Various

Jul. 19th, 2015 09:07 pm
bunn: (dog knotwork)
Brythen is still creeping about looking somewhat woe, but he is a bit brighter. Ten days without walks is going to be... difficult, I suspect.  But at the moment he's being surprisingly good and quiet.  Unlike some of the other residents:

Certain other members of the household have not been particularly sympathetic )
I did the Big Butterfly Count today, but given the number of supposedly butterfly-enticing nectar-producing plants in my garden, the number of butterflies was disappointing: one Tortoiseshell, one Small White and one Meadow Brown.   Plenty of bumble bees and hoverflies though, which I suppose is still a win.
Attempt at interesting composition involving One Bee and One Butterfly. )
In other garden news, I have with the help of the Victoriana Nursery determined that the Actinidia Arguta that I foolishly bought from the Thompson and Morgan catalogue was in fact a male plant.   Which is all very well for the flowers, I suppose, but it was the only actinidia arguta listed, and it was in the fruit section!  Being a boy, it's pretty useless in that department.  So I have now bought (from the Victoriana Nursery) a pair of Lady Argutas: one Actinidia Arguta Issai, which is the variety I thought I'd bought in the first place, and is self fertile, and also another wife for him, Arguta 'Jumbo'.   And I have severely cut back my boy Arguta, to make room to plant Madam Jumbo next to him.   I hope these plants will be more successful in the fruit department.

We've also been out hacking at the jungle.  There's still a great deal of jungle left, but the bonfire heap is starting to look like a young Greenwitch, so some impact is being made.

And now Rosie is squeaking at me so I'd better trot her down the lane before she breaks out into full-fledged Saluki Nose Whistle mode.
bunn: (Wild Garden)
The garden has been becoming slowly less garden and more jungle.  I quite like it a bit overgrown: I prefer that to the kind of garden where each plant is surrounded by a neatly-raked border of empty brown earth, or everything is covered in gravel.    I like the birds to have space, and to have bees and dragonflies and random flowers popping up everywhere.

But my mother visited recently and left wagging her head and saying 'I don't know what can be done about your garden'.   And she does have a point. The worry that one day we will not actually be able to get beyond the patio without a machete is a real one.
garden progress. )
bunn: (Berries)
Watching Doctor Who yesterday, I learned that Santa considers the tangerine to be his signature gift.

When I was a child, I'm pretty sure that Father Christmas (not Santa) brought a satsuma, not a tangerine.   I love satsumas.  I buy bags and bags of them when they are in season, and eat them until I start feeling really quite orange.  It's surprising, but sort of charming too,  that in an era when you can buy all sorts of fruit out of season all year round, the Season of the Satsuma is so short.

What I think of as a satsuma is Citrus Unshiu and although that Wikipedia entry doesn't mention it, I'm sure I've read an article saying that this particular fruit is disproportionately popular here in Britain, where we like the sweetness and the ease of peeling, and have less stern and demanding tastebuds than other nations who apparently are more likely to prefer more subtle and less sugary citruses. So, we give them at Christmas: hence the 'Christmas orange' name.

What I think of (and I *think* generally what greengrocers and supermarkets sell as tangerines, is Citrus Tangerina - a pleasant enough fruit, but not quite so easy to peel, and the skin has a different texture and flavour (I like the skins too!)

[Poll #1993464][Poll #1993464]

Incidentally, I just learned from that Wiki article that a mature satsuma tree is hardy down to -9C.  -9!  It NEVER goes to -9 here.  I wonder how much frost protection they need before they get big....? 
bunn: (garden)
Someone tell me I don't need to buy six Chilean Guava bushes.  I am such a sucker for exotic fruits!   And six for a tenner!!!

There's probably an argument I should instead, buy a friend for my Actinidia Arguta.  In theory, that Actinidia is supposed to be the variety 'Issai' which is smaller than most Actinidias, and self fertile.  In practice, mine is a honking great thing that is yet to set fruit, despite its ideal sunny, well drained position in mildly acid soil -  and I am starting to think that Thompson and Morgan have yet again screwed things up and have sent me one of the other Actinidias that is not self fertile.

I now chuck all T& M catalogues straight in the recycling bag : I have had way too many gardening disappointments from them. But the Chilean Guavas are from Suttons.  I have been less disappointed with them, so far as I recall. 

BERRIES!

Aug. 20th, 2012 11:12 pm
bunn: (Berries)
I picked some rowan berries last week, which are now in the freezer, becoming milder and more edible in flavour before undergoing transformation into rowan jelly.  There seems to be a bit of a shortage of crabapples this year - most of my favorite crab trees are completely fruitless.   I think this must be down to the dampness of the spring, though it may have something to do with the lack of summer sun, too.    But I did find one tree that had clearly managed to seize exactly the right moment to flower, so I have enough crabs to make jelly.

My apple trees - well, they have *some* apples on them. But not many, and they are rather small crabby efforts: I fear we will not get many eating apples this year.  I think I have to put it down to a bad year.   It's been a bad year for figs too - just not enough sun to ripen them. I've only had three ripe figs all year, and none of them were really dark and sweet.

Blackberries, however, are everywhere, and I filled half a tub with them on this evening's dogwalk before Yogi plastered herself in mud and we had to go and find the pond.   A lot of the blackberries are flyblown already - all this rain definitely favours the flies - but a walk down the west side of the hill into the sunset found enough worth the picking.  Going back up the hill, the sun had fallen below the level of the mounded clouds overhead, so a golden radience flooded in over the shoulder of Bodmin moor, illuminating a goodly number of berries that I had failed to notice on the way down.

I wonder about the flies that lay their maggots in blackberries, are they a special sort of blackberry-fly, or are they generic flies just taking advantage?
bunn: (Berries)
 There's an excellent letter in the Western Morning News from the secretary of http://www.orchardslive.org.uk/ (the organisation that I think is mostly behind my lovely North Devon Mazzards! )  extolling the virtues of 'traditional'  big apple trees with 10 foot stems in smaller gardens. 

Admittedly, mine isn't a particularly small garden, but none the less I think she has it spot on.  My garden would have a lot less room in it if I had pruned my trees  to keep their height restricted, as is often advised.  As it is, I can walk under the branches of most of the trees, and although I topped my cherry 'summer sun' last year, I now think this was something of a mistake - that tree only has a 5-foot stem, and it's too low, now the tree is maturing the branches are hanging down rather than reaching up, and you can't get past it.   I think this winter I shall have to go the other way and lift the crown!  

Fruit trees do not produce particularly dense shade, so you can still use the space underneath - and a bush tree that would entirely fill a small garden would be entirely manageable if the fruiting branches were up out of the way overhead.  And you can still harvest a lot of apples just by application of a children's fishing net.  Also, a bit of summer shade keeps the grass from growing quite so fast. And a good way of using lawn mowings is to dump them at the foot of a fruit tree, which will happily Slurp them up and use them to make more apples. 
bunn: (Berries)
News story here : Sales of blueberries have overtaken those of raspberries
is riddled with wrongness! 

Britain is mostly on alkaline soil?  That'll be a surprise to all the specialist growers of rhododendrons and azaleas - and to all the people working to try to eliminate invasive wild rhodos from acidic British soils!   It surprised me, as I am currently eating handfuls of whortleberries (a close relative of the blueberry) on most of my walks. You need to be careful how many you put in a muffin though.  Otherwise you end up with a sort of grey squishy pudding.  Very tasty, but not a thing of beauty!

I'm dubious about the idea that the plants are beset with pests too.  So far as I can see, the reason that some fruits (raspberries, strawberries gooseberries, currants) are grown in Britain and some aren't so much (figs, blueberries, kiwi fruit etc) is simply that in Britain, land is very expensive and so is labour.  This is not a cheap place to grow any kind of fruit commercially, and fruit growing has been in decline for generations. Most fruit plants take years to establish, so there is little incentive for growers to experiment with new species.

In other news, I've just eaten an apple from the early apple tree: very red, but rather too tart still.  Give it another week or so.   I had to fight my way through undergrowth to get there though - could really do with a couple of days to just mow and chop nonstop, with no rain!
bunn: (Berries)
I'm wondering whether to make the greenhouse primarily a strawberry zone and fill it with early fruit.  The plants in there are storming away producing loads of fruit, and the ones up the garden are still developing. 

There were some British strawberries in Morrison's today, but they were Elsanta and seemed scentless, so I deemed them pointless and left them to others.

Am a little disappointed that after all the blossom on cherry Summer Sun, only a small percentage of the blooms have turned into tiny green cherries.  Shortage of bees, perhaps?  We seem to have a reasonable number of bumbles (though I think possibly less than usual), but despite having neighbours who make honey, I've seen about 2 honeybees so far this year.

Rowan Jelly

Aug. 2nd, 2009 08:48 pm
bunn: (Berries)
This morning I picked 5 1/2 pounds of rowan berries.  Rowan berries are much easier to pick than other berries. No prickles, you don't have to bend down and they are pleasantly firm and don't squish.  No maggots either (there was the odd earwig, but they are easy to spot, and I don't mind earwigs).   I was aiming for 3 pounds, but  I am bad at estimating weights. 

Then philmophlegm and I boiled them with some windfall apples and sugar, and now we have 5 lovely pots of rowan jelly.  YAY!  Rowan jelly that you buy in shops is pale and sort of yellowish, but mine is bright red.  Odd.  Will be interesting to see if it fades with time.   At the moment it's still hot so fingers crossed that it sets!   I think it will, because the dribble left in the pan set beautifully: that will be the apples. It's nice to find a good use for windfalls. 

 Well, that was 3 and a half pounds of them, anyway, as that was all that would fit into the biggest pan. I still have 2 pounds left.  I'm not sure what to do with them.  More jelly?  I'd be tempted by this recipe for Rowan Wine only I don't have any demijons so it would cost money. 

The Internet says that you should leave rowan berries till the first frost, but obviously I didn't do that.  I suspect that this advice comes from colder climates, but If there are any left by the first frost (which in Cornwall will be pretty late) I might try getting some more and contrasting the flavour. 

I could do Rowan Schnapps, I'd only need to buy vodka for that. Or this jam sounds interesting. 


Edit: found a suggestion that freezing them can improve flavour anyway, it's the cold that makes the difference rather than staying on the trees.  Therefore, I should freeze the remainder and contrast! 

In a second culinary experiment, we made cauliflower cheese with a purple cauliflower.  The whole thing came out a brilliant purple, which was very odd. 
bunn: (garden)
cut for gardening )

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