Desert Island Seeds!

[veggiechicken]

A little challenge for you.
Its similar to Desert Island Discs - but with a gardening slant

The format is simple – each Grape is invited to choose eight packets of seeds (named varieties), a book and a luxury to take with them as they’re castaway on a mythical Allotment (on a desert island).

They explain their choices and discuss key moments in their lives, people and events that have influenced and inspired these choices.

Lets see what we can come up with

[Lisasbolt]

oh you really have me thinking,

i know i would take<
tomato, probably a cherry type but can't pin point one
courgette, yellow
peppers, sweet like california wonderful
Aubergine, the stripy one
spring onion, north blood red
spinach, matador
sweetcorn, trying incredible this year and so far so good
broccoli, calabrese type

my luxury would have to be a barrel of good red wine

i have no idea for a book

[Lisasbolt]

anyway VC, wheres your list

[veggiechicken]

Still thinking Lisa

[veggiechicken]

My 8 seeds:-

Tomato - Gardener's delight. Probably the first variety I ever grew and I've grown it nearly every year since.

Leeks - Any sort but I'll say Autumn mammoth - because they'd make me think of Wales when I felt homesick

Mixed salad leaves - is that cheating? Quick and easy to grow and plenty of variety

Courgette - has to be Tromboncino - because it always makes me giggle

Mangetout peas - Bijou - big and prolific and the flowers are as beautiful as sweetpeas

Bunching Onions - Kyoto or Ishikuro. perennial so there'd always be a couple to liven up my meals.

Kale - Red Russian - seems to be bullet proof (not that I want to be somewhere dangerous)

Potato (seed potatoes are seeds!) One to eat as New potatoes, boiled in seawater from the beach of my desert island and sprinkled with sea salt made from evaporated seawater.

The book would be a good field guide to wild, edible plants - maybe Wild Food by Roger Phillips because I like the photos.

My luxury would be the same as Lisa's - a never ending barrel of red wine
Cheers

[Bren In Pots]

My 8 packet of seeds :-

Sunflowers .. because they make me smile.

Black cherry toms ..they remind me of sunny days eating them straight from the plant.

Spinach.. it always worked for popeye

Spring onions .. can't get enough of them.

Courgettes... they keep on producing.

Purple podded peas.. nice as pods or peas.

Rainbow Chard.. its pretty

Strawberries.. I've never grown them from seed

Book would be 'the secret garden' its always been my favourite and my luxury would be some chickens then I'd always have meals.

[Lumpy]

OK here we go

Radish - oriental as I like things spicy (Mooli or Pink Dragon maybe)
Carrots - any and all
Cabbage - a savoy like Samantha
Water Chestnuts ?
Sweetcorn - Lark
Lettuce - Little Gem
Sugar snaps - Sugar Ann maybe
Bunching Onions - Ishikura

I spent most of my first 15 years living in Singapore do you think it shows on my veg list.

Book - Complete set of Harry Potter - waving a wand over my veggie seeds and plants is about as useful to get them to grow as I am.

Luxury - now can I have a RHS trainer veggie grower with an unending supply of passion fruit under his hat please.

[Guest]

Lettuce - Liller (I have grown it for 4 years and was the first lettuce I ever saved seed from, also a reminder of me being a brief member of HSL)
Cue - crystal apple because they haven't let me down yet
Tom - a beefsteak variety, thin skin and fleshy (just because)
Courgette - any (because summer is not summer unless you get fed up from the sight of them)
Winter squash - a mixed pack (they are just brilliant for winter recipes sweet and savoury)
Stevia - I have a sweet tooth
Melon - charentais (I think). When we had them in France they were the sweetest juicest melons you could eat. In fact I remember being on what I suppose was an allotment and you could smell ripe melon as you approached and one day I caught a mouse unaware and it went scuttling out of one.

Book - Joy Larkcoms Creative Vegetable Gardening as it is one of many sat waiting to be read

Luxury item - A stag (male) turkey. They look great and make me smile when they go gobble gobble gobble. Besides if my seeds all fail I will still get a fantastic meal.

[Lisasbolt]

Oh VC, i sit here sipping at my glass of red think you might get some stick for that gardeners delight, although finds a good spot in my plot. ok i put that pun down to the wine

p.s if i thought potatoes was aloud i would have added them

[veggiechicken]

Lisa, I actually think GD toms are my favourite. I've tried lots of others, each year, but its the only one that I keep coming back to.
If you chose potatoes, which one on your list would you omit?............and can you think straight at the moment

[Lisasbolt]

i think at a push it may have to be the aubergine.

And whilst pouring the last of the bottle into my glass i think wisely....... that i would scrap them all and have a selection of grape seeds

[Lisasbolt]

oh and p.s the reason why you keep choosing GD is because it comes with 50+ seeds so have a lot of years to use those up

only joking i actually love GD toms

[Sarico]

My seeds:
Tomato -the one that last all winter ( quite few variety) my favourite tondino di barletta
Courgette - was my first every seeds I've sown. ( when. I saw the first seedling I wanted an allotment) my favourite bianco di Trieste
strawberry- alpine one because I don't care about size and quantity but taste
Beans- what they call in Italy la carne dei poveri( the meat of the poor people) you can eat them anytime of the day. Favourite variety borlotto
Florence fennel - because after a meal they are a must at the end to help digestion. Don't have a favourite because I didn't grow them yet.
Onion - for some reason when you cook a dish without onion doesn't taste right. My favourite rossa di Tropea
Potato - I love the texture and fills you up a lot. Favourite pentland javelins
Peas - I love the sweet flavour when you eat them straight off the plant. Favourite variety kelvedon wonder (the only one that I grew so far)

My book one straw revolution because i love it

Luxury - a box of chocolates because you need a sweet.

[Moopmoop]

Ok so my seeds are as follows;

Gardeners delight, first tomato I ever grew and I still love them now.
Cayenne chilli, first thing I ever grew and where the gardening bug came from.
Charlotte seed potatoes, I need carbs!!!
Defender courgette, so I'll never run out of food.
Sugar baby watermelon, never get tired of this I love them and they taste of holiday.
Strawberry, unsure of variety as never grown them from seed but they make me happy.
Coffee beans, I don't drink that much coffee but I'm sure I'd miss it.
Aloe vera, used for sunburn and medicines etc.

Book, probably the green mile cos I love it, or the outsider for the same reason.
Luxury, I couldn't be totally alone or I'd go insane so I'd have a pair of piglets, company, and food.

[Mikey]

Ok so this is not as simple as it appears.

I'd have to start with sugar cane, or something that can be turned into a sweetener.
I'd have to have a good new potato something like international kidney as that likes sandy soils.
My fathers runner beans to remind me of home and the beans are nice to bulk a soup up with when they go over.
Kale a definite can't be without that irony goodness.
Red onion, its the start of many a meal.
Parsley my herb of choice.
Carrot something long and straight, maybe multi coloured for a bit of interest.
Last would have to be something to make flour, wheat or corn whatever worked best with the climate and soil.

This is all purely practical as if you are leaving me on a desert island I mean to survive not starve!

Book we'll probably one of my ray mears survival books or something on navigating the ocean.

My luxury would have to be a good milk cow, for company and the milk to make a parsley sauce of sorts, for my welsh dinner.

I'd be hoping for some wild boar on my desert island, sufficient water, a washed up fishing net and some bottles/ tins for cooking. Enough string to make a fire, and a good knife. Perhaps a radio for the shipping forecast!!!

Ever the pragmatist.....