Seventh Birthday

Hey, it was seven years ago that I started this blog - well, last Friday would be the exact date. My first post celebrated the 'freak' carrots that I had unearthed that harvest and that has been a recurring theme here - witness this and this! Today I dug this handsome specimen out of the ground ...

Der Bratapfel

Kinder, kommt und ratet,
was im Ofen bratet!
Hört, wie's knallt und zischt.
Bald wird er aufgetischt,
der Zipfel, der Zapfel, der Kipfel,
der Kapfel, der gelbrote Apfel.
Kinder, lauft schneller,
holt einen Teller,
holt eine Gabel!
Sperrt auf den Schnabel
für den Zipfel, den Zapfel,
den Kipfel, den Kapfel,
den goldbraunen Apfel!

A bumper crop of Keswick Codlins this year - actually most fruit crops have been good. These cook down to a beautiful frothy purée and when baked are truly scrumptious.

Random Harvest

Here are some of the potato clones which I grew on this year, originally from TPS that I gathered. It wasn't a great year for anything in my garden and I won't blame the weather. The potatoes did all right considering my lack of attention and the absence of rainfall. Many have skins that are quite russety/scaley and tuber size is small.

Two that produced bumper crops and I may continue to clone are the ones below. The first - a red fingerling - I am referring to as Custard right now due to the colour of the flesh and the second with slightly paler yellow flesh I call Humbug. It had a very thick stemmed sprawling habit. But reading the debate here does give me pause. (The film is quite naive but the comments are thought provoking). I worry about carrying disease over to next year's tubers and I think that I'll continue to grow most of my crop from TPS.

World Porridge Day

Gosh! I have just realized that today IS World Porridge Day. How do I celebrate? I have already eaten my morning porridge unawares. Tsk.

Meanwhile, here is a handy reference for working out just how old your goat is.