Happy Birthday to the Best Boss ever. x
Hope you've had a good Christmas and that your Birthday is the icing on the (leftover) cake.

Did you get anything gardening related? Clothes? Smellies ? Maybe you got a surprise? Anything you didn’t want?

I have 4 bags of 8p spuds, 3 bags of carrots, 3 bags of parsnips and a couple of swedes.
What tips can you give me to keep these fresh for as long as possible - without freezing - or digging a root cellar!

Shall we re-write the Twelve Days of Christmas making it appropriate for gardeners? The twelve days start on Christmas Day, 25th, and end January 5th.
 https://www.calendarpedia.com/when-is/tw...stmas.html

Here are the original words:- 

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!


What would you like to receive On your First Day of Christmas instead of a "Partridge in a Pear tree". 

I put this link on the weather thread but decided it needed a thread of it's  own! 

Funny but relevant!


https://youtu.be/dwM41dBRHAc

These days I'm fairly traditional with Xmas dinner veg. Plain brussels, broc  & carrots. Roast potatoes and honeyed Parsnips. In past younger years I used to experiment,  I had more enthusiasm in those days.  I'm not keen on chestnuts with anything let alone brussels . I'm going to try a recipe for roasted brussels in a balsamic and honey glaze but perhaps before Xmas day. At 8p a packet, there's nothing to lose. Vichy carrots were nice as was cabbage and bacon, but there's only so much two can eat.

As for traditions in baking, there's mince pies to my mum's recipe; orange pastry, with a dollop of cream cheese on top of the mincemeat, under the top crust. Homemade sausage rolls, cheese sablés and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without smoked salmon or gravadlax open sandwiches and asparagus rolls for tea. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get tinned green asparagus tips. They're very 60's and so out of fashion these days.

What if any traditions do you follow every Christmas.  All except Veggie who probably does a ritual rummage in the freezer.

I know we have vegetarians,piscatarians and possibly vegans on the forum so just wondered how different the Christmas dinners willbe for all? Will it be a traditional Turkey dinner with all the trimmings or some other version?

I personally class myself as carnivore but can vear towards ketovore at times like Christmas and other festive periods. I do usually draw the line at carbs,seed oils and ultra processed food though.

This year my plan is to have duck. I will also purchase a soup pack consisting of a tiny swede (chopped,boiled and mashed with butter and white pepper) carrots (glased in some way) Parsnip (cooked in the duck fat) and maybe a few roasties (also cooked in duck fat)

I am also partial to Christmas pudding even though its  carb rich (soddit it's Christmas!  along with a healthy serving of double cream!

Some very interesting low cloud cover today.

                     

I've just received 71 random packets of seed from Chiltern Seeds - 51 veg and 20 flowers. Normally, I would file them away, with similar seeds eg All cabbage seed packets together. When I want to sow cabbage seeds, I usually sow the oldest ones first, which  is stoopid really as their germination rate will be worse than the fresh seeds. 
This year, I'm going to do it differently - sow some of all the fresh seeds first. Not just that, but I'm going to try to grow every new seed that I acquire - all 71 of the Chiltern seeds and the 11 that I received from SC & JJB in the Seed Swap. That's 82 different seeds I will sow next year.

That's my Challenge to me but you're all welcome to join me.