Hey guys I’m a little late at releasing this weeks podcast but here it is. This episode I discuss how

Hey all here is this weeks podcast titled autumn wind down. This episode i haven’t scripted as i’ve felt the scripts have been making the show seem wooden but let me know what you think.

this episode is updates on the plot including

planting garlic

clearing weeds

receiving a weed notice

watermelon update

wormery sorting.

so please listen and let me know any comments.

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hey guys here is episode 82 titled how I grow shallots.

I did write a script for this episode but somewhere after recording the podcast it kinda disappeared so erm sorry for that but you can still listen to the podcast.

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Hello and welcome to episode 81 of the veg grower podcast this weeks title is growing onions. Today’s date is the twelve of September 2016.

Today I’m going to discuss a few recent updates and then I want to discuss about how I grow onions. As I mentioned last week I’m going to start recording podcasts on how I grow certain vegetables in order to add more content to the shows.

Firstly you may have noticed in recent podcasts and in particular this weeks episode a difference in sound quality. I’m experimenting in order to improve the quality of the show so this week in really hoping sounds good to you. Let me know what you think.

So down the allotment to be been down there and done a bit too of weeding during the week and managed to get a supply of woodchip from my normal supply. This is where I also get manure from but I’ve noticed they are now charging for it so I may find a supply nearer home.

Anyway the allotment on Sunday morning I done most of my work. I’ve started shifting and sieving through the compost from the first bin and putting the in composted material back into bin 2. This will rot down further.

The compost the as spread around more trees and bushes ready giving them the nutrients etc to grow well. Now I haven’t completely emptied bin 1 but I cleared enough and will do a little bit each week.

After this I then emptied a couple of bags of potatoes. These are the homeguard potatoes and performed as well as the other bags so ok. The manure from these was also placed into compost bin 2.

After this I turned my attention to the tomatoes as it was clear that blight had got worse here. So again I cut away the infected material, which has reduced the plants quite a bit but hopefully will still produce. There was two plants that was completely unaffected. 1 of these plants was Crimson crush the blight resistant variety so I’m not surprised with this, however it does prove that these plants are resistant. The surprising thing was the other tomato plant that’s unaffected is a moneymaker variety which is the same variety as all the other plants that was affected. I’m more motoring this closely and might try to save some seed if this is resistant but we shall see.

After this I harvest some raspberries. The Autumn raspberries are coming into season now and are very very tasty and plenty. I also harvested a few more beans and a few carrots. I’ve also harvested an apple from the apple tree but it not the one but that means the rest will soon be ready too.

Ok now at home well the greenhouse the tomato plants in there where all infested with blight so I cut them away and pulled them up. I harvested what I could and got a few decent tomatoes but lots of green tomatoes which I’ve turned into green tomato chutney which is very tasty. I shall put this recipe up on the blog in a few days so if you want to use up green tomatoes then keep an eye out for that.

So now the greenhouse is clear of tomatoes I can actually see what’s going on in there and the chilli plants are growing well as are the sweet potato plants. The cucumber is still growing but looking a little worse for wear but I gave these all a good water and feed and we shall see what happens.

Outside the tomatoes are growing absolutely fine not a sign of blight at all. These again are the Crimson crush so I have to say so far they are winning on the blight front. I’ve had a few tomatoes from these plants too.

I’ve noticed the outdoor cucumber plant has a cucumber growing on it intact I would say it’s ready so shall be picking that shortly.

The chard planted last week appears to be growing happily too and hopefully will soon put on plenty of growth. The recent rain has probably helped here to be fair.

After this everything’s growing well and I’m getting plenty of blueberries and eggs from my garden so really can not complain.

So growing onions the main subject for today.[...]

Hello and welcome to episode 80 from the veg grower podcast it’s the 5/9/2016 and I’m titling this episode seed organisation.

Coming up today I’m going to talk a little about what I’ve been doing to prepare and organise my seeds for this next year being the 2016/2017 growing season but firstly what’s been happening on the plots.

Well down the allotment all is well. I’ve been down there trying to keep on top of the weeds but the weather this last week has been challenging. Raining one minute then bright hot sunlight the next which although has been good for plants it’s also encouraged weeds to grow.

I decided when I was there yesterday to completely empty the second of the compost heaps so with a spade I dug it out putting each spadeful of compost into a basket placed above my “wheelbarrow”. This shopping basket is basically mimicking a sieve, I had this basket lying around and thought it’ll do great for this job and i was right it did.

So whenever the basket was full i gave it a good shake and all the compost fell through leaving behind the un composted material which was placed back into the other compost bin. the compost was then placed underneath a couple of bushes and trees until it was all used up.

After this i decided to harvest some potatoes, in the same way i just mentioned i poured the potato bags into the shopping basket and sieved through. I emptied a bag of casablanca potatoes, a bag of home guard potatoes and a bag of aaron pilot potatoes. The manure that these where grown in have been added to the compost bin, along with the many many worms I found in there.

The results of the potatoes where ok, there was about a pound of casablanca potatoes but they where a reasonable size and nice and clean. The home guard was a little under a pound but again a reasonable size and nice and clean. The aaron pilot potatoes again around a pound out of the bag this where a reasonable size the skin on this was darker and a little rough texture.

Now when i say a reasonable size I mean most potatoes was about the size of my palm, so they are a little small but large enough to peel and use without getting annoyed, but they certainly will not win me any prizes. Now i have shown these in the video coming out later this week.

last week you may recall I noticed blight had started on the tomato plants here. last week i cut away the infected parts. well i am pleased to say that the infection has not spread that much. there was a bit more blight that i cut away again but nothing major. normally with blight it wipes out tomatoes in a few days so this is a result.

At home i planted out some chard plants I had growing in the potting shed. These have been planted just outside the potting shed in the little bed there. I have then covered these with a net to make sure the chickens don’t get in and eat the lot andIi will be keeping a close eye on the netting this time.

In the greenhouse I’ve noticed some of the tomatoes have blight so i shall be cutting away in there but the infection is bad in there unlike the allotment. Over the last week I have harvested a great many tomatoes including a rather large beefsteak tomato. these tomatoes have been extremely tasty and we made a pasta sauce using some of them. this was a simple recipe with tomatoes chopped and blitzed in a processor. Poured over some precooked pasta with some chopped mozzarella mixed in and placed int the oven for 10 minutes. It was delicious yet simple, quick and cheap.

I had a single cucumber growing on the plant in the greenhouse but the end started rotting so that was removed and thrown into the wormery.

One other point I’ve noticed at home has been with the herb plants basically i haven’t watered them enough that a great many have dried out and died back. I am hoping that with plenty of water that they may recover but if not then next year this may have to be replaced. that being said i really [...]

Hi everyone and welcome to episode 78 of the veg grower podcast titled storing root crops and today’s date is the 22/8/2016.

Today I’m going to talk about a few updates and then a few methods on storing root crops many of which I’ve done but also I’ve seen other adaption that should work well.

Firstly the allotment was down there yesterday and I started with more weeding, trying to remove more and more of the damn couch grass. I followed this by planting the bean seedlings I had these are some French beans and some borlotto beans all of which I should hopefully get some produce from. I then tied in the tomato plants making sure they where secure and followed this with a good watering and feeding.

As we had some strong winds on Saturday the netting had been blown over so I weeded the bed and planted in some swede seedlings while these where not in place. I the rebuilt the netting thankfully they where not broken in any way just the pegs that hold them down had come up in the wind and blown the netting over.

the family apple tree that has lots os apples on it, I noticed it was leaning over so I’ve staked that to make it more upright. I’ve only had a cane at this point so i will need to replace this with a decent stake at some point. it had also lost a single apple’ this was lying on the ground, it was small and not really edible so needless to say it ended up being given to the chickens.

This week I’ve harvested some runner and French beans. I picked some marjoram to use in a lasagna I was doing for tea and I’ve also harvested some rather tasty carrots.

these carrots were sown in mid may roughly and are now of a decent enough size to start using, of which I’m quite glad about really. although I don’t really have enough carrots in the ground to last I have enough to get us most of the way through the year.

so at the veg plot at home well not much really, as it’s this time of year not much in the way of jobs is happening. everything is growing well and the weeding is mostly done by the chickens. harvests of herbs and tomatoes are coming in nicely although something to note here is I harvested my first outdoor tomato. it could have perhaps done with a couple more days to ripen but I couldn’t help myself.

Today I have sorted out the saffron bulbs, before they set into growing. I basically emptied all the containers that I planted about 4 years ago. originally I planted 30 bulbs in 4 planters, well I had a lot more than 30 bulbs of which some have now been planted back into the original planters with an extra planter I brought today. the rest well some have gone to the winner of the members competition I ran on the website (congrats davros) I also have a friend who would like some so some are going to her. the rest I shall be buying more planters tomorrow and get them planted up.

ok so the main subject today storing and preserving root crops. now root crops I put into this list include carrots, beetroot and parsnips but I also consider onions and garlic in this area as well.

so as with all the methods I’ve discussed before freezing is by far the simplest and to freeze I simply peel and chop my produce down to the size I want depending on what the produce is. I then put in the freezer although the generally advice is to blanch it first. blanching is where you simply place the produce in hot boiling water for few seconds to stop the produce growing more and then plunge it in ice water to cool it before freezing. a little word of advice here never ever place hot items straight into the freezer always let them cool first, this is coming from someone who repairs fridges for a living.

anyway after blanching the produce can then be put in the freezer and its ready to go. when i do this i like to freeze each produce separately so I have frozen carrots and frozen parsnips etc but in the past I’ve also mixed vegetables to freeze together to make a f[...]

Hello and welcome to episode 77 of the veg grower podcast titled preserving fruit and today’s date is 15 of August 2016. My names Richard and today I will be discussing recent updates on the plots and ways of preserving fruits such as apples and pears I guess hard fruits as I’ve already covered soft fruits.

So firstly what’s been happening down the allotment. Well I’ve cleared lots more weeds from the beds and I’m trying to dig out the roots from the couch grass that just spreads and takes over. I’m hoping to totally eradicate this as it’s very invasive. Now couch grass looks a lot like ordinary grass except the root is very fibrous and long. It’s main problem is it is so invasive.

I had planned on strimming a lot of the overgrown area but my strimmer broke halfway round. Now I had this fault before and I managed to repair it after being told it was unrepairable. Basically the starter cord is fully pulled out and not retracting. Last time I replaced the spring of which I shall have to do again I believe.

But as the strimmer was out of action I decided to use a hoe to clear all the crap from the over grown area which worked but is a lot of effort to clear a small area. However it works and if I keep on top of hoeing it should stay weed free until I’m ready to build beds and plant etc.

I harvested a bag of Casablanca potatoes although I still had more home guard I wanted to see how these had done. And it was another 1lb of potatoes from this bag so the same as the home guard. This is making me think that the method I’ve used to grow potatoes this year is not successful. Now this year I’ve planted potatoes in rotted horse manure with 3 seed potatoes one-third from the bottom and another 3 a third from the top. I think the horse manure need to be more rotted down and I’ve planted too many per bag so next year I shall be only planting 3 seeds per bag at the most.

After this I’ve harvested all the remaining shallots digging over this bed to make sure none was missed and removing any roots. My plan now is to cover in compost and manure ready for garlic planting next month. I they harvested more runner and french beans and a few more peas.

I’ve also harvested a couple of leaks because these two plants had started to send up a flower spike and I didn’t want them to bolt before I could use them. this is telling me that perhaps the leaks need more watering so I gave them a good soaking with water of which I shall continue during the week.

so at home the greenhouse is just a complete jungle, I’ve tied back the cucumber plant in there and tried with the tomatoes but they just have taken over. finding ripe tomatoes is challenging as i cant see for all the greenery but they are there and I keep picking a few every day.

the water melon in the potting shed is growing really well and has in-fact got some very small fruits on it so I may well have a success with this plant this year. fingers crossed.

this weeks featured photo for this episode is in-fact a photo I took the other day of the flowers on the small pumpkin plant growing outside I’m pleased to say these are now flowering and hopefully setting to fruit although I haven’t really seen any sign of fruits yet.

over the past two episode I’ve discussed the netting cages I have recently purchased. you may remember that I placed one of these over the little bed in front of the potting shed to protect the lettuce and radish seedlings I had there. well I didn’t quiet get the ends sealed enough and one of the chickens found their way in and ate many of them the little buggers…… however it couldn’t find its way out till I fetched her out so I see that as punishment.

ok so todays main subject preserving fruits such as apple and pears of which we will all soon be harvesting these if we are not already. This series I’ve been discussing over the last few [...]

Hi guys and welcome to the veg grower podcast episode 76 titled preserving salad crops.

Coming up today there’s a few updates followed by a chat about preserving salad crops but first I want to talk a little about my trip to west dean gardens chilli fiesta on Saturday.

Now as many of you may know I go there most years I thoroughly enjoy the event and walking around the walled gardens and this year didn’t disappoint.

It’s pretty much the same as previous years but getting bigger and more popular with plenty of entertainment.

My first stop was a stall we always visit selling some fantastic cakes and pies which we brought before they got to busy and the bloke on the stall recognised us again. We then walked around the many stalls selling chilli related items from chilli seeds and plants to chilli sauce and chilli clocks. There was even stalls selling sombrero to really and effect.

We wandered around and sampled many chilli products I also visited the garlic farms stall and brought some seed garlic but more on that another time. We then walked around the walled vegetable gardens and seen the amazing things they do such as arch’s using apple and pear trees and the greenhouses full of melons etc etc. Really worth a visit.

We then had lunch while watching some belly dancers and Mexican band before walking around the grounds again and the stalls. I brought some chilli seeds for next year. We also watched a gardening expert talk about how to grow chilli a and tips for success. In another tent was a cookery demonstration again chilli based but thoroughly enjoyable.

In all it was a throughly good day I have recorded a video while walking alarming that I shall upload soon. But I do recommended visiting this site they are having an Apple event in September I believe of which we may attend.

Ok so updates well on the allotment I mainly have weeded and harvested. The first runner beans have been picked and also getting a supply of climbing beans. All the onions are now harvested and only a few shallots left. These beds will now be hoed completely and have well-rotted manure and compost added ready to be planted along with some chicken manure and garlic feed ready for planting.

The frames I erected last week are still standing and serving we’ll although the he broccoli is going to flower very fast. However the leeks are fattening up really nicely now.

A good watering and that’s all I’ve managed on the allotment at home the seedlings I sowed last week are through these are more climbing beans and cannalini beans along with some cabbage these will need potting on soon or planting out.

I’ve also been plaiting more garlic of which I’ve recorded I won’t try to explain this as a video shows it better but my supply of garlic and onions in the shed is rather large.

More and more tomatoes are coming from the greenhouse but still waiting on courgettes or cucumbers etc fingers crossed.

So that’s the updates now preserving salad crops the main subject today I’ll start with defining what I class as salad crops. I mean crops such as lettuce tomatoes and cucumbers in this but as always not every method will work for the crop.

Salad leaves are difficult to preserve they can last for up to a week in the fridge but that’s all I have to preserve them instead I rather use successional cropping and keep growing leaves right through winter to keep me going in the winter which is very very easy to do but may mean growing indoors on a windowsill.

Drying or dehydrating works well with items such as tomatoes think sun-dried tomatoes and your there but while it is possible to dry in the sun in this country, it may not be the safest way instead I use my trusty dehydrator. With tomatoes I simply cut in half scoop out the seed and dehydrate for 4 hours approximately. These store well in a jar and can be used for many other items such as celery. To use I use as they or I soak them overnight i[...]

Hey guys and welcome to the veg grower podcast episode 75 title preserving soft fruit. It’s the first of August 2016.

Coming up today a few updates on the plots and then in going to discuss how I like to preserve soft fruits such as raspberries and blueberries.

So let’s start down the allotment of which I was down there yesterday the only time I’ve managed to get there all week.

Mainly I was concentrating on weeding again especially around the globe artichokes as that was full of bindweed. The globe artichokes themselves I’ve had to stake in order to keep them from going over my neighbours plot. I followed this by putting over some netting over the Brassica bed. This was in place of the cane frame I had made because the cane frame wasn’t very good and very flimsy. The new netting was purchased from Wilkinson a normally £12 I got them for £3 each. They fold up small and are held in place with tent pegs. On this weeks YouTube video I have filmed them in place so keep an eye out for that.

I then harvested more onions. These has bulked up fairly nicely now and are of a reasonable size. I’ve also harvested all the remaining garlic of which the rest was poor bulbs but always next year as I always say. I harvested a few more raspberries and the last of the gooseberries which has been a pretty good year for gooseberries. I’ve also hoed under the gooseberry bush again and I felt the soil here was a little dry and hard but a sharp hoe managed to cut any weeds off and a good water sorted the soil out.

I’ve also harvested the first of the French beans again a reasonable size but not many but very very tasty.

Now back home well as I record this show it’s some light rain of which I’m glad for but could do with a bit more rain if I’m honest as my water butts are getting empty and I need them full so I don’t resort to using tap water.

I’ve had a bit of a tidy up in the potting shed throwing away rubbing and finding space to place things especially while I have onions and garlic drying in there of which by the way are drying very nicely and intact we have started using some in the kitchen.

We are currently harvesting lots of raspberries from home every few days and I mean a good punnet full every few days plenty for smoothies and eating and also some for the freezer.

I’ve also planted a melon plant in the veg patch in a boot impress pot as I’ve discussed before. This melon plant I brought in already grown and so far it seems to be growing well with a good watering in we shall see if it manages to fruit. In the potting shed I’ve actually put the watermelon plants into bigger pots in order to grow them in here as they seem to be growing better here rather than the greenhouse.

Ok so that’s about it with the updates so let’s discuss preserving soft fruits. Now when I say soft fruits I mean fruits such as raspberries and blueberries not so much tomatoes or salad fruits which I will discuss on another podcast.

Ok my first way of preserving them is freezing a very simple method really I just simply put them in a pot or bag and freeze them in large quantities. This way does let fruit stick to each other so a way to avoid this is to first place the fruit on top of baking paper on top of a baking tray. The fruit shouldn’t be touching and place this tray in a freezer for a few hours. Once fully frozen simply place in pot in the freezer ready for use.

My next method is dehydrating, simply placing fruit in a dehydrator is the only way I do this method as solar is not going to be strong enough in my part of the world.

Dehydrating has interesting results when used on fruit as it can change the sugars in fruit. That being said this method does keep most of the nutrients found in the fruit so it is a healthy snack in many ways.

As with all methods it’s worth experimenting to get this right but if I use blueberries for example I would pla[...]

Hi guys I’m richard from the veg grower podcast this is episode 74 titled preserving herbs and it’s the 25th July 2016.

Coming up today I’m going to discuss a few updates on the plots and then I am going to discuss a few methods of preserving herbs in the first of a series of episodes about preserving our harvests. It’s been a hell of a week for me with work as saying me of you know my day job of a fridge engineer means I’m very busy in the summer when it gets hot but I’ll much rather be in the garden.

So firstly the allotment tried the get there during the week but all I managed was to drop of some wood chip and put a net over the brassicas but yesterday I managed a few hours down there. The brassica cage is holding up but a little worse for wear those clips for making a frame from bamboo canes are pretty rubbish in my opinion. Talking of the brassicas I’ve noticed that some of the broccoli planted last week has gone to flower which is no use to me so I’ll be digging those ones up soon and monitor the rest.

I spent about two hours weeding the beds again seems to be a running theme at the moment the damn weeds seem to grow as soon as my back is turned and it seems to be mostly bindweed and couch grass. But I did manage to give the root bed a good weeding and while I was at it I harvested some carrots just to see how they was growing, and while they where small they were a useful size, by my calculations they have been in about ten weeks so give a few more weeks and they should be a much better size. I also put in some beetroot plants from the potting shed towards the front of this bed it’s probably a bit late for them but we shall see how they get on.

I then harvested a bag of homeguard potatoes of which I had a pound of potatoes in so a bit disappointing but enough there for us. However the potatoes that came out where incredibly clean and healthy looking.

I’ve also built another fruit bed this now needs cardboard in the bottom and then filling with manure ready for a fruit plant to go in later in the year.

I’ve also hoed under the gooseberry bush but the ground here is very very hard which hasn’t made hoeing very easy at all joys of a clay soil and the summer heat I guess.

Now at home I wish I had a lot to say I’ve done but there really isn’t much. The greenhouse has continued to have overgrown tomato plants everywhere I had a go at tying them back but it’s still a mess however I have harvested the first tomatoes which are very tasty.

All the plants in the ground are growing nicely and the pumpkins are even starting to flower again a little late but better late then never. That being said I have lost all my cabbage seedlings that where growing in the cold frame I believe they have been eaten by slugs.

IT seems like this cold frame is susceptible to slugs where as the frame where I place things for there final hardening off seems ok.

Ok so the main topic today preserving herbs. I wanted to talk about this today as I’m preserving a lot of herbs at the moment as the supply is there to be used and I want to make the most of my herbs. Now I should say that not all methods work for every herb some are delicate that one method my not work for that particular herb but then there are other methods that will work for that herb. Unfortunately in the show I will not be able to go through every herb but this is more an overview but I shall in the future make a post with lists of herbs and methods so keep an eye out for that.

One of The simplest method has to be air drying, that is simply where you hang a bunch of herbs to dry. I have done this with mint, rosemary and sage. I’ve found it works best in the dark as light seems to make the herb go brown. To do this method is simple you hang it some where warm dark and well ventilated until dry and crumbly usually a couple of weeks then store the herbs in jars somewhere dark ready to u[...]