As I was sorting laundry this morning (another day off – we really are spoiling ourselves) we had a postal delivery for Number Two son.
“Why don’t we nip up to Sheffield and give it to him.” I suggested. (Having already suggested Stoke on Trent, which is usually a winner, and Bakewell as days out, I was becoming desperate at the thought of another day of housework).
It worked, and Julia texted him to arrange it. After waiting for a reply and wondering what would happen if she rang him in the middle of a lecture, she finally rang him. Me? Well, to be honest, at 10.15, I didn’t think there was much chance of catching him in the middle of a lecture.
I was right. What actually happened was that we woke him up.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, we popped up to Sheffield, got caught in traffic, dropped off the letter, took him to lunch at KFC, lectured him on the importance of eating properly (yes, I know…) and did various parent things.
I also took a photo of one of the gardens in his street. The one with Virginia creeper growing up the telegraph pole was quite impressive but the one with the beans was more interesting.
The garden next door to the beans had a fine display of fuchsias, which was a coincidence as we’d been eating fuchsia berries from our garden this morning. I’ve eaten fuchsia berries before and not been impressed but these are supposed to be juicy and delicious. To be fair, it’s been a poor year, and they aren’t in a great position, but they didn’t seem any different to the others I’ve tried. Interesting idea though – plenty of flowers and a claimed 300 berries per plant. It’s the one in the header picture.
After that, having cunningly secreted the postcode of the Riverside Herb Centre in my shirt pocket, I entered the details in the satnav (I’m finally moving into the 21st Century) and set off. It was a visit of mixed results, with virtually no plants available. Fortunately there is a shop selling a variety of products, including oak-smoked rapeseed oil. I’ll cover that in a later post, once I’ve decided what to do with it. I checked on the internet and the main suggestions are to use it for salad dressing. It doesn’t seem very imaginative.
We also bought black onion seed, garam masala, beeswax hand lotion and a packet of ginger creams. They will probably appear in reviews on the other blog.
After that, well that’s going to be Part 2.
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Our fuchsia hasn’t done well this year either – I knew about the berries being edible but I think I prefer the flowers. My runner beans stopped producing flowers in early September and I nearly got rid of the plants but then I noticed a load of new shoots and kept the plants. Not doing as well as the Sheffield ones or as well as I’d hoped. Not enough rain in September and has been cold and gloomy for most of October.
Yes, another year with the “wrong” weather. ;-(
😉
I’m definitely beginning to think that global warming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. 🙁
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Wow, would never have thought you could eat fuchsia berries!
Ah, so I could eat the fuchsia berries from my plant? I’d never seen berries on fuchsia before but did know you could eat the flowers. Might give the berries a whirl for lunch.
As for the runner beans, I’m intrigued to know that I’m not the only one growing them still as we head towards November.
We have some that are still going too, which was one of the reasons I was interested to see the ones in Sheffield.
Yes, Bob Flowerdew did a book on edible berries a few years ago. This summarises it.
http://bobflowerdew.co.uk/ornamental-garden-fruits
Thank you for the link. It doesn’t work on the reply but I will do an internet search on Bob Flowerdew (appropriate surname).
He’s an interesting man. You will find a lot when you search.
Okay!
I forgot the fuchsia berries in my salad, though. Oh well, there’s always tea…..
😉