The plants in my garden

Chestnut Season again

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 15, 2014
Posted in: Soil, Spring foods, Summer foods, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods, Winter Jobs, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

1406Jun ChestnutsJune means water chestnuts and this last year I tried something new. I used my old horse trough to hold the buckets with the soil, topping the trough up much less often than I need to with individual buckets.  I’m not sure whether it was that or that I used a course potting mix to blend with the soil I already had from the year before, but I got a higher proportion of nice, large chestnuts. Less peeling for more crunch.

By the way the other produce in the photo is from the garden as well- mandarins, tomatoes, limes, passionfruit and lemons. It happened to be on the bench so I lined it up together.

We have only just finished using the chestnuts from last year, they remained fresh and crisp in sealed containers in the crisper of the fridge for a whole year but this year we will be eating more of them. I have discovered they are also good in salads, adding sweetness and crunch.  Since my husband is one of the few men who prefer salad to vegetables, he will be very happy.

Never say Die

Posted by gardenpathfood on October 11, 2013
Posted in: Spring foods, Summer foods, The plants in my garden. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

IMAG0471Once, many years ago, I bought a plant which said it was a perennial eggplant, and suggested that it would be good in a pot on the verandah.  It did well and eventually I planted it out, but oh no..the frost got it.  The next year it came back bigger and better than ever and grew like the beanstalk, only this time it had prickles three inches long. Obviously they had used a nasty root stock to graft the eggplant to, much as we graft to bush lemon for citrus.  It took over the garden and grew eight feet tall and produced no eggplant, so I got rid of it, best not to tell you how.  Moral of the story- If it says ‘Pot Variety’ then perhaps it is best to leave it there.  Also eggplant frosts.

So then I grew some ordinary seedlings in pots so I could put them on the verandah out of the frost and one of them has done really well, so well in fact that this is its third year of production.  It is co-planted with a bay tree which also looked like it had seen its best days but like the phoenix, they have both risen from the ashes yet again. I am waiting for them to die as I want the pot for a tree that is presently suffering in a too small pot.  Now this poor little eggplant has a dozen or so eggplant on, although not large ones and I can not bring myself to get rid of it yet again.

Since it has been under the shelter, out of the frost these are nice and early and way ahead of the seedlings I have in the garden. Oh well, we can start on some of my favourite eggplant dishes early, since these are actually ready to pick. I know this because they are glossy and black and if I let them go much longer, the shine will go off them. Slightly immature eggplant (as in the seeds aren’t ready for use) are much better tasting than when you let them fullly ripen.

That Old Chestnut- how to grow new Water Chestnuts from old

Posted by gardenpathfood on August 23, 2013
Posted in: Food, Spring foods, The plants in my garden, Winter Jobs. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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Yep, I know, I haven’t put anything on here for quite a while but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy.

What you see above is the progression of the Water Chestnuts.

  1. When the tall reed like plants die off in winter (that’s about mid-June here), you put a tarpaulin out on the ground and bring over your tub of dead plants.
  2. Tip them out on to the tarp so the pile is upside down then start sorting through it. Rubber gloves are good here.
  3. Then pop the dirt back in the tub as you sort, and some of the small chestnuts you missed will probably go back in. You will be left with a lovely pile of the larger chestnuts. See that pile of lovely chestnuts in the middle photo.
  4. Pick out a couple of the smaller chestnuts and push them back in to the soil in the pot.
  5. Put a little of the old reeds on top for a little bit of protection, fill the tub with water and keep it topped up about an inch deep until the new shoots appear in about September (although as you see from the photos below, my chestnuts in the horse trough in the full sun shot a lot earlier.  That is all there is to it.  I got about 3 kilos from 2 of these  small tubs and I store them in a lunchbox in the crisper of the fridge checking every time I use some in case there are rotting ones. So far so good.  What I have will probably last us until Christmas for stir fries.

The photograph on the right shows the emerging spikes in mid-August.

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Beanie Babies escape Jack Frost

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 8, 2013
Posted in: Background Information, Eating Seasons, Food, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It’s been a very warm winter so far and that is the only way I can account for the fact that I still have bulk tomatoes and that there are bean babies coming up in the garden.  You might have noticed that we have been eating butter beans for about 5 months now and in spite of it theoretically being winter, we are still getting a small crop. Beanie BabiesWhen the crop was very heavy, I must have let a few stay on the vine and during a recent dry spell, I found a lot of dried pods with great seeds in them so I have stored them for next summer but….some must have escaped my eagle eye and…we have babies under the frost covers.

For those who didn’t notice that we have been eating butter beans, I am starting some new pages which will record what we are eating/harvesting and what major activities I am undertaking for that month. Look for the page ‘This Month’s Harvest’.

So, the photo below shows the foods which I have been harvesting in this month, although I have forgotten the lemons and limes.  I’ll put them in next months’s photos just so you know.   

June Harvest

Popeye all year round

Posted by gardenpathfood on April 10, 2013
Posted in: Autumn foods, Eating Seasons, Health, Links to other sites, Spring foods, Spring Jobs, Summer foods, The plants in my garden, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

I got a bit excited on the weekend when I went to the Hervey Bay markets and found a summer spinach. Spinach is such a useful vegetable but with the very hot summers out here, it didn’t make it past November very successfully. Still, I’d had about 6 months out of it.

Otherwise known as Ceylon Spinach or Malabar Greens, this summer growing spinach like plant (Basella alba) grows best on a small IMG_0019trellis and dies off in winter but is apparently very good at setting seed. Since, I love to find babies in the garden, this plant would suit me well, I thought.

It seemed like the perfect solution, English Spinach, kale and silverbeet in the winter and Malabar Greens in the summer but on a second look and some discussion with the lady who sold the plant to me, we decided it would frost.  It is a tropical plant after all.  I almost put it back and then thought ‘well, it’s going to die back in winter anyway so let’s find the best spot possible in the garden for it, make sure it has a seed bed and watch what happens. ‘ I do have a back up plan though- I planted one at the house in Hervey Bay as well where the winters are much less harsh and the springs and early summer are more humid.  So watch this space…….. and while you are waiting you could also check out these two information sites.

Suzi you will love this one but she does warn you not to use it in your smoothies!!!

http://www.thewellnesswarrior.com.au/2012/02/a-tasty-herb-to-improve-your-digestive-health/

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2660517.htm

A Dish for all Seasons

Posted by gardenpathfood on April 4, 2013
Posted in: Autumn foods, Eating Seasons, Recipes, The plants in my garden, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

You know what?  I grew every vegetable in this vegetable package and they are all in season. There is squash, sweet potato, red onion, butter beans, capsicum, tomato, pumpkin, chives and garlic and I added a tiny bit of chili for extra flavour.

Vegetable Packages

Vegetable Packages

The red around the outside is a little bit of tomato paste, then you wrap it in aluminium foil and pop it in the oven. This is the easiest way to cook vegetables perfectly and there is no washing up.  This is for those times when you just don’t want to think about yet another meal, or you have lots of odd veges and you don’t want to wash up.

This is the best time of the year for tomatoes here, once the hot season is over and before the frosts. I have beautiful, absolutely perfect tomatoes with no blemishes and no fruit fly, but really the summer salad season is over so I need to find other uses than lots of salad. Over the real summer, I had grape or cherry tomatoes which are much tougher and more pest resistant than Romas or Grosse Lisse but now I have wonderful quantities of the larger varieties.  I will be making tomato paste but in the meantime there will be lot’s of tomato gravies and these beautiful vegetable packages with tomato flavour.

The Great Pumpkin (*Charlie Brown)

Posted by gardenpathfood on March 3, 2013
Posted in: Autumn foods, Eating Seasons, Recipes, Soil, Spring Jobs, Summer Jobs, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 6 Comments

Linus would be delighted that ‘The Great Pumpkin(s) ‘ are rising from the pumpkin patch but he might not be so happy if he knew that I IMG_0015fully intend to eat every one of them using the multitude of culinary variations available to me. Pumpkin is the most sensual of vegetables.  You can roast it and have that crisp, rich exterior surrounding smooth, creamy, comforting, sweet and deep flavoured flesh. This is wonderful with meat and vegetables and spectacular in a cold or warm salad, especially with grilled or pan-fried haloumi.

Pumpkin is an amazing colour and half the pleasure of pumpkin soup is the satisfying burnt orange fire colour on a  cold evening. Pumpkin can be sweet, it can be savoury, used for dessert or used for a main.

And here, they are so easy to grow.  Basically I live on a sand hill, admittedly red sand, and the pumpkins love it. They come up in places I have never planted them and colonise the back paddock. This morning I traded with a friend for eggs, so I hope her chooks keep on laying because my pumpkins just keep on producing.

I found out the other day that you can eat pumpkins at just about any stage of growth, even when they are quite young and small. If you had a large patch and planted as soon as the frosts are over, you could have a very long season, as pumpkins will also keep for a long time after they are picked, provided they are in good condition when you pick them, preferably on a dry day and you cut it so a small part of the stalk is attached.  I have kept them for months this way.IMG_0014

Yes, pumpkins take up a lot of room, but they have such a long season, great storage and can be used in so many ways that they are well worth sacrificing a bit of space in return for the assurance of great, home grown produce for a many months of the year.

Every year, I make pumpkin soup and one of the best recipes ever is the Moroccan Pumpkin soup recipe I have included on my new recipe page.

Enjoy!

One Tough Capsicum

Posted by gardenpathfood on February 13, 2013
Posted in: Autumn foods, Eating Seasons, Food, Health, Links to other sites, Spring foods, Spring Jobs, Summer foods, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods, Winter Jobs, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

‘I had a little capsicum’,  and I still do.

This little capsicum has been in the garden for almost two years and spent most of last winter hibernating beneath a refrigerator box, but even then, it still produced the odd fruit. It has continued to fruit all through summer, just as it did all last summer.  It produces just enough to keep us going and since we eat them on salads and in stir fry and in casseroles, that it not a bad effort for the one little plant.Capsicum

And, it has produced babies with a little help.  I talked about that at http://wp.me/p2tNt0-32

The Gardening Australia website http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1866669.htm suggests that capsicums are indeed perennial, but usually we treat them as an annual. I sometimes wonder how much of what we assume as home gardeners comes from commercial agricultural practices and how much we need to relearn to be really effective home vegetable producers.  The garden is really your best teacher for this so just get in there and give it a go.

The capsicum is also an attractive little plant, so given that it is actually a perennial and that it has lovely glossy green leaves and can have bright green, red, yellow or orange fruit, it is a plant that you could easily use as an ornamental in a spot in which you can protect it  in winter.  That is, if you get frost as we do.They grow easily in a pot and this probably ideal as the plant can moved in and out of shelter in winter for an all year round boost to both your food dishes and your immune system.

Raw capsicum  contains high levels of Vitamin C and also  beta carotene which converts to Vitamin A, a great immune system boost.

Awesome Asparagus

Posted by gardenpathfood on February 1, 2013
Posted in: Eating Seasons, Food, Health, Links to other sites, Spring foods, Spring Jobs, Summer foods, The plants in my garden, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

No, my asparagus does not normally look like this when I pick it.  Usually in the six to eight weeks in Spring  (here Spring is September to November) that we are picking asparagus, it usually looks like a bed of mulch with spikes sticking out of it. The trick is to eat enough so that you stay ahead of the spikes and it doesn’t get bushy like this.

Asparagus in January

Asparagus in January

This is December to August bush and it stays this way until I get out the weed eater (brushcutter) and cut it back to ground level in August.

From December to August it doesn’t get watered, it doesn’t get anything but a few weeds pulled.  In August we cut it back, throw a pile of compost, horse manure and mulch on top, water it heavily and wait for results.  Very, very tasty results whether it is eaten raw and fresh, chopped in a salad or cooked as a vegetable.

Asparagus is dead easy to grow, very hard to kill and the quickest and easiest vegetable to prepare for a meal.  What more could you want as the backbone for your garden?

Climate-wise, I grew it in sub-tropical inland Queensland as well as down here near the border with New south Wales.

The people at http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/asparagus.html list the many benefits of asparagus including ‘Asparagus is a very low calorie vegetable. 100 g fresh spears give only 20 calories. More calories will be burnt to digest than gained, the fact, which fits into the category of low calorie or negative-calorie vegetables,’ but to me asparagus is also one of the best and most satisfying vegetables you can grow.

And Double bonus!!!  We have just had floods, although my house remained high and dry, but the drenching rain has kick started the asparagus again and we have eaten it every night for the last two weeks.  Asparagus in January!!

Strawberry slaughter

Posted by gardenpathfood on January 26, 2013
Posted in: Autumn jobs, Eating Seasons, Food, Spring foods, Summer foods, Summer Jobs, The plants in my garden, Work Season. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment
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Discarded plants waiting for a new home

Strawberries are tough old things.  It has been over 40 degrees a lot of days here but I decided to thin my strawberry patch and plant the discarded runners somewhere else.  To tell the truth, I wasn’t too concerned if they lived or not, I was more interested in rejuvenating my strawberry bed and getting rid of as many cooch runners as I could.  Once I’ve finished thinning, I will behead what’s left.  It’s gruesome but my strawberry patch will love me for it.

Well, I forgot to water the ones I planted out but luckily a week or so later, we had our own personal town flood with 140 ml overnight just for us and no one else outside a ten kilometer radius.  Gotta love this weather.

Those poor little transplanted strawberries which had brown crunchy leaves, started to produce new leaves in their centres  et viola, I have a new strawberry patch in the outer garden.  How good is that!

So now, instead of the punnet or two punnets of strawberries we have been getting every morning for the last couple of years from August to Christmas, we can look forward to lots, lots more.

Strawberries are magic!