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Welcome back to our weekly follow us! If you missed the last twenty-three weeks, the links to them are above - and as usual - the key is at the bottom: scroll down now!
Weather conditions have once again reverted to type and proved to be exceptional this week - with sunny conditions throughout and daytime temperature reaching 300C (100C above the seasonal average!) A look back of the weather data for this year reveals that the 300C threshold has been exceeded every month for the last 6 months which just isn’t normal!
Daytime temperatures climbed from 180C at the beginning of the week to a high of 300C, before falling back to 200C. The historical average for mid-September is 200C - proving temperatures were exceptionally high during the middle part of the week. Night-time temperatures have been slightly below the historical average of 120C, with 100C seeming fairly typical, and a high and low of 140C and 5.60C, respectively. There was no rainfall and wind has been moderate.
Pea ‘Half pint’ (syn. ‘Tom-Thumb’) has been removed from Planter 1 and replaced with Lamb’s lettuce (also known as ‘Corn Salad Vit’), and Land Cress (which is also known as ‘American Cress’). These are perhaps the two hardiest winter lettuce varieties and both have a waxy cuticle which provides protection from low temperatures (they can quite happily freeze and thaw without damage) - meaning they don’t need protection in the form of a cloche. The plants are low growing (less than 8 cm), spreading and don’t require training; it is for this reason they have been broadcast-sown rather than line-sown. To do this the planter is divided diagonally into two using a cord line from training rods positioned in two corners.
As an aside, from our searching we did also come across a great recipe for making vegetable stock using the pea shells (and one that allowed us also to use up the stalks of the parsley along with carrots and leeks from other planters!). The link is available, here.
The quartet of herbs in Planter 2 have suffered these recent high temperatures without complaint and would seemingly go on indefinitely. However, the decision has been taken to replace them next week with Spring Onion ‘White Lisbon Winter Hardy’. For this reason, we’ve has been focused on the best way to harvest and preserve the herbs. Good advice abounds (though much is contradictory) and we’ve trialled preserving parsley by drying it (Low temperature oven for 2 hours with turning every 30 minutes) and freeze drying (freezing for 2 hours). Both methods produced good results but we’d favour the freezing method as this allows it to retain its colour and more flavour. The plants were really dry when picked - with no excess moisture and we’ve managed to end up with loose flakes rather than a mass of ice containing flakes. We will leave the Coriander for as long as possible and try to preserve the green seeds in brine, as they can be used a bit like capers (apparently)!
Mustard ‘Red Frills’ / Mustard ‘Golden Streaks’, Mustard ‘Red Giant’, Mustard ‘Mizuna’ in Planter 3 have been thinned for the first time this week, with half the seedling removed to leave 18 in each row. The plants have grown rapidly and are slightly top heavy, so the plant training was installed immediately afterwards to prevent toppling (which can occur when plants which have hitherto provided support alongside are removed). The plants are in excellent condition and remain free of flea beetle damage.
Finally, harvesting of Kale ‘Emerald Ice’ and Kale ‘Nero di Toscana’ (Cavolo Nero) in Planter 4 has continued with the selective removal of mid-sized leaves, mostly from the lower portion of stems, to maintain distance (non-social!) between the rows of plants. New growth has not suffered flea beetle damage.