Incase anyone is interested play.com are doing this 2 disc set for £5.99 instead of £24.99 which is way cheaper than Amazon. Its a brilliant series and well worth buying at that price.
Thanks. At that price I'll buy it. :)
I've read the book and will be pointing OH at this link for a Christmas Present!
;D
That was a bit of an impulse buy, but never mind, it should be well worth it when it comes.
Thank you, I have ordered it too...they will be wondering why it is suddenly so popular! ;)
Me too!
;D
Oooooh, it's come, I wonder if I can manage to sneak off and watch it later....... 338 minutes, will keep me going for a while! :)
I managed to watch a good chunk of it today. Great stuff!
Started watching mine last night and managed to get up to March.Really interesting stuff and boy did the old gardeners work hard.I was very interested in the hotbeds under glass thought I might have a go at that myself.
If anyone is interested there is also the dvd of the series The Victorian Kitchen which again is £5.99 delivered :o :o :o and the Victorian Flower Garden which is £14.99 but out of stock.
Happy viewing!!! ;D ;D ;D
I remember really enjoying the Victorian Kitchen too, but mustn't be tempted by anything else... :(
I've asked for it from Santa. I did see the 3 DVD's together on offer but I can't remember where. Brain addled with websites. ???
I've watched a fair chunk of it, and the only bit I'm critical of is some bad beekeeping. The guy comes up with a travelling box with the bees in, puts it down, and takes the top off. Inevitably, a lot of bees fly out, and these will be lost as they haven't found their bearings at all. He then moves the frames straight into the hive. The bees are rushing about and looking very agitated, inevitably. It says a great deal for them that he's able to do this with his veil up!
What he should have done was to move the hive off the stand, and put the bees there, with the entrance (there will be a hole at one end) facing the same way as the hive. Then he should gently open the hole, nothing else, and if he's doing it in the day, shove a twist of grass into it to stop the bees all rushing out at once. The next day, they'd have oriented to the new site, and the box could be gently moved aside, the hive put back, and the bees transferrred without losing any or upsetting them.
Another thing is that the hive's set up with the entrance facing a path. So if the bees get in a mood, and all bees can, then anyone walking down the path will know all about it! I'd have faced it the other way, into the wall. Then the bees would be pushed up well above head level, and wouldn't bother anyone.
I did like the swarm though, and she coped very well if it really was her first.
Mine's not landed yet, which is perhaps as well as nothing would get done!
;D
Quote from: tulippa on December 05, 2006, 21:18:47
I remember really enjoying the Victorian Kitchen too, but mustn't be tempted by anything else... :(
Go on you know you want to ;) ;)
Quote from: Marymary on December 05, 2006, 22:02:31
I've asked for it from Santa. I did see the 3 DVD's together on offer but I can't remember where. Brain addled with websites. ???
Play.com do it for £17.99
Gave in and ordered one today, told my kids that is my present sorted for them, and that will be my Christmas occupied now!
Thanks for that Billy, now all I need is a portable DVD player & no one will hear a peep out of me all hols. :)
Mine arrived today but OH has wrapped it up with strict instructions not to open until Xmas
:'(
Quote from: saddad on December 08, 2006, 21:15:04
Mine arrived today but OH has wrapped it up with strict instructions not to open until Xmas
:'(
:o ;D ;D ;D
I won't reveal too much but I just had to share this with anyone who hasn't seen it because I am totally amazed they did this..........The Victorians used to smash the ice on their lakes and store it in a huge ice store which was located in the garden deep underground and were able to use the ice throughout the summer until September!!!!
Silly Billy! I watched that episode (for the millionth time!) yesterday!
I was wondering though ... did they use the ice to put in drinks etc.? Wouldn't there be bits of pond weed and fish pooh in it? ::) I worry about this sort of thing you know.
The series is excellent, for anyone dithering about buying it.
Oo can't have you frettin at the weekend trixie, I do believe the Victorian cook would probably use it to cool fruit and make ice cream and chilled puddings or soups, cooking vessels would be plunged into the ice so it wouldn't come into contact with the food. I think ice cubes put directly into glasses is quite a new thing (well, post industrial) - the Arabian Nights stories told how the sharbats were cooled, the sharbats were put in vessels into snow and/or ice, like making ice cream today, then whisked off to the Caliph. You could always ask Ahmed if you found yourself short of convo ;)
SSxx
Thank you Sprouty ;D I like the expression 'vessels would be plunged into the ice'!!!! Did you Google that ;D
And I wouldn't give Ahmed the satisfaction of me asking him a question about something I know nothing about ;)
They used clean ice without noticeable bits of weed, and fish poo usualy sinks rather than floating. I expect anything which was likely to be visible was well checked out before being used.
My mind is now firmly at rest ;D
;D ;D ;D
I suppose if your water supply was likely to contain cholera & such you might not be too fussed by a bit of duckweed. :)
I'm really looking forward to watching the DVD - just hope Santa doesn't forget it.
Is it edible I wonder? That would certainly solve two problems!
;D
Wot the DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fishes eat the duckweed & seem to survive.
:o
Think it was W.C. Fields who said he never drank water because fish **** in it!!
;D
This conversation is getting rather fishy, I'm not intending to eat the DVD after I've watched it cos Santa is bringing it!
;D
I received mine the other day, supposed to be giving it to the kids to wrap up for me, have mysteriously forgotten so far......................................must be all the Christmas stuff I've been doing.......SO tempted to open it up!!
Anyone tried the Victorian Flower Garden DVD? I've read the book, and it's probably going to be worth having.
;) Just ordered mine must be worth six quid, even if I just use the discs as bird scarer's. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
What struck me is how easy it is to get rare seeds with the Internet. I'm not sure when the series was filmed, but several of the rarities they talk about can be found easily via a web search. I couldn't find couve tronchuda, but I seem to remember that some people on the site grow it.
I believe the series was first shown in 1987 so it must of been filmed sometime before then.
The Victorian Kitchen Garden book was first published in 1987, and given a year for publication, 1986 is most likely.
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on December 16, 2006, 22:26:26
What struck me is how easy it is to get rare seeds with the Internet. I'm not sure when the series was filmed, but several of the rarities they talk about can be found easily via a web search. I couldn't find couve tronchuda, but I seem to remember that some people on the site grow it.
Yes, for the first time last year - shared some seed and still have some if you're interested Robert :) Pretty and productive on the plot right now :D
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/IMG_0360.jpg)
What size is it, and what season? We don't eat brassicas much, so a non-hearting cabbage might be just what's needed.
Seems to have a long season so far - my first year growing. I sowed in April, left it to get nibbled by the cabbage whites over the summer, and it's recovered beautifully. Individual leaves of winter cabbage are ideal for us - we don't eat brassicas much either :) You're looking at 3 plants there, on the edge of a 1m wide bed. The packet says allow 1m between plants.
When cut, the leaves flop very quickly, so I pick last thing, wash and fridge if not using immediately. Tend to cut out the middle stem and chiffonade the green leaves.
I'd expect it to bolt in the Spring?
Let me know if you'd like to try.
It sounds about right all round, as I don't want to fill up too much space with cabbagy things but I do use it occasionally. I'll PM my address, thanks.
Quote from: silly billy on December 08, 2006, 23:34:05
Quote from: saddad on December 08, 2006, 21:15:04
Mine arrived today but OH has wrapped it up with strict instructions not to open until Xmas
:'(
:o ;D ;D ;D
I won't reveal too much but I just had to share this with anyone who hasn't seen it because I am totally amazed they did this..........The Victorians used to smash the ice on their lakes and store it in a huge ice store which was located in the garden deep underground and were able to use the ice throughout the summer until September!!!!
Oh eck, haven't got the hang of the quotation bit!!
Someone said in an earlier posting about the Victorian practice of taking the ice of the pond, and storing it in underground caves.
The point I intended to make was, that the Victorians did not have the benefit of electricity, refrigerators, ice-making machines, etc. But they were very innovative. Some of the ice would have been used around the churn to make ice cream. Even they would not have been stupid enough to have put a chunk in the G&T.
My grandad was a gardener in service, somewhat older that Harry Dodgson, who presented the programme. I was born 1944, but I can remember grandad, using his Victorian know-how to provide us with peaches, pineapples and grapes, in the most austere of post-war times.
I really think you should take the Victorian gardeners seriously. They achieved some fantastic results, albeit in the name of the man who owned the 'big house'!!
Victorian ice houses are incredible; it says a lot about the society that some people admire so much that a few people could afford such gross extravagance while others were reduced to the most abject poverty.
Well, RB I think you are way out of touch with the people of the Victorian age. My granddfather was a gardener, and my grandmother was a cook, in service.
I think your stupid arrogance rearding my grandparents is, quite horrendous.
You decry them as serfs. Can you tell me what else they could have done. They worked hard and made a living for themselves and their families.
I wasn't decrying the ordinary people at all! I was decrying the people who hold up such an unequal society as something to be admired.
You never know, in the future they might look back on us with affection....HA
Don't forget these gardeners also created some long lasting varieties which are still with us! No GM and other nonsense for them!
;D
I suspect that if they do, they'll be crying up selected snippets of what's happening now, and ignoring large areas they don't fancy. Problem is, you can't take a bit of a culture in isolation, you have to look at it as a whole.
Agreed, you can also never really know what it was like or felt like to be there
but we can try MT... as the quote goes.. "the past is a foreign country.. they do things differently there"
;D