Beauty

The Romanesco broccoli are developing up nicely. Seven months! from seed to table. You wouldn't want to be in a hurry. I have about 10 plants and they are all doing their own thing. One is showing signs of purple sprouting brocccoli. But this one looks almost too perfect to eat. I decided it was worthy of admiration for a couple of days before eating.
I have had loads of silverbeet and spinach so I've made a couple of spinach and feta pies lately. I use leeks and lots of parsley from the garden too. Last night we had friends round and I made gnocchi with my potatoes. It was very good and we reckon the best I've made.
Lots of the winter vege are finishing off now-had some lovely cabbages. I made an asian style salad with one. Here's what I did, just collecting things from the garden and what I had to hand:
Soak rice stick noodles in boiling water for 5 mins while you prepare your veggies
Shredded cabbage
Sugarsnap peas, halved lengthways
Grated carrot
Spring or red onion
Lots of chopped corriander, mint and parsley
Rinse the noodles in cold water, drain well and toss in oil to prevent sticking. Then make the dressing: 1tbls rice bran oil, 1 tsp seasame oil, 3 tbls lime juice, 2 tblsp fish sauce, 1 tblsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp palm sugar, 1 clove minced garlic, 1/2 tsp minced chilli.
I topped off the salad with a lovely fillet of locally smoked salmon, in chunks. If you didn't use fish or chicken I think some roasted peanuts or almonds would give a good contrast.
Last weekend I planted out my first summer bed. Layered the bin back up to the top with sheep poo, bought soil mulch, pea straw and cardboard. Then planted 6 different tomato plants, basil and capsicums.

Potato Harvest

It has been lovely to be back in the garden, particularly my new, raised-bed vegie garden. My potao plants died back while I was away (much to the horror of my house-sitter) as they should. I had harvested a few new ones before I left and have had a couple of goes this week. Now I will upend the whole lot, harden the crop off for a few days, then store them in bags.
I don't actually eat a lot of spuds - fried too fattening and otherwise 'dead' calories BUT I will have to make an exception here... Boil them first to half cooked then shallow fry until crisp. I made them this way with drinks when my Mum and Dad came over last week. As you can see in the background, Glen's are still active. What a difference a few weeks make.

Hola

I'm back after a fantastic month in Spain. Madrid was a beautiful, friendly city with plenty of trees and parks and no noticable pollution. This photo was taken in Denia on the Costa Sol, an old fishing village full of interesting little lanes. We stayed on Formentaria Is, saw Barcellona (but stayed in Sitges), and caught up with friends in Marbella. A world-wind of a trip with plenty of tappas, sangria and walking.
Now I'm back home and suddenly it's Spring! My house-sitters kept to the bargain and the garden was mown and weeded. I was thrilled to see peas starting to 'pea' and lots of baby beetroot and carrots. Can't wait to get my summer vegies started as soon as this cold spell is over. It was a bit of a shock to come home to daily max temperatures of 12 after having 31 every day in Spain.
I'm very inspired to get into the studio after so much wonderful inspiration....

Off to Spain...

Glen and are are off to Spain tomorrow.When I return in a month it will be Spring and time for some serious vegetable gardening.I have decided not to open the garden to the public this November, however my housesitter is also a gardener and has agreed to some gardening for cash while we're away. It will be lovely to come back home to a neat (well neater than if she'd done nothing) and fresh Spring garden.

 The only planting of note has been a few more vege seedlings last week into the newly filled raised bed: Bok Choy, broccoli, lettuce, spinach and drwaf beans. And amonst the roses: annuals such as pansies, cornflowers and salvia.Adios

Prawn Pad Di

I had 300g of prawns in the freezer when I fancied some Pad Thai. I didn't have the proper fat noodles so I improvised with Rice Vermicelli. I walked about the garden and gathered a stick of lemon grass and lots of herbs to go with some brocolli, a few carrots and some bok choy leaves (still bolting even in the middle of winter!).
I dug out my small grinder attachment for my Stick Mixer and
1. Roughly chopped a handful of unsalted roasted peants, put aside
2. Finely minced the lemon grass, 4 cloves garlic and thumb-sized knob of ginger all chopped roughly first. Meanwhile:
3. Soak the noodles in Boiling water till just flexible (5-10 mins). Cut up into manageable lengths
4. Make a sauce with 1 tlbs hot chilli sauce, 2 tlbs sweet chilli sauce, 1 tbls tamarind puree, 1 tlbs fish sauce and 1 tsp brown sugar
Then:
5. Stirfry Prawns, brocolli and carrot with 2/3 of the garlic/ginger/lemongrass mixture until nearly done.
Add drained noodles, roughly chopped bok choy and all the sauce. Toss about well for a few minutes and
Add:
6: The last 1/3 of garlic mix and about a cup of herbs - I used corriander, mint and garlic chives. Toss in all through till nice and hot. Serve into a deep bowl and top with the reserved chopped peanuts.
This was delicous and made all the easier as Glen stirfried while I chopped and poured the wine.

Mr G Caterpillar

I was not really suprised by my new visitors, Mr Green Caterpillar and his many green friends. They seem to appear where ever brassicas thrive. Can you see him there (on the top right) with his many dark green prodigy(eggs below left)? Unparalleled satisfaction is to be had by squishing these fellas between your fingers. I've read of some squeemish gardeners who baulk at this practice, so you can always drop them onto the ground and well, ground them to mush.
Trick is to get onto them quickly before they are in plague proportions, which seems to happen almost overnight. Check them each day if you can, as they are very good at hidding and the babies are hard to spot. Dipel is the only organic, safe spray I know of for this pest. It's expensive and I can't help but wonder if it harms Mrs Brown Earthworm.
My patch is quite a managable size for manual removal so I persevere with this method. I have picked a few large brocolli heads but want the plants to remain healthy for the side shoots that are already starting to appear.

Also picking beautifully now are these baby carrots...

Spot the Difference

I hate to crow about the 'potato-off' but look at the difference in these specimens. Need I point out that mine are at the back!
I have been giving them plenty of TLC in the form of liquid 'Harvest', a top up of a little manure and a layer of the left over soil conditioner. I haven't been watering them though and we really havn't had any rain to speak of. I just hope they aren't all about the foliage.
Funny, if after all this, there are no actual potatoes.
I planted some sugar-snap peas and sweet peas a couple of weeks ago. There is no sign of them yet. We finally had some rain last night so maybe they will be along shortly...