I'm sick of my corn seeds not germinating. Last year I blamed old seed. I dunno but after one batch failing to poke it's head up already this year I'm doing some research. Which is where I came across this excellent olde saying:

"One for the cutworm, one for the crow, one to rot, and one to grow."

Well, no crows here but I think I'll plant in the seedling house to avoid cutworm and cross my fingers for the Balinese corn I'll be planting tomorrow.

broadly...

Yes broad beans have taken over my life. So the essential question becomes again "to pod or to double pod?" But yay for seasonal eating and finally planting enough this year. I'll do photos soon because I have a very pretty type that goes purple when you cook it.

But while I cruise the internets for ideas let me leave you with this thought from stonesoup:

The thing about broad beans is that they really are a lot of work but well worth the double peeling. With all those layers that need removing, you could think of them as the strippers of the vegetable world... sexy and nutritious... all good things.

It is very nice to see some pro-sex worker attitudes in a food simile. Yes it is.

i want carrot ice cream.

Chocolate Lady makes me want it.

Will I have to make it myself? Any suggestions?

foodCult

Melbourne now has it's own food Wiki. Including this nascent dumpling guide.

Is this a good thing? Time will tell. But please, remind me - more cooking, less reading restaurant reviews!

that it is fatal to truckle to what one conceives to be popular taste.

Yup, I've started reading word of the day. Not daily of course. But still.... flummery is nice, but truckle is even better.

Truckle is from truckle in truckle bed (a low bed on wheels that may be pushed under another bed; also called a trundle bed), in reference to the fact that the truckle bed on which the pupil slept was rolled under the large bed of the master. The ultimate source of the word is Greek trokhos, "a wheel."

So it could actually be fatal to trundle to popular taste. A good lesson for all. Also, I thought trundle beds were just for friends sleeping over... who knew they were for pupils and masters?

of ears and sprouts

Well as I write this my skin is still crawling where i just picked an earwig off my shoulder. Sure I find it endearing that they are named that because people thought they would crawl into your ears. Sure. Argh!!! No, it's too much. This bounty of artichokes is a joy it's true but killing the 40 odd earwigs that were making their homes under the outer leaves was not. Sigh, such are the joys of sharing a garden with the rest of the ecosystem. These fuckers eat my seedlings too. So it's nightly torch patrols again.


Still, all is full steam ahead here. I've been having some great germination successes with my new seedling house. All from waste. This is a hard rubbish set of shelves and plastic salvaged from the bins at Spotlight and a local factory. The front cover rolls up for access and hot days.

When the seedlings have their first leaves I've been potting them on as suggested by guru Linda - into boxes filled with 2 litre milk containers (tops and bottoms removed). The idea is that these will reduce transplant shock because there's no turning the plants upside down or loosening the roots - just slide the plastic up where it can act as a little pest guard for a few days before removal. We shall see folks. And report back.

ps - Lets see the earwigs try and crawl up these legs onto my seedling table. The legs sit in cans full of beer for them to drown in. Suckers.