Seed swapping in SE15

This morning we popped into Glengall Wharf Gardens SE15 for their seed swap. We picked up some Orange Pumpkin, Chard, Hollyhock, Cherokee Vale of Tears Beans, Tree Spinach and American Pokeweed seeds so it was well worth popping down.

The garden itself is interesting and well worth visiting. They also have regular sessions and workshops which are very good by all accounts. Check their twitter here for what’s on and have a look at their website here. By the way on their seed swap table we saw a nomination for possibly the best rock band name ever (above).

And here’s a few pictures taken whilst walking around said gardens. There’s some great gardening ideas dotted about which are inspiring and could be adapted for use at home.

And there’s even some hens. We love that hanging cabbage feeder!

You learn something new every day

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD9aZvDwovw