Monday 7 March 2011

Tomatoes germinated

DSC05919 The tomato seeds we sowed last weekend had all germinated by Friday (except for the Marmande) and were ready to go in one of the mini-greenhouses that Lo Jardinièr made last year. In the mornings we keep them inside but next to a window that has sun, in the afternoons they go out on the balcony. The seedlings seem to be growing very quickly! Now that they no longer need seed-starter box we have sowed the pepper seeds.

Varieties of peppers sown from seed we have saved or been given by friends:

Kandil dolma – a Turkish bell pepper with a very distinctive flavour. Only one germinated last year so we’re hoping for more this year.

Red marconi

Corno di toro

Spanish long pepper – seeds given to us by our neighbour.

Long pepper – seeds given to us by our garden neighbours.

Nardello

Piment d’Espelette – seed from paprika peppers bought in the village of Espelette in the French Basque country. As there is an appélation controlée for peppers grown in the area of that village I’m not sure whether the ones we grow here can be called Espelette.

Chorizo – another paprika variety. Seeds saved from peppers we grew last year from seed given to us by a friend in Navarra.

In the garden

The broad beans we sowed in autumn are flowering now and the second row we sowed a few weeks ago are coming up well, along with a few of the mangetout peas which always seem to be slower to germinate.

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And two good meals from the weekend…

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Above left, the cawl (Welsh stew or soup made with lamb, leeks, potatoes and carrots) we served for our soirée galloise on Friday, when we invited 14 French/Occitan friends to celebrate St David’s Day with us, and right, the paella I made for Sunday lunch with pork, rabbit and chorizo.

5 comments:

Sarah said...

My Nardello peppers have really low germination. Is it my seeds or are they all like that?

GaiasHope said...

Perfect!!!!!!
I hope you will have good weather.

Here we have 10 days to see sun and my seedlings have their first 2 leaves only for days. (Today we had snow)

Jan said...

I can't believe you have tomato seedlings already! But I probably said that last year too. To be honest I haven't even thought about tomatoes yet.

Diane said...

I am looking forward to the time that I will be in France to plant broad beans :-) Diane

beste said...

you are very advanced in term of germination this is the advantage of south of France. i loved the braod beans as well. Do u know that you can make a salad with fresh leaves, liitle bit olive oil and lemon juice:) thank u very much for your generous offer. can u send me an email for address please.What shal i send you as well? bestepekoz@hotmail.com