seed swap

Sally_A

radiohelen wrote: »

I asked for the Ukraine Purple .

I sent the Purple Ukraine's too, so any questions please ask away. A very sweet dark plum tomato, a bit too sweet for me as I do like a bit of acidity, but if you peel them and pulverise them you can make a smashing sauce.

Ooh what squash did you send? (I have pumpkins coming out my ears, but always keen to try a different one).

Sally_A

Is this your offering:-

Uchiki Kuri

Ugly fruits, but am very tempted to just try one or two.

What do they taste like?

radiohelen

Ooh I sent the Uchiki kuri.. they were ace. We had a couple of totally MASSIVE squashes. Could've made coaches for Cinders out of 'em. They tasted great. I only had three seeds left though. Sent them along - they were use by 2012 though. Suffolk Herb company I think.
My boy likes a sweet tomato so we'll be up for sweet ones. Hopefully I'll have a freezer full of sauce by the end of the summer. I've got one left now. Time to get growing.

officeguru

Sally_A wrote: »

Have donated a box load, am looking forward to receiving basil (can't get enough - fab for freezing whole leaves too), crystal lemon cuces (only want to try a couple so 3 - 5 seeds will suit me well), there are more chillies that I'm curious about, but have already got about 150 on the go:o, so must resist.

Hi, I have grown basil for years and tend to make basil oil. I found that if I froze the herb, it lost most of its flavour... did you not find that happening?

Cheers

Sally_A

Not at all, I just pinched off the whole leaves before they got too old and chucked them in an old Philadelphia cheese pot in the freezer.

I tend to use for garnish more, or in sauces, and frozen ones crumble well if you immediately use them from the freezer without giving them a chance to go limp.

PS. Those Philly Cheese containers are great for freezing all herbs, and chillies - not watertight so don't put anything leaky in there.

Daisymaisy

On the basil front, I make pesto and freeze in the plastic containers you get take away food in. It keeps really well, I just chop bits off the block as and when I need it. A teaspoon stirred into tomato based soups just before serving is fantastic. Thinking about it, you could freeze the pesto in an ice cube tray and then bag the cubes up for easier dispensing.
My Pretty in purple chillies (http://www.seedswappers.co.uk - donated by Sally A) have yet to germinate but as the tomatoes in the tray they are in have burst forth today I am hoping they are not too far behind.

Sally_A

Hope the P.I.P's come good for you, I managed a 90% + hit rate. They took within a week to come up, and were in a propagator until the first one showed through.

Last year I did non-propagated ones, and they took between 2 - 4 weeks. Saying that I also had some pop up in late summer, that must have been caught up in the soil from the ones I potted on.

If you have no luck - please let me know

Daisymaisy

They are in a heated propagator, the tomatoes have come up in 5 days so I'm still hopeful for the chillies as they normally take a little longer to pop up. As an insurance policy I have only sown about half From our previous messaging I had about the same germination rate with my lemon drops as you with your PIP's, they were my first lot of potting on yesterday along with a few jalapenos and cayennes. The propagator space was immediately refilled with more toms incl tumbling toms from my seed swap

I see you got some of the crystal lemon cucumbers, me too. I always grow some seedlings for a friend and her kids, this year her daughter will be getting some french beans and a couple of cucumber plants and I thought these would be fun.

Can't wait to start sowing my swapped cosse violette beans :j

mossy

My seeds have been posted, so looking forward to getting them any day now. I've just ordered some little plastic seed bags as I have some more spare seeds to swap. My list of things I'm going to grow is growing lol!! I'm going to have to do some planning on how I'm going to use the space I've got to the best effect. Can't wait to go to the reclamation yard to find some containers to fit it all in!!

radiohelen

My seeds arrived this morning :j I have planted all my tomatoes in my propagator and they are up on the windowledge in the bedroom above the radiator all snuggly and warm. Hopefully I'll have germination for da nation by next weekend. Lets hope it warms up soon cos they reckon we're gonna have frost for the next few nights.... booooo! I've got to go and line the tardis with bubblewrap.