Notices by Flick 🇬🇧 (flick@spinster.xyz), page 19

@thatguyoverthere Like this, you reckon? ;)

And the traditional (left) vs multi-sown (right) peas (for shoots, 17th April) and beetroot.

Multi-sown peas are definitely doing better (I won’t be buying salad leaves this week), beetroot still a bit too early to call.

I have no idea what this is, in the mostly-ornamental bed. I did scatter some seeds on that bed, but these shoots are only in that spot. It looks more like a perennial coming up, but if it is then I forgot to mark it on my diagram….

Walking onion “flower” looks like it will open soon. I can’t wait to see one IRL!

Pea progress:

• 6-9 o’clock: sown indoors on 1 March, planted out 15 April. Quite a lot of yellowing, probably due to cold weather, very little growth.
• 9-12 o’clock: sown indoors on 25 March, planted out on 15 April. Much less yellowing but still very little growth.
• 12-3 o’clock: direct sown on 15 April. Poor germination, growth is healthy but slow.
• 3-6 o’clock: direct sown on 13 May. Thus far, if you zoom in, rocketing away.

Think I probably won’t bother with early indoor sowings next year, maybe do a mid-April one in the greenhouse, but we’ll see how they do as the season progresses.

Mysterious:

(Middle of nowhere, no other man-made structures closer than the horizon.)

@thatguyoverthere I was thinking “don’t they just turn into mush when you water them” after your subsequent post.

@thatguyoverthere Oh, I mix it all up too. Anyway, chard is pretty if you choose the right variety!

@thatguyoverthere Ditto!

@thatguyoverthere @ringo Rutabaga, I think.

@ringo @thatguyoverthere Having checked my notes, I think they’re a turnip-swede hybrid that I’m trying for the first time.

@ringo @thatguyoverthere I think so! Love turnips, love swedes, what can go wrong?

@thatguyoverthere I’ve just opened mine for the morning, and had an “ooh, they’re sprouting. Now, what are they?” moment myself.

@thatguyoverthere

Did you figure out what was going on with your pansies?

I’m reading a book from the 80s, those heady days when the metric system was new and exciting.

Mostly, this just results in overly precise conversions (eg: “3 pounds or 1.63 kilograms”), but there are also some marvellously correct but terrible choices of units:

Low tech but does the job, and I bet it’s been there for a hundred years or more:

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/05/net-zeros-artificial-food-crisis-paves-the-way-for-future-foods/

In a world where fresh food is plentiful and cheap, no one would dream of sniffing around a lab for their next meal, but poverty is a powerful motivator to accept barely palatable crap sweetened with false virtue. Instead of counting calories, the next generation will be calculating their carbon footprint at the dinner table.

Keep in mind that this is a menu for the poor. Fresh food, real meat, and French wine will continue to fill the kitchens of the ruling classes. It’s the family of five squished into a city apartment, unable to turn the air-conditioner on for more than an hour a day, that will be faced with a range of cheap, depressing items at the supermarket.

The two emerging food groups for the latter half of this century are bugs and printed food – both of which are frequently grown in a lab.

@thatguyoverthere I remember once when I was looking for a muscovy (to keep my rescue muscovy company, as the runners didn’t hang out with her), it was £35 for a duck or £30 for a duck and drake.

@thatguyoverthere Oh, bless!

@thatguyoverthere Worth a try!

You might also try weeing there.