No, we’re not going mad!

Posted on September 15, 2020 by onedeckpete

A couple of photographs taken yesterday to demonstrate the “stranger side” of the hobby. The first (above) is an experiment at the Weeds HQ using the old “bananas let off ethylene gas which ripens tomatoes quicker” trick on one the plants in the raised beds. Instead of a whole one we could only find a banana skin (someone had ate the last banana!) That’s better than nothing ain’t it? The neighbours will question our sanity but what’s new? Will it work or won’t it? We’ll keep you posted.

And yesterday we noticed this great collection of (lost?) gardening gloves on one of the gates of One Tree Hill Allotments. We do love a gardening glove here but we’re also wondering what is the real reason for this dadaesque artwork? Suggestions on a postcard please. #lockdownlunacy

Spikey tops in September

Posted on September 13, 2020 by onedeckpete

It’s a lovely day here today in south London as the sun has made a bit of a comeback this weekend. The dahlias in the garden are looking great especially the deep red cacti ones (above). We love this half opened one (below) too which has a bit of a punk rock look about it!

Below are some plum tomatoes that are a bit of a mystery as we don’t even remember sowing them. Perhaps they were left over seed from the ones had a few years ago? The delights of a non-named seed envelope at the bottom of the seed box eh?

The sweet peas were a bit of a disappointment though this year (below) god knows why that happened. The sunflower beside it weren’t that brilliant either, perhaps the soil needs a good bit of organic matter?

Whilst on a jog come fast walk around the area this morning these great cacti dahlias (below) were spotted in a front garden near Catford. How good are those?

We hope the weather’s good your side and you’re enjoying the last little fling of summer!
#septembersunshine #haslockdownendedyet?

High as a Kite

Posted on September 9, 2020 by onedeckpete

Big shout to Lord Kelvinator for last week’s St GIGA special that went out on Trash Flow Radio on Cincinnati’s noncommercial community radio station WAIF 88.3 FM. The tripped out 3 hours of satellite sounds features One Deck Pete‘s “The Rule of the Twelfths mix” at 43 minutes in on the mixcloud featuring:
Madtone – Pete’s ambient breakfast (2020 retouch)
ARK – Sirens of Titan
Uriel –You Who Are Reading Me Now Kid Loco’s Love Experience Mix
Alistair Colling – Oboro Zukiyo (Night of the misty moon) ‎

Cheers for Justin Patrick Moore for the cosmic link up! #stGIGAinlockdown

They’re just hanging around

Posted on September 9, 2020 by onedeckpete

Big shout to Gerry Hectic for sending us a nice pic of his newly acquired Aldi hanging baskets (bought for the shocking sum of £3.99 each) hung from some old pipe he buffed up which are mounted on his smart garden shed with a couple of hangers from £stretchers for £1.99. Who said you had to pay for the nose for some smart looking gardening eh? Also ta to Gerry for sending us this recommendation the greatly named set on Bandcamp called The Indoor Gardener by Double Geography. Some nice tunes here, loving the opener Yucca but it’s all excellent garden related named business! Play it all the way through when giving your plants a touch of baby bio. #musicandgardeningdomix

More music (than your average gardening blog)

Posted on September 5, 2020 by onedeckpete

The first is a “clean as a whistle” recording of This is a music show 80 thanks to Tim Gaynor from Unique Radio Australia. As you know we love a “off the air” shortwave recording like the next person but it’s great to hear the show like this! Cheers to Tim and Your Host for this one! The link to the clean audio is here. Some nice tunes as ever including Todd Terry/Royal House’s “Can You Party” and First Choice “Let No Man Put Asunder” and a Jimmy Riley dub.

Also here’s a preview of DJ Frederick’s Radio Lavalamp due for broadcast later this month featuring One Deck Pete’s Purple Nucleus of Creation 003 mix at 9.40 minutes in. As Fred says Radio Lavalamp is your place for “Jazz, acoustic, ambient, experimental sound excursions & chill out music”. Tune in and definitely drop out!

https://soundcloud.com/djfrederick/radio-lavalamp-september-2020-show

And not to leave gardening out of the post here’s a frog who made his/her home in a B&Q 99p bucket before being turfed out pronto into the wild near the pond (and away from those pesky cats who’d probably make its life hell!) #frogsinlockdown

One station returns while another one leaves us

Posted on September 4, 2020 by onedeckpete

It’s heavy on radio transmissions this month with the return of DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird on Sunday 13th September at 1100 UTC (12 Noon UK time) on 6070 kHz shortwave via Channel 292 (and repeated the week after.) If you haven’t got a suitable radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on their site here. The first programme will feature DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory and our very own One Deck Pete with his “Who’d be a pirate” mix. 49 metres is again where it’s all at!

Also Sunday 27th September 2020 (and repeated the week after) at 1800 UTC (7pm UK time) on 3955 kHz via Channel 292 is the final transmission of Radio Lavalamp. The ultimate programme of the year will feature One Deck Pete with his The Purple Nucleus of Creation 003 mix. Tune in to “Your ethereal shortwave music station” on 3955 kHz or this link here when the time is right! #Freeradioskybird #radiolavalamp #shortwavesnotdead

Satellite’s gone up to the skies

Posted on September 2, 2020 by onedeckpete

Tune in this Saturday 5th September from 3-6 pm Eastern Time (8-11 pm UK time) to Lord Kelvin the Harmonic Analyst on Trash Flow Radio on WAIF 88.3 FM, Cincinnati (listen on their radio player here.)

Lord Kelvin will be presenting a 3 hour homage to the Japanese ambient music satellite St. GIGA that ran for ten years from 1990. Weed’s very own One Deck Pete has contributed the Rule of the Twelfths mix which will be aired during the first hour of the program. Tune in on Saturday and sail away into space. Thanks go out to Justin Patrick Moore for putting us in touch with Lord Kelvin. #st.GIGA #ambientyvibes

You learn something new every day

Posted on September 1, 2020 by onedeckpete

If you remember the last but one post Alternatives to chutney it was mentioned that fried green tomatoes are best served with something called a poke salad. We knew nothing of said salad. Big shout to Justin Patrick Moore for sending us this tune above by Tony Joe White called Polk (AKA Poke) Salad Annie name-checking the dish.

Also thanks for sending us two pictures of the pokeweed plant used for the delicacy (AKA Poke, American pokeweed, poke sallet or dragonberries) and as it says on wikipedia here “In early spring, shoots and leaves (not the root) are edible with proper cooking, but they later become deadly, and the berries are also poisonous.”

More on the plant here and an interesting read about it here too. Wow, you have to boil the plant three times to make sure it’s alright, now that is “proper cooking”! The things you learn eh? Cheers to Justin to educating us on a plant we didn’t even know about!

This post was written whilst listening to this week’s episode of the great This is a music show, a show of some nice mix-up business from Your Host and broadcast on the shortwave to boot! Some interesting stuff including a great intro tune (Joe Harnell & his Orchestra – Little love lost), more Polish tune-age, reggae and more! Well worth listening to!

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-079-recd-and-processed-by-dazman

And talking of the show, we heard this “out there” tune from Joe South on episode 078 earlier today called Mirror of your mind (which sounds far more powerful via the shortwaves in Comb Stereo by the way!) We love the madness at 3.21! #shortwavesnotdead #decentmusiconshortwave

Animal Magic with Johnny Morris

Posted on August 27, 2020 by onedeckpete

Yes, it IS a squirrel with a scone! She/he dropped it at the end of the apples trees yesterday on it’s travels and has been back today to claim it. The cats didn’t even bother him/her!

And at the bottom of the garden is the pond. We’re always fretting that if the water level gets below a certain brick in there (pic above) the pond is leaking. We reckon it’s to do with the lack of some decent rain (which we’re getting at the moment) but the mini frogs ain’t complaining as it’s THE most fashionable place to hang out down if you’re of the baby frog variety! #squirrelwithascone #frogsinlockdown

Alternatives to chutney

Posted on August 27, 2020 by onedeckpete

A big shout to our good friend Justin Patrick Moore from across the pond for sharing with us his Fried Green Tomatoes recipe.

We’ve never tried them before but are willing to give it a go! We don’t know how much sunshine we have left to ripen our remaining toms but this recipe certainly is an alternative to chutney or “unripe tomatoes in a drawer with a banana” trick! Here’s the recipe from Justin:

A classic recipe that my appalachian ancestors in Kentucky would serve alongside some poke salad.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 cup flour, divided
1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic power (optional)
3 medium green tomatoes (cut into 1/3 inch round slices)
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:
In a shallow bowl, mix all the dry ingredients: 1/2 cup of cornmeal, 1/4 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder (optional). In another shallow bowl, combine the egg and ½ cup of buttermilk. Then place the remaining 1/4 cup of flour in a shallow bowl. Place the skillet on medium heat and coat it with 1/2 cup of oil.

Like an assembly line, cover the tomatoes with the flour, dip in the egg mix, and then dip in the cornmeal mix. Once pan is hot, pan-fry the tomatoes. You want to cook the tomatoes for about 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Once the tomatoes are crispy on each side, carefully remove and place on paper towels or a rack to drain. Serve with hot sauce or remoulade. (I prefer the remoulade.)

Remoulade recipe:
1 cup Mayonnaise
¼ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Creole mustard
½ cup chopped green onions
¼ cup finely chopped celery
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Louisiana-style hot sauce
Salt and cayenne pepper, to taste

Directions:

COMBINE mayonnaise, ketchup, red wine vinegar and Creole mustard in a medium mixing bowl and mix well.
ADD green onions, celery, parsley, garlic, Worcestershire, hot sauce, and salt and pepper (to taste), and whisk well.
AND EAT.

(Sauce can be stored in refrigerator for up to 4 days.)

Brilliant Justin, thanks for sharing that! Any more recipes for using up green tomatoes? Drop us a comment and we’ll post them up!

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Category Archives: Jazz Gardening