What have you picked/planted today?

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george47

Banned
Aug 14, 2015
194
0
North Gulf of Mexico
angst, sorry to bother you but I downloaded skype after seeing your banner, I never had tried it before and felt I should - I do not know anyone who uses it, so downloaded skype and tried to make a call to you which failed. I already get free phone calling but had heard of skype naturally and was intrigued. Just letting you know if it shows a call from aria (used an old microsoft account of my wife's) that was me. (I am in USA but tend to use a British IP address and would have to pay into skype to call a land-line which I do not want to do till I see if I wish to use it and you are the only skype account I know. My calls to my parents in London are done through a different system) I would be aria.christian2 on my new, never successfully used, skype account.

Do not wish to be a bother -

Edit - an old shrimping video - looked it up to see when they were in last year - and this shows they are very late now and possibly will not make it like they usually do - I need to get shrimping, putting up a hundred pounds of them is good - [video=youtube;fi0N2Qed36c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0N2Qed36c[/video]


posted on the fishing thread too - but is part of the picked thing, sort of.
 
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boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
I like cauliflower leaves but wife doesn't which make divvying up a cauli easy.

Has anybody pointed out the rhubarb leaves are poisonous and should not be eaten?
[h=3]Rhubarb leaves poisoning - National Library of Medicine[/h]www.nlm.nih.gov › Home › Medical Encyclopedia



Rhubarb leaves poisoning occurs when someone eats pieces of leaves from the ...Do NOT make a person throw up unless told to do so by poison control or a ...
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Red, what is it all about? The cemeteries are full of the great and the useless - achievers and sliders. But the great - the ones who did things - seem to have been more worthy, I think. They are all lumped in there together though. Is wasting ones later years puttering around acceptable? It seems it would be not, given that it is all we have. Theophrastus, the successor to Aristotly used to say "Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend."

My epiphany followed the death of a beloved mentor. His words to me were

No-one lies on their death bed thinking "I wish I'd spent more time at work"

Do what you Love
Love what you do


Life is not a rehearsal
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
I like cauliflower leaves but wife doesn't which make divvying up a cauli easy.

Has anybody pointed out the rhubarb leaves are poisonous and should not be eaten?
[h=3]Rhubarb leaves poisoning - National Library of Medicine[/h]www.nlm.nih.gov › Home › Medical Encyclopedia



Rhubarb leaves poisoning occurs when someone eats pieces of leaves from the ...Do NOT make a person throw up unless told to do so by poison control or a ...

Might be worth pointing out that all green parts leaves, stalks and on the tubers of tatties shouldn't be eaten either. A lot of folk leave the humble spud exposed to sunlight in their kitchens and they start to turn green which can be bad news if you don't cut it off.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

bigbear

Full Member
May 1, 2008
1,061
210
Yorkshire
Well, today I harvested one of the Parsnips grown from Red's seed. Just one. It was two and a half pounds and straight as a die. Bloody good seed, that !
And it tasted great, Yes I k ow you are meant go wait for the first frost but temptation got to me.
Am now considering the purchase of a JCB for digging out the rest ?...............
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Well, today I harvested one of the Parsnips grown from Red's seed. Just one. It was two and a half pounds and straight as a die. Bloody good seed, that !
And it tasted great, Yes I k ow you are meant go wait for the first frost but temptation got to me.
Am now considering the purchase of a JCB for digging out the rest ?...............

Delighted the seed works for you :) I've selectively bred it for many years - rather like the monster garlic. Always take seed from the one you would rather eat is of course the key!
 

george47

Banned
Aug 14, 2015
194
0
North Gulf of Mexico
"No-one lies on their death bed thinking "I wish I'd spent more time at work""

I don't know Red - a slothful person on their death bed would likely say the opposite; thinking on the wasted years. Your quote seems more like one from someone who had a vibrant personal life and sufficient means. I would love to have a couple parsnip seeds - and was thinking of something I could offer as exchange - and thought my kumquats are ripening - will be marmalade time in a couple months. I grew one from seed, although it is tiny - they are a excellent hot house plant, can go down to 26f, -3.5c with no problem, and much colder when covered. A beautiful tree as they get covered with tiny, orange, edible fruits - but from seed will be a long project. Kumquats are very happy in pots.

I also grow the Asian yard long bean, red and green, - but in this age all seeds are only a mouse click away unless like yours they are a personal developed plant. I have yet to successfully grow a parsnip - our climate is warm, although carrots do amazingly well here, most things do with a mild winter (with a couple freezes) - but then it is tricky as the year is never predictable; will spring start early or late - get really hot suddenly, it changes as the entire continent drives this place sandwiched between the Gulf waters and the frozen winter continent. We are the knife edge with the great arctic contiguous to the land side, and the hot gulf to the South. Globally winds go from West to East so if a bulge is to the South - or to the North - it means a huge difference.

But I am a terrible gardener as I am so utterly un-systamatic. I just stick in seeds and water, compost, fertilize randomly - almost never use pest control, and the bad chickens always get into the garden periodically. But still I get crops, in spite of my haphazard ways.

Today I Must build those planters- or soon anyway. The raspberries I am propagating need putting out. I have nail filled salvaged 2X6 treated wood to make them - old weather worn stuff, but free - I am a huge re-cycler.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
I do batches of parsnip seed each Spring George. I'd be happy to send you some over then. If your soil and climate is okay for carrots, it'll be fine for parsnips. You should get more than a pound a square foot.
 

george47

Banned
Aug 14, 2015
194
0
North Gulf of Mexico
Thankyou red. Here I think we have to get parsnips planted by late January, or in winter - they are worse about heat than carrots - the problem is I heard their seeds have a very short life - and could be why I have zero luck with them, using seeds bought out of whack with the normal planting, so using year + old seeds. I have to get some carrots planted today, the ones I keep planting get roasted I think - and the seeds are very old. I am too frugal to buy any but out of date seeds for pennies on the pack. I could afford better, but this gardening for nothing is part of the whole hobby thing. I have feel I am growing stuff by my effort rather than buying ready made success. That is why I avoid buying ready sprouted seedling transplants and such - or full price seed packets - which are $2 - $3 for high quality packets. I use the 5 for $1 packets from the Dollar store, and especially when they are closing them out at the end of the season and are two cents apiece I buy them for next year. A sickness, I know, but is part of my hunting/gathering/gardening eccentricities. Not that I want to get others to give me free stuff - that is not why I asked - I wanted your parsnip seeds because they have an interesting provenance - are more authentic than some agri-corp seed packet. Aesthetics are very important in this DIY stuff. And if I get some of yours in spring I will use them the fallowing winter when they will still be viable.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
Need someone to come round and shell the damn things!

If I was closer I'd offer, quite enjoy sitting on the stoep shelling peas & beans with a glass of something of an evening......

Brings back memories from when I was a kid shelling peas with my family. This post kickstarted those memories a bit more.

11898600_1187779494613045_6787706809477627666_n.jpg
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Brings back memories from when I was a kid shelling peas with my family. This post kickstarted those memories a bit more.

11898600_1187779494613045_6787706809477627666_n.jpg

As a wee bairn there were sections of my paternal.Grandfathers walled garden I was allowed free roam of, the three colours of current bushes and the peas. The wall at the cottage back door was where he grew loads of hyacinths and I used to listen to their leaves squeak as I used to sit and shell the peas. My grandfather never spoke. Huge tall chap, always dressed in black, ate at a seperate table and always think of him looming in his seat by the fire not saying a word. In fact I only remember him speaking once. I was poking the fire in the main room and my Granny was telling me off for it. There was a deep rumble behind me and he said "Leave the boy be, he's doing no harm." I just sat looking at him, couldn't believe he spoke, and in defence of me. Surprised and chuffed.
Good memories, cheers for the reminder Santaman.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Good thread: believe I will dig some carrots and beets tomorrow.
Next thing is to pick out the bison sirloin roast for wine braised bison for Sunday dinner.
 

george47

Banned
Aug 14, 2015
194
0
North Gulf of Mexico
Thankyou Red, I am not sure of how to post addresses, I can give you my parents address in London as they send me letters and could send it on very easily - and there is always coming and going from there. Or give my address here, does one just post it and later delete it?

Of old times - My father, born 1920, grew up amongst a large farming, extended, family and has told me of his early years when it was time to get in the harvest - all the family would descend on the farms in turn and harvest. First a horse drawn cutter would drop the grain in rows, or hand scythes would be used. The scythes had a sort of basket which would catch the grain stalks into one shock quantity so it could be deposited in a pile, one swing from these powerful men. Then the piles would be tied into shocks using a length of the grain stalk - these weighted about 60 pounds each I think. Shocks would be stacked upright in a tripod with one laying over the top - and now could cure to the right water content and stay dry.

Wagons were used to collect this - huge horse wagons pulled by massive cart horses - the cart wheels as tall as a man so they could ride across plowed land. A man or two would ride the wagon stacking the shocks high as men used pitch forks to fling the shocks up onto it, all day they would do this back breaking work - the women and children working as hard. Hired, traveling, threshing machines and crew, would come and thresh out the grain, separating it into straw, chaff and grains into sacks. Massive machines run by long belts and a donkey engine. Huge meals would be set out for the large group assembled - men using over 5000 calories a day.

My father tells of his uncle that had two German Sheppard dogs and how they (with all the other's dogs) would run along side the men to kill the rats and mice - every tripod of grain having some rodents in ti. This would be some entertainment for the crews, and good for the community as the population would have become seasonally huge, - as the last shocks were pitched the rodents would run and be caught by the dogs.

Amazing, this is in living memory. He is one of the last WWII vets, and had such an amazing life. An expert skier, pilot, master blue water sailboat racer, marksman (He was captain of a nationally top pistol team when young) worked around the world - he actually surveyed and built the road from Kandahar to Kabul (he is civil engineer, and aeronautical engineer and surveyor) (why we lived there, 8 years in the region) just story after story if one asks - worked in the bush and in remote countries.

He jumped ship after WWII in Vancouver BC as it was taking too long to travel the coast to Alaska (after the war he bummed about, hitchhiking and doing jobs) and got a job teaching surveying at the University of BC where he met my mother wile hitching to work (his car had broken down). He was running late and so just stopped her at a light - he recognized her from the campus where she was studying art, and asked her to take him to his class. My mother later moved to San Francisco for a job at a newspaper and he fallowed her - they had become close - and got a job surveying in the remote towers in the Coastal mountains for the LORAN stations; based in San Francisco - and they married there........and so it went, always up to something.

Some quick googling - 1925 farm - about 4 minute begins the grain threshing - amazing.[video]http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/709[/video]

If that does not work I really recommend this link to it instead. http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/709

Edit to say Look at the size of those horses at 8 minute! This was high scale farming, tractors taking over but still - the horse farm at this level was an amazing technological achievement.
 
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rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
angst, sorry to bother you but I downloaded skype after seeing your banner, I never had tried it before and felt I should - I do not know anyone who uses it, so downloaded skype and tried to make a call to you which failed. I already get free phone calling but had heard of skype naturally and was intrigued. Just letting you know if it shows a call from aria (used an old microsoft account of my wife's) that was me. (I am in USA but tend to use a British IP address and would have to pay into skype to call a land-line which I do not want to do till I see if I wish to use it and you are the only skype account I know. My calls to my parents in London are done through a different system) I would be aria.christian2 on my new, never successfully used, skype account.

Do not wish to be a bother -

Edit - an old shrimping video - looked it up to see when they were in last year - and this shows they are very late now and possibly will not make it like they usually do - I need to get shrimping, putting up a hundred pounds of them is good - [video=youtube;fi0N2Qed36c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0N2Qed36c[/video]


posted on the fishing thread too - but is part of the picked thing, sort of.

Have you tried http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/28000016
 

george47

Banned
Aug 14, 2015
194
0
North Gulf of Mexico
I am such a frugal person I do not have a cell phone, let alone a smart phone. On the tube I am amazed at everyone holding their phone and focusing on it.

I did build 3 big planters from salvaged wood. I cut 16 2X6 pressure treated boards- from a set of of stairs being demolished, very weather worn. Then another 16 of 5/4X6 pt from a wheelchair ramp being demolished. These made 27" X 27" X 11" deep planters which is about 5 cubic feet. Sand weighs 100 pounds a cu ft.

Now where to put them - they are ugly, but then I want two for raspberries, and the others for who knows what - but flowers all spring and summer, at the base of the main plant in them. I have renunculus in the established planters - and then plant zinnia seeds too. Gumbo soup off the Red Marconi and red bell peppers - with okre and shrimp and sausage and garden beans.
 

george47

Banned
Aug 14, 2015
194
0
North Gulf of Mexico
I should be planting - yesterday I got a couple beet seeds in, they are such a troublesome crop for me. If they establish well - right heat and rain, they thrive. Once they get a bit stunted they never recover, and this is half the time. Got another row of carrots in - my sandy soil in a raised bed means the fragile starting plants have the problem of just never coming up.

Some beans are excellent, and the turnips, sweet potatoes ready to harvest.

Thankyou Red, anything you ever can think of from here.......
 

Herbalist1

Settler
Jun 24, 2011
585
1
North Yorks
Still picking my outdoor tomatoes. I know it's quite late in the season but they take longer to ripen here - lower temps and less sun. My dad who is only about 30 miles away but on the coast (but roughly same latitude) finished harvesting his weeks ago even though we both planted the same variety at the same time. Even so, I need to pick them as soon as they get the first blush on them and finish ripening them indoors. Still plenty more on the plants but I don't think they'll all ripen now - looks like chutney making is going to be on the agenda!
 

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