Topic: Seed Sharing Circle

[Jayb]

Oooooooh, and I thought it was a gentle nudge  ;D
Nice to see you back.

It is bizare how different the weather has been for different areas this year, here, although it started to dry out early-ish with the grass starting to go a little brown, it then turned fairly wet and has been most of mid late summer/autumn!

Ahhhhh no beans for you to eat  :( , one of my favourites.

Tomatoes and chillies I'm sure will be super  ;D

Hmmm, not sure about milk monitor, you have stiff competition  ;D and I don't know we can cope with the 3 of you in the back row together  ;D

[markfield rover]

I will be sending the following toms:-
Fablonelistnyj a very tasty yellow flat cherry
Blaby Special  traditional red
plus
Delaway cabbage.
Hope this sounds suitable.

The Mr Brooks Blue dfb I only have a few as this season was very poor which means next years will be brilliant!
If you think us three milk monitors are a handful now wait until the end of term Nativity.

[galina]

I will be sending the following toms:-
Fablonelistnyj a very tasty yellow flat cherry
Blaby Special  traditional red
plus
Delaway cabbage.
Hope this sounds suitable.

The Mr Brooks Blue dfb I only have a few as this season was very poor which means next years will be brilliant!
If you think us three milk monitors are a handful now wait until the end of term Nativity.

Looking forward to it very much.  Fab tomato (you get an award for being able to spell its proper name) I always wanted to grow but there is always so much else that catches my desirous eye from the HSL catalogue and it has never happened.

I have just packeted my second batch of lettuce seeds:

Oakleaf lettuce Carnival. 
My seeds were from the Heritage Seed Library several years ago now.  It is called Carnival because there are all shades of colours represented.  This year mine were mostly muted pastel colours on green.  Very attractive.  The base colour was a red over green, which looked like a shiny light brown.  Others have described this as a red lettuce or even as a lettuce with dark green leaves and various colours overlaying that.  It is very dependent on environmental conditions which colour tones come to the fore and if you squint a bit - it looks different again ....... This is a fun lettuce, looseleaf, with oakleaf type leaves and on occasion it will self seed.  Hasn't been in the catalogue for a bit.  A sample of this lettuce has been given by HSL to the Seed Ambassadors Project,  been taken to the USA and may be more widely grown there than here at the moment.  Fairly large and productive.  Hope you will like this lettuce.

[SueK]

It is actually not that easy to grow seeds in this country reliably with late frosts, cold, droughts, beasties, deluges and that is long before the human error factor plays its part.

That could have been written for me, Galina, (especially the human error bit) and I'm so glad you did!  Due to the list of above factors (but mainly the human error) I will be sending the following tomatoes next week, both originally from RealSeed and suitable for outdoor growing:

Urbikany - bush, late summer variety (here in Yorkshire)
Galina (!) - vine, potato-leaf yellow cherry

There is no easy way to say this, but I got the mange tout seeds all the way into the kitchen to finish drying, and the final results look so variable that I've clearly messed up somewhere along the way.   :'( So I hope that the above will suffice and it's try again next year.

I will be sending the following toms:-
Fablonelistnyj a very tasty yellow flat cherry
Blaby Special  traditional red

Markfield Rover, I looked these up and you are obviously at the cutting edge of tomato growing! :)  I'm looking forward to sharing the Blaby Special with my mother-in-law, who is in the East Midlands.

Best regards,
Sue

[lottiedolly]

Hi guys, sorry have not been on for yonks but have been on hols. I will be checking to see what seeds have dried and what still needs to be harvested before i can give a definative on what i will have available for everyone. Hopefully somthing that will be a little different (fingers crossed)

i will check back soon

Kxx

[markfield rover]

SueK
It was my mother- in- law who first saw the article in the Leicester Mercury(2005 ish) about the Blaby toms- and as a girl had seen them going to Covent Garden in the 40's.I have actually just eaten one and it was not the flavour that made it  rare . Hope you both enjoy them.

[1066]

If you think us three milk monitors are a handful now wait until the end of term Nativity.

 ;D ooooo!! Now I have some spare tea towels, bound to have an old sheet, but not sure where we'll get the donkey from  :P  :D

The varieties people have all sound fantastic  :) well done all  :)

[Jayb]

I second Fablonelistnyj Markfield, you very kindly gave me some seed earlier in the year, 'tis a nice cherry. I lost my Blaby plant to blight so I have another year to wait to try them.
 
I had hoped to get some Delaway cabbage from ISS this year, now I don’t need to  ;D I can’t find out much about them,  ‘a cut and come again cabbage’ though I’m not quite sure what this means? Are they more similar to a cabbage or a kale?

Galina, super description and detail. Carnival sounds absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait to grow them.

Nice choices of tomatoes Suek. Bad luck with the mange tout seeds. I know I found my later sowings of peas hard to get dry and lost some which just rotted in the wet, some started to sprout in the pod. What do you mean when you say they look variable?

Can’t wait for the Nativity, have you got a date in mind? Gosh you milk monitors are really trying for top of the class  ;D

[galina]

It was my mother- in- law who first saw the article in the Leicester Mercury(2005 ish) about the Blaby toms- and as a girl had seen them going to Covent Garden in the 40's.I have actually just eaten one and it was not the flavour that made it  rare . Hope you both enjoy them.

Very much looking forward to growing and tasting Blaby tomatoes.  I found this article a few years ago, but unfortunately at the time I was too late for seeds:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/content/articles/2006/03/03/blaby_tomato_feature.shtml
Interesting reading.  The survival and distribution of this variety outside of a seedbank was in the hands of just one person.  What if he hadn't been there.....

This is what I packeted for the group today:

Cilician Parsley

This is a mediaeval parsley variety from Cilicia, Armenia, now Turkey.  I have called it a flatleaf parsley, but the leaves are actually a unique maidenhair fern shape.  Absolutely winterhardy and easy to grow.  I sow seeds in warmth early in the year, about the same growing conditions as sowing tomato seeds, and they come up quite fast.  Later in the year, they sprout very readily indoors or in the greenhouse before transplanting into the garden.

Here is a url from Practically Edible, who describe this parsley much better than I can:
http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/cilicianparsley#ixzz12FTUMFt5

Wills Woys Weaver, the writer, seedsaver and gourmet cook, is credited with bringing this parsley to greater attention and extols its virtues, even ponders whether it is actually a different species from our usual parsley varieties.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/416745/
  

[galina]

Look what I just found:

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Bid-revive-town-s-special-tomato-bears-fruit/article-2529432-detail/article.html

There is a now even a Blaby Special tomato festival!

[1066]

Galina the parsely sounds fascinating! I loved the description of the sausages, dipped in cumin etc and then the parsely puree   :)

looking forward to trying it !

[SueK]

Bad luck with the mange tout seeds. I know I found my later sowings of peas hard to get dry and lost some which just rotted in the wet, some started to sprout in the pod. What do you mean when you say they look variable?

Well, some are still green rather than the brown which I would expect and some are wrinkly rather than smooth, with the result that the number of seeds which look right to me isn't really enough to pass round the group, we're talking just a few each.

Galina, I have to agree that your parsley sounds very enigmatic - that article is a great piece of writing (she says in her best English).  The dynasty bowl alone ought to be one of the 100 objects from history from Radio 4 with that description.  :)  And how interesting that it is (or was) only available to gardeners.

[Jayb]

Suek, if some peas are very green and wrinkly when they should be brown and smooth, it may be they were harvested a bit too early for seed. Why not try a germination test using some damp kitchen paper you could always use any that sprout as pea shoots! You may find they germinate strongly enough to use some for a crop next year although keeping properties may be reduced.

I have to agree Galina, your parsley sounds fascinating and I can't wait to grow some next season.

I haven't processed my Queensland Blue yet, I thought I would give them a little longer. I'm hoping to move them from the greenhouse into the house today. I also need to harvest my Sharkfins before I lose them. 

[earlypea]

Jayb - (or someone else) - how many members are there to this circle in the end?  Just processing some of my early beans and wondering how many bags.  Thanks...

[galina]

Jayb - (or someone else) - how many members are there to this circle in the end?  Just processing some of my early beans and wondering how many bags.  Thanks...

I am preparing 15 packets.  There are 15 people in the circle, this means 14 people need seed.  But just in case somebody's parcel gets lost in the post, I send JayB an extra packet, which makes 15 packets.

[Jayb]

I've been making up 14 packets + one for me. I've pm'ed a few who have not updated for a while and hope to hear from them soon, it would be fantastic to finish with the original cast. Although no pressure on anyone who is not remaining involved.

Suek has pm'ed me say hers are in the post and I'll leave a note here when they arrive.
Everyone can PM's me for my address when you are ready and if you could let me know they are on the way that will help me keep track  :)

[galina]

Last two lettuce seed varieties packed up:

Lettuce Lau Pointed Leaf

Variety comes from Malaysia, also eaten in China, where apparently it gets lightly cooked.  The leaves are arranged around the stem looking a bit like a star.  It is a looseleaf variety and I pull each dark green leaf separately and use them like a cos lettuce.  The leaves are thick but not as long as most cos lettuces.  The stem can also be eaten.  As the name indicates, the leaves are pointed.  This variety lasts fairly well into summer before bolting.

Lettuce Bologna

Large lettuce with long, green, scalloped crisp leaves, similar to cos, but leaves are wider, crisper and more scalloped.  Lasts well into summer before going to seed. 
This is a follow on lettuce from the early spring lettuces.  Origin is Italy.

[1066]

Good timing! As it happens I've been counting and bagging this weekend  ::)

will pm you Jayb - and a monster thank you for organising this seed fest  ;D

[lottiedolly]

I am sending Polish climbing French Beans from HSL, they are prolific and taste lovely, red orach which is a plant that was used in victorian ornamental vegetable gardens, the height is approx 3' and you treat the leaves the same as spinach when cooking. I have some blue osu tomato seeds and if anyone is interested from our group, I have brought back from my garden in jamaica lime seeds, the tree i have grows extraordinarily large limes and if anyone has a heated greenhouse or conservatory, i will be happy to send them a few seeds to try.

Kx

[Jayb]

Thanks 1066  ;D

I love your descriptions Galina, I hope it is ok as I've copied them to use in starting a list of all the varieties we will all be receiving. I thought it might be useful to have the varieties all in one place and thought I could copy it back here when everything is confirmed.

I particularly enjoyed reading your colourful descriptions and how you have found the different varieties. I think it would be most useful to the group if others are able to do a description too. Googling is fine, but  there is not always much about some of these varieties. Or perhaps any tips on the ease growing them for seed or the actual process of saving seeds of the varieties you have grown this year.

ps no worries if you aren't able to, I'll do my best to pick out key points if it is something I've not grown before.