I want to be unconventional, but....

[bluemoon]

Right, it's seed buying time again, (I leave everything until the last minute). And I have the usual decisions to make - except that a member of my family is driving me mad. For her tomatoes have to be red, and round, and medium-sized; carrots have to be orange and conical. She refuses to even try anything which is not the expected colour or shape so last Sunday, a lunch which included Rubine sprouts (wrong colour) and Paris market carrots (wrong shape), was largely left on the plate, untasted. I grew Sungold tomatoes a few years ago, and while everyone else was raiding the greenhouse to get at them, their double sin of smallness and orangeness ensured that she spent the summer eating only supermarket bought toms.

Even with the lotties we have limited space to grow everything we would like to, so growing something special (for that read conventional) for her alone is not always an option. Which means she misses out on the fresh stuff or, as is increasingly happening, we end up only growing and eating a restricted number of varieties.

As I look through the seed catalogues I'm seeing so many things that I'd love to try, but can't......Ah the frustration!

If this was a child or a teenager I could deal with it but, infuriatingly, it's my MUM.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest I feel much better now. Right then......Moneymaker.....Bedford Fillbasket......Early Nantes.........

[Flummery]

Your Mum? That's the problem with parents. You can choose to have children or not. But never have parents, that's my advice.

[shirlthegirl43]

You can grow purple dwarf beans and they look lovely but when cooked they turn green. Also many of the blue skinned spuds change to white when boiled (but if steamed, like the beans, you can keep some of the different colour)

Good luck with the challenge!

[smallblueplanet]

Matina is a very tasty round, red tomato. They don't have to be weird to be different.

[Birdie Wife]

T&M were doing a red carrot called "Healthmaster" - I seem to remember that darker veg has more of the good stuff in it. Maybe purple carrots might be a step too far, but would she try something just a teeny weeny bit different if it was billed as being extra healthy?

Just a thought, but what does she think about alllotment veg? For some people the thought of all that dirt seems unhealthy and they would rather their veg comes in plastic packets! Does your veg reinforce all those stereotypes to her, and more besides?

Maybe there will just be no pleasing her. Other people are beating a path to your door for spare veg, so grow what you want and leave her to her own devices. She won't know what she's missing out on, but you can't force her to eat it.

[bluemoon]

She's fine about allotment veg. Born in 1937, most of the foods of her childhood reached her plate via the 'Dig for Victory' campaign, so a trip to our plot brings back all sorts of memories for her. Having said that, her grandparents did keep chickens and pigs on a (very small) smallholding at that time, but she's still declared that when we get our chickens in the spring she has no intention of eating their eggs. This is because I bought her half a dozen eggs from another plot holder who I know only feeds his hens on organic foodstuffs, and she said their yolks were a 'funny colour' (in other words a natural yellow instead of the chemically produced day-glo orange that she's used to).

Infuriating though she is I am more than a little fond of the silly old thing and would love her to eat loads of the stuff we produce in order to keep herself healthy, which is why I'm giving in to a lot of her fads. I'm looking at growing more heritage vegetables, which look a little more 'normal', but which might have a better flavour than todays hybrids.

Having posted this yesterday, I mentioned the problem to a couple of friends last night. One suggested introducing one new thing every few months, like you would with a difficult infant, which might work; the other came up with a solution which could just be brilliant. Going to mention it to Mum when I see her this afternoon. I'll keep you posted.

[Flummery]

Just got some heritage peas which have purple pods. Called Lancashire Lad. If you can show her that something is an old variety will she still squirm out of eating it?

[Snadger]

Just got some heritage peas which have purple pods. Called Lancashire Lad. If you can show her that something is an old variety will she still squirm out of eating it?

Shouldn't have any problems there Flum as the peas are still green and round!

[bramble]

My mother was born in 1918 and i am happy to say she will give a try to anything once. I have hrown all types and colour of fruit and veg and she will eat them all. Thank goodness for small mercies. She is almost stone deaf and has Alheizmers so our tv is turned up full volumn so she can hear it and as regards conversation, well i spend all my time answering the same questions or trying to explain things she is never going to understand. BUT, at least she will eat everything put on her plate.

[Flummery]

Shouldn't have any problems there Flum as the peas are still green and round!

That's the trick Snadger. She eats the 'conventional' peas, then you show her the pods! "See, you DO like funny coloured veg, mother!"

[yoanbob]

cant you not tell her where stuff came from and just chop it up small to get over the wrong shape thing? like you do with kids? then when you've convinced her on a few verieties just serve her the same as the rest as the family and hope she will be grown up about it?
or you could guilt trip her, mum I need you to eat whats on your plate or the children will start being fussy?

[Snadger]

That's the trick Snadger. She eats the 'conventional' peas, then you show her the pods! "See, you DO like funny coloured veg, mother!"

Point taken! A bit like me kidding the kids one time that rabbit was chicken!

[Flummery]

Burrow Chicken?

[piskieinboots]

threaten to put her in a home and use her room for a pool table - a la Peter Kaye only joking honest

[bluemoon]

On Friday night, admittedly after a bottle or two of Red, a friend came up with a plan which I thought, at the time, was sheer brilliance, but had no hope of working. This mate, along with another friend and I, share a very small plot, which we've just taken on in order to grow herbs (about a quarter of the size of my 'normal' plot). These particular allotments aren't popular due to their tiny size and the fact that the rents are the same as for a proper plot. It's OK when three of us split the rent, but I'd not take one on to use in the normal way.

'Why don't you see if your mum would take on one of the little plots?' my friend says, 'It would be perfect just for her and, being a pensioner, she would pay a reduced rent.' Well I told her it was a great idea, but that was the Shiraz talking. My mum moving from the telly to do an allotment? It would just never happen. Anyway, Saturday afternoon, more as a joke than anything, I told Mum about it and, unbelievably, she's gone for it! She says she'll need help from my OH with the heavy work and that I'll have to start her seeds off for her, but she's actually raring to go.

We took her on a tour of the lotties yesterday afternoon (the wind driving a freezing rain at us horizonally - she might as well see it as it really is) and she chose the plot next to our herb bed. I've just phoned the lotties office and the lady there is holding the plot for her for a few days in order to give her chance to write a letter requesting to take over the tenancy.

Her plan is to give half of it over to soft fruit, which she loves, and use the rest mainly for toms, and to grow peas and beans for her freezer. Four raised beds should do it and, as if to prove that this was all meant to be, I've just been offered a 6"x6" greenhouse by number 2 daughter's neighbour, which I'll pass on to Mum. So it looks like she's going to get fresh air along with the fresh veg - and who knows, in time she might even grow bored of growing the same things year in and year out and get a little more adventurous on her own initiative.