It’s that time again where we ask the question… Is it parked or is it dumped?
We saw this one and though “that’s some bad parking,”.
The fact it’s in a car park suggestes that it’s badly parked but then again…
From the dent on the back our opinion is that parking isn’t this driver’s major skill.
As always tell us what you think below, and don’t forget to send us your PoD pictures.
Speaking of tomatoes. A few posts ago we mentioned that potatoe plans frow fruit which resemble tomatoes. Ours have now frown some so here, for your delight and amazement, (or at least to give us something to post about, Editor) is a picture of one. Enjoy.
The fruit (also called potato berries contain seeds which could have been fertilised by any other nearby potato plants so they are mainly used by breeders to create new cultivars.
The poison involved is called solanine and is the same poison found in green potatoes, the green colour is actually chlorophyll but, if a potato plant is producing chlorophyll its also producing solanine.
So how bad is it?
In an article in the QJM (https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/issue/48/2) Mary Macmillan and J.C Thompson tell the story of how…
Seventy eight schoolboys became ill after eating potato at lunch on the second day of the autumn term. Seventeen of the boys required admission to hospital. The gastrointestinal, circulatory, neurological and dermatological findings and the results of laboratory investigations were in keeping with solanine poisoning. The illness affected the junior boys and all the monitors but no other senior boys or staff. This pattern was compatible with the consumption of a relatively small number of toxic potatoes believed to have come from a bag (A) left in the stores since the summer term.
That was from a relativly high dose. Your body can break down small amounts quite quickly so it’s ok if you accidentaly consume a little, though we would’t recommend consuming it. We don’t even eat green crisps (potato chips in some countries, Ed) here at Owlbear Towers.
It’s produced if potatoes are stored in a place that is too light. So keep those potatoes in the dark.
It’s about time we started calling posts about the tomatoes “Tomatoes” especially with how big they are getting…
They have reached a nice size but we still dont have any flowers yet, so we have no tomatoes.
Fascinating (?) fact time. In China tomatoes are called 西红柿 (pronounced xī hóng shì), literally “west red persimmon”). The name denotes that they were introduced from the west during the Ming dynasty (around the 17th century) and that the chinese thought they looked like persimmon fruit.
Here at Owlbear Towers we are always on the lookout for the unusual and strange. It’s one of the reasons that we are seriously annoyed with the undead for not haunting us.
That why we were pleasantly suprised to find this in our polytunnel…
It was originally sat on one of the tomato plants in there, but it got disturbed when we went to water them. It eventually settled on this piece of paracord.
We have no idea how it got in there or why it wanted to be in there, but it seemed happy enough until we scared it off.
Where are up to with the potatoes now?
As you can see they are doing well.
The ones on the right are second earlies and we are expecting them to start to die back soon as they reach the end of their cycle. We are hoping to have a nice bag of spuds soon.
It’s fascinating fact time….
The US Department of Agriculture has stated that “a diet of whole milk and potatoes would supply almost all of the food elements necessary for the maintenance of the human body.”
While this is probably true for the short term, it’s probably not going to do you any good in the long term. You would almost certainly not get enough iron, protein and vitamins A, E and K.
One on the things that has always fascinated us here at owlbear towers is the question
“is that car just badly parked, or has it been stolen and dumped?”.
We like to collect pictures of cars to ponder this question.
We have decided to share any of these pictures we get so that you can all join in with the fascinating hobby of deciding whether that car has been…
Parked or Dumped?
Here is the first one. What is your opinion, has this car been parked or dumped?
We think dumped on this one, do you agree? Let us know below.
We would also love to see your “Parked or Dumped?” pictures. Email them to us, the address at paladin@ owlbear uk, you’ll need to edit the address slightly to send them though.
We promise we won’t spam you!
When most people think of potatoes they only really think of the brown potato (I guess) shaped things. But they are flowering plants. A few posts ago we mentioned the flower buds. Here we have a picture of the flowers after they have opened.
According to legend King Loius XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France were given some potato flowers and they liked them so much the king wore one as a buttonhole and the queen put some in her hair. So what do you think, cute or ugly?
The flowers can lead to the production of fruit, they look a little like tomatoes (with them being related) but they are seriously toxic. Don’t eat them they’ll make you ill.
Unluckily it’s the 13th episode of our series “potatoes”. Here is the image for today…
It’s the tomatoes. We fancied a change, so did you. So here for you to marvel at it’s those fantastic tomato plants.
Here is a challenge for you is the dark patch at the front the shadow of a person in a hat, or is it a wet patch of soil?
Answers on a postcard, as they say.
Back to the potato plants. and here they are a few days ago.
According to our main competitor for your attention in the potatosphere, Potatopedia, there are more than 4,000 known varieties (or cultivars) of potatoes.
We have absolutely no idea as to how our blog came to be about potatoes. We hope the new Dungeons and Dragons campaign starts soon. Lets hope it’s not about a quest to find a potato or something.
And here we are again with our increasingly cringy potato posts. Like you we wish we had something else to post about…..
Tomatoes, somebody mentioned tomatoes last time…
So here they are in our tiny poly-tunnel. Tomatoes.
Facsinating tomato fact. Most people are aware that, although used as a vegetable, tomatoes are a fruit, but how many know that botanically a tomato is actually classed as a berry?