It's that time of year again ...

[Green Aura]

Yes please. Now we've sussed growing tomatoes on the windowsills Silvery Fir will look beautiful - and hopefully produce some tomatoes there!
I'll see if I can find something suitable for swaps. Do you eat chillies? We grow some fabulous habaneros. They are quite hot but have the most delicious taste and smell.
OH's signature dish (pretty much all he can cook ) is Pasta con aglio e olio. You know when chefs tell you to use the best ingredients you can afford and you think "yeah, yeah" and do it with what you've got? Or is that just me? Anyway at some point he made this with some rather nice olive oil and our home grown habaneros and what was an extremely dull dish, only tolerated when I really couldn't cook, was incredible. Lesson learned.

[Odsox]

OK, some on there way, enough to sow a couple now and plenty for the spring.
Thank you but no, neither of us like chillies, as I think I might have mentioned before I don't like food that bites me back.
I grew some Paprika plants this year expecting them to be mild, intending to dry them and grind for the paprika powder I use in a couple of Hungarian recipes I make. They were ceremoniously evicted from the conservatory in full fruit, although to be fair they were also riddled with greenfly.

I remember some celebrity chef, I think it was Keith Floyd, who said you should only cook with wine that you would drink. But as it has to be pretty rough wine for me NOT to drink it, it doesn't restrict me too much.
But then, growing your own ingredients automatically means you're cooking with the absolute best every day

[Odsox]

I forgot to say that I'm growing another tomato over winter.
There is a plant growing by my daughter's kitchen wall in a crack of the concrete path. It's about 18" tall and a very strong neat bush, one that has branches rather than side shoots. It obviously doesn't need much TLC or water and it has set fruit, but won't ripen now.
So I rooted a branch just to keep it alive until spring, just to see what it tastes like as it would be ideal for pot growing.

[Green Aura]

So I rooted a branch just to keep it alive until spring, just to see what it tastes like as it would be ideal for pot growing.

Excellent. Keep us informed.

I remember some celebrity chef, I think it was Keith Floyd, who said you should only cook with wine that you would drink. But as it has to be pretty rough wine for me NOT to drink it, it doesn't restrict me too much.

Certainly sounds like him. Some of our less successful country wine attempts have been happily used in cooking. More of the real stuff to drink.

But then, growing your own ingredients automatically means you're cooking with the absolute best every day

Absolutely. Next year we'll get back to it properly (as well as the windowsill chillies, toms and cucumbers). The polytunnel is still giving us pause for thought. OH wants to remove it. We'll see

[Odsox]

Some of our less successful country wine attempts have been happily used in cooking

ALL of my homemade wine has gone into cooking, very useful the reds were for soaking the sliced tomatoes before drying.

[Weedo]

Ok, so now I am confused. Odsox is planting toms at the same time as we in Oz will be? Our rule is plant Toms on Melbourne Cup day to have the first ripe by Christmas - but we in the semi-arid zone will be planting a little earlier.

[Odsox]

Ok, so now I am confused. Odsox is planting toms at the same time as we in Oz will be? Our rule is plant Toms on Melbourne Cup day

Sorry to confuse you Weedo but you ought to have realised by now that I have never played by the rules

As for growing tomatoes, it's dead easy. Just find the most inhospitable site, soil not necessary, seed packet not necessary, cultivation not necessary, irrigation not necessary and then sit back and wait. Plus you then have your very own personal variety that you can name whatever you want (as it's almost certainly from an F1)

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[Green Aura]

I want to know what that tomato tastes like.

I read a small article yesterday from, I think, Real Seeds. They'd grown on the seeds from a beautiful squash they found in France. The picture, showing the resulting squashes, showed as many different colours, sizes and shapes of squash as you could imagine - all from the the one presumably F1 parent. I think they said they'd got about eighty, but don't hold me to that - it was a long line though.
They said they were going to select a few of their favourites (I'm not sure if they said what criteria they'd use) and would grow seeds from these on, but it would take eight years to get reliable, collectable seeds from a no longer hybrid squash. It seems like a very long time, I'd have thought if it comes true twice it's likely to continue, but I'm certain they know better than I do.

[Odsox]

Yes I saw that, John reposted it on Facebook, although I didn't realise they all came from one parent.
I think I have my squash variety solved now, roasted Black Forest squash is almost identical to roasted chestnuts, far more so than the Pottimaron.
So provided it keeps until late spring without rotting that's what I'll grow from now onwards.

[Green Aura]

I went back to check - yes, definitely from one squash.

[Weedo]

Odsox

Nothing strange about that tom - my soil looks like that most of the summer

[Odsox]

It's dead Jim ............
Couldn't survive a piddling little hurricane

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Never mind, all is not lost.
Clone number one is thriving, if a bit lanky, plus I think it's hiding it's first fruit.
It should survive the winter anyway.

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[Green Aura]

Can't wait.

[Odsox]

It looks like my timing is just about right this year, should have at least a dozen freshly picked ripe tomatoes for tea over Christmas.

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Plus the concrete grown plant is doing the same. This plant is purposely bonsaid to stop it taking over and to just stay alive until spring. I have high hopes for this one as it makes a tidy plant and must be fairly early fruiting. I took the cutting on the 4th of October and it's been in an unheated room since, so 8 weeks old at the moment. Of course it all depends on what it tastes like, and I won't know that for a couple more weeks or so. That fruit is an oval shape, approx 3cm x 4cm.

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[Green Aura]

Lovely. I still haven't got round to sowing ours, so I don't think we'll be having home grown somehow .

On the up side we've finished flooring the last room (in the house) so OH will be installed into his new office this weekend.

Who needs tomatoes when you can have flooring tiles and paint?

Me. If those new toms taste good I'll volunteer for the North Scottish trials. What can we call it?