Chitchat thread #24

[Snoop Puss]

Fingers crossed all OK for Mr GF. Sounds like more soup for the next few days, then! And judging by the cooking tonight thread, he won't be sorry. I love home-made soup. Looking forward to the cold weather just to have more of it. Good for the soul, soup is.

Wow! You had a busy day, Flo. That's a lot of pastry.

The Lidl 'hobnobs' are very sweet, Nicos. Not sure if that's because I haven't eaten biscuits for quite some time or if they really are sweet. I looked at their Jaffa cakes, but I know we'd eat a packet in one sitting so resisted... Wish I'd bought them now. And I beg to differ: cream biscuits are the absolute pits, as far as I'm concerned. If it was a cream biscuit, especially a custard cream, or no biscuit, I'd go for no biscuit every time. On a positive note, the Lidl liquorice pieces are quite soft but extremely tasty. I've had two so far and I'll be polishing my badge for willpower if it stays at two for the rest of the day.

Glad you had a nice time with family, Jay.

[greenishfing]

Mr GF has obviously suffered no serious after effects from his surgery as he has just decided he's going to have a croissant and strawberry jam for supper as he missed his elevenses today.

Does it fall into the category of soft food........Yes, according to him.

[Nicos]

Glad yr hubby is sorted gf….its been a really long day for you both.
The taxi was clearly a brill call.
Speedy recovery xx

You've got me fancying soup now soon. Pity we have tomorrow nights supper already sorted.

Talking of biscuits, when we were in the uk I had a sudden urge to buy some garibaldi biscuits …so I did. Not eaten them yet, but I just fancied having some in stock.

[bramble]

Good night all.
GF, so pleased to hear Mr GF is home safe and sound k I bet you are relieved.

Snoop, looking at your forecast, it's looking like rain is going your way.

Browsing through seed today in hardware shop I came across a packet of Cape Gooseberry seed
I am going to grow these in th greenhouse next year in place of the peppers.
Just looking to try something different, also contemplating one of the short season melons.

Not a lot else on the agenda so have a good night all.

[Snoop Puss]

Snoop, looking at your forecast, it's looking like rain is going your way.

Browsing through seed today in hardware shop I came across a packet of Cape Gooseberry seed
I am going to grow these in th greenhouse next year in place of the peppers.
Just looking to try something different, also contemplating one of the short season melons.

Really hope the rain reaches us here, Bramble. Yes. Some places relatively close to us have had very heavy rains, more in a very short space of time than anyone would want. At the moment, the forecast for us is 3 cm over two days.

Big thumbs up from me for Emir and Arava melons. If you search for them on here, you might find a few other people have liked them too. Penellype, do you have any views? I remember Baldy grew Emir and had good success with them. ameno, have you grown either of these? For some reason I remember you mentioning at least one of these.

[lottie dolly]

evening ,pleased MR is ok GF,does he need to be mindfull of the seeds getting stuck in the wound,owch,not looking forwards to a lot of rain,son has some outdoor jobs that he wants to do,good night every one sleep tight

[ameno]

Browsing through seed today in hardware shop I came across a packet of Cape Gooseberry seed
I am going to grow these in th greenhouse next year in place of the peppers.

Fair warning for cape gooseberries, they are not always the easiest to get going.
The seeds have a very short life, and as a result I find packet seeds often have very low germination rates. The seedling also grow very slowly until they reach about 3-4 inches tall, at which point they rocket away and grow very fast indeed.
They also need starting nice and early or else they won't ripen up before frosts hit (although growing in a greenhouse will help that; I grow mine outdoors).
The plants are also very, very bushy, and given the chance will grow up to a metre in all directions. I grew two of mine this year in the same large raised bed as some pepper plants. Big mistake, as they have completely smothered the peppers.

I don't want to put you off, though. I grow them every year. They are very tasty, and very heavy cropping as long as you can get them in early enough for them to ripen.

If you decide you want to grow them year on year then you will want to save seed yourself. Saved seed will have a far better germination rate, plus it's cheap and easy.

It's taken me a few years to get the hang of growing them reliably outdoors. I've found the trick for me is not to sow any myself and to overwinter young plants to get a head start next year.
Like tomatoes, the seeds survive the composting process and germinate in large number in the compost the following year. I always leave a few to grow, and come late summer they have formed plants a foot or two tall (they can be pruned shorter if they are too tall; they soon grow back). I dig them up at this point and pot them into 1 litre pots, then overwinter them in my conservatory, to plant out the following May. I also usually take cuttings from these overwintered plants in late March to swell the stock. They root fairly easily in water.

Big thumbs up from me for Emir and Arava melons. If you search for them on here, you might find a few other people have liked them too. Penellype, do you have any views? I remember Baldy grew Emir and had good success with them. ameno, have you grown either of these? For some reason I remember you mentioning at least one of these.

I grow Emir every year outdoors through black plastic, yes.
They never seem to give a massive crop (although I feel that has more to do with the way I grow them (probably too close together), and possibly also my soil, as all cucurbits seem annoyingly prone to root rots for me), but they do always fruit and always ripen reliably outdoors, producing very tasty, fragrant and sweet melons around 800-1000g each.

I'll be picking the last of mine this year in the coming days, and that's unusually late. Usually they are all done by early September.