East Anglian Potato Day 2019

An old picture from their website.

Now in it's 24th year it's the longest running potato day in the country. It's held every February at Stonham Barns (the place not too far from home where I go for the local boot-sale.). Jointly organised by 3 groups............ Ipswich Organic Gardeners; Suffolk Organic Gardeners and Norfolk Organic Gardeners group.
It's quite a tradition now to go and wait in the long queue for the doors to open and then jostling round the tables to find the varieties of choice, which are all laid out in alphabetical order.

I joined the queue quite late for me and only had to stand in the gusty wind for 10 minutes, but at least the sun was shining and discussing it with a lady standing behind me in the queue we decided that there had never been a Potato Day in pouring rain, snow yes but never anything needing an umbrella. There seemed to be a lot more people there than recent years I reckon it's the Brexit Effect!!

This year the tubers were 17p each and  I bought 6 each of 4 different varieties. 2 first earlies........ Swift and Accord, and 2 second earlies Nadine and Charlotte. 6 is enough for the width of the bed I'm using this year. Not bothering with maincrop as I don't eat many potatoes, so I'll just buy a few at a time the rest of the year. I know nothing about Accord so that will be an interesting trial. The others are all ones we've grown often before.

I've put the first earlies out to chit ready for planting next month and the second earlies in the cold porch so they don't start producing shoots too soon.

I spoke to two people I knew, one had heard about Colin but the other hadn't. It's always difficult because I never know what to say when people didn't know he had died, they are always embarrassed when they don't need to be which makes me feel embarrassed too!

Anyway, Mid Suffolk District Council had their usual stall and I asked about their free bags and had one of the very last. No money now for giving anything away, they used to be sturdy jute, last year and this year- cloth, - next year nothing!

I'd  thought about  doing other stuff on Saturday morning while out but the wind was so strong all I fancied doing was getting home into the warm and watching the rugby. So that's what I did.

Finished a book, started another,  watched rugby and listened to the wind whistling around the chimney.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Sunday Through to Friday

Notes from my week..............

It's been an age since I made bread.  I eat very little so buy a farmhouse loaf or a multigrain loaf from the in-store bakery and get it sliced by them and pop it in the freezer, taking out just 2 or 3 slices at a time.
But the tomato and herb rolls I used to make are rather good eaten with lots of meals and it was about time to make a batch to freeze.
It was only after the dough had been pummeled by the dough hook that I thought to look at the dates on both flour and yeast.....the flour was BBE April 18 and the Doves yeast which is kept in the fridge was Nov16..........Ooops. Luckily I don't worry to much about dates! The yeast still made the dough rise and the rolls taste fine.

This photo, and you will have to believe me as they were too far away to photograph properly, is  5 hares on the field beside the house. I opened the curtains and saw them straight away so went down for the camera hoping the zoom would be good enough.....but just a bit too far. There were two more off to one side as well.  I was so pleased to see them because there has been a lot of illegal hare-coursing on the other side of the village. Hoped I would see them doing the boxing thing but they just ran around as if they were playing chase.

 

At last we had a bit of sunshine and a few degrees of warmth on Wednesday, it was a treat but still too wet for any garden work. After coming home from visiting Youngest and Florence I washed the car which was filthy from all the mud of the sugar-beet lorries and tractors on all the lanes around about. One problem with driving on narrow lanes is you often have to pull over when you meet something, which usually means into a muddy field gateway, full of huge muddy puddles which spread themselves all over the car. 

On Thursday I mixed up a batch of pastry and made 5 chicken and leek pasties (one chicken breast plus  leeks from the garden in a thick white sauce........one to eat and 4  into the freezer). Also made a pastry case and six mince pies.

 Very strong winds on Friday, I think they said it was Storm Eric. I sorted through some books for the charity shop, Ziffit won't take them because they are too old for bar codes or ISBN numbers. Also looked at the craft papers.........I have too many.......filling a tall chest of drawers. I put some in the car boot box but it really needs a huge sort out. As it wasn't too cold I did some more clearing up in the workshop.Also remembered to check what compost I had in the greenhouse and there is still half a bag of ericasious  left from the Camellia so I don't need to get any for the blueberries.

This week I have been thankful for

• Warmth, with oil for the boiler and wood for the wood-burner after hearing one of the shop volunteers talking about waiting 3 days for the Housing Association to get her boiler repaired, over the coldest days and with two young children and all they lent her were two fan heaters.
• BBC i player so I could watch the episode of Silent Witness that I missed before watching part two.
• a quiet swimming pool to swim up and down easily
• a really good book
• choosing the right day to do some washing and getting it dry on the washing line

Hope you all have a good weekend

Back Monday
Sue

A Fruity Temptation

Every Wednesday the email from Money Saving Experts arrives in the inbox, sometimes I open it to have a look, often I don't bother.
Last week I looked and spotted something that looked interesting .....................

£18 Berry Plants Bargain

And this was the bargain

If you go via this MSE Blagged Thompson and Morgan link you can get a bundle of 23 berry plants plus some vegetable seeds for £17.94 delivered (normally £56.95). You'll also get 200g of Incredicrop fertiliser. 
The offer ends at 11.59pm on Sun 3 Feb, or when 4,000 plant bundles have gone, which ever is sooner – so go quick if it’s something you want.
The bundle includes:

• 12 Strawberry bare root runners
• Six Raspberry bare root canes
• Three Gooseberry bare root bushes
• Two Blueberry potted bushes
• £10ish worth of vegetable seeds, in at least 3 different varieties
• 200g Incredicrop fertiliser

Now this IS a bargain that appealed. The raspberry canes will replace some that didn't survive last summers dry weather. The strawberry runners can be potted and kept in the cold frame for an early crop. If  the seeds are ones I won't use they will go in the car-boot box. There's room for the gooseberry bushes in the middle of the fruit bed and the blueberries will be a real treat as it's many years since I owned a blueberry bush.

I now need to stay here for at least 2 more summers to get the benefit of this bargain buy!

Hopefully they will arrive in good condition very soon and I can get them potted up. Just need some ericaseous compost for the blueberries.

Back Tomorrow
Sue