Tuesday 21 May 2013

A Nod In The Direction Of Chelsea

No visitor to my blog can doubt that my main interest is vegetables.  I used to be a paid up member of the "if you can't eat it don't grow it" school.  The thin end of the wedge was the flowering alliums.  I mean, they are onions aren't they? Last autumn I was buying some for planting up in troughs when these "black" tulips caught my attention on the same shelf at the garden centre. Given that they like the same conditions it would be easy enough to plant them up too. Well they've stolen a march on the alliums and flowered before Chelsea!





It has been a bit of a job protecting the long stalks from the high winds!

The alliums aren't so far behind:



While on the subject of eating I'm including my latest bread experiment: soft pretzels:

Pretzel or Peace 
 And just in case you think that was a one off here's the rest of the batch:

Pretzel Motley Crew
The characteristic crust colour of pretzels comes from dipping in an alkaline solution called "lye",  but  as this is an industrial strength solution unobtainable to home consumers I've used a bicarbonate of soda solution instead. The results aren't quite as satisfactory. Even so they they were very popular and soon disappeared.

4 comments:

  1. After what you said about my lavender!! The shadows have meant you have double the flowers for your money!

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  2. What tall tulips you have, they look great with the shadow behind them in the photo.

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  3. Black Tulips, they look lovely, kinda makes you want to use dark paint and colour the shadow of them on that fence.
    As for the pretzels, well they look lovely, I just wish my baking skills were up to it.
    Hope they were enjoyed!

    Linda - The Tenacious Gardener

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  4. Pretty tulips, I really need to think about which bulbs I want to plant up on my bee plot!! The pretzels look great...bet they tasted great too.

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