Tag Archives: Brussels Sprouts

On the way to the peak of normal

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Now we’ve reached the winter solstice we’re on the way to longer days and hopefully warmer ones too. This morning was a cold one and there was a frost. The dahlias need forking up, cleaned up and stored indoors and the garden needs a general tidy up before the real cold weather sets in.

For the first time in years we’ll be having Brussels sprouts fresh from the garden on Christmas day as the don’t look like they’ve “blown” (here) and/or nothing’s wiped their rear end on the stalks (see story here). Compared to the ones in the organic shops they’re small but who cares as they look good enough. They take a while to grow and we’ll let you know after Christmas dinner if they tasted alright.

Just after Christmas is the KMTS End of year broadcast on the shortwaves via WRMI on Monday 27th December 2021 at 0000 utc on 9395 kHz. There’s a couple of mixes from One Deck Pete including “The circles of your mind” featuring these two great tunes below. If you haven’t a shortwave radio you can always click here on the afternoon after for the listen again of the show.

Anyway a big cheers to all our friends around the globe (and around the corner) and hope you all have a great festive period and remember it won’t be long now until we can start sowing and get out again, let’s hope 2022 is lots better than 2021.

Sleet is on its way

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It was the best of weeks, it was the worst of weeks. The cold is on its way in and we’ve had the booster and the flu jab and been feeling a little rough. Now the heatings gone at Weeds HQ just as sleet is forecast for tomorrow but life could be worse.

The Cosmos is still in bloom which isn’t bad as it’s December next week. How good is that? We’re also actually getting some Brussel Sprouts. Okay the slugs, snails and pigeons have taken a liking to the leaves but there are some mini sprouts there!

Years ago we had something wipe their rear end on one of our Brussel stalks (we think it was foxes) and soiled the actual sprouts and even after an intense hosing down we couldn’t get the thought out of our head so couldn’t bring ourselves to use them at the Christmas dinner so bought a stalk from the supermarket.

We told a good few people about what happened as we were so dissapointed, we even rang into a gardening radio programme who told us, “If you hose them down well and cook them then cover them in butter, they should be great to eat.”

Also a chap at work said to us not long after our mishap “I had sprouts at Christmas and I was telling my visitors around the Christmas table about your home grown sprout misfortunes”. I doubt if that story helped the Christmas dinner go down well!

Also we’ve finally got some flowers on a dwarf blackberry bush we bought a few years ago after moved to a sunnier spot thinking it’ll do better. It’s always the way isn’t it, do wrap up and keep warm this weekend!

Tis the season (for sprouts)

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When it comes to growing brussels sprouts we never usually have much luck. Over the years there’s been many attempts with results ranging from the sprouts being “blown” to a horrible incident from a few years ago we’d like to forget about. A week before Christmas a fox rubbed his rear-end against the one of the only brussel sprout plant leaving a nasty brown deposit on the stalk. Even after the plant had a good hosing down and it was clean as a whistle, it scarred us psychologically (possibly for life) and no way could our sprouts be served at the Christmas dinner table. We had to procure another “leg” of them from the local supermarket even though we’d been growing them for the best part of a year. That don’t make sense does it?This year it has been better, there hasn’t been any incidents nor any sprouts blowing out. We grew a couple of plants from seed (they were tiny in April here) and even though one of the plants are at a 45 degree to the ground (picture above) there are a decent amount of sprouts on it (close up of it below). 

The other plant has kept straight and has a fair few sprouts on it so you can say we’ve had some sort of success this year!Talking of sprouts and all things festive we here at Weeds wish all our readers a Great Christmas and a Happy New Year! We probably posted this tune up before but what the heck, it’s a festive one! Big shout out to a long gone second-hand shop in Coventry called John’s in the late 1970’s for having this Coxsone Dodd white label blank in its record boxes (which were just beside the owner’s snarling German shepherd). So have a great festive season and may the Bailey’s/Tia Maria (and non-alcoholic cocktails for the non-drinkers out there) be with you!

https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/jingle-bells-unknown

After the sun has gone

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Last weekend was a corker when it came to sunshine as on Sunday the temperature in London reached 20 odd degrees. The lawn was cut and a good load of jobs were completed and we even gave the seedlings (tomatoes, brussels sprouts, peppers and walking onion) that are on their way indoors a bit of a break in the sun.

Very much influenced by (episode 4 of) Jane Perrone’s On The Ledge podcast combined with the fact that in our seed tray were a few dealer bags with a tiny amount of seeds in them (cress, peas, beetroot, lettuce, coriander, basil and more) that needed to be sown, we filled a large pot full of multi-purpose compost and threw them all in. Come a couple of weeks time we’ve have some micro-greens to accompany our dinner!Traditionally this week (Good Friday) is the time for putting seed potatoes in (so the late great Joe Maiden used to say on his radio show with Tim Crowther). We aren’t too sure if we’ll be doing ours as it’s still cold out and as someone once told us at a potato fair, as soon as it’s warm enough to put your hand in the ground for ten seconds without it feeling cold that’s when you should put your spuds in. Sounds like good advice!

And while you’re waiting for your ground to heat up here’s a nice bit of mix-up business from one Mr Andrew Weatherall on Rinse FM the other week (8.04.2017).

Songs to sow seeds to

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Songs to sow seeds to-March

Here’s a nice collection of tunes to accompany your seed sowing this month. It’s an excellent mix tape from Chronixx and Federation Sound as mentioned on the great David Rodigan show the other week.

It features some well known chronixx tracks over some classic rhythm tracks like jah jah jahovah, king tubby meets the rockers uptown, cuss cuss, monkey man, joyride and much much more!

This month is a funny one for seed sowing as it’s still not warm enough to sow everything outdoors but you can give some carrots, beetroot, kale, broad beans, leeks, parsnips, spinach and turnips a go if it’s not too cold. I sowed a row each of beetroot, carrots, lettuce and spinach the other day, if they don’t work, they don’t work and it’s only a couple of rows of seeds wasted.

You can always start these indoors this month: aubergines, herbs including basil and the like, brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, chilli peppers, sweet peppers and tomatoes and what about starting a pot of salad leaves on the windowsill.

It’s still a bit early for spuds but in a couple of weeks time it will be and the gardening season will get underway and we won’t know what’s hit us!

STOP PRESS: Cheers to our mate Ciarán in Canada for sending us a pic of his advocado from seed (and some find looking sage in the background) that have grown all the way through their mild winter. How good is that? avocado

Songs to sow seeds to

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Songs to sow seeds to

Here’s the first in a regular monthly series of tunes to accompany your seed sowing. It’s February and still a bit early, but for the eager beavers out there you can sow a few in the greenhouse or on that plastic propagator on the kitchen windowsill.

We’ve got our tomatoes just on their seed leaf stage at the moment and there’s some mini-peppers coming through too but you could also start off your aubergines, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, calabrese, onion seeds and start chitting your spuds if you haven’t already.

And here’s a tune by Digid called Revolution Sound out on the Lion Charge label to crank up loud while preparing your seed sowing (making sure the compost has been warmed up a bit by being indoors for a few days beforehand rather than stone cold from the outside.) Sow on and sow forth.