Our Prize-Winning Onions

We grew three varieties of onions : Autumn sown 'Radar' and 'Electric' which gave a reasonable quantity of bulbs and Spring sown 'Hercules' which produced a very good yield of large bulbs suitable for storing.

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Onions with 'thick necks' and blemishes making them usuitable for storing were used to make our Sweet Pickled Onion Rings.

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Ingredients:

• 6 pounds small to medium mild onions
• 72 whole cloves
• 72 whole black peppercorns
• 12 teaspoons mustard seed
• 6 teaspoons celery seed
• 8 cups cider vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To each sterilized pint jar add 6 cloves, 6 peppercorns, 1 teaspoon mustard seed and 1/2 teaspoon celery seed.  Set aside.

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Peel and slice the onions into 1/4″ thick rings.  Separate the onion rings carefully and divide among the jars.

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In a large nonreactive (in other words, glass, enamel or stainless steel) saucepan, stir together the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, turmeric and cinnamon over high heat.  Heat the syrup to boiling and then allow to simmer for 2 minutes. 

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Pour the hot liquid over the onion rings being sure to leave 1/4″ of headspace.  Use a chopstick or skewer to remove air pockets that might be in the jars by running it along the inside wall of the jar.  If needed, add more hot syrup to maintain the 1/4″ headspace.  This prevents bacteria from growing, so don’t be tempted to half fill a jar.

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Spuds !

It's potato harvest time and we have now lifted all of our potatoes.

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We picked two rows of 'Kerrs Pink' (shown below) which were all shapes and sizes with a few that were a bit scabby, but overall a decent harvest. 

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Our four rows of 'Cara' produced the best yields we have ever seen down at The Patch with five of the tubers good enough to take First Prize at the Farncombe Village Show.

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Farncombe Show

Another successful year at the Farncombe Village Show !

We won First Prize for Potatoes, Onions (under 250g) and Beetroot and Second Prize for Courgettes. Our Crookneck Squash also took Second Prize in the 'Any Other Vegetable' class.

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Heather's Vase of Mixed Flowers won First Prize and Best in Class and so did her Flower Arrangement 'Reflections'. A Second Prize was gained for her exhibit of Asters and a Third Prize for Miniature Flower Arrangement.

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With additional points from Second Prizes for Chutney and Plain Scones, Heather was awarded The Show Trophy for the second year running.

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Sunday morning

We had been meaning to clean up inside the brassica cage for a few weeks now, but it was one of those things that got put off. This morning, though, we grasped the nettle (both metaphorically and literally) and removed the netting to get to grips with the weeds and dead leaves. It proved to be a particularly useful exercise as the debris was giving shelter to large numbers of slugs.

The picture above shows the results of our efforts :  A nearly weed-free bed with red cabbage Rodima in the centre ground, purple sprouting broccoli Cardinal to the right and, on the left,  a mix of savoy cabbage Cappricio, brussels sprouts Agincourt and kale Tosco di Nero.

We grow marigolds in with the brassicas in an attempt to reduce whitefly. It has made virtually no difference at all as the plants are covered in huge swarms of the little critters… the marigolds do look nice though !