Seed Sharing Circle 2015 and growing progress

[Debs]

Jayb,
Plaza Latina Giant Green - How big do they grow & how do you use them?
I've never grown or eaten them😳

Debs   

[Debs]

[Jayb]

They grow to around 3' or so, but make a bush rather than a cordon and they do need a bit of staking/tying in as they like to spread out. You need 2 plants for to set fruit as they are not self compatible.

I must admit as much as I love growing Tomatillos, I'm probably not that adventurous and I use them mainly for Mexican type dishes. They are sooo good in raw or cooked salsas (use instead of tomatoes) a lovely combination with limes, chillies and coriander. The are stunning in sauce verde and add a lovely crispy bite to salads and sarnies. They cook down to a mush, so useful amongst a sauce for meat or veggie dishes. I like adding some along with cherry tomatoes to roasting summer veg about half way through cooking, makes it taste that little bit different. Great cooked in chilli con carne type dishes and useful in curries if you want to bulk up the sauce, more a background here than adding tomatillo taste.

They can be picked when still firm and green, like this they hold their shape a bit better when cooked and are a little sharper. If you leave them to ripen they become a paler green and the flesh changes texture a bit and has a nice mellow sweetness to it, lovely raw.

[Debs]

Sounds lovely - have sown seeds so finger crossed!
Debs

[Debs]

progress to date ...

Root parsley have germinated very successfully so no need for any worries there early pea!!
Oca - all 3 growing nicely
Paul Robeson sowed 2, 1 has germinated
Babblington leeks just beginning to poke through
Flat white boer squash sowed 2, both growing well
Marjoram coming through nicely
Tomatoes:
Medovaya Kaplya 2 out of 3 germinated & growing nicely
Crimson crush - potted on & doing well
Delicious - potted on & doing well

Potatoes:
Alouette, Highland B.R., & snookie only recently planted, nothing showing yet

Must get sowing other things, although only have garden to grow in so need to try not to get carried away!!

*seed circle 2016*
Will grow both cavolo Nero & broccoli 'Italian sprouting green' but will keep one at mums to avoid crossover problems😉

Debs   

[galina]

Mine are looking good as well. I think I put in white potato onion as well; has anyone had any luck with that? Mine aren't showing. They may just be slow though. Last year, I planted some everlasting onion seed, and one came up after several weeks. This year, it's still pretty thin, but it's germinating a lot better than that.

Nothing on the white potato onion front yet, Robert.  The Minogues are planted out and looking good.  So far they all look quite similar - up to 5 inches tall with a couple of leaves.  They have made the transition into the ground without problem. 

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've got a few things in, but alliums and TPS are the only ones which are up so far. Time to plant a few more things given the better weather! Unfortunately I've just been put on some blood pressure medication which has been making me feel terrible (it is getting a little better) and I haven't been fit to get to the plot for days.

[earlypea]

Root parsley have germinated very successfully so no need for any worries there early pea!!

Debs   

Good to hear    Actually I'm going to change my 'entry' on the taste of those. I think what I wrote came from books.  When I was actually eating them it occurred to me that they don't taste like parsley at all, but much better.  Anyway, I'm thinking how to describe that.  P.S. Just like parsnips the flavour doesn't fully develop until after frosts.  Before that they're bland.

My sowing progress.  I have two very sturdy litchi tomatoes several inches tall, about ready to go out.  Both the yellow varieties of tomatoes are doing well as a second tomato batch, a few inches tall now, one with a drip end and the pear-shaped one.  (sorry, been without a computer for a month and too much to catch up on to look up actual names).

The Black popping chickpeas are out on the plot and starting to grow - had a bit of trouble with mouldy germination, but at least half came out OK.

I'm going to do oca as a second crop because I'm not sure they're to my taste after last year's so they're potted up to go in after my early potatoes.

..and Skagit Magic germinated well, but I'm only growing two plants on - space is tight, tight, tight.

I've planted the little yellow fingerling potato - no signs yet, but it looks unusual so Im looking forward to it.

All exciting stuff 

[sparrow]

Galina, this is really for 2014 circle, but I just wanted to rave a little bit about the cara la virgen beans. They are just beautiful, both to look at and to eat - right up there with Cherokee ToT for me. Am growing lots this year - they are so very productive!

I've just sown my giant achocha and red swan beans  and am potting up oca for putting in under Crimson Crush tomatoes later this month.

Root parsley is going in later this week with salsify - love the flavour of both so am so happy to have fresh seeds. 

[galina]

I am so pleased for you.  Sometimes a varieties likes it in a location and everything is 'just so' with wonderful results.  And the opposite can also happen.  Whereas commercial seed packets try to offer the most widely adapted varieties, in this circle we have many that are not.  I guess what comes from my garden is probably quite tough and cold resistant, because it has to be.  To hear that it is a new favourite definitely raises a big smile. 

I often wonder how relevant all the vegetable trials done at Wisley by the RHS actually are.  I wish they chose somewhere with alkaline clay soil in a colder climate part of the UK to supplement their Wisley tests and come up with the real winners. 

Thank you for this report, Sparrow, to know that a good 'un here is also a good 'un with you, is fab. 

Galina, this is really for 2014 circle, but I just wanted to rave a little bit about the cara la virgen beans. They are just beautiful, both to look at and to eat - right up there with Cherokee ToT for me. Am growing lots this year - they are so very productive!

[galina]

 Very nearly time to choose between the Multiplier Onion Minogue (aka pearl onion) from seed.  They are actually all quite similar and differences are quite subtle. 

[Debs]

With the varied weather and my north east location, things have been sooo slow to grow, however the Oca, root parsley and flat white boer squash are doing really well growing in my garden

Debs

[Silverleaf]

I have a good number of Telephone peas drying so I'm definitely going to add them to this year's circle. :)

[galina]

I have a good number of Telephone peas drying so I'm definitely going to add them to this year's circle. :)

Nice one.  Good pea.  How tall did they get this year? 

[Silverleaf]

About 7', fairly standard for Telephone!

[Debs]

Flat white boer squash are fruiting well and growing beside round Asian courgettes, but it's beginning to look like a jungle.
How do I know when they're both ready to harvest, as it's a first time for growing these...

Debs. 

[sparrow]

As far as flat whites go, wait for the skin to go hard and the stem and tendrils to die back.

[galina]

Just wanted to mention that we are harvesting the first of the Litchi tomatoes.  Not from plants sown this spring, but from last year's plant which survived in the greenhouse (unheated).  They looked really terrible and most of the leaves were frosted off, but they are now earlier than last year.  Apparently they often survive in an unheated greenhouse if winters are not really cold, so it is always worth leaving the plants.

A hint - the flowers can be a little tricky to set, but with a slight 'jiggle' now and then if there are few insects about makes them set fruit reliably. 

[martinburo]

Did last year's circle include a non-sweet multicolored mais? I can't see them on:
http://seedsaverscircle.org/seed-circle/a4a-seed-saver-group-2015/
but I don't know where else I would have gotten them from.

[markfield rover]

That rings a bell, was it the year before? I think jayb put in some ..was there glass in the title ? I'll check my many ,many tins ...could be some time!

[markfield rover]

Looks like it was 2013, Jayb , glass gem corn ..I think.