old book - new wrinkles?

[oldmoleskins]

Just got home with this from a bookstall outside a house:



1932, ponderous language and hugely out of date in some respects, but I thought there may be something in there that's relevant today.

First thing I see in the chapter "Vegetables from Seed" is Colewort, Rosette and Hardy Green.
What on earth is Colewort, and should we be eating it now?

Anyone else got cranky old books?

OM.

[4pygmies]

davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1055/

There you are then - you learn something new every day here.....

I have several of my Grandad's old books about trees, gardening and the natural world. The thing I like about them all are the fantastic quality of the illustrations - all so beautiful and detailed. They do smell so fusty, though some of them...... ;D Some of the stuff in the gardening ones are really interesting - full of tips and handy hints.

[Amo]

I had quite a few. Lovely linen bound types and yes fousty smell.

Found Ex husband having a bonfire one day.

[Rosefriend]

I have one that isn't very old at all really but I brought it back with me when my Dad died. Inside it says that the book was first published in 1976.

Can anyone remember this man? I was in the UK still at that point and I have no recollection at all.



RF

[oldmoleskins]

May 8, 2008 15:48:15 GMT Rosefriend said:

I have one that isn't very old at all really but I brought it back with me when my Dad died. Inside it says that the book was first published in 1976.

Can anyone remember this man? I was in the UK still at that point and I have no recollection at all.



RF

North Country bloke, rather over-revelled in calling a spade a spade as I recall... Geoffrey Smith was it? Used to be on GQT and telly I think...

OM.

ps not sold on colewort 4P, but thanks for the link - and very bad luck Amo!

[Spruance]

Yes I can remember Geoffrey Smith. He was a co-presenter on Gardener's World as well as appearing on a regional gardening programme. Can't remember the name of the latter offhand but I do remember that whatever his fellow presenter suggested he always advocated the opposite advice!

UK members should be able to view a clip on this BBC site. Not sure if it will work for anyone not in the UK though.

www.bbc.co.uk/lifestyle/mediaplayer/consoles/gardeners_world/bb_rm_console.shtml?nbram=1&bbram=1&tab=5

(NB: Real Player required).

[Rosefriend]

It won't work for me - just says that the Page cannot be found - shame.

Thanks a lot though Spruance.

Yes it is Geoffrey Smith OM. The book has only 48 pages but it really isn't bad at all.

RF

[Shrubrose]

Oooo, I like Geoffrey Smith - Yokshu lad I think and you can hear his love of plants with every word he speaks. Not a faddy, trendy type - but strong and true and knows his stuff I reckon. When I hear him speak with that slow drawl of his, I can hear a smile in his voice - as though he's looking around at nature and is delighted with what he sees.

Back on topic - my Mum has given me some old books probably from the 1930's onwards

One is quite humorous - takes the michael out of us gardeners but is really about us laughing at ourselves if that makes any sense? The Gardener's Year by Karel Capek and illustrated by his brother (?) Josef Capek. Lovely little book. Here's a bit.....

How a Man becomes a Gardener
While one is in the prime of youth one thinks that a flower is what one carries in a buttonhole, or presents to a girl; one somehow does not rightly understand that a flower is something which hibernates, which is dug round and manured, watered and transplanted, divided and trimmed, tied up, freed from weeds, and cleaned of seeds, dead leaves, aphis and mildew.....

I will now tell you how to recognise a real gardener. 'You must come to see me', he says; 'I will show you my garden'. Then, when you go just to please him, you will see him with rump sticking up somewhere among the perennials. 'I will come in a moment', he shouts to you over his shoulder. 'Just wait till I have planted this rose'. After a while he must have planted it; for he gets up, makes your hand dirty, and beaming with hospitality he says: 'Come have a look; it's a small garden, but......Wait a moment', and he bends over a bed to weed some tiny grass. 'Come along. I will show you Dianthus musalae; it will open your eyes. Great Scott, I forgot to loosen it here'.....and begins to poke in the soil.

And so it goes on. It makes me giggle because it's just what I do!

Also got The Gardener's Treasury of Popular Plants and their Cultivation - A.J.Macself, Editor of Amateur Gardening, no less!

The New Illustrated Gardening Encyclopaedia by Richard Sudell, FRHS (so should know what he's talking about - then! ;D)

And my favourite - The Manual of Practical Gardening by H.H.Thomas. Full of 'how to's' with a lovely art deco embosse on the front cover.

I love 'em. The language is poetic often, the 'how to's' often still true today and I add my fingers to all the fingers that have turned those pages before. And it makes me humble and joyful all at the same time.

And OM, Crambe Cordifolia, or colewort, is a magnificent plant - you have room for a plant like this - it is truly an oddity

[beanie]

I used to make a point of watching a programme called Geoffrey
Smiths world of flowers. each programme he'd single out 1 plant family and go through them, even going to the place they originated from. I think a young scottish guy took over from him.

[Weeterrier]

The thing about Geoffrey Smith was, he truly loved his plants, and waxed lyrical about them.

[oldmoleskins]

May 8, 2008 18:06:05 GMT Shrubrose said:

Oooo, I like Geoffrey Smith ...

And OM, Crambe Cordifolia, or colewort, is a magnificent plant - you have room for a plant like this - it is truly an oddity

A magnificent one maybe, ShrubbyOne - but can you eat it? It's in his (F Hadfield Farthing's) veg section...

OM

[Shrubrose]

Now here's the thing - I've never fancied trying! The leaves are just too huge to look appetising and on reflection, I thought it was crambe maritima that was edible and not cordifolia? Must look it up and make sure.

[Shrubrose]

I dunno! I've googled but I'm none the wiser. What does your book say about it OM?

[4pygmies]

I think it's the Crambe maritima which is the edible plant - but it doesn't look all that yummy does it?

I still have that book RF - actually I still refer to it occasionally. I have several of his little pamphlet books, I think they are pretty good basic guides. I bought them all when I had my first proper garden in our first house and read them all cover to cover, all the time....Geoffrey Smith is still about, he was on TV fairly recently, very briefly, wasn't he part of the Beeb's GW anniversary celebrations last year?

[Tig]

I have a very early 1900's copy of Newnes Everything Within.
It has over 1200 pages and contains some very interesting information. If anyone needs to enhance their social letter writing skills, etiquette, or know how to reheel their leather boots, or repair their sash windows, I can find the answers

It has a gardening section which contains quite a lot of relevent facts. Did you know -
Borecole is known variously as kale, early kale or 'winter greens'? It goes on to say that the variety 'Thousand headed kale' is much grown for feeding livestock including poultry.
Colewarts and collards are really a type of small cabbage, and should be given similar treatment.

Under the section on 'herbs and garnish' it mentions a few names which are not well-known (well to me anyway!) -
Horehound for use in cough syrups
Purslane for salads and soups
Rampion for salads
Southernwood grown for perfume

In the fruit trees section it mentions the following as recommended Apple trees to grow -
Allington Pippin, Beauty of Bath, Blenheim Orange, Coxes Orange Pippin, Ecklinville seedling, King of the Pippins, Newton wonder, Stirling Castle, Warner's King, Wellington, and Worcester Pearmain.

Flowers, etc, are in a section called 'The Pleasure Garden'

x Tig

[4pygmies]

I bet you do know those herbs, Tig! Horehound is a very common wild plant quite often mistaken for nettles which was used medicinally, for seet making and for making a country beer. Purslane is a low growing herb which looks like a succulent, it used to grow wild in my polytunnel until my Mum hoed it.... Rampion is a blue flowered wild flower, part of the Campanula family, although I think it has another name too which I can't remember and Southernwood is an Artemsia or Wormwood.

I've just planted a London Pearmain in the wild garden at school which was donated by to County Groundsmen. And my Grandad used to grow Borecole - it was disgusting, if memory serves! ;D

[oldmoleskins]

May 9, 2008 5:52:20 GMT Shrubrose said:

I dunno! I've googled but I'm none the wiser. What does your book say about it OM?

Nothing - and that's probably significant in itself - 80 years or so ago, evidently it was enough to include it in a list of veg "suitable for cultivation in a small kitchen garden"... I mean, everyone should know what colewort is...

OM.

[Amo]

Horehound looks like Phlomis, coronet of flowers around the leaf axis. It's in Jekka's complete herb book as is purslane and southernwood. It's a facinating book too even being a modern one!

As for Colewort, I googled in images and one of them comes up as Giant Kale and crambe cordifolia. Any help??

[Shrubrose]

Yes, that's what I got too Amo but I couldn't find info on whether it's edible or not. I'm sure maritima is edible but not so sure about cordifolia.

[Tig]

Thanks for all the info on the herbs ladies - we live and learn (or in my case probably forget again )

One of my favourite sites give the lowdown on crambe cordifolia (the medicinal uses made me grin, if anyone is thinking of growing it ;D)

Now these links often don't work properly from my past experience - so you may need to add cordifolia after crambe in the search box when you arrive on the site

www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Crambe+cordifolia

x Tig

[Shrubrose]

That was a great link Tig, thanks. So, crambe cordifolia does appear to be edible then There you go OM - get growing!

[oldmoleskins]

May 9, 2008 21:07:14 GMT Shrubrose said:

That was a great link Tig, thanks. So, crambe cordifolia does appear to be edible then There you go OM - get growing!

How astonishing - good link, and while tempted by 'easy cultivation' , 'three apples' for taste, and the prospect of an end to all that itching, I think I'll leave the greenstuff to my market garden neighbour - I never seem to have much success with it... much easier to nip over the fence - invited to, I hasten to add.

OM.

[Shrubrose]

Apparently it's the younger leaves one should eat OM, so 'think on' (as my Gran used to say) -early scramble over that fence then Might just give them a try this year. For such a huge plant, the flowers are borne above on fleshy stems and look totally out of whack with the rest of the plant. But they smell divine.

[fozzie]

May 9, 2008 11:14:06 GMT Tig said:

In the fruit trees section it mentions the following as recommended Apple trees to grow -
Allington Pippin, Beauty of Bath, Blenheim Orange, Coxes Orange Pippin, Ecklinville seedling, King of the Pippins, Newton wonder, Stirling Castle, Warner's King, Wellington, and Worcester Pearmain.

I can vouch for Blenheim Orange not to mention Peasgood Nonsuch, so I wont. I used to enjoy Coxes Orange Pippin as a lad, when I had teeth that is!

F

[Tig]

;D

[Shrubrose]

;D ;D

[Barbara]

now think on ;D ;D ;D oh that brought back memories

[Barbara]

this was £1.25 in 1972. its good as well