Veggie of the Wheek: Endive

This weeks' veggie will be Endive. Slave says this is a winter veggie, which can be bought here mostly in autumn and winter period.
As you can see, the Endive looks like a big crop of Salad, the taste is quite bitter,
and we get to have a whole leaf per guinea pig!
According to the Guinea lynx vegetable chart below, it's also known as Escarole.

Here is a table with it's nutritional values:

Guinea Lynx' VEGETABLE CHART 100 gram portions	Percent Water	Energy (Kcal)	Protein (g)	Ascorbic Acid (C)	Calcium (mg)	Phosph. (mg)	Ca:P Ratio
Endive (Escarole)	93.79	17	1.25	6.5	52	28	1.9:1

Source: http://www.guinealynx.info/diet_vegs.html

We also read it's high in fibe, vitamin A and K

Oh, wow, this is was wikipedia says about Endive: 'Endive (pronounced /ˈɛndɪv/[1] or /ˈɛndaɪv/), Cichorium endivia is a leaf vegetable belonging to the daisy family.' Wow, there is something like a Daisy family? I have got to be a part of that! Ow, it's a plant family? that is too bad...
Here you see me and Woopy sharing a leaf. Can you see, it's as big as me!

Slave says Endive is also very nice for people te eat, she likes in raw, mixed with mashed patatoes, and a sausage. What makes it really yummy is adding small chunks of Cheese (she's Dutch, huh?) and a little ketjap (soy sauce)...
Okay, those humans are weird, we just eat it raw.
Please send in your pigtures or stories about how you eat Endive!
Also i'd like to know if it's available in for example the US. It seems like a very Dutch veggie to us...

Green Wheeks,
Lil'Wheeker (aka Daisy)

Btw, Because of the Great Piggyfriend Slave Penny tips, our slave is now growing Endive and carrots inside (as it's cold outside)! We hope it will work, one of the seeds sprouted, but as slave planted both in one pot, we've no idea wether it will be carrot or Endive...

Piggy Snap; Tort and White Tricolours

Agent Vroom



Agent Lettuce

This is me with my little sister Snuggles (I'm on the right) we are both Tricolour or Tort and White piggies. Plz to note I am not named for the hoomin singer but after the queen of Carthage-I'm a regal peeg. Home is my pod in my Aunty Loosy's house, Snuggs lives next door with her hoomin. I enjoy long cuddles, using Twitter to talk to other peegz around the world, floortime (especially for chewing on Aunty Loosy's shoes) and being told how lovely I am. Sometimes I miss my big sisty, Irene, who died in the summer.
Veggie of the week is one of my fav things cause it has broadened my nomming horizons, Endive is now a favourite nom, still think carrot is a bit rubbish though.
Dido out




Mystery Agent Watercress

Hi Agent Ghost. I would very much like to become an agent and to play Piggy Snap for the Tort and Whites team! I have chosen the name Agent Watercress, because I was named after the long-haired girl in a famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. A near translation of her name from German to English is "Watercress". I love having my hair trimmed (and it can get a bit knotty at the back) but the comb - oh no no no. I think my performance was once nominated for an Oscar.

Agent Watercress has given you the best clues to her real name so get guessing...



Mystery Agent Cox's Orange

Hi from me Agent Ghost. I'd like to play Piggy Snap for the same team. I have chosen the name Agent Cox's Orange, after England's most famous apple variety. I am very bold, friendly and inquisitive. I have a pointy nose and I like to stick it into everything! Whenever the slave comes into view, I march straight up to her to see what she's got for me.

Agent Cox's Orange real name is also a popular variety of apples as well as the name of a hobbit get guessing.

Eating Tomatoes

Agent Minty reporting.

 

Here are pigtures of myself and my friend, Copper, eating tomatoes. We just love them. I wanted our pigtures taken outdoors so that my eyes would look the proper colour but it was raining and windy and I decided that I would make do with Slave's useless camerawork and she took these in the playpen. Copper didn't mind as his eyes are red anyway.

 

These are tiny cherry tomatoes so Slave only cut them into halves. As winter is coming the tomato plants in the greenhouse will not produce many more fruits so Slave will have to buy them from the supermarket. They do not taste as good as the home grown ones but we will eat them all up.

 

Yum yum.

Veggie of the Wheek: tomato

The veggie of the wheek is the tomato. Tomatoes come in many different shapes, small, big, sweet or less sweet. Above you can see a tomato cut in half. As there are four of us, we all get a quarter of the tomato.
We like tomatoes but our late friend Lotje used to adore tomatoes, watching her eat tomatoes was hilarious according to our slave. She would take a bite then her face get a disgusted look. But then she did like the taste and took another bite, get another disgusted look on her face and take another bite...

<><>

Guinea Lynx' VEGETABLE CHART 100 gram portions	Percent Water	Energy (Kcal)	Protein (g)	Ascorbic Acid (C)	Calcium (mg)	Phosph. (mg)	Ca:P Ratio
Tomato	93.76	21	0.85	19.1	5	24	0.2:1

Source: http://www.guinealynx.info/diet_vegs.html

We don't get tomatoes often, but we do like them. Here you can see Chico enjoying a piece of tomato.

Here's some points to take notice of when feeding tomatoes:
1) Be sure to remove the green tomato plant tops, tomato plants are poisonous!
2) We just read that if you have big tomatoes you should remove the seeds. We never did that, but also don't get big tomatoes...
3) We are doubting whether tomatoes can be a bit acidic like apples, which are not nice to eat when you have a mouth sore.... and can even be the cause of mouth sores when given in large quantities!
4) We don't advise the really small very sweet tomatoes (also called snack tomatoes in the Netherlands) for your piggy, or at least in very small amounts, cause since they are so sweet they must be high in sugar! Which is not very good for piggies...

Okay, well I hope you enjoy tomatoes, do let us know how you eat them, and feel free to send in pictures or videos of you eating tomatoes (see the contribute tab on top of the page).

Halloween Pigture Report

Agent Butterloaf here - I was carefully watching from my pigloo of a setup that I overheard was for "a Halloween photo shoot." I remember from last year that meant I got to eat lots of parsley so I was excited. After a lot of setup outside of my house, I was picked up (I always squeak a lot so people know to be careful with my chubby self) and placed on a blanket with lots of parsley! My piggy buddy Flashbang Fatbottom got to join me too, he hung out in a cool box. We both ate a lot of parsley and when we were done we went back to our pigloos. I got to wear a fancy chapeau, too!

Agent Cannonball - Me was put into a box and couldn't find a treat at first. Me sat quietly but still no treat. So me ran around and bulldozed the entire set to find it, but me still couldn't find the treat! Then me was put back into my pigloo. Then me received treats! Finally!!

Halloween Pigtures

Agent Momma with her babies Ariel on the left and Agatha in the Pumpkin

Haven't the babies got big, we wonder how much they weigh now?


Agent Bumblebee in the Pumpkin and Agent Dinosaur in Front

They look like they enjoy halloween but do they like pumpkin?

Ghost

Halloween Report

Agent Big Red reporting.

 

Here is a Halloween pigture from the Piggyfriends. This piggy's name is Halloween as that was the day, in 2006, upon which our Slave went to collect him and his friend Hope. He is a Harlequin piggy.

 

You may notice that this is not a real pumpkin ( it would be hard NOT to notice ). Slave made this pumpkin in her pottery class many years ago. They were supposed to be making plain coiled pots but Slave improvised. She left it to dry, intending to glaze it the next week but the class was cancelled due to severe weather. When classes resumed, she found that the pottery teacher had "helped" by glazing everybody's work but she had used brown glaze instead of orange.

 

Slave didn't really mind as it meant that her pumpkin was ready to be lit and placed on our garden wall on October 31st. and the colour doesn't notice in the dark.

 

Slave first tasted pumpkin on a visit to the US and never wanted to repeat the experience ( no offence intended to you pumpkin lovers out there ) so we don't have pumpkin to eat.

 

When Slave was little, her granny always made a Halloween lantern out of a swede or turnip from the garden and Slave carries on this tradition. She celebrates this day as Samhain ( pronounced sowain ) which is the Celtic festival to mark the end of summer. Samhain means "summer's end" in Gaelic. It represents the death of the summer sun god, Lugh. Slave gets miserable at this time of year as she hates the cold and dark English winter. We don't like it either as there is less grass for us to eat and our favourite tasty weeds are killed off by the frost but we don't think that pumpkin will be on the menu any time soon.

 

Pumpkins do appear in the shops in the UK these days but some people grow them to enter "heaviest pumpkin" competitions, for which there are prizes. The world record for a pumpkin is held by a grower in the US but, considering our short growing season, some very large ones have been grown here.

 

On behalf of the Piggyfriends, Happy Halloween everyone!!