Oxford 2011 Cancelled

For those of you thinking about coming to the meeting in Oxford this year, I’m sorry but I need to cancel.  I’m planning other travel around the same time and have already done a lot of travel this year.  I’m also unsure if enough people are interested this year, and to be honest I don’t really have enough speakers lined up to keep us busy an entire day.

Maybe next year we can plan something.  I’m always looking for groups or people to team up with in order to make a larger event, so if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Oxford 2011

Plans are under way for another get-together in Oxford this year!  We have tentative dates of either 24 September or 1 October.  Does anyone who would probably come have any conflicts with these dates or any ideas for speakers or workshops?

Some of the people who attended or expressed interest in the past were:

Daughter of the Soil
Veg Plotting
Spadework
Fluffius Muppetus
Manor Stables Vegetable Plot
MustardPlaster
Joanna’s Food
The plot thickens
A Blog Called Fuggles
Ben – Real Seeds
This and That
Baklava Shed Coalition
Guardian Gardening Blog
Horticultural
Soilman’s Allotment Blog
Kitchen Garden in France
Tater-Mater
Observer Organic Allotment Blog
Gwenfar’s Lottie and other musings
Down on the Allotment
Organic Allotment
Urban Food Gardening
Brown Envelope Seeds
Fennel and Fern
Ewa in the Garden
The Cats Tripe
Radix
Heritage Seed Library

Garlic, Oxford and Next Year

Julieanne, who helped me organize the event last year in Oxford where Tom Wagner spoke, just made a post about growing the garlic I gave her last year.  Wow!  It all looks great, and I’m really happy it’s being grown in Oxford and shared with others there.  She’s posted some pictures and notes here as well.

Alas I didn’t have time to organize an event in the UK this year, but maybe next year.  If anyone has any ideas for speakers or anything else related to an event in 2011, please let me know, either in a comment here or private email.

Tom Wagner Pedigree Information

This is the final video from Tom Wagner’s Sunday workshop in Oxford. In this video Tom presents some pedigree information for seeds he left with us that day.

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

I haven’t carefully inventoried the seeds I have, but I think I have some of everything he talks about here. I’m pretty sure more is available on request. I probably have other seeds he didn’t talk about here, and I’ll have to ask Tom about these.

I also have a large number of tomato seeds, but Tom didn’t have information on these available on that day.

In the past I’ve offered a number of seeds to anyone reading this blog, but in this case it’s a little different.

These seeds are still on offer to anyone, but the intention is when you receive them you agree to participate in a breeding project that goes along with them. That means committing yourself to learning something about the genetics involved in the project, and reporting back to Tom on your progress.

When Tom left the seeds with me, I think he was thinking that members of the workshop or contacts within Europe would be the ones receiving the seeds, but as we know this blog has readers in most regions and many countries of the world. As far as I’m concerned, and I think Tom too, anyone who’s genuinely interested in participating in a breeding project is welcome to seeds. I’m personally willing to send them anywhere.

So, regardless of where you live; Europe, North America or elsewhere, if you’re interested in joining a tomato or potato breeding project, please get in touch! There’s really a lot of very exciting biodiversity to work with here.

Tom Wagner on Growing and Saving True Potato Seeds (TPS)

These three videos are related and refer to one another. Probably anybody watching any one of them could best watch all three at least once through.

General Discussion TPS and Potato Berries

In this video Tom presents a lot of general and interesting information on potato plant genetics, as well as seed saving and cleaning techniques.

In this video Tom mentions using Tri-Sodium Phosphate to clean his seeds. I’m not sure if it’s available outside of the US, but if it is you can probably find it in a hardware or DIY type store. It’s a very strong household cleaner, not very friendly to the environment, and a component of laundry soap in many places.

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Growing from TPS

In this video Tom discusses how to grow TPS as well as offering a wide range of tips and tricks for growing and harvesting potatoes in general.

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Seed Saving Demonstration

This video, filmed in the men’s room at the East Oxford Community Centre the day of our workshop there, is a demonstration of how to save seeds from potato berries. I’m sorry the camera wasn’t working well and I had to chase Tom around a bit…

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.