We were given a huge bag of homegrown potatoes recently, which are beautifully creamy, so I thought I’d try potato sourdough. After a bit of tweaking I’m very happy with it. I would rate it as an advanced bread to try, as it relies on a feel for the dough consistency.
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It’s a year since we got water to a cleared paddock half way down the hill and the ‘Mid-levels’ garden was begun. After fencing (about 230 square metres) and lot of digging it has become our main kitchen garden. The garden area keeps expanding beyond the original fenced patch, including the addition of two greenhouses and an aquaponics system. Along the way I’ve learned a lot as the seasons made a full turn.
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It’s a warm climate for cabbages here, and I thought my first Winter crop had failed, but they’ve come good with the Spring sunshine. I’m in the early phase here of trying out what will grow and learning what each crop needs in our conditions. This Winter I added cabbage to the mix. The cultivar I tried was ‘Early Jersey Wakefield’, an early maturing sugarloaf type.
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What to do when the trickle of eggs you waited and waited for finally turns into a steady flow and the full cartons begin to collect? Mum is of course always a good source of knowhow, and mine sent me a recipe for pickling eggs. They are not something I think I’d even tried before, although I’m sure I’ve seen them in jars in Yorkshire pubs. So I at least had to give them a go. And then I saw the tweak of adding beetroot to the pickling mix. Pink…
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We have had our usual dry Spring. Put in the perspective of places across the world and closer to home that really suffer from droughts, our little dry season is nothing to complain about, and in fact it gives us a welcome break from mowing, but it does make seed raising in the garden an endeavour unlikely to succeed. No matter if they get daily watering, seeds sown outdoors in beds just aren’t going to try to germinate under the combination of dry air and baking sun. This year hasn’t been nearly…
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Our aquaponics system has been running-in and settling-down for a month now. As expected, it has needed some adjustment, but it is working well for a first time try. Now that the system has proved itself it’s time to expand and get some of those rain-sensitive Summer crops going. Tweaking the system has involved more structures, like a shade house for the pond, a sand filter, and setting up for expansion, but the main issue has been controlling the pH of the reservoir.
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A couple of coffee trees can give you an interesting home addition to your coffee repertoire. Our place here came with a couple of mature coffee trees, growing under a canopy of tall trees. After some maintenance and two crops, I have learned a few things about processing them for home grown coffee, and decided it’s worth the effort. Although the processing is a little involved, it can reward you with a good home roast, with no additional equipment if you already grind your home brew.
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You’ve got to love growing zucchini as a home garden vegetable. They are quick, easy and delicious. This year I’m growing the ‘Costa Romanesque’ cultivar. I have two plants that I started early, and they have raced ahead in the warmer Spring weather. I have been watching them closely to check whether there are both male and female flowers, so was astonished to find this huge first zucchini; either I overlooked it or it grew tremendously overnight.
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This sweet little orchid, native to the East coast of Australia, has been amazingly forgiving of some pretty harsh treatment, but hopefully it is now in a spot where it can flourish. It is an epiphyte, growing on a piece of wood on a tree trunk, and has lovely spikes of white flowers in early Spring.
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I have been really impressed with dandelion chicory in the garden. I knew it as a vegetable from the greengrocers; a few big bunches always up the back of the greens stand, a little forlorn and unloved, mainly just providing a striking backdrop to the more bought (and known) greens. I got the seeds thinking I’d use it as a salad vegetable, a few of the dark green leaves adding interest to a lettuce plate, but all that has changed. Now I know it’s the leaf stems that are the…
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