Topic: Christmas Produce

[KateM]

We were talking with my parents at the weekend and they have put in a request for various vegetables to eat on christmas day with the turkey.  Now, we hadn't even thought of christmas so I wondered if we've left it too late or if it is still possible to get some veg, even if it ends up very small!
Does anyone know what we can sow or plant now to stand a chance of getting anything?

[Tee Gee]

I don't know what facililities you have but I would say you are too late for the standard fare such as Parsnips & Sprouts.

There are varieties of potatoes you can grow that can be planted now to be ready for Xmas but personally I wouldn't recommend them.........too expensive........ I would rather buy some foreign new potatoes at least I would be guaranteed something on the plate.

My experience of varieties such as Carlingford (I think that the name) is; the seed is expensive and the return is too variable to the point you may or may not get sufficient potatoes to feed yourself never mind the family.

My beans are in the freezer, my potatoes will be in store, the shallots are hung up and the parsnips and sprouts are still growing and waiting that bit of frost to give them a tang.

AS I have the use of a tunnel I am contemplating trying some calabrese plants as additional fare.

Sorry I couldn't be of any more help than that.

Tg

[lushy86]

You could sow some carrots and plant some potatoes, lots of people do and it would be something home grown on your Christmas plate  :)

Lushy x

[KateM]

We have some potatoes going to seed at the moment, no idea what type.  If we planted them, could they grow or do they need to be a specific type? 

And how do you keep potatoes from now to december? They barely last a month or two in our shed and thats the coolest dryest place we have.

Will definately try the carrots, is there a type you can recommend? Hopefully we'll have more luck this time than the ones we attempted to grow a couple of months ago, we didn't get a single one! :)

[saddad]

Potatoes should "store" in a shed... do you have them in hessian or paper sacks? (They need to breath) do you are them in the sun for a few hours before putting in the sacks?... helps toughten up the skins...
We can keep most varieties until Feb... and some long dormancy ones until May...

[KateM]

Didn't know about airing them, will try that.  We've kept our spuds in paper sacks before as that's what we've bought them in, this will be our first attempt at storing home grown.

We were discussing today, how much the allotment has changed how we eat and how we spend our free time.  We never avoided veg before, but we're eating a huge amount more now.  It's amazing how it can change your life in such a short time, I can't wait to eat home grown food on christmas day!  It will just prove how much we've achieved this year!

[small]

If you bought a plant now, you could have sage for the sage and onion stuffing.  I've given up growing sprouts, some years I've not been able to dig up parsnips, but I always manage the sage.  And do you have a holly bush to get the sprig for the pudding? OH always does the brandy/ flaming thing with ours, don't tell him but burnt holly tastes awful...

[Robert_Brenchley]

Scrape out the pulp with the potato seeds, spread it on a kitchen tissue, and let it dry. Keep it cool and dry till spring, and plant the seeds then. See some of the recent posts here: http://vegheaven.blogspot.com/ .