(*The French are very keen on Marmande, but I found it to be a bit watery for my taste! I think I remember Nigel Slater recommending it, which is usually to be taken seriously, although having read one of his books recently and seen that he thinks Bagna Cauda** is nice to eat, I have gone off him rather.)
(**Italian. Anchovies boiled down to slop. You are supposed to stick crudites in it. The black sheep of an otherwise heavenly cuisine in my view. To be avoided!)
Anyway, where was I..?
I have started them off pretty early this year - mid February - so that they have a long growing season with plenty of time to ripen.
I had 4 plants germinate from the six (two of each variety) that I planted:
2 x Sungold
1 x Alicante
1 x Brandywine
The plants that did germinate unfortunately got a bit distracted by the tortoise's UV lamp and so grew a bit long and leggy. Today when I potted them on I notcied that none of them had a decent root system (although Brandywine was the strongest). When this happens all you need to do is bury them quite high up the stem - this will encourage them to bulk up a bit and produce more rootlets.
Despite the problems with the roots however, I am very pleased with the leaves they have produced - I just need to get the balance right next time!
From now on I will be leaving them in the conservatory for the day before bringing them in the house at night to harden them off.
I replaced the seeds thta did not germinate so hopefully we'll get a couple more plants that will fruit slightly later. I also planted 3 okra seeds today. The variety I'm using is called Cajun Delight F1 from Johnson's (I usually prefer Suttons or T&M but Johnson's seem to be the only ones who do okra!). This variety is supposedly able to grow in cooler climates, even outdoors. To get them off to a good start I have placed them underneath some "cloches" (aka clear plastic bags borrowed from the supermarket) and put them on the heat pad we occasionally use for brewing. We'll see how they go!
Changing the subject, one of our chickens has started laying again, which makes a nice change from duck eggs! However, last weekend I noticed two of them fighting each other in the garden. They were really going for each other, like fighting cocks, pecking at each other's eyes, flapping their wings, flailing their legs about. We all ran outside to break it up and found one of them acting very peculiarly. She seemed to be wandering around looking poorly and lost and on every breath she made a little wheezing cry. We'd never heard anything like this before, although she had been making the noise a little earlier on in the day. We thought she may have been injured in the fight, but her face was fine - no blood, scratches or anything. I checked her vent which was fine, her feet, looked down her throat...she seemed perfectly fine apart from the fact that she looked weak and kept making that little wheezing noise. We let her down and she went to hide in a corner. She wouldn't take water but she ate as if she starved. We didn't know what was going on - I had horrible thoughts of "bird flu" and "old age" but thankfully she then went to the toilet - it was green and pretty runny, and this solved the problem - she had worms! So, a dose of an organic wormer in their water and it all cleared up!
And better yet, the particular wormer we use means that you don't have to throw the eggs away - it's perfectly safe to use them.
Finally, I'm going to babble on and on about textiles. I had another spinning lesson on Wednesday with my lovely teacher Carol Keats (http://www.easisites.co.uk/page.html?SiteID=webbsgreenfarmwool&View=2) where I learned how to spin silk and exotic fibres.
Let's start with silk. Silk is of course produced by silk worms - it comes from the cocoons that the caterpillars weave themselves when it's time for them to pupate. There are many varieties of silk worm, but they can be easily divided into domesticated ones - which are utterly dependent on humans, cannot fly and eat only mulberry leaves - and wild ones, which can get along fine by themselves and have a much more varied diet. Farmed silkworms produce pure white "mulberry" silk and wild silk worms make "tussah silk", which is less pure and includes tanins which turn it a more goldeny colour. (Above: tussah silk tops far right, mulberry silk tops second from the right).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmDcVZ7Iugw&feature=related - silk processing
To harvest the silk the cocoons are collected and steamed to kill the grubs inside - traditionally the peasants eat the grubs as they are a good source of protein. The cocoons are then placed in hot water and the almost invisible end of the silk fibres is picked up. In a group of seven it is then unravelled and from there can be spun or combed. This is pure silk.
There is some scum left over from this process, but this still contains silk so is not wasted. It is collected up and combed. The fibres are much shorter and it contains lumps of vegetable matter, but is still useful! When spun it gives wonderful texture. Apparently it is hard to spin but I don't know, I like short draw so I quite enjoyed it! (Above: silk "scum" top in the centre).
The pure silk can then be woven into fine silk cloth. The wasted silk from this process (silk waste) is not wasted either. The fibres are tangled and compacted, but can be cut up and carded into fluffy rolags. (Above: silk waste rolags, far left, and silk waste second from the left). The "recycled sari silk" that is popular now is silk waste. From there it is easy to spin!
My homework this week is to spin a pure silk yarn from this beautiful silk cap and recycled sari silk (above). As you can see I have already carded some rolags from the waste. The cap has been vegetable dyed by Carol by dipping each corner into a different dye bath.
Silk caps are made when the cocoon, rather than being unravelled, is wetted and stretched over a frame. One cap is made up of lots of different cocoons, and caps are sold in a big bundle called a bell. To spin from a silk cap, you need to separate out on layer (one individual cocoon) and tear it away from the rest of the cap. You then rearrange it back into the cap shape, before using your hands to make a hole in the middle. From there you pull hard, increasing the distance between your two hands and drafting the fibres out, until you have a roving! The fibres are nice and long in a silk cap so spinning it is easy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1RTqAWKenM - a bloke making silk caps.
Carol also taught me about unusual fibres. This picture shows, from left to right: uncarded bleached bamboo filament; carbonised bamboo top; uncarded sya bean fibre; soya bean top; milk top (no joke!); banana rolags; seaweed fibre!
Let's start with the bamboo. It's INCREDIBLY soft, and feels really luxurious against the skin. Of course bamboo grows wild and very rapidly in China etc. and needs no fertilisers to help it grow. It can grow at an amazing rate, and is anti-bacterial. It is 100% biodegradable. So it's pretty environmentally friendly, if you conveniently forget about transportation and processing! The bamboo fibre is actually filament - the fibres are pulped and then extruded to make a filament (but I'm going to refer to them as fibres anyways or I'll get totally muddled up!). The fibres are short. It needs to be carded with superfine cards - Carol doesn't make rolags when she's carded it, she leaves it in a little sheet. It's getting mroe popular and I know of a couple of high street chains who are using it this season.
The soya bean fibre is a by-product of the tofu industry! Again I think this is a filament.
Milk fibre - I'm not kidding! I have no idea how they make this but I can tell you that it is luciously soft and smooth - really luxurious.
Bamboo is now used a poor man's silk. When you get it the fibres have a beautiful sheen, and stick together in thin ropes. When carded however it fluffs up rather like meringue does! The fibres need to be snipped before carding as they can be up to 3ft long!
And seaweed fibre...I haven't tried this out yet, but it too is very soft and smooth. It has a slight odour but not an unpleasant one. I'll let you know how it spins up!
And finally, more homework (though it never feels like "work"): I'm going to spin a yarn from this fantastic blend of fibres. Some of them Carol has dyed herself. I really love the earthy tones she's chosen. Clockwise from top left: silk top, carded banana, wool (longwool & lustre), bamboo top, nylon, silk waste, more carded banana, uncarded banana. Can't wait to get going!
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