A big shout to our very good mate The Rhythm Doctor for posting up his latest mix of the stuff he and DJ Von Koff play at their Mojo nights in Tallinn, Estonia. There’s a bit of reggae, soul and funk, some real mix up business!
It’s sounding great this Saturday afternoon! I’ve got it cranked up while I’m trying to catch up on the weeding!
Looks like I’ll be making more pasta sauce this weekend! Below is just the start of the tomatoes and hopefully there’s a few more to come. A big thanks to all at Dig This Nursery for giving us a good few tomato plants earlier this year.
The plums on the right are off the dwarf tree we bought a few years ago from Shannon’s. Some years it does well and some not, but who cares. Plum crumble the weekend, I reckon.
I’ve been busy of late and have neglected me garden a little but I have a good few days next week to tinker around before I go away for me hols so I’ll be able to tackle those weeds! It’s looking good though, and that’s without a bit of TLC over the last week!
The storm over the weekend did do a little bit of damage to some of the plants especially a few tomatoes and the odd sunflower. Here’s the view before the storm, how mad is that pumpkin plant?
And I’ve never really grown peppers before, not bad for a first attempt and in an old tomato tin too!
Loving the tomatoes at the moment even though the storm at the weekend has nobbled a few plants. Looking good though!
Big up that old gardening lark!
Thanks to all at The Dirt “a gardening programme like no other” on Fab Radio International for featuring our very own “Sounds from the south” this evening. The topic this week is “Space Station Business.” If all goes well, it’ll be up as a podcast here from tomorrow. Big up “Veg 01” the lettuce in space (above.)
Big shout to Phil Harmony for linking us up with Jackie and Robert who’ve been running a guest house for the last six years in the fantastic surroundings of The Blue Mountains of St Andrew, Jamaica which is an hours drive from Kingston.
They run the Prince Valley Guesthouse which is at an altitude of 4,000 feet (look at the view below!) alongside running a Blue Mountain coffee farm which is about twenty years old. The coffee bushes are under the canopy of Banana, Mango and many other fruit bearing trees. Running a guest house must be hard enough in itself let alone growing Coffee as well, Jackie and Robert we salute you!
Here’s what Jackie and Robert sent to us about how their Coffee is produced over a typical year:
In January the small limbs are trimmed away on each coffee bush and fertiliser (20-20-20 All Purpose) is applied and every other year manure is also added. Insecticide is also applied in the early spring right after the coffee bush flowers. (Later on in the season they are also fertilised with a powder/granular at the roots.)
In March and April the white coffee blossoms start to appear which eventually produce the coffee berries. As the berry ripens it turns from green to a deep cherry red which are often called coffee cherries. The cherries are then ready to be picked around the middle of August.
The picking occurs twice a month and it takes about 6 pickers to do the job. Each tree produces one to two pounds of green coffee, which is what the coffee cherries are referred to before they are roasted, and after they are processed and dried. This is the form coffee is in when it is purchased by a roasting company.
The cherries are picked and put in boxes. Each box holds about 60 pounds of coffee cherries which will be processed into about 12 pounds of green coffee. Those 12 pounds of green coffee, once roasted, will yield about 9.6 lbs of coffee. The bi-monthly yield starts out slowly and at its peak is about 20 to 30 boxes per picking. This continues from August thru November. Our coffee cherries travel to Mavis Bank Coffee Factory where they are purchased and processed. The Jamaican coffee industry employs around 120,000 people making it a significant contributor to the country’s economy.
Good stuff! I personally don’t drink much coffee anymore as it sends me a bit hyper but I do like those naff gaelic coffees you used to get in those quality restaurants like Harvesters in the 70’s.
I also asked, what sort of pests they get in the land of wood and water, and it’s the same sort of stuff we get in the UK but they also get something called the Borer Beetle which is the main pest of the coffee plant. They sometimes hang a coffee borer catcher on the bush filled with a mix of water, soap, strawberry syrup & alcohol. That’s a mad combination!
But look at the flowers of the Blue Mountains, absolutely brilliant, I want some! Thanks for letting us use the pictures, please send us more, they’re great! Thanks again Jackie and Robert!
A nice tune for a lovely summer’s evening. A great vocal from Keith Blake/Prince Allah with some mad earthquake/explosion samples.
And for the dub side, the word heavy doesn’t even describe it. The late King Tubby was on top form with this one. Crank up that bass, annoy the neighbours (er only if it’s before 10pm as we wouldn’t want to instigate any asbo’s) and big up the King!
Big shout to our long time friend The Rhythm Doctor who’s playing a funk/jazz/reggae/disco set at the all-vinyl night Crates Session at Brilliant Corners, 470 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4AE this saturday from 7-12 and it’s Free. How good is that!
I’m not sure if he’ll actually be playing this one but here’s a tune to get you in the mood!
Here’s last night’s episode of The Dirt on Fab Radio International featuring our very own “Sounds from the south.” Have a listen to the show as there’s a lot of mad stuff on it including news that the Peckham Parakeet has a northern relative!
The show is available as a podcast here and “Sounds” appears at 14.40 minutes in. Thanks very much again to Simon, Ricky and Paul at The Dirt for having us! For episode one of the new format of the show have a listen here and “sounds” appears in the first few minutes if you’re interested. The Dirt, a gardening programme like no other, indeed!
Pic above: Two “playful” Peckham Parakeets in Vic Godard’s back garden trying to dismantle the bird feeder.
The International Space Station is on an orbit over the UK for viewing at a reasonable time this month and do remember it has the VPS (Vegetable Production System a.k.a “Veg-01”) on board, growing lettuces, pumpkins, carrots, runner beans and purple sprouting broccoli 200 miles above the earth. How good is that?
We all know there hasn’t been a slug launched into space as yet, so everything should be okay on that count (carrot fly are well out of the equation too) but the big question is, does a runner bean-cane tripod stay vertical when out of the earth’s atmosphere? I’ve left a couple of messages on the NASA answer machine asking them but they are not getting back to me just yet.
If you fancy a gander at the big tin can in space, just buy yourself a cheap compass off ebay (£2 ish) and tap in your location at the “Spot the ISS” site here which will tell you what time to look, in what direction and what angle to tilt your head up at. And to see where it is at the present moment have a look here.
A word to the wise though, don’t even bother with any sightings that are less than a minute as it takes about that long to locate the thing. Big up the ISS!
A big thanks to Simon, Ricky and Paul at The Dirt (“a gardening show like no other“) on Fab Radio International for having our “sounds from the south” feature on the show. The Dirt is now available as a podcast on their web page here and also on i-tunes. Great stuff!
Have a listen tomorrow night live on Radio Fab International from 6-8pm if you fancy listening to a great gardening show with a difference, and if all goes well the second offering of “sounds from the south” will be aired around 6.20-6.30pm.
And don’t be fooled by the picture of the “cuddly bird” above, that’s no cuddly bird, that’s the Peckham Parakeet, and it could have your arm off if it wanted to. All will be revealed on tomorrow night’s “sounds from the south.”
Weeds up to me knees 