The Socially Acceptable Kitchen Garden: Fruit & Veg Snobbery

Comment by Debbie on April 24, 2012 at 20:14

I love this post. Well said.

Comment by Petra Hoyer Millar on April 24, 2012 at 20:15

Thank you!!

Comment by Colin Robinson on April 24, 2012 at 22:20

Interesting observations and something that has occupied some of my thoughts over the years. All this talk of superfoods really is just hype. Blackcurrants are just as super as blueberries and I get 10lbs of fruit from each bush. Similarly the much maligned cabbage which can be used in so many ways and is packed full of goodness. The triumph of marketing is to sell you something that you neither want nor need. I'll just stick with what I enjoy eating.

Comment by Petra Hoyer Millar on April 24, 2012 at 22:40

Good point about the superfoods, most of which is pure marketing hype. Agreed, grow what you like to eat! That's all that really matters.

Comment by Stephen Shirley on April 25, 2012 at 20:08

Its very easy to forget that F1 hybrids are not a modern thing - and have been around for well over 100 years now - thanks to Mendel; in fact some of the current 'modern' hybrids are older than most of us!

Personally I think it is wrong to not trial and take that attitude that if something is suitable for YOUR purpose then that is fine whether it be a brand spanking new hybrid or an old as the hills heritage variety (which is probably the result of careful selection and re-selection and finding it stays stable).

Then please let us not forget that even fruits as humble as the blackberry are hybrids - sow a few seeds to see how true to type they come!

Horticultural Snootiness is following the fad - when I left school and joined my family business growing your own was generally regarded for idiots and bumpkins! (as a family we have always grown our own for generations - so we must be idiots and bumpkins). But seriously, when I left school conifers and heathers were the fashion and since then I have seen the fashions change from one thing to the next and now we are where we are with Grow Your Own - nothing wrong with that but personally I would like to see people enjoying a few more pretty's as well as feeding themselves.

But I seem to have digressed!

Sorry you haven't got on well with Jostas Petra; we find them fantastic and profuse (if not somewhat biennial in performance) and make the most wonderful pies and jams and jellies and ...

Comment by Petra Hoyer Millar on April 25, 2012 at 20:51

Says the nursery man... hahahah! Only joking. Good points made. Wish you'd respond directly on the blog too, as this is all good stuff! (By all means please do...). I am not against experimenting, nor trialling new varieties, its just that we all seem to be on some kind of treadmill for ever looking for that latest 'new' veg, or variety and thereby forget and don't seem to take pride in those 'traditional' veg. One reads often, don't bother growing potatoes, carrots etc, instead grow some of those exotics on the premise that they taste better, which I think is often not true. We are giving the Josta another year, so hopefully it will be better this year, but meanwhile the blackcurrant is and was brilliant. ps. that photo is your artichoke! Need a few more, seem to have lost some. Will order soon.

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