These were some of my Jerusalem artichokes a couple of weeks ago. I haven't dug any up yet, the foliage has just about died down now, but I think it is better to wait till after they have had a frost on them. Like parsnips, the sugar level and the taste generally is much better after a frost. I just
love them! But they have a very complex carbohydrate structure which makes them an excellent food source, but they are famous for giving you wind!
Here was one of my last cucumbers in the greenhouse just before I cut back all the growth. These were from a second sowing of seed in about August, just when the first crop were at their best. I must grow some small varieties next year in the greenhouse, I think there is one called '
Pepita' or something like that. Can anyone recommend a smooth skinned, mini greenhouse cucumber variety?
I was driving down a country lane in Lincolnshire a couple of days ago, I spotted a huge pile of several tons of sugar beet beside the road and in true Matron fashion I liberated one for scientific reasons..... As a result of some wonderful comments in a previous post in my quest to find out all about sugar beet, a strange coincidence occured this morning. Here you can see the texture of the inside is very similar to beetroot.
I am currently studying for a change of career, and I am going to work as a dog behaviourist when I am qualified. My current area of study is in nutrition and stress in dogs. I have been going through the ingredients labels of several brands of complete dog food. Lo and behold this morning, several times I came across "derivatives of vegetable origin" marked on the ingredient list. One of the brands of complete dog food actually labelled this as "dried beet pulp". Many previous comments have referred to their use as animal fodder, and here it is a bi-product of the sugar refining industry and is sold to pet food companies as a filler for fido-food. 
