veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

katholicos

thacky wrote: »

katholicos - I'm repeating this because you never answered me - if you don't want to then fair enough but I thought you might have missed the post?

thacky i do apologise, i did see your post but i forgot to get back to you ....some neurological type problems ensure that my brain is in a fog most the time and i can be extremely forgetful - so it's nothing personal about not wanting to get back to you

Firstly i must say that dehydrating food is a really exciting thing to me...i know some people wouldn't understand that but i am really into preserving food and i absolutely LOVE my dehydrator. I saved up my birthday/Christmas money for a year and bought an Excalibur dehydrator. I couldn't have afforded it if my folks hadn't been so generous in gifting me though. Having said that, mine came with 9 free paraflex sheets which each cost £5 to buy and so it was - in a way - money saving to buy it at that time :rotfl:

Prior to that i had spent under £30 on a dehydrator from Westfalia - which they still sell. I found that it was a good product for anyoe wanting to dehydrate a smallish amount of food, but i knew i was going to be growing my own veggies and wanted to take advantage of supermarket offers, so it didn't really meet my needs.

I look at my dehydrator as an investment for preserving food. So far I have dehydrated a great many foods. Let me also say, before i forget, that frozen veg and fruit can be dehydrated straight from your own or the supermarkets freezer...so when I saw 2kg bags of frozen spinach for 79p, I could literally chuck it in the dehydrator and preserve it (for years possibly). Incidentally, i would purchase say 4 x bags of spinach and would only ever use the dehydrator if i could make it worth using the electricity to do so.

In addition to frozen veg and fruit i have dehydrated fresh courgettes, peas, carrots, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, turnip, oh gosh the list goes on and on and on.

And you may think this a bit odd but I have even made yoghurt in it!

Here is a link that you will find invaluable if you are interested in learning more about dehydrating, i know i have found it to be so.

I do also have a Youtube Channel and blog where i post vids and i do intend to do some videos about dehydrating foods as i harvest more and more of the garden produce.

Hope this helps!

thacky

katholicos - thank you so much for your full and interesting answer. Yes, this certainly helps. I shall do some extensive research now as I've too much produce for the freezer this year and it sounds good for the non-freezeable items such as potatoes too. Cheers!

Ladyhawk

I haven't really had a good crop this year despite planting loads of things... maybe next year will be better for the fruit at least.

Just wondering at strawberries. I have about 20 plants, and probably got a grand total of 20 berries this year. Will they survive the winter? And what would I need to do to them to ensure they do? I have some in pots and some in the ground.

Principia_2

Apparently I can now post pictures so here are my (at long last) ripening chillis. They are cayenne but when the OH tasted a green one which had blown off in the winds the taste was disappointing so hopefully fire engine red means firey hot

Principia_2

Ladyhawk wrote: »

I haven't really had a good crop this year despite planting loads of things... maybe next year will be better for the fruit at least.

Just wondering at strawberries. I have about 20 plants, and probably got a grand total of 20 berries this year. Will they survive the winter? And what would I need to do to them to ensure they do? I have some in pots and some in the ground.

I think strawberries are very hardy Ladyhawk - I planted up some that had been festering in tiny posts for the last 2 years and they survived that snow.

I think they (as in people more expert than myself )say the first year they don't crop so much, then you get more peaking in year 3 then some people look to replace them.

I'm going to take some runners from mine this year and then cut all the damaged leaves etc right back ready for next year - I'll also move the growbag so it's tucked right by the house for a bit of shelter.

TashaC

Hey everybody, Am starting to plan my garden for next year as this year is slightly disappointing! The pictures I've seen are amazing looks like some of you are having great success in the growing stakes!

I've got a few questions... just wanted to know if anybody is or has grown greengages? Also does anybody know how to harvest seed from your current plants?

top_drawer_2

hi,

I have just been out in the garden and come across this - it looks disgusting! Whats wrong with it? can I cure although the plant is looking ready for plunking up (done no.2 of 3 today). Also when I was puling up the potatoes I came across some white egg like things .......... I'm using the pot again but have kind of mixed them in (chopped them, I hope) what were they and can I do anything about them if they go on to hatch?

I also was going to plant some more other things and when I opened the compost bag there was a white filmy stuff on all the compost. Does this mean its gone off? or rotted? can I do anything about it?

Thanks

Jen

katholicos

top_drawer wrote: »

hi,

I have just been out in the garden and come across this - it looks disgusting! Whats wrong with it? can I cure although the plant is looking ready for plunking up (done no.2 of 3 today). Also when I was puling up the potatoes I came across some white egg like things .......... I'm using the pot again but have kind of mixed them in (chopped them, I hope) what were they and can I do anything about them if they go on to hatch?

I also was going to plant some more other things and when I opened the compost bag there was a white filmy stuff on all the compost. Does this mean its gone off? or rotted? can I do anything about it?

Thanks

Jen

I harvsted some spuds this afternoon and they came out all scabby like the ones in your picture...also i discovered some opaque looking eggs...i suspected slug or snail eggs and squished 'em. Sorry can;t be more help, look forward to reading any responses you get about this!

katholicos

mrbadexample wrote: »

I'd also be interested to know what you're dehydrating, and what the results are like please katholicos.

Thacky and MrB, i made a quick video this evening about dehydrating some of the veggies i harvested this weekend. Tomorrow, when the veggies have dehydrated completely, I'll make another video of the results. You might find it interesting. The video is here.

thacky

Oh thanks so much katholicos, that's very interesting and useful. Off to look at some of your other videos now and will watch part 2 when you post it.