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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 26, 2014 7:55:04 GMT -5
I've been re-watching this in the evenings this past week. Just about the best television show ever made. I covet the walls. I covet the cold-frames. One thing that always strikes me is the astounding quantities of manure that were applied. Not just for fertility but for all the hot-beds. I was watching this segment and Harry is double digging an area and adding manure in the lower trench and I was laughting because the soil is coal-black with organic matter already and he's adding 3-4 inches of manure a foot down. I also don't understand how he moved so freely in that suit jacket. All the old pictures of the old Victorian garden staffs show them all dressed in hats etc. I wonder if they dressed like that all the time or was it Sunday best for the photo?
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Post by copse on Mar 26, 2014 13:29:36 GMT -5
I just downloaded the first three episodes last night. All the talking up this gets, looking forward to watching it.
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Post by longhorngardens on Mar 26, 2014 14:44:54 GMT -5
It is one of my all time favorite shows.
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Post by robertb on Mar 26, 2014 18:06:51 GMT -5
It's a pity they didn't keep it going for 18 months so we could see cropping over an entire year. It would have been interesting to see how they coped through the hungry gap. But never mind, they did what they could. The whole system depended on huge quantities of manure, which was, of course, not a problem with the number of horses in use at the time. 3-4 inches wasn't unusual; I have heard of 12 inches, though it's a little hard to believe.
There's a section where they look at the topsoil available in a field, and how that was converted into sufficient depth for the vegetable garden. That would have been down to vast masses of manure.
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Post by jondear on Mar 26, 2014 19:03:52 GMT -5
2 years ago my neighbor put a foot of manure in one area for cucumbers. I laughed when his troybilt wouldn't even bring up any native soil. The yield and vines were rediculous.
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Post by templeton on Mar 26, 2014 20:07:45 GMT -5
Bought the whole series on DVD for my mum for christmas (and had to buy a new DVD player - region locks!). She watched the whole series through 2 or 3 times. I'm waiting for an opportunity to watch them all again. Included in the set was the flower garden and the victorian kitchen - apparently equally engrossing. T
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 26, 2014 20:19:42 GMT -5
Last time I checked you could not buy them legally in the US. That may have changed in the last year.
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Post by steev on Mar 26, 2014 20:25:27 GMT -5
I swear by horse- and sheep-poo; not as depleted as cattle- or pig-poo; not as hot as poultry-poo. If my fallow acres were magically covered with 6" of horse-poo, I'd be ecstatically singing "Halleluyah!"
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 26, 2014 21:11:15 GMT -5
Okay, I've got Leo in the living room watching these. He's hooked. They're back up on UTube and I have questions. I saw this guy at a festival selling blanched endive for a small fortune. Okay, so how do I know that the endive seed that I'm getting is the one for blanching? Much of his endive looked like the red chicory that I've been growing.
I found some great forcing jars at little thorpe potteries.
Anyone grown sea kale?
I love the greenhouse in (May?) that is low to the ground with no door and the crank up ceiling.
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Post by steev on Mar 26, 2014 21:46:37 GMT -5
"Belgian" endive is the one for forcing to produce "chicons"; there are green and red types. Much endive and escarole can benefit from blanching, putting a plate or something over it, to reduce the chlorophyll and bitterness, as can dandelions and some radicchios; it's all the same family: chicories.
Forcing endive to produce those spendy chicons involves growing the plants to maturity, cutting off the heads (perhaps to use as endive or escarole, whether for salad or braised; chacon a son gout), digging the roots, potting them in damp sand in the basement, covering them to exclude light in a warmer place to promote growth, et voila!, chicons!
Sunday, I saw that the last of my collards had been irrevocably blasted by that week of uncommon cold we'd had; one had been fried such that dead, dry leaves were preventing it from unfurling its flower-spike; I ripped it open, snapped off the blanched, yellow spike with its immature leaves, and munched it; very tender, sweet, end mild.
I'm enthused by their idea of cold-storage that is opened at night, but closed and insulated during the day; that would work on the farm.
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Post by templeton on Mar 26, 2014 22:26:27 GMT -5
Last time I checked you could not buy them legally in the US. That may have changed in the last year. I bought them from the BBC shop online from the UK, in a different zone from me, so had to buy a $20 all region DVD player to play them for my mum. Her DVD player is region-locked. interestingly, our BlueRay player at home plays all region DVDs (we live in different cities, so couldn't just inviter her round to watch 'em.) Are the different region DVDs actually illegal in the US, or do they just have the region lock thing? If I got organised, I could figure out how to rip them and put them up on BitTorrent or Youtube...
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Post by steev on Mar 26, 2014 22:36:56 GMT -5
Never heard of such a thing; always thought a DVD is a DVD; universal, like the speed of light.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 26, 2014 23:05:27 GMT -5
Just a word of caution about the Belgian Endive, all the new hybrids like Totem are cell fusion CMS. You can still get non hybrid stuff from some places, Seeds of Italy is probably the cheapest and best.
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Post by billw on Mar 26, 2014 23:29:12 GMT -5
Sea kale is great. Sprouts kind of like asparagus, leaves like really leathery kale, florets like broccoli, and roots like turnip. And perennial as well. Your climate might be a bit tough for it though.
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Post by steev on Mar 27, 2014 1:47:04 GMT -5
Yeah; life is tough when the climate isn't awful.
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