Early winter thrills

We had an excellent produce sale last Friday and everything sold out in about five minutes, which was very gratifying and shows that Belleville parents quite literally have great taste [quite literally? - Ed]. We sold spinach, Swiss chard, chinese salad and pak choi.

Swiss chard 'Bright Lights' (right) which is a stunning plant (try some in your flower beds next year?) looking quite literally good enough to eat [Hmm - Ed].

For those who think the growing season is over...... The usual winter crops like parsnips are enjoying the mild weather (ours have all been harvested now) and the perpetual spinach is quite literally living up to it's name [what the ...!.? - Ed].


But the exciting thing is that the chinese salad is still going strong (including the Pak Choi) and the Winter Little Gem seedlings are doing well in my greenhouse and should be ready for planting out in a couple of weeks. I may even use a cloche for them although in theory they shouldn't need one. It's all soooo exciting [calm down -Ed)

[Left] Weird looking but delicious chinese lettuce, part off the the chinese salad collection that seems to enjoy the cold.

[Right] Winter Little Gem in the greenhouse

[Below] Parsnips picked in October

Wild Garden - The Big Clear Out

Today was an 'open day' where volunteer parents (and a teacher) cleared out the rubbish at the site and pruned or removed bushes that were in the wrong place or were inappropriate for the wild garden. Some were dying, some were covered in thorns. We also removed the really grim looking chain link fence and chicken wire that jst acted as a collection point for leaves and bits of rubbish. It's looking a lot better now (and lighter too) but more tidying up work is still needed before we start work on planting and erecting insect and bird houses. We'll probably have another session next Sunday.

Sauce, tools and the dreaded blight!

Green Team members Lara & Joe join Lucas to show off the giant Radiator Charlie Mortgage Lifter tomato

[Photo courtesy of The Wandsworth Borough News]

It's been a busy week for the Green Team who have also been invited along to a garden tool recycling project run by the Conservation Foundation in conjuction with HMP Wandsworth. The general public have been invited to deposit their worn out and damaged garden tools at recycling centres (such as the one near Wandsworth Bridge), and these tools have then been repaired and refurbished by prisoners at Wandsworh prison.

Belleville were donated a full set and it is hoped that these can be used in the construction of the wild garden which is due to be built before the end of the year (email me if you'd like to help with this project).

The cold, wet weather of a couple of weeks ago took its toll and blight swept through the tomato plants - we lost more than half of them. Blight is characterised by brown patches that appear on branches and stems and soon reach the fruit which would go brown and rot, given the chance. The disease spreads rapidly from plant to plant. In theory the plants should be burned and tomatoes shouldn't be grown in the same soil for three years to halt the spread of the disease. Nasty.

On a happier note the Cream Sausage tomatoes grew very well and I made a sauce based on an Italian recipe.














You basically heat onions and garlic, add the chopped yellow tomatoes, add a yellow pepper and when cooked, blend to make a sauce which goes well with pasta and fish in particular.



Currently the foxes are driving me mad and we've had to resort to physical barriers to stop them destroying the new crops [right]


The mini Indian summer has helped the surviving to tomatoes to ripen.

The giant Radiator Charlie Mortgage Lifter is no more. I ate it.
Almost all of it.

And it was extremely tasty which you might not expect such a whoppa to be. Up there with the Coeur De Boeuf that we ate in France in August. I added a little seasoning, extra virgin olive oil and a drop of balsamic, and wow, tomato heaven.
Served with grilled Haloumi. Yum. Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter was the success of the year, especially considering the poor weather. I'll be selling seedlings and small plants in the playground next April for sure.

While we're on the subject of sauce, we've made use of the surplus by making lots of tomato sauce, some spicy using chillies from the garden, and these have been sold in the playground for the PTA.
The most recent batch we made was a simple blend of tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar and seasoning.

A new academic year, three new monsters!

LOOK OUT, IT'S BEHIND YOU! (Monster No1)

[Click on any picture to enlarge]

A new academic year starts at Belleville and there are some new seedlings to be planted, new parents to involve and older crops to dig up and put on the compost heap (along with the old parents)

Left: New parent gardeners wondering what they've let themselves in for. They/you can receive the email newsletter about produce and sales etc by emailing jd@motionrecords.com

Right: They were spicy green
chillies but now they're
larger red chillies.
What does it all mean?

MONSTER No2.

Left: Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter demonstrating its claim to be the world's largest tomato. Yes it looks like three sections but it's actually one tomato. It weighs 920Kg and the circumpherence is 18 1/2 inches. The Wandsworth Guardian photographed it with Lucas (nepotism) and two of the green team.

Right: New crops: oriental salad including Mizuna lettuce and pak choi. Note the homemade protection from the fox (that dug some up yesterday) and footballs.

Below: Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) ready for planting.




To save time I ordered these as seedlings from Dobies. They arrived in the post and as I wasn't around they might have died in their box were it not for the quick thinking of Robert De Niro (lookalike Baki) who planted them in the window box. I think he has it in for me, as he didn't label which were which. Now only time will tell....

.

MONSTER No3 Below: The hazards of vegetable gardening. I spotted this man eating spider 'Spideris Horiblis' today next to the giant Tornado F1 tomato plant. Weighing in at roughly 1 Kg it paralyses with a nip of its sharp little teeth and then eats you slowly from the feet upwards. So if you don't see me for a few days and the spider looks bigger.....

Belleville goes exotic

[Above & below] Three Aubergine plants in all their glory.
For some reason these are doing much better than expected.

The variety is Long Purple, and it's obviously well suited to the rather cool weather we've been having.(Cream Sausage tomatoes in the background).

The chillies and peppers are also doing well. All sorts of varieties are thriving again despite the weather. The one disappointment is that the pumpkins and squash have been a disaster - they grown to about two or three inches and then rot or wither and die. I'm blaming the weather. Nothing to do with my incompetent gardening obviously.

There's also a new crop of oriental salad (Mizuna, Pak Choi etc) which is something of an experiment. Looks good though!

Next produce sale is today (Sunday) at 6pm, Wakehurst Rd entrance. There are LOTS of tomatoes, as well as the above crops.

Post holiday produce

Just back from our hols and we have a new look for the Belleville blog. We've also harvested lots of tomatoes which are now ripening nicely.


Two Omar's Lebanese tomatoes alongside a couple of giant Radiator Charlie Mortgage Lifter tomatoes [right]
We also have spinach, chard, rocket. The carrots are just about ready but too small. The parsnips are also doing well.



Chillies and aubergine are also coming along nicely, and should be available in a couple of weeks, touch wood.

STOP PRESS: Below is a BRANDYWINE tomato, considered by some to be the tastiest tomato in the world. This one looks slightly more weird than they normally do so I didn't sell it. Which meant I could eat it myself. It was VERY tasty, so look out for them at the next produce sale on Wednesday (if any more have ripened by then). Midday and six pm is the plan.