Tips for Wanstead gardeners: When tomatoes won’t ripen

Wansteadium’s new gardening blogger is Ron, who has been cultivating his Wanstead garden for more than 50 years.

I was pleased to receive this note from Wanstead resident Geoff Wilkinson.

Hi Ron

Great to know that there is someone to answer queries re gardening.  I have for the first time this year attempted growing tomatoes outside.  Have watered daily and fed them Tomorite weekly.  They have an abundance of trusses and are still flowering in anticipation of more fruit.  However, they continue to be hard, large and green (variety – Moneymakers).  When do they turn red?  I have taken the largest trusses off and placed the tomatoes on a tray and put them in the sun at every opportunity (could be a better summer).  Still not turning red – if anything they are erring on the side of yellow.  Desperate for help.  We need red tomatoes – no clue how to make chutney.

Regards
Geoff

To be honest, I’m not sure why Geoff’s tomatoes shouldn’t be going red – I’ve been growing Moneymakers for several years and always found them a good variety. I grow my own plants from seed; they’re easy to rear in the Spring, so long as you don’t let them get too tall or leggy.

The basic method is to grow them in the ground or a big pot, using an ordinary potting mix and putting a nice cane or stake in place at the time of planting out – though they should only go outside when there’s no risk of late frost. You should confine the plant to one main stem, and allow only five or six trusses (i.e. five or six bunches which grow together). With most varieties you nip out the side shoots (that’s those which sprout from the nick between the main stem and the established leaves). As Geoff has been doing, they need feeding once a week, after the first trusses start growing, and those in pots will need watering daily in dry weather. Tomatoes in the ground will not need so much watering.

One problem lots of people encounter is browning or yellowing of leaves. This could be BLIGHT. Cut off those affected bits and get rid of them – don’t put them in your compost.

Tomatoes do like sunny weather (as do I), and this should help them ripen. It might help to put the tray of tomatoes on a window sill indoors. Ripening might just be a matter of time, but when it comes it will be worth it. There’s nothing like the smell you get from the skin of home-grown tomatoes. I hope this helps you, Geoff. Do let me know if you have any luck.

• The sunny weather at the end of last week, felt like a bit of an apology for a pretty disappointing August. Here’s hoping that we have an Indian summer this September. I took advantage of last week’s sun to pick the first of this year’s almonds from my tree. The outer casing has already split on lots of them. I love the almond tree – it’s the first thing in the garden to blossom in the Spring and is an early indication of great things to come.

UPDATE: Geoff Wilkinson replies:

“Thank you very much for responding to my problem. You have mentioned a couple of things that may be the problem and I will bear these in mind for next year. However, not all is lost the window sill is proving efficient just a bit slow. Perhaps I should stick to photography !! Best wishes and once again thank you. Cheers Geoff”

You can send Ron your gardening questions at wansteadium@gmail.com

Wanstead kids! Learn how to take photos…

This weekend is the Wanstead Festival and to mark the occasion, Wanstead photographer Carole Edrich is offering to run a photography workshop for 8-to-14-year-olds.

Carole, who works as a dance and travel photo-journalist, says the workshop will include “talking about how to take a nice photo, the basics of composition and timing, and possibly colour awareness too”.

The workshop will take place on Saturday afternoon 1.00pm to 3.00pm, meeting in the garden of the George at 12.45, and will last about two hours. Children attending will need to bring a camera with them, though even a mobile phone camera will be sufficient, and will need to be prepared to work in twos or threes. Parents will need to hang around and will be welcome to join in. “It’ll be really informal but the idea will be to prepare the kids to take photos the following day at the Wanstead Festival,” she adds.

There is room for about 12 children and there is no charge, though Carole would appreciate a pound or two for materials and time.

On Sunday, Wansteadium will publish some of the resulting successful photos – or at least those which the newly expert young photographers want to show off.

Contact Carole via wansteadium@gmail.com for a place – first come first served.

Wanstead news roundup, 5.9.11; Art, hope, murder and mystery in Wanstead

• It’s festival week in Wanstead, with the annual party on Christchurch Green taking place next Sunday, 11 September. That is also launch day for the Wanstead Art Trail, an ever-more ambitious showcase of art in shops and other buildings across Wanstead. A fantastically produced brochure is widely available, and is also online here.

• The proposals to introduce pay and display parking restrictions to central Wanstead have, in case you haven’t heard, been dropped. It follows a campaign and mass petition, organised by Michael and Valerie Powis of Grosvenor Road.

• The former Russell’s cafe bar, currently undergoing renovation, is reportedly becoming a Turkish restaurant.

• Could this be another sign of a green shoot in the Wanstead micro-economy? Cafe Voyage at Snaresbrook station has extended its opening hours: now 6am-5pm on weekdays and 8am-2pm on Saturdays.

• Hedgehogs, a cause close to Wansteadium’s heart, are still being spotted. Alasdair Bain sent this photo, reporting: “Saw this little guy trying to hide behind the bamboo in my garden.” Coming soon in Wansteadium, what you can do in your garden as autumn approaches, to make it a hedgehog friendly zone.

• Meanwhile mink are still being spotted in Wanstead Park. Last week one was seen dragging a coot to an untimely death while perplexed parents and toddlers were feeding the ducks. Other coots watched on.

• An item of interest in Wanstead Oxfam: a double vinyl EP of Magical Mystery Tour in near mint condition, with the original booklet and artwork – a snip at £100. Contact the shop directly if you are interested. 020 8530 3413 or oxfamshopf8092@oxfam.org.uk

• And items recently added to Wansteadium Classifieds include a piano, an iPhone 3GS and a tumble drier. Details here, at wansteadium.com/classifieds, where you can also sell your unwanted goods to other Wanstead residents, for free.

Wanstead Farmers’ Market: Pie update

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

A few years ago, at a restaurant in Rye, for pudding we were tempted by something on the menu called Whim Wham. It put us in mind of Boris Johnson’s favoured name for table tennis (“whiff-whaff”) – something quirky yet charming from time gone by. And that’s in fact what it was – a mix of cream, alcohol, some fruit – much favoured, I seem to recall, by the Elizabethans.

And yet it wasn’t really up to much. It was clear to us all that this proto-trifle would have been much more enjoyable if it had been just a bit more like actual trifle.

I was reminded of this at last month’s farmer’s market in Wanstead High Street. The thing which caught Mr Orange’s eye was on a stall run by a Buckinghamshire pie company, Raven’s Den. It had the quirky, charming name of Fidget Pie. We’d not come across it before, so I indulged his curiosity. The lady at the stall enthused about it, telling me the firm’s pies were hand-made using local ingredients – nothing reformed used in any pies – and I felt a bit reassured. Seemed a simple enough filling – ham, cheddar cheese, apple, onion.

We took it home and although she told me we could eat it cold or hot I couldn’t really imagine cutting into a cold pie – too Melton Mowbray for me I’m afraid. So we heated it for the allotted time and ate with a simple green salad.

I’m afraid from the outset for me it was too salty, though the children ate it comfortably – probably because of being starved of salty things in their diets. The pastry was as it should be, ham was sliced (and looked reformed, to be honest), onions plentiful though perhaps too many for a small pie. There was no discernible taste of cheese and the thinly sliced apple added a hint of a cidery flavour.

Summed up in a word – unremarkable. It was simple fare which came from a simple Midlands recipe – apparently popular with harvesters in the 1950s according to The National Trust Recipe Book. So, unremarkable like a lot of those older recipes which have fallen out of use – just like Whim Wham – but for £6 it is not something I will be seeking out again at Sunday’s Farmer’s Market. It won’t stop me going though.

Congratulations to Wanstead Guardian

Hurrah for the Wanstead and Woodford Guardian, which has been named as the UK’s local paper with the largest INCREASE in circulation for the first six months of 2011 – a whopping 27.1% boost.

Just seven per cent of local newspapers in the country saw circulation increases – for most of them it’s a time of relentless decline, with some seeing double-digit falls. A combination of readers and advertisers migrating to the internet, general advertising gloom and economic conditions are meaning that even some free papers are being closed by owners.

The Wanstead Guardian has achieved its increase despite all this, and competition from the Woodford edition of the Recorder, which is available free in Wanstead. The good news is however somewhat tempered by the fact that the circulation, following the increase, stands at a relatively modest 4,354 each week.

Wansteadium readers will no doubt have various theories as to the cause of the increase, which you are welcome to share here.