CF allotment thread 5 - Babs Beets it

[YaMuvva]

Thread no 4 here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5071742-cf-allotment-thief-thread-no-4-babss-dodgy-solicitor-and-tv-producers-looking-to-cast-for-the-role-of-penfold?page=39&reply=135700059

Whilst allotment gate is basically over this is to continue the lovely chats about baking, beetroots and Babs when she comes back off holiday 🤣
Ill also use it to update DH’s new hobby in which he is channelling Alan Titchmarsh and also, my health, as a lot of people have very kindly asked

The story continues......
Love it.

Carrots definitely used to be purple. We tried growing some once, but they didn't do well. We also grew some blue runner beans, which looked lovely on the plant but were a horrible sludgy blue when cooked. They tasted ok though.

Never mind chocolate cake, it's all about the jam slags now.

So glad we have another thread. I hope you are on the mend now @YaMuvva .Also hope the Garage occupiers sister is not moving in but just staying in the house temporarily while she sorts out things.

Garage Thief’s sister sounds like a nightmare but honestly it’s all down to Sally.

I got given some purple carrots, made the gravy red - won't be having them again 🤣🤣🤣🤣

So can we all collectively agree that puce coloured vegetables are all kinds of wrong?

Aubergines can fuck right off too

I'm with you there.

The childhood me wouldn't agree but green (especially the leafy ones) veg are the best. And corn. If everything else somehow vanished I wouldn't be sad.

Some purple carrots are orange in the middle. They’re really pretty as ribbons in salad. The ones that are purple all the way through are a bit too intense somehow.

Beetroot is lovely but can only be eaten from the jar so no juice stains all my other food. I made a chocolate cake at school years ago and it had beetroot in it and it was actually quite nice

I grew purple French beans but they turned green when you cooked them 😵‍💫

I had courgette chocolate cake yesterday. It was… ok. The napkin went faintly green though which was off putting.

Garage Thief! Oh my days. Does anyone in that neighbourhood know how property works?

Hope you're feeling better Op.

They probably need lemon juice or vinegar in the water to retain the colour like red cabbage. Purple vegetables and fruits are extra healthy - full of anthicyanins.

That clementine cake looks just the thing - I got a 'waste not, want not' box for 3 euro in Lidl on Friday, and along with the apples, oranges, leeks, celery, plums and goodness knows what at the bottom, there are quite a few clementines, good but soft. I've eaten some, but still need to use up the others. Trouble is I haven't any polenta. But if I boil and zap the fruit today I can freeze it until I have the other ingredients.

“Sorry Paul apparently that’s not Garage Thief’s drive anymore” Dear God in heaven. The other neighbours who have had to live with these loons for years must be so pleased someone has taken a stand at last.

I love aubergines and beetroot, and have been trying to eat lots of colours in veg and fruit for about 40 years - it was a thing my mother used to be fairly insistent on. My gesture in that direction this week was to try a fuchsia flower having read that they are edible.

Disappointingly it was slightly bitter, so wouldn't be the best cake decoration, but they'd be an interesting addition to a mixed salad with a slightly sweet dressing - I'm thinking a shredded lettuce background with yellow, and orange marigold and nasturtium petals, blue borage flowers, chives and rosemary flowers if available - a few bright red and purple fuchsia blossoms in the mix would look exciting. And just think of the trace nutrients.

its their other attributes, not just the colour. Older varieties of anything are often less of the things we want now...so less crisp and harder....more "rooty" sometimes less sweet.
Good morning all, special good morning to @YaMuvva with continuing wishes for your good health.

I don't know about the fuschia flowers but if you let the 'berries' develop after the flowers they are edible. Not very tasty but might make a good addition to a beetroot/courgette/carrot/clementine cake? If not, offer it to the garage thief's sister?

I bought some fuchsia specifically for the berries but it's never made berries. Ditto my honeysuckle, but that might be because I've only got the 1 plant. I've not got space for 2, as ambitious as I am.

I did walk past a neighbours fuchsia that had some plump berries and wonder if I could get away with whipping one or two to sample but then I did think how would this look if I read about this on mumsnet from their point of view and I'd probably be a little bit embarrassed.

Still. If it does it again this year I might.

I have eaten fuchsia berries before - bland but not unpleasant, certainly worth chucking into a mixed 'from the garden' fruit medley (blackberries, raspberries, alpine strawberries would be my usuals). I'm told it makes a good jam.

Carrots were originally white. They have been cross-bred to produce orange and purple varieties. White carrots are actually amazing.

My son is allergic to beetroot so gets sad when he can't have chocolate cake or brownies because someone has put beetroot in it!

I tried to grow some 'heritage' carrots once. Got lots of top but hardly any carrots formed

Cost me bleeding £5.99 as well... For a mouthful of carrot

Aren’t white carrots Just parsnips 😂

We have just come back from Yorkshire but sadly I didn't see any allotments!