Had a great day at WI garden group today. I spoke about how to grow watercress, showed some growing plants and gave a few rooted cuttings. Then gave out pieces of one of my very precious Brandywine tomatoes for people to taste. There is nothing like a Brandywine, fresh from the greenhouse, to convince people just how good home grown produce can be. They really are the best tasting tomato I have had. They grow to an enormous size. We have had fruits weighing a couple of kilos from the greenhouse this summer. They have enjoyed the scorching heat of the sun we have had this year.  I tried a plant outside, but it came to nothing, and in fact, it got blight and had to be pulled up.

Did you know that putting tomatoes in the fridge kills their flavour? And did you also know that putting fridge killed tomatoes in a dish of tomatoes that have not been in the fridge will bring back the flavour? I have never done a proper test of this as I don’t want to risk it!

picture from bountifulgardens.org

Another member then spoke about how she will be trying green manure for the first time this year, even though she doesn’t like digging and normally puts manure on top of the soil and covers it with black plastic. I need to get a load of manure soon, won’t be long before its time to mulch.  I’m never organised enough for that, and there always seems to be bits and pieces of crops hanging around too.

Then we had tea and 3 kinds of home made cake, this is the WI, and no, I didn’t have 3 pieces, I had half a slice of an extemely good iced carrot cake. Then we walked round the garden of the hostess. Came away with my usual dose of house and garden envy.

Had Green Lentil Cottage Pie again for dinner this evening, and to go with, I roasted some cauliflower and broccoli with a bit of oil and a big spoonful of tandoori spice mix. Have you ever roasted cauliflower? It makes what I think is quite a boring vegetable that bit more interesting. Especially if you douse it in spice! The picture is a bit steamy because the cauli had just come out of the oven and kept steaming up the lens.

I’m going to leave this post short today as my broadband is driving me nuts, up and down constantly, makes things hard work. Hope its better tomorrow