.... and English.

Am I alone?

Mary

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message et...
... and English.

Am I alone?

Mary


I'm not British, but I do live in a former colony

I started visiting this board about 6-8 months ago and have found the
people here to be very helpful and informative. There's one fellow in
particular...forgot his name...who has a wealth of experience growing
garlic; he especially has given me tips on my own garlic crop.

Speaking of your being English: I watched a fascinating show on
educational television a while ago about Victory Gardens in WWII.
They touched on people raising rabbits in backyard hutches, etc. Neat
stuff.

Mark

I'm not British, but I do live in a former colony

There are many ...

I started visiting this board about 6-8 months ago and have found the
people here to be very helpful and informative. There's one fellow in
particular...forgot his name...who has a wealth of experience growing
garlic; he especially has given me tips on my own garlic crop.

That would be useful.

Speaking of your being English: I watched a fascinating show on
educational television a while ago about Victory Gardens in WWII.
They touched on people raising rabbits in backyard hutches, etc. Neat
stuff.

We don't have television (but we don't eat our young any more) but I do
remember WWII. Many people grew vegetables, rabbits, pigeons, pigs etc in
the tiniest of spaces. Larger areas such as parks and sports fields were
given over to allotments.

My mother kept rabbits, not in the back yard (we only had a tiny front
garden, living in what's called a two bedroomed back to back terrace house)
but they were for the pot. My husband's family did the same. I remember my
mother killing a rabbit with a blow to the back of its head, my husband
never saw that but said that one day the hutch door was open and he was told
that the rabbit had escaped. somehow he knew that wasn't true ...

During the war my father's father kept a pig in his tiny garden. You must
remember that this was very close to the centre of a large city in
Yorkshi Leeds, not in the country. His house was three storeys high but
it only had one room per storey. They lived in the 'cellar kitchen', it was
beneath ground level and was accessed by stone steps leading down to the
room. It had a shallow stone sink, a set pot, a huge mangle, a soft wood
table covered by oil cloth with two chairs, a large coal fireplace with an
integral oven, a dresser and a horsehair sofa. Oh, and a rocking chair and
rag rug, otherwise the stone flagged floor was uncovered. The lavatory was
under the stone steps which led up to the 'ground floor', used as a bedroom.
There was only cold water so the kettle was constantly on the trivet on the
fireplace.

The pig was fed on household scraps, such as they were, it must have had
something else but perhaps neighbours gave it their scraps too. We didn't
have much waste food but there were potato peelings. Right until I was about
thirteen people used to call at houses asking for 'pig swill', that is food
waste.

I could never understand why my mother's sister only had flowers in her
garden. We live in that house now and I know there was space enough for
vegetables. I suppose it was because she had more money than we had and
could afford to buy things we couldn't.

During the war our garden was too small to grow anything but a few
soot-stained flowers but when I was ten we moved and had a garden big enough
for my father to grow vegetables. I wish I'd taken notice of what he did ...

Now I grow many of our own vegetables but it's late in the day and I don't
remember everything I learn. But I persevere and we eat very well. Tonight
we had runner beans, tomatoes and cucumber and my own baked rosemary and
garlic bread as well as my own dry cured ham.

I reckon we eat better than most people!

And I love it :-)

Mary

Mark

English.. ?? Hard to define these days! LOL

I know - but I can trace English-born ancestors back for five generations
which is a pretty good start for a pedigree, which is why I say English and
not British - which of course I am too. My husband didn't tell me that his
mother was half Irish until after we were married, all our children are 1/8
Irish ...

But I don't mind :-) We have one Welsh daughter in law and one Scots one.

Technically I'm British.. However I'm European by blood!-)!

Alone.. never but 'where' are you..

Leeds, Yorkshire. Chapeltown in inner city Leeds, the immigrant part. We're
the only English family in the street, not the only whites though. We've
lived here for over forty years and can't see any reason for moving.

There's always uk.rec.gardens if
you are gardening in the UK.. Though everyones pretty friendly here
too.

I already subscribe to uk.rec.gardening, is that what you meant? I was
attracted to this ng by the 'edible' part :-)

Mary
//
Jim
North London, England, UK

Welcome aboard Mary. I am not English nor have I been in that country. We
do all have something in common here, we love to garden. Otherwise how
could I admit here that all my squash died this year? Nobody looses their
squash, just me. Everything else died also. Before that happened I made
sauerkraut from my cabbage, and we put some Brussels sprouts in the freezer.
Now if my sweet potatoes come out of it and make something, maybe I will
have redeemed myself. I did come up with some really big garlic this year.
Took a blue ribbon and Grand Champion at the fair.

Dwayne



"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...


English.. ?? Hard to define these days! LOL

I know - but I can trace English-born ancestors back for five generations
which is a pretty good start for a pedigree, which is why I say English
and
not British - which of course I am too. My husband didn't tell me that his
mother was half Irish until after we were married, all our children are
1/8
Irish ...

But I don't mind :-) We have one Welsh daughter in law and one Scots one.

Technically I'm British.. However I'm European by blood!-)!

Alone.. never but 'where' are you..

Leeds, Yorkshire. Chapeltown in inner city Leeds, the immigrant part.
We're
the only English family in the street, not the only whites though. We've
lived here for over forty years and can't see any reason for moving.

There's always uk.rec.gardens if
you are gardening in the UK.. Though everyones pretty friendly here
too.

I already subscribe to uk.rec.gardening, is that what you meant? I was
attracted to this ng by the 'edible' part :-)

Mary
//
Jim
North London, England, UK

Hi Mary,
Not alone. I'm a trasplanted Brit. Lived in Wales for the first ten years of
my life, was sent to boarding school in Dublin for another two years and
emigrated to B.C. Canada when I was twelve. My adopted family is English,
but my natural mother was Welsh ( I was adopted at the age of one). There
are a few limeys around in the NG. David Hill is one but I'm not sure if
he's in this NG. This is a great NG to belong to. Everyone is helpful and
friendly! Welcome!
--
Jayel
"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...


... and English.

Am I alone?

Mary

"Dwayne" wrote in message
...
Welcome aboard Mary. I am not English nor have I been in that country.
We
do all have something in common here, we love to garden. Otherwise how
could I admit here that all my squash died this year?

My single pumpkin started to rot at about 4" :-(

we put some Brussels sprouts in the freezer.

We had a bumper crop of sprouts last year and I froze some but they're
awful. I'd like to know how to freeze sprouts so that they taste half as
good as fresh ones.

Now if my sweet potatoes come out of it and make something, maybe I will
have redeemed myself. I did come up with some really big garlic this
year.
Took a blue ribbon and Grand Champion at the fair.

Well done!

Mary

Dwayne



"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...


English.. ?? Hard to define these days! LOL

I know - but I can trace English-born ancestors back for five
generations
which is a pretty good start for a pedigree, which is why I say English
and
not British - which of course I am too. My husband didn't tell me that
his
mother was half Irish until after we were married, all our children are
1/8
Irish ...

But I don't mind :-) We have one Welsh daughter in law and one Scots
one.

Technically I'm British.. However I'm European by blood!-)!

Alone.. never but 'where' are you..

Leeds, Yorkshire. Chapeltown in inner city Leeds, the immigrant part.
We're
the only English family in the street, not the only whites though. We've
lived here for over forty years and can't see any reason for moving.

There's always uk.rec.gardens if
you are gardening in the UK.. Though everyones pretty friendly here
too.

I already subscribe to uk.rec.gardening, is that what you meant? I was
attracted to this ng by the 'edible' part :-)

Mary
//
Jim
North London, England, UK

"J. Lane" wrote in message
...
Hi Mary,
Not alone. I'm a trasplanted Brit. Lived in Wales for the first ten years
of
my life, was sent to boarding school in Dublin for another two years and
emigrated to B.C. Canada when I was twelve. My adopted family is English,
but my natural mother was Welsh ( I was adopted at the age of one). There
are a few limeys around in the NG. David Hill is one but I'm not sure if
he's in this NG. This is a great NG to belong to. Everyone is helpful and
friendly! Welcome!

Thank you.

I was taken to BC about ten years ago, I ended up giving a talk in Kamloops
in February ...

Nothing more to be said, really :-)

Mary
--
Jayel
"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...


... and English.

Am I alone?

Mary

My real area of interest in multi usecrops (eg edible ornamentals)

For the first time I've grown rainbow chard this year. I can't think of
anything more ornamental - as well as edible. The stems glow in the most
astonishing colours, all set off by those luscious dark, quilted leaves.

Oh boy!

and
being down in London (UK) means I can
push a lot more crops that might not do well elsewhere!.

This year I reckon we could have grown anything. But I prefer our 'natural'
vegetables.

Grains take up too large an area to be worthwhile - I've thought about it
for flour for breadmaking but decided against it.

Mary

//
Jim

Mark wrote:

I'm not British, but I do live in a former colony

Like half the world.




ANdrew