A View From (The Plot By) The Greenhouse; Unintended Consequence?

It’s getting near the end of the original planting of potatoes. The original idea was to do a second planting, in between the rows that had already been lifted, to (hopefully) provide fresh spuds into October, or maybe even later.  As it turned out, owing to a mix of weather conditions, my own horticultural failings and illnesses, this hasn’t happened quite in the way I’d originally envisaged. The last two rows, which have had the top growth cut back are producing some decent, if low yield main crop spuds. I have put in a row of “International Kidney” and a further row of main crop, which are putting out some healthy looking shoots, but whether they’ll produce a crop before the weather really turns is a different matter altogether. Nowt, ventured, nowt gained as the saying goes and if they hadn’t been put in the ground they’d have only been fit for the bin.

I know I go on, but it really is that time of year and I continue to be inordinately proud of the fact that a couple of seeds, taken from a plate of salad served to me in a restaurant on a Greek Island, several years ago, continue to produce some of the largest, most “meaty” tomatoes I’ve ever come across. I know that just over twelve ounces isn’t quite a pound, so I’m taking a bit of license here, but I think you’ll get my drift. I may have mentioned that a chap who lives in the next village and happens to be something of a chili aficionado had supplied me with a couple of plants last year, although I hadn’t seen him to talk to since he’d taken a share of them. Long story short, he’s had a couple of operations to try and sort out a “trigger finger” problem that’s affected both his hands, which haven’t gone too well. I caught up with him to find he hadn’t planted anything at all this year, so I picked him a tub of chilies after he popped into the greenhouse for the first time in a while. He says it’s the best tomato he’s ever tasted!

Always the archetypal Yorkshireman, I’ve been touting around the local farmers, trying to get hold of a plastic barrel or two to make some soil improver in. It turns out that Cumberland folk are just as likely to want to hold onto what’s theirs as York folk, although my regular domino partner did turn up with a 20 gallon tub, minus lid, which he’d had lying in his farmyard for a while. It would have been fine if it hadn’t had a split along the bottom seam. Maybe he thought I wouldn’t notice the water gushing out, who knows? Any road up, seeing where the land lay I reluctantly bought a 24 gallon dustbin, found a patch of new growth nettle which took up a third of the space and topped it up with clean water before adding three fluid ounces or so (100ml) of Calcium and Magnesium concentrate. I’ll let it ferment over the winter and top it up once the nettles have broken down, before deploying it onto the soil bed, once it’s rotovated. Now all I have to do is figure out how to deal with the white fly without bankrupting myself.

Although one of the trio of Marmara red pepper plants still continues to produce healthy looking fruits that soon develop a blemish that grows outwards, making them unfit to use, the other two (as previously mentioned) are now producing some large, brightly coloured and obviously healthy fruits. The Scotch Bonnets are also starting to ripen and both the small “Apache” plants are now covered in glowing red fruits. The cider vinegar, light brown and jam sugars are purchased, meaning the coming weeks will see the kitchen turned into a hive of afternoon activity as chili jam and spicy red pepper relish production replace (at least for a week or so) soup and breakfast tomato making. The jam thermometer is cleaned and primed for action.

I can’t remember whether or not I mentioned my foray into the more adventurous end of soup making or not. If so, then you’ll have to bear with me, as I’ve (although I say it myself) become something of an “expert” (the sample size was very limited) at making “minestrone”. The truth is, of course, that given the time of year and the wider range of produce we now produce, this type of soup makes perfect sense. It’s nutritious, filling and very tasty. A meal in a bowl. I sweat down a “sofritto” of onion, carrot, garlic and chard stalks, before adding raw fine beans and peeled and chopped plum tomatoes, then stock. I leave that on simmer for ten minutes or so, then season with salt, black pepper and dried mixed herbs before adding shredded chard and cavalo nero leaves and small pieces of pasta (I used spaghetti) and simmering until the pasta is cooked “al dente”. Once it’s cooked you can adjust the “liquidity” by adding some boiling water, if needed, the flavours are more than strong enough to cope. A topping of Italian cheese and some crusty bread and the jobs done.

When I cook any kind of soup I tend to batch cook and I must admit to being a bit concerned as to whether or not this particular incarnation would freeze well. Any road up,  I’ve taken the plunge, spent some more money on proper soup bags (who wants a garage floor covered in soup again) AND a new frost-free freezer, needed to accommodate the growing range of varieties we’ll be enjoying over the winter months. Leek and potato next and another batch of tomato too. the consumption of soup’s likely to become a twice weekly event, my own little hedge against “food inflation”.

The climbing beans have eventually come into their own. The smaller varieties are great for soup (that’s me finished about liquid food, for now at least) and the larger ones, picked before they become tough and “stringy” freeze well. Not Mrs C’s favourite vegetable, if I’m honest, but the kids’ll be grateful and I’m quite partial.

The Building & Maintenance de having departed for its annual sojourn to t’Canary Islands I’ve been left pretty much to my own devices, but the work load isn’t currently that great and I’m just about back up to snuff, so it isn’t a problem. One thing we did consider was whether or not we could harvest the grapes before, but we decided against it, the worrying thing would be that, should we get a bit of a warm, sunny spell, then we might lose a bunch or two (to eating rather than juicing) but the bulk of the fruit should be able to stand a couple more weeks on the vine without too much concern. Some are ready to eat now, though and it’d be silly not to at least give them a try!

The Acts Of Union & Empire, which came fully into force in 1801 (when Ireland was assimilated into the wider Empire) stated that anyone born within the expanding realms of Britain, so long as they met certain residency and property qualifications could, in theory, stand for a seat at Westminster. The first person to be elected (in 1841) who was born outside of Europe and the Americas was a certain chap of South Asian origin called David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre. He was unseated in 1842 amid allegations of electoral fraud and bribery (there’s a surprise). The rules changed again in 1983, when a bill called The Representation Of The People Act, introduced by Willie Whitelaw in 1981 during Margaret Thatchers premiership, was passed into law. Following the introduction of this bill just about anyone who held British or Republic Of Ireland citizenship, or was a citizen of a qualifying Commonwealth nation was now able, whatever their suitability, was able to stand. Fast forward now to the upcoming by-election in Holborn & St. Pancras which is being held because a certain thin skinned, yet very ambitious ex Prime Minister, has thrown his toys out of the pram (and his hat in the ring for any upcoming UN, NATO, WHO, EU or WEF sinecure, no doubt) because, once he was exposed to the full glare of media and public scrutiny, he was found to be as unsuitable for the role as anyone in recent political history could be.

The are two people currently being touted to win the seat, although you never really know with these things and several parties are yet to nominate a candidate. The Labour candidate, is a Somali born Muslim refugee called Sagal Abdi-Wali who, so far as I can tell, has never held a job outside of politics. She’s currently the leader of Camden Council having first been elected as a councillor in 2022. Prior to taking elected office she has “worked” as a “community volunteer” and a school governor. She held the housing brief at Camden Council before becoming leader, many say she made something of a dogs breakfast of the job, but housing, should she get into Parliament, is where she sees her “talents” being put to best use. The Labour MP, Steve Reed, says that she has “earned the right to represent her community” although I’d question to which “community” her loyalties might lie, given what we know about the priorities of other Muslim MP’s and their obsessions with Palestine and their shared victimhood, which, ironically, they blame on the “Islamophobia” of British non-Muslims, many of them their own constituents (for now).

The other front runner is a chap standing for The Green Party who calls himself Zak Polanski, although his real name is David Paulden. Having studied drama at Aberystwyth university he went on to attend an acting school in Atlanta, Georgia, before attempting his luck at being, by turns, an actor, a school activity provider and latterly a (by all accounts rather poor) hypnotherapist. He turned to politics in 2015, when he joined the LibDems. He claims to have left the party because it had no room for the views of a “gay Jewish renter”. In my humble opinion it’s far more likely that he took umbrage after being overlooked to stand in the 2017 Richmond by-election. Following this slight he moved on to The Greens in 2017. LibDems everywhere, I’m sure, heaving a huge sigh of relief. He was elected as leader of the Greens in 2022, following a spell as deputy leader. The Greens, under Polanskis’ leadership aren’t so fussed about environmentalism anymore, instead concentrating on grievance politics and the threat of the “hard and far right”.

Either of these two people could win the seat, along, no doubt with one or two others, but I’m guessing that when The Representation Of The People act came into being, Somali Muslims and thin skinned, failed hypnotherapists weren’t very high on the list of candidates that either Willie Whitelaw or Margaret Thatcher might have envisaged.
 

© Colin Cross 2026