|
Post by 12540dumont on Mar 27, 2014 1:48:55 GMT -5
Well, I watched the whole show from beginning to end (it rained today!). Anyway, then I found the introduction. I wish they would have spent more time on how they got the garden back together. Although they say that it's just the young gal and Dodson doing all the work, I'm pretty sure besides the re-doing of the walkways and fixing the glass house, that a fleet of folks had to come in to get it back in shape. Now that I've watched the whole thing, I think it's a shame that the series didn't continue. (Sort of like the This Old House).
I saw a whole host of tools that were very cool. At the very least I could use the straw twisting toy, the glass jugs for holding grapes, the wonderful rolly polly sprayer. Love that outdoor hosing off area for veges, (probably would not meet with CA inspections).
The apple holding house is drop dead gorgeous, and Leo and are were ready to move into the head gardener's house.
Man, can you imagine the garden a 1/2 mile from the house. By the time I forgot my pen, book, seeds, gloves, pruners, etc., I'd drop from exhaustion. As it is I clock 10,000 steps most days. By God at the end of a particularly gruesome day, like Sunday, no produce would make it into the house.
On Sunday I planted 300 feet of onions, pruned, and dug holes for 15 gallon trees. I barely crawled in to make supper.
I had a feeling sea kale would not grow here. My asparagus looks lovely. I noted they had no asparagus. I now know why my rhubarb is never pink. I was just looking at my Seeds of Italy stuff and thinking that one of these had to be a forcing endive.
I wish they had identified clearly more varieties and where they got them. The Blenheim Orange Melon was not the only one growing in the greenhouse!
I think they should have sent their veges to a real chef. We all know that there none of these in London!
|
|
|
Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 27, 2014 6:56:11 GMT -5
Well, the head gardeners cottage wasn't a 1/2 mile away, it was just on the other side of the wall. It was the "House" where His Nibs lived that was 1/2 mile away.
I didn't see them harvest any outdoor asparagus either. But they do put asparagus crowns in the forcing shed in January for super early asparagus, so they must have had some.
There are a bunch of occasions when they have a whole squad of people doing some work, in camera, I remember a scene when they are all "treading in" seed beds and there are a bunch of people shuffling back and forth over the garden.
They did do some other related shows with Harry Dodson and Peter Thoday, The Victorian Kitchen, The Victorian Flower Garden and The Wartime Kitchen and Garden. I haven't watched any of them yet.
|
|
|
Post by trixtrax on Mar 27, 2014 13:30:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by robertb on Mar 30, 2014 12:00:15 GMT -5
I've just been having a look at the remains of another, smaller, kitchen garden are Launde Abbey in Leicestershire. The walls and (very dilapidated) greenhouses are still there, and I spiked myself good and proper on a large Opuntia! I'm not sure how to post pics here, but I'll try to sort it out later.
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Mar 30, 2014 12:22:54 GMT -5
Optunia in England? I have those here on the farm....far far away from where it's likely to stab someone. My aunt from MN took some home, where it struggles in a pot by her door. I don't know why. It's no fun to be around. It was no fun removing it from the courtyard. The kids were always getting a ball in it, or falling in it, or making the dog fall into it.
Why on the good green earth would you take a desert plant to England? It boggles the mind.
|
|
|
Post by longhorngardens on Mar 30, 2014 14:43:53 GMT -5
They are delicious. The fruit is good and I love to eat the young oputia pads as well.
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 30, 2014 15:22:35 GMT -5
They are delicious. The fruit is good and I love to eat the young oputia pads as well. Can you tell us about preparation? How are spines dealt with?
|
|
|
Post by longhorngardens on Mar 30, 2014 17:37:39 GMT -5
While wearing thick leather gloves grasp a young pad and cut it off at it's base. I then take a fillet knife I use for fish and slide it from top to bottom a few times and the from bottom to top a few times. You get the big spines doing this. You then take the pad and put it over a flame for a few seconds to get rid of the "glochids" or invisible spines. I have used a torch, BBQ pit, and gas range. I like to blister the skin just a hair. Now they are ready. I have grilled them, boiled them, stuffed them with beans and cheese and baked. My favorite way to eat them is cut into strips in a real Southwest omlet.
|
|
|
Post by copse on Mar 30, 2014 22:39:53 GMT -5
Optunia in England? I have those here on the farm....far far away from where it's likely to stab someone. My aunt from MN took some home, where it struggles in a pot by her door. I don't know why. It's no fun to be around. It was no fun removing it from the courtyard. The kids were always getting a ball in it, or falling in it, or making the dog fall into it. Why on the good green earth would you take a desert plant to England? It boggles the mind. Same reason you'd take it to New Zealand. They grow here in New Zealand, at least near one beach that I have heard of, probably introduced by someone in the distant past. I've been planning to buy some on my property, but I guess I'd have to fence them if they grew.
|
|
|
Post by steev on Mar 30, 2014 23:05:41 GMT -5
Not wanting spines in my gloves, I always use folded newspaper to grasp the young pads.
Once they're processed and cooked, I like strips on a hot tortilla grilled with cheese and salsa; that's a quesadilla de luxe!
|
|
|
Post by MikeH on Mar 31, 2014 5:10:41 GMT -5
Never heard of such a thing; always thought a DVD is a DVD; universal, like the speed of light. NTSC and PAL
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Mar 31, 2014 17:04:06 GMT -5
Never heard of such a thing; always thought a DVD is a DVD; universal, like the speed of light. NTSC and PALThere are also regional lock codes encoded into DVDs. If I buy a DVD player in australia, and put in a DVD from the UK for example, the player 'looks' for the correct code on the DVD. If it doesn't find it, it displays a message saying it can't play that DVD. Many manufacturers make this a firmware setting in the player - ie you can switch the regional code for the player using a universal remote, and following the correct, long, complicated string of key strokes, which resets the player's regional setting. Given the shift to BlueRay, the regions have changed, and the regional coding is much more sophisticated - in most cases it requires the installation of new chip in the player, I believe. Soapbox alert - steps up. This whole system is designed so media producers can partition the global markets - Apple do the same thing on their store - we can't buy from the US even online, and we are charged considerably more for music etc than in overseas markets - for the same digital files, that cost no more to produce or distribute. So much for our great 'free trade' agreement with the US - that by the way stops us from enforcing Australian content quotas on our broadcast media...as if Hollywood needs protection! (chokes on morning coffee, steps off soapbox). and I rewatched a few episodes over the weekend - great. T
|
|
|
Post by steev on Mar 31, 2014 18:15:56 GMT -5
Ah, yes; dividing up the market to avoid disputes and maximize profits for those entitled to play; the Mafia model of capitalism.
|
|
|
Post by robertb on Apr 4, 2014 17:39:29 GMT -5
I checked Chilton Foliat on Google Maps, and as I suspected, they only used about a third of the garden. I'm not sure why there's a wall down the middle, but it must have been really convenient for the film makers.
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Apr 6, 2014 19:17:38 GMT -5
Okay, where are the weeds? Are there no weeds in Chilton? I can send them some of mine!
|
|