

Greenhouse still needs rinsing properly but all the seeds are with me now. So need to pick up potting medium and mix it with our own compost and then I can get sowing...

Gardens properly sodden unfortunately. So I'm trying to stay off it as much as I can...

Front gardens a mess. So that's another job to take on... Needs a thorough tidy and the central bed needs the plants ripping out and starting again
 
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They get exposed in summer to recover and then we'll give them two years off after forcing (we have four) so not too cruel.
The Rhubarb Triangle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb_Triangle
As a kid I remember visiting one of my parents' friends in Morley, West Yorkshire, who owned a rhubarb farm. In the forcing sheds, long and low, you could hear the cracking and rustling of the rhubarb growing.

Rhubarb and custard, perfect.
 
Rhubard - cut into 4cm lengths and stew only long enough to JUST tenderise with one generous strip of grapefruit zest per helping.
Get the segments out of the grapefruit - half per helping, mix with the cooled rhubarb (discard zest, or not, but do not eat it when served), and then chill.
You may or may not want some sugar, so taste before chilling.
Needs nothing more.

Or

Stew the rhubard with sugar to taste. Make a lemon (steamed) sponge mix. Put a generous layer of rhubard in the pudding basin, add the sponge mix and steam/microwave as preferred. Great with cream.
Best made in individual portions in very small pudding basins (4oz????? - you don't have to fill them).
Takes very little time if microwaving.
 
I thought a little bit was ok, i have one slice of pink grapefruit most days with Amlodipine and Atorvastatin.

Thanks for posting this. I never drink juice but quite miss peeling and scoffing the occasional fresh grapefruit but always avoided them, even the fruit salad bowl in the hotel breakfast, because I started my statin journey on simvastatin but have been on atorvastatin for 10 years now so I’ll dive right in.

Yes simvastatin in the worst, the pack insert with Atorvastatin says to avoid more than a small glass or two of juice. I'm on amlodipine as well as AS like dweezil so I avoid completely. It possibly matters more if you're on the higher doses.
 
Who's successful at growing carrots?

What's your secret?

Year after year I get some proper decent ones and the rest are either stubby; or have split etc

Really would like to get a good crop this year!
 
Who's successful at growing carrots?

What's your secret?

Year after year I get some proper decent ones and the rest are either stubby; or have split etc

Really would like to get a good crop this year!

Very hit or miss for me but it's worth persevering, I reckon. Carrots are among the most sprayed of the commercial crops. A lot of them are discarded too for not being supermarket perfect...
 
Who's successful at growing carrots?

All root crops need the same, some are just more tolerant than others.
As few stones as possible, moisture-retentive soil (plenty of humus), never dry out (that leads to cracks), not recently manured or fertilised (both lead to fanging), thin seedlings to a sensible spacing and use the thinnings for salad.

Not for the ultra serious competition grower, but you can make a deep hole an inch or two across, back fill with JI and sow 2-3 seeds on top and thin to 1.
 
Carrots do seem a faff for something you buy so cheaply in the shops but we do put in a row of those boutiquey mixed colour jobs and pull them immature because they look interesting in the salad bowl - yes, really. Some grow to maturity and the flavours are identical so far as I can tell.
 
we do put in a row of those boutiquey mixed colour jobs

I am certain that it is variety-dependant - all the colours come in several varieties, and some of the whites and reds taste very different - obviously still carrot, but very noticably different.
The first time I bought a mixed bunch (I was unconvinced, but someone else was), was at Chatsworth Farm Shop. I was a total convert after cooking them. None of the few that I have bought elsewhere since, have been worth any extra money.

Same applies to white and golden beetroot - the right varieties are very different.
 
These foods contained traces of a total of 122 different pesticides.

It doesn't say where the samples were taken, PAN is not just UK.
All residues are obviously legal, probably, near certainly, massively inside legal limits, otherwise this would have hit the news seriously big time.

Like brassicas? Guess what the characteristic tastes are from? A great deal are natural insecticides, such as mustard oils, several of which are extremely toxic/carcinogenic. But unless you eat several pounds and more each day, try not to worry.

I am also highly suspicious as the article claims that the UK tests 3000 samples per year. It used to do very, very few as imported stock primarily came in through Rotterdam, who did all the testing, and do none for the UK now that we have Brexited, and the Uk has introduced none to cover this.
 


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