Seed Sharing Circle 2015 and growing progress

[clumsy]

Harvesting some of the chilli, they were lantern.

[clumsy]

[galina]

Lovely coloured pepper, looking really healthy, Clumsy.  Did you have two different shapes or are they two different peppers?

I had to laugh comparing tomato Delhi to pepper Piquante.  They look exactly the same, apart from the size.  I had not realised that Delhi is a stuffing tomato.   

[clumsy]

Two different types the small ones are lanterns and the big ones are Hungarian Orange.

[galina]

Ahh!  I haven't grown the Hungarian Orange this year, definitely something to look forward to.  Thanks for showing us, Clumsy 

I have one fruit of Lantern Chili so far and hope to overwinter the plants (have just today moved them from the greenhouse to a windowsill and trimmed them up a bit.  Fingers crossed they will get through winter and produce much more next year. 

My Piquante plant is now 4 years old, but it had fewer fruits this year than last.  Probably time to sow again next year. 

[earlypea]

Greetings.

I have been looking in from time to time and always meant to post progress, but there have been too many distractions and interruptions this year.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to the providers of the seeds, I grew a fair few from 2015's batch.

Blue Coco and Lazy Housewife - both doing well EVENTUALLY on account of the dismal mid-early summer.  Blue Coco adding another to my purple French repertoire (can always grow another) was exceptionally prolific and consumed well at all stages.  Lazy Housewife, one I've always intended to try, delightful for the perfect white egg-shaped beans. 

Parsnip F3 did a stirling job against all the odds.  I sowed that and my usual Tender and True a few days before my plot flooded and I was amazed to see the F3s finally appearing (none of the others managed).

Most of the tomatoes I tried from the list were also thwarted by the floods, but Medovaya Kaplya recovered and thrived and was deemed a well-flavoured one and good-looking too.

All of my potatoes were rubbish because of the ark weather including Snookie.

I grew two Litchi tomatoes, which were a fabulous flourish on my plot and much, much bigger than I'd imagined.  They were blooming until late November with an enormous spread of at least a metre each.  I didn't enjoy the fruit at all though - maybe better grown in a greenhouse.  Again, strange weather - I suspect the temperatures were all-round too low.

Also totally enjoyed growing two Skagit Magic from seed - the flowers were quite astounding and went on forever, but harvested about two pips.  (not a good potato year on my plot).  I didn't feel they were worth saving for next year's production.  But totally gorgeous to grow.  I wouldn't have missed it.

I should also mention the extraordinary Vegetable Mallow specimen that volunteered itself as the winter squashes had set fruit and were ripening in late August/early September.  Realseeds says they should grow to around 5 foot, but this was nearly 8 foot in very rich soil, still edible, and growing until early December.  It looked like a tree.  (It was me who put the seeds in the share for this, but thought I'd mention it's not exactly as described).

[galina]

Just harvesting lovely yellow peppers 'Vince' - oops!  I meant to say tomatoes Vince   

[galina]

Just an update on tomato Vince.  Have grown them last year and they are indeed very strange and more like a pepper, but easier to grow.  Thank you for the seeds.

The donor to HSL was Dr John Yeoman of the now long closed Gardening Guild, who guarded so many heritage varieties that found a new home at HSL when he could no longer garden.  Here they are still being maintained and further distributed. 

Looking at Auntie Madges tomato in the garden, one of the varieties he was very fond of, I suddenly thought that I had not heard from John in a long time.  Sadly, he has passed away and is tending his heirloom garden beyond.  And his other interests.  Amazon published a really fitting author's bio: 

About John Yeoman
Dr John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, is a total rogue. His first adventure when leaving Oxford university with an MA in English literature was to host a witchcraft cabaret in a London cellar. This so enchanted him with devilry that he took up a career in public relations. Across 42 years he has edited a newspaper, chaired a big PR consultancy and trained several thousands of people to write for fame, fun and occasionally fortune.

For fifteen years he ran Britain's largest self-publishing business and earned up to $1.4 million annually from his own living room. (Oh, thou of little faith! If you're sceptical, send him a nice email and he'll point you to its accounts at Companies House.)

He founded Writers' Village in 2009, now one of the world's largest short fiction contests. It's no coincidence that its blog is titled the Wicked Writing Blog and it hosts guest posts every week from every best-selling author who is not ashamed to show their face there.

He lives in central England with his wife Celia, a dynasty of children and a tortoise. His passions include Jacobethan literature, heirloom vegetable gardening and antique wines.

The villain should properly be addressed as Dr John Yeoman, MA Oxon, MA (Res), MPhil, PhD, FSRS. But you didn't want to know that, did you? Quite right. After all, in the time you've wasted reading his biography here you could have been enjoying his novels (also here) which are triumphs of entertainment. 

https://www.amazon.com/John-Yeoman/e/B00PFWSYO2/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
https://terrynelsonauthor.com/2016/08/26/who-was-dr-john-yeoman-and-what-he-did-for-writers/

RIP John!  And thank you for all the seeds and correspondence.    

[pumkinlover]

What an interesting person to have made the acquaintance of!

[galina]

What an interesting person to have made the acquaintance of!

Sadly never in person.