Me New Bamboo

I took home a bundle of MH's* thinnings when we visited last week - raw material for pole bean supports which will be arranged artfully (?) in the spring.
*A founding father of the Bamboo Society, you can see some of his bamboo illustration here.

'Natural History of Selbourne' the Musical Play

Scenes from my little paper theatre play 'Entries from Reverend Gilbert White's Diary in December' performed last night for Nev, Iz & M. And they, each in turn put on their very own, very idiosyncratic plays. Much fun was had.
Pictured here are such entries as - December 3 1788 Good mackarel brought to the door. And December 17 1774 Mrs. Snooke's tortoise, after it had been buried more than a month, came forth & wandered round the garden in a disconsolate state, not knowing where to fix on a spot for it's retreat.

Update

Six Days off Work...

Five Hens NOT-Laying...

Four Pigeons Poaching (the chard and kale)...

Three Magpies Watching...

Two Swans A'Fighting...

I witnessed a tremendous mud wrestling match at low tide last week with two swans trying their darnedest to kill each other. They spent a long while between sodden flapflapping locked beak to pinion as illustrated above. Finally after having been nearly drowned head first in the Thames ooze, the weaker one escaped upriver.


... and a heron hunched amongst the reeds.

Cold Front

Fierce frost. It's not yet December and they've just salted the road for the third time. The ice was an inch and a half thick on the water butt this afternoon and tonight we fired up the wood stove.

Caper Substitute

The climbing (clambering, sprawling) nasturtiums I sowed in June were a long time getting any ambition to go anywhere. But from sometime in late August until now they have been blooming continuously. I've been adding them to salads and now there is a small jar's worth of seeds to pickle for which I have found the following recipe -

Gather the nasturtium seeds immediately after the blossoms have faded and put them to soak in cold salt water for 2 days, stirring them twice each day. Peel and slice 1 shallot, 1 horse-radish, 2 red peppers, and quarter 1 nutmeg. Place these in a glass jar with white wine or simply vinegar, adding salt, pepper, and a few cloves. Put in the drained nasturtium seeds, then cork and seal.

They Can't Ration These by Vicomte de Mauduit, 1940
("All those possessing a roof in the country together with the necessary sticks of furniture and apparels of clothing will be able, if armed with a copy of this book, to live in comfort, in plenty, and in health even if all banks, all shops, and all markets be closed for indefinite periods.")

Dug-Up Potatoes

A splendid day today. Above, passing through the Horniman Gardens after retrieving the last of the potato crop from the allotment. Below, my beast of burden, saddled with the Aran Victories, pauses for breath.

Vote for Cabbage

Graphics from the Philippines general election via designKULTUR

Bubble & Squeak

Take of Beef, Mutton, or Lamb, or Veal, or any other meat, two Pounds and an half, or any other Quantity; let it lay in Salt, till the saline Particles have lock'd up all the Juices of the Animal, and render'd the Fibres too hard to be digested; then boil it over a Turf or Peat Fire, in a Brass Kettle cover'd with a Copper Lid, till it is much done. Then take Cabbage (that which is most windy, and capable of producing the greatest Report) and boil it in a Bell-Metal Pot till it is done enough, or if you think it proper, till it is done too much. Then slice the beef, and souse that and the Cabbage both in a Frying-Pan together, and let it bubble and squeak over a Charcoal Fire, for half an Hour, three Minutes, and two Seconds. Then eat a Quantum sufficit, or two Pounds and a half, and after it drink sixteen Pints of fat Ale, smoak, sleep, snoar, belch, and forget your Book.
A Lecture In Cookery in The Mid-Wife: or, the old woman's magazine
Christopher Smart, 1753

Squash Harvest '10

Two hens invigilating. (We had to buy eggs this week. They've begun their annual shutdown.)

Further Adventures with Potato Seed

This weekend I exhumed the rest of the spuds from Tom Wagner's TPS. And I think that they hold great promise not least because, although it's been dry this summer, it is now late October and there's still no blight. I am most excited by the tiny round daughters of No.11 as they look very like 'Kuntur warmi' which is Andean for 'Like a Woman with the Colours of a Condor's Neck'. Note, one of the purple offspring of No.6 was a victim of the fork and it's interior is on view.

36 Views

Between 1826 and 1833, Katsushika Hokusai published his 'Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji'. While back for Thanksgiving (Cdn.) last week I resolved to make a series of views of the omnipresent CN tower. Yes, well, below are 15, and now that I've published them I can move on. (If you have any interest at all, click on the image for enlargement)

Adventures with Potato Seed

This year I've been growing some potatoes from true seed obtained from breeder Tom Wagner via Patrick. Although I got started a little late they have now developed into large healthy looking plants. But, what with all this rain and cooler weather around the corner, I'm getting increasingly anxious about disease, pestilence and the like. So as not to have all my potatoes lost in the same basket of blight, I unearthed the above yesterday. The still small but perfectly formed tubers of No.16 (French Fingerling x Magic Molly) and No.21 (John Tom Kaighin x Negro y Azul). Yet to harvest are No.25 (Wild Species x Thumbertime) and No.6 (F2 Pam Wagner) & No.11 (Pirampo x Khuchi Akita) which are just now flowering and setting fruit. I'll leave them for another couple of weeks with fingers crossed. Now, how best to store? I've read 5-10°C and 95% humidity. Is packing in wet sand as you would carrots and beets a good idea? Or perhaps the refrigerator? The plan is to chit and set out next spring for a full crop with taste testing a year from now.

Late Runner

I pushed a few seeds of Runner Bean 'Streamline' in the ground in late July and we're eating them now.

2012 (Peasant) Olympics

I've been in training all summer for the 'Water Carrying To Protect The Seedlings Amidst Drought' event at the next Peasant Olympics. Now that the ceiling has lowered and everything is sodden I think I'll work on some '60-metre Snatch the Grain and Get It Into Storage' drills.

Capsaicin

According to 'Science and Lore of the Kitchen' by Harold McGee, researchers have isolated five capsaicinoid components that have different effects on the mouth. Three give 'rapid bite sensations' in the back of the palate and throat, and the other two a long, low intensity bite on the tongue and mid-palate. Capsaicin accumulates in the fruit concurrently with the pigment during ripening and is primarily found in the white placental tissue to which the seeds are attached. So you can moderate the heat by scraping away all the white bits.
This year my peppers have grown really well, much better than anything else. The two smallest are the most fiery - Gelbe Kirschen & Pretty in Purple. These are really very attractive plants, small and bushy and covered with fruit, but they are fiddly to prepare. Doe Hill is sweet and the other two are mildly spicy. (The slate is ruled in one inch squares.)

Equinoctial Entries

Aah, the majesty of summer now fades...(click here for the rest)

Myriads of Insects sporting in the sunbeams. September 21 1789
Showers, rainbow, bright. Barley in a sad condition about Basingstoke. Rams begin to pay court to the ewes. September 21 1775
One little starveling wasp. September 20 1782

Gilbert White Natural History of Selbourne

Here in London 2010, the weather stays warm, 25° expected tomorrow.

T.G.I.F.

F for Fall that is. Time to draw a line under this rubbish summer. Too little rain - not enough time to water, tomatoes that grew taller and taller without fruiting, early kale and beets that ran to flower, squash that sat looking miserable and refused to swell...

Underground

A picture of my garden's soil structure is beginning to emerge based on the shape of these recently unearthed beetroots (Medwyn's Extra Long Selection of Cheltenham Green Top).