A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Mr Fothergill. Well actually it wasn’t really from Mr Fothergill, thinking about it is there a Mr Fothergill anyway? Not sure but regardless the email wasn’t from him, it was from Sarah who works in marketing at Mr Fothergills. She offered me a packet of their latest product range to try. In the past I have been a little reticent about accepting things to review but the lure of receiving a package in the mail (I am addicted to ebay for much the same reason) meant that I decided to say yes.
Anyway the goodies arrived this week:
They sent me two mini growing kits – the paper cup looking ones at the back of the above photo. One is basil and one is stevia which is aimed at kids and promoted as a ‘lolly plant’. My kids (ages almost 7 and 3) set about planting these the moment I opened the box. They managed them easily although in both instances they needed to use more water than suggested on the instructions. The kits consist of discs of peat which you hydrate in water in the paper pots. You then put holes in the bottom of the pots and sow the seeds. There were only enough seeds for one smallish sowing in each package. Although I wouldn’t buy them myself, as they aren’t nearly as cost effective as sowing seeds in punnets, I can see that the kits would be great for kids because that they can do it all themselves and are relatively mess free.
Whilst my kids were sowing their seeds I hydrated the peat for another seed raiser kit – Capsicum 6 colour mix. This kit consisted a seed tray with plastic lid, some peat pellets and a packet of Capsicum seeds (6 colour mix). I liked that you got a full packet of seeds with this kit. The instructions were easy to follow although they suggested you should make holes in the bottom of the seed tray before you mixes the peat pellets with water. This meant that I had to use heaps more water than suggested as much of it (unsurprisingly) ran out the bottom of the tray.
I’m looking forward to seeing how these do. The varieties included in the mix (happily they detail them on the packet) are: Golden Wonder Red & Golden, Chocolate Beauty, Diamond, Emerald Giant and Orange Sun. I have grown the Golden Wonder varieties before but the others are new to me. It will be interesting to see if I can work out which is which.
The other things in my package were a micro-green growing tray and two packets of micro-green mix seeds. I haven’t done anything with this yet but I’m looking forward to trying it.
And finally they sent me three packets of seeds: Tigerella tomatoes which I often grow and some carrots – hmmm not sure about carrots in colours other than orange – past experiences haven’t been great – but I will reserve judgement until I try them. But most excitingly of all the things they sent me – some Edamame seeds! Don’t you love how Australia seems to have adopted the Japanese name for soy beans? Edamame does sounds much more enchanting I suppose. Anyway, I am a big edamame fan – I order them every time I eat Japanese food and would love to grow my own. I just don’t know if they will work in Melbourne’s climate. I will try of course but I would love to hear from anyone who has grown them before and has some tips for me.
Thanks Mr Fothergill, or should that be Sarah? I will enjoying eating this lot when they get bigger.
Americans use the word edamame too, but it doesn’t mean soy beans to us. It means the green soy beans in the pod (typically steamed and salted). So here you can get edamame seeds which are meant to be grown and picked like a shelling bean. But you can also get soy bean seeds which are meant to be grown as the typical dried soy beans. I’m guessing some of those are quite interchangeable.
I love edamame but haven’t eaten them lately as they all seem to be imported from half way around the world. Why edamame soy aren’t grown here is a mystery to me, dry soy beans are a commodity crop in this country, perhaps fresh beans are too expensive to harvest. I’ve tried to grow my own but they resent my cool microclimate, the nights are just too cold during the summer here. I used to be able to grow them in my last garden where the summer highs and lows averaged about 10°F warmer. I think that you won’t have any problems in Melbourne, just grow them during the hottest time of the year.
I love edamame but haven’t eaten them lately as they all seem to be imported from half way around the world. Why edamame soy aren’t grown here is a mystery to me, dry soy beans are a commodity crop in this country, perhaps fresh beans are too expensive to harvest. I’ve tried to grow my own but they resent my cool microclimate, the nights are just too cold during the summer here. I used to be able to grow them in my last garden where the summer highs and lows averaged about 10°F warmer. I think that you won’t have any problems in Melbourne, just grow them during the hottest time of the year.
I’ve been growing edamame in my Minnesota (US zone 4b) garden for the past 3 or 4 years and it has always done very well (even this year, which has been a particularly challenging growing season). I direct sow edamame when I seed the other beans in my garden (after the threat of frost has passed) and they are pretty low maintenance until they are almost ripe. Then you have a pretty narrow window to harvest them at their best before they start to dry out, so you have to watch carefully, but all the pods are ready at once, so the harvesting is a piece of cake (I actually just published a post on harvesting edamame yesterday). Good luck and enjoy!
OI often get requests to review things but many things are inappropriate for a gardening blog. I think as long as the review is relevant to your blog and you give an honest opinion there is nothing wrong in writing reviews. They can also be very useful to others.
Oops should be I not Oi
I also love edamame, but you might remember that I tried to grow it last year and they took forever (about 7-8 months from memory), took up masses of space, and then just before they were finally ripe I lost the whole lots to critters. Despite all that I’m interested to follow your progress at growing it so that I can see whether it’s worth giving another go if you have success. Like Michelle I discovered that the only ones you seem to be able to buy here are imported and don’t get why they aren’t being commercially grown more in Australia.
Sending you good carrot growing vibes…. 😉
Nothing much better than getting a parcel of seeds in the post. I’d be interested to hear how you get on with the microgreens – something I haven’t tried yet but would like to.
I love edamame in salads and stir fry, and also eat micro greens occasionally, but never tried growing them. Hope you have a wonderful time sowing and harvesting.
I’ve grown Edamame (seed + innoculant from Green Harvest), twice now in the northern suburbs of Sydney. As citygardencountrygarden has mentioned, they take a LONG time to grow and produce their fat, fury pods. I’ve direct sown in a few different locations, but the best places appear to be in full sun – unfortunately this means competing with tomatoes in my small garden so I’m going to give them a miss this year. However, I did enjoy the small crop I did get last year – steamed ’til bright green with a sprinkle of sea salt and served up like you’d have in a sushi bar (yum!). They are a bit fury straight off the plant, but nothing that changes the taste of the pods. The plants grow about 30-4ocm tall and have big round leaves. They’re quite bushy, so no need for staking at all (hurrah!) and apart from the occasional drink my edamame were pretty self sufficient, with no obvious pests. Plus as a legume they help fix nitrogen in the soil – always a plus. Anyway, I’d definitely give them a go. Would be interesting to hear how they perform further south. Best of luck!
Thanks for sharing your experiences Jeanie. I’m a little concerned about their desire for full sun – my garden is shaded for much of the afternoon by my neighbours eucalypts – very irritating. I will give them a go though – I do like to push the boundaries and see what happens.
I’m sure your review has been useful – your comments about adding the water are sure to be noted by Mr.Fothergill! I don’t like kits like those – I don’t think they are good value – but I reckon my granddaughters would love them.
I agree with you – both about the value and also the granddaughters. I reckon if the companies want to make money out of them marketing them as eco gifts for kids wouldn’t be a bad idea.
What a wonderful treat! Looks like you’ll have lots of delicious meals ahead of you! Complete score!
I direct sowed Edamame two weeks ago, just as the Melb weather cooled off a little, for those who have grown them before what sort of temps were required for the seeds to sprout and were they quick to emerge ?
I think I will wait til October – I don’t generally sow beans before then. I hope someone can advise.
has anyone tried the tray yet? I sprinkled my seeds on the a tissue on the black tray, filled the bottom with water 9 days ago. while the seeds are starting to sprout, there’s no way anything else is going to happen within 3 weeks, let alone 10 days as advertised.
Sorry about the late reply – I am planning on posting on this this week but in a nutshell – for me 2 of the 3 seeds sprouted within a day but the other took about a week. I now have very, very long pea sprouts and tiny cress and amaranth seedlings. I think you could get a crop in 10 days from the peas but the amaranth might be a struggle.
Hi Liz, did you try the edamame and did you have any success? Had some spiced ones at lunch on weekend and forgot how delicious they are. Maybe a greenhouse item? Interested to hear.