Daughter of the Soil Shea Body Butter Unfragranced

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Fairbeard's champion of England—5 to 6 feet ; seed large ; wrinkled when dry ; bluish green. One of the best of the wrinkled marrows, and well adapted for general crops, as well as early ones, being about as early as the Charlton. From seven to eight large peas in a pod.

What's even more curious is that Phil's message arrived at the very same time I was scanning my Somme slides, as part of an ongoing effort to digitise my archive of film photographs taken during the 20 years before I went digital. I was literally right in the middle of sorting out the Albert pictures. The early varieties were probably quite coarse by today's standards, closely derived from the field pea. Sweeter and more refined peas made their way to England from the continent in the mid-17th century. These would mainly have been French varieties, as the French had made huge advances in pea breeding at that time, plus the highly expensive Sandwich pea which originated in Holland and was established in the town of Sandwich by Dutch settlers. By the early 18th century the pea had become a popular garden plant and a fashionable delicacy, and new varieties proliferated. During the years 1850-51, we sowed upwards of one hundred reputed sorts in the gardens at Dalkeith — fifty sorts in each of these years. They were in each case sown on the same day (25th March), in the same soil, and under the same circumstances. Out of that number we selected twelve as being truly distinct and useful; yet one half of these would be quite sufficient for even our use, who require them during the longest possible period.

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The first potato I harvested this year, a few weeks ago, was Maris Bard. It's a modern variety and a first early. Its flavour is absolutely wonderful. I only had one plant and its produce didn't hang around long enough to be photographed. Hair's dwarf mammoth.—2 feet; seed large; wrinkly; bluish green when ripe. Equal in flavour to any of Knight's marrows, hitherto considered the best in this respect. A most productive pea, continuing, like Bishop's new long pod, in bearing for a long time, but somewhat later. Indeed, it is a truly second or general crop variety. It is larger in pod than Knight's dwarf marrow, and about seven days earlier. It requires highly enriched soil, and the peas to be planted from 4 to 6 inches apart in the line, as they branch out in the manner of Bishop's. One of the most valuable for small gardens and private families, and, like the latter, although large when sent to the table, if not too old, eats deliciously, having a great deal of the marrow property about it. I stopped what I was doing right away, tuned in and watched Hellen Lawuo-Meena and Maria Magembe from Daughter of the Soil pitch to the Dragons. ( For our readers/listeners who aren’t in the UK – Dragons’ Den is the UK’s version of Shark Tank where entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of ‘dragons’ to raise funding for their business). It was nail biting and the entire Formula Botanica team was rooting for them. Dwarf imperial. — 4 feet in height; pods large, containing from eight to ten peas; a good bearer, and excellent for a late crop. Like all good sorts, has a host of names; viz., sabre, blue sabre, new sabre, dwarf sabre, imperial, blue imperial, dwarf green imperial, new improved imperial, new improved dwarf imperial, new dwarf imperial, new long-podded imperial, dwarf blue prolific, green nonpareil, blue scimitar, Sumatra. Dwarf sugar, or Ledman's dwarf. — Growing about 3 feet high; pods long, cylindrical, and slightly curved; rather late, but a good bearer. To those who intend growing this section of pease, we would specially recommend —

It's still early days in the tomato season here, so there's no fruit to look at yet. But we're into that period where they grow like the clappers and new things are happening with them on a daily basis, so this is an overview of what I've got on the go. I'm going to experiment with making hybrids from these, and when I do I'll post up some instructions for hand-pollinating tomato flowers, like I did with peas. Tomatoes are naturally inbreeders, so creating new varieties is relatively easy. (I guess that's why there's so many out there already.) Dancer's monasterу— 4 and a half feet; seeds white; a good profitable sort for a second or general crop; peas of moderate size, rather above medium. Lynn's prolific.—4 feet; seeds under medium size; wrinkled, and having a dark eye when ripe; seemingly a distinct variety of marrow; very productive, and stands drought well. Suited for a general crop. We hope that you enjoyed listening to this episode and please get in touch with us if you have any question or comments.

While I haven't finished trialling all my purple podded peas yet, so far this one easily stands out as the top choice for flavour. It's probably top choice for looks too, and possibly also for yield. Potato apples are not a lot of use ... they just divert energy away from the tubers. But to nerds who like raising brand new things from seed they are a gift. Inside them are lots of seeds which, if planted and viable, will grow into a new and unique potato variety. Potatoes don't tend to come true from seed, so even if my fruit was self-pollinated or pollinated by another Marfona plant, the resulting offspring would not be Marfona. It would be a reshuffled combination of various genes that went into Marfona. That doesn't mean it will be anything special ... but it will probably be unique. I know it looks like a green tomato, but it's actually a potato apple. It came off one of the plants I harvested, and none of the others have any. You don't see them very often because potatoes have got accustomed to reproducing by tubers and most of them no longer bother to set fruit. Some varieties can't be arsed to flower at all, and those that do often produce ineffective pollen. But some spuds produce these tomato-like fruits, emphasising how closely related they are to tomatoes. And to the nightshade family too. Potato apples are poisonous. If the tomato is known as an edible wolfpeach (that's what Lycopersicon esculentum means) then I guess this is an inedible wolfpeach. I mostly grow and save seed for my own use, but as I tend to go for rare and hard-to-find varieties I err on the side of caution and try to produce more than I need. Once I'm confident I have enough seed to keep the variety going in my own garden, it makes sense for me to give away the rest. I don't have the facilities for long-term seed storage, so there's no point just leaving them languishing in a box. Besides, the best way to help the survival of rare varieties is to get them out there and into people's gardens.

Bishop's new long pod— 2 feet; seeds white. A most abundant bearer, producing a succession of pods during most of the pea season. Like all dwarf peas of its class, it requires a rich soil, and from 4 to 6 inches between the seed in the line. We have had this pea producing a good supply for three months in succession. It is one of the most valuable sorts for small gardens, and for domestic use: its only fault in large establishments is the large size of the peas, but, although disliked by cooks on that account, it is much prized by them for many purposes. It originated with the late Mr David Bishop, author of "Casual Botany," and is a hybrid between Bishop's early dwarf, a pea of only 1 foot in height, and one of the marrowfats, carrying in itself the characters of both its parents. The easiest way to prevent this problem is to freeze the beans after harvest, which kills off any insects and their eggs which may be lurking within the seed. Seal the seeds inside an airtight and freezerproof container, and freeze them for at least three days. Then place the container somewhere at room temperature for at least another day before opening it, otherwise you'll get condensation on the seeds which may ruin them. It's also very important to make sure the beans are thoroughly dry before freezing them, as the low temperature can damage the plant tissues within them if there's still moisture in them. This treatment can also be used with peas to get rid of pea moths. I've had a lot of failed pea crops in the past, and have had to experiment a bit to find a method of growing them which works for me. It may not work for anyone else, of course. But this is what I do. I put eight or ten bog-roll tubes on a large saucer (if I need to label the varieties I write on the tubes with a marker pen) and stuff them firmly but lightly with compost made from coir, sand and perlite. I don't bother being precise about proportions of different ingredients ... I try to trust my gut instinct with it. But I recently upped the perlite quota substantially after most of my precious Champion of England seeds rotted off ... it helps keep the mixture open and aerated. I keep space between the tubes too to allow air to circulate around them (otherwise they're prone to going mouldy). I sow two seeds in each tube.There is one section of garden pease called sugar-pease, the pods of which have the inner film wanting, or much less tough than usual. The pods in this section are used with the young seed within them, and are cooked and eaten the same as French or kidney beans." Mangetout and sugarsnap peas were not then in general usage, being considered too tender for the British climate, but McIntosh noted their benefits and recommended that they should be widely adopted. Champion of England is looking fairly typical of an old-fashioned tall pea. The flowers are small-ish and a very slightly creamy white. And it has long, long pods which look like they're going to have 9 peas in them. I'm beginning to think my destiny here is to run some larger scale and more scientifically rigorous trials of purple-podded peas. The thing is, they've only just started appearing commercially in the last couple of years and are still something of a novelty ... so most of the ones you come across in catalogues are just called Purple Podded (the only named variety I've seen is Ezetha's Krombek Blauwschok). But the big differences between mine and the one in the Rococo Garden clearly shows they aren't all the same variety. Some are advertised as having purple flowers, others pink, others bicoloured. Mine have large sweet peas while the Heligan vegetable book describes their purple-podded peas as "virtually inedible". So I'm going to buy up a selection of purple-podded varieties from anywhere I can find them and grow them all together next year for comparison. See how similar or different they really are. Inspired by the recent discovery of some yellow carrots thriving under a heap of last year's poppy twigs, I've decided to have another go at carrot cultivation in 2008. Not a good day for working outside in the sun, but I've been doing a lot of digging today, getting the last of the Edzell Blue potatoes out and rejuvenating the land ready for the next crop of Alderman peas, which are on a window sill in the music room and already sending copious roots out the bottoms of their toilet rolls.