Catherine Fennell's book HOME GROW & COOK WHAT YOU SOW

We went to Ballincollig last Saturday for the launch of Cathrine Fennell's book, HOME GROW & COOK WHAT YOU SOW. She has an infectious enthusiasm for growing and cooking her own food. We are delighted that she will be coming to our Open Day on June 6th to sign books.

Lentils from Glengarriff

I was sent these lentils from Elizabeth who lives in Glengarriff. They were lost from the Swabian Alb in Germany and rediscovered near St. Petersberg. They produced a crop in Glengarriff so we are giving them a go. In spite of the cold weather they have come up outside.

more maca pics

I bought a packet of yellow, and one of red maca, but most of the seedlings came yellowy -green. Two are red. I included the grubby finger for scale.

Maca

The maca survived the winter and looks quite happy amongst the weeds. There isn't a lot of it and its not very photogenic.

Gortahork cabbage

I am not a big fan of cabbage but it is popular especially the giant Gortahork cabbages that the Irish Seedsavers distribute. Most appeared to have died in the bad frosts but green shoots are emerging from the slime. We should have seed this year. The spring cabbages Offeheim mostly died in the frost. Out of about 100 plants 20 have survived, heavy selection for a cold winter. It is a small population to save seed from.

Talet, like it is

These seeds arrived in the post today from Owen of Radix. His blog is the most entertaining one I know of. Also known as the American Hog Peanut, Amphicarpaea bracteata is native to eastern North America and was a popular food of native Americans. It can reproduce either by flowers which open and are pollinated, or by cleistogamous flowers (which develop into seeds without opening, following self-pollination). The cleistogamous flowers can be above ground or below ground. The seed pods are both above and below ground. It will be interesting to see how they do here. I would love them to naturalise in the woods. I have potted them up in the polytunnel and will pamper them this year.

Monsanto patents heat tolerance in brccolli

Do you know where your seeds are coming from? It gets scarier and scarier; have a look at this