Weather: A short Indian Summer has now been followed by another dreary day but at least we've not had more than a smattering of showers. Max temperature today 16CHarvest since last post(nearly three weeks - whoops!): Runner beans (at last a few) 2lb 7oz, French beans 1lb 5oz, Costuloto Fiorentino Tomatoes 7lb 6oz, Pears (Williams) 1lb 13oz, Black Russian Tomatoes 8lb 7oz, Spinach 1lb 6oz, Courgettes 3lbs, Butternut Squash 7lb 4oz.
It could be 'eating my words' time - or rather eating my tomatoes time. In an early season post on this blog I lamented the thought that my tomato crop was unlikely to save me any money - it would, I decided, probably be as cheap to buy my tomatoes in the shops.
Well - I have had a huge crop in the greenhouse. Nine plants in three growbags have so far (and there are quite a number still to come) yielded around 16kg. I've converted it to kg for ease of comparison with the sort of prices I'd have paid for these if I'd bought them 'ready grown'!....and I reckon that they would so far have cost me somewhere between £32 and £40 the wide range in the estimates take into acount the fact that it's difficult to find unusual varieties like these in the shops so I've not got an exact comparison. Mind you one of the reasons to grow my own veg is to grow things you can't find in the shops so I'm already a winner.
This means that with the growbags at £5.00 a bag plus seeds and tomato fertilizer I reckon I have spent out around £20.
If you take into account the electricity used to keep the seeds warm in the early part of the year that goes up a bit (a propagator shared by many of other veg seeds)....but knock off the food miles. I'm pretty happy.
And what about the taste?! The Costuluto Fiorentino have been disappointingly bland but they cook up well. The Black Russians are wonderful - every year I've grown them they've delivered. They are full of flavour and when you cook them they provide really juicy tomato sauce. I will grow them again next year as for the Costuluto Fiorentino's - I will probably sow the rest of the seed in the packet from this year and let's give them the benefit of the doubt, it may be that they needed more sun and warmth than we've had this year to develop their full potential but I will definitely be on the look out for another variety.
Any suggestions gratefully received!
Well - I have had a huge crop in the greenhouse. Nine plants in three growbags have so far (and there are quite a number still to come) yielded around 16kg. I've converted it to kg for ease of comparison with the sort of prices I'd have paid for these if I'd bought them 'ready grown'!....and I reckon that they would so far have cost me somewhere between £32 and £40 the wide range in the estimates take into acount the fact that it's difficult to find unusual varieties like these in the shops so I've not got an exact comparison. Mind you one of the reasons to grow my own veg is to grow things you can't find in the shops so I'm already a winner.
This means that with the growbags at £5.00 a bag plus seeds and tomato fertilizer I reckon I have spent out around £20.
If you take into account the electricity used to keep the seeds warm in the early part of the year that goes up a bit (a propagator shared by many of other veg seeds)....but knock off the food miles. I'm pretty happy.
And what about the taste?! The Costuluto Fiorentino have been disappointingly bland but they cook up well. The Black Russians are wonderful - every year I've grown them they've delivered. They are full of flavour and when you cook them they provide really juicy tomato sauce. I will grow them again next year as for the Costuluto Fiorentino's - I will probably sow the rest of the seed in the packet from this year and let's give them the benefit of the doubt, it may be that they needed more sun and warmth than we've had this year to develop their full potential but I will definitely be on the look out for another variety.
Any suggestions gratefully received!
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