Sunday Roast

In an effort to expand beyond the limited range of vegetables available in the supermarket, I planted some kohlrabi a few weeks ago. Today I harvested a couple of young kohlrabi bulbs, turnips and carrots to roast along with a store-bought chook (chicken). A few early beans added some colour to the roast which was had with chips and gravy. I loosely followed this recipe for roasted kohlrabi with garlic and parmesan. It proved to be very tasty so I will definitely be planting some more as they are easy to grow from seed.

Freshly harvested veggies - washed & ready to be peeled

All the colours of the rainbow

We are getting LOTS of rain at the moment and the garden appears to be thriving. My silverbeets and spinach are looking particularly healthy and I harvested some tonight along with a couple of decent sized carrots to have in a stir fry. I added a shop bought red capsicum for some colour because my capsicums are still undersized and green.

There are lots of roma and black russian tomatoes growing - some quite large - but all are still green. I suspect that I'll be harvesting a lot of tomatoes once the sun starts shining again!

The two blueberry bushes are still yielding plenty of berries. Here's a handful I picked to add to my morning muesli yesterday:

Sewing and harvesting

Today I harvested my first garlic. Garlic is apparently very easy to grow but 2 out of my 4 plantings didn't make it. They were divided between two different beds so I'm guessing that's something to do with the soil types. It's been very interesting to see things thrive in one bed but do poorly in another.

I also pulled up a turnip the size of which almost required me to call for help from the cat, the dog, the duck (or in our case, budgie) etc. Unfortunately my camera battery is flat so you'll have to take my word for it but there seems to be a couple more doing well and hopefully I can take a snap of those. I'm thinking about making this recipe for potato and turnip patties. I have some spring onions (scallion greens) growing and might see if any potatoes are ready instead of using the store bought ones. I was also very excited to see that some asparagus crowns I planted are still doing well after I thought I'd killed them through lack of watering. They are positioned just under the edge of the eave so don't always get rainfall if the rain is being blown outwards.

Rain is forecast over the next few days so today I sewed some watermelon, cauliflower and, in an effort to try something new, kohlrabi. Also as part of the trying-new-things plan, yesterday I dished up some store-bought choko. I've read that choko is easy to grow but thought I should determine if the family would actually eat it before planting any. I tried two cooking methods - steaming and stir frying. Frying got the thumbs up and because of the texture I think it could be used instead of water chestnut in stir-fry recipes. So a second choko is currently sitting in the back of the veggie cupboard where hopefully it will sprout ready to be planted... if I can find a spot in the garden that is!

Tonight's dinner is salmon and spinach pasta bake made, of course, with homegrown spinach and the aforementioned garlic from the garden.

Lemons keep falling on my head

Yesterday I pulled out the snow peas and will improve the soil before planting some carrots and possibly some squash. I harvested what seems to be the last of the broad (fava) beans and used them, along with some carrots and thyme from the garden, to make Don Burke's potato, beans and carrots dish which was had with some crunchy herbed chicken drumsticks. The double shelling of the beans does take a bit of time but I find it therapeutic and it's something the kids enjoy helping with. The dish was simple and rustic but full of flavour.

I also made some vegetable stock concentrate using celery, carrots and herbs from the garden along with some store-bought onion, tomato and garlic (I have all these growing in the garden but they are not harvestable yet). The stock should last a few months and will be used as a base for stews, risotto and dishes like the one above.

And because I literally have lemons falling on my head, I decided to use a few of them in this lemon delicious slice recipe - they were very delicious!

Produce

Our home vegetable garden has been established and producing for over a year now. It's been a year of experimentation - some things have worked, some things haven't. It's also been a year of education - I've learnt a lot. Above all I've been suprised by how productive the garden has been. Now that I've worked out what does work and got the timing sorted, we rarely buy vegetables from the shops. Just the occasional bag of frozen corn cobs. There's not a huge amount to harvest each day but I easily get something even if it's just a strawberry and some parsley. Today's dinner vegetables were broad beans, carrots and the last of the snow peas. A couple of home-grown swedes where mashed with a store-bought sweet potato and that was sufficient for our family of 6.  I think our garden could easily provide ample vegetables for a couple, perhaps even a family of four if I planned better.

We have to eat what's in season though, and that can get a bit boring. Peas, carrots and beans are popular because they are so easy to grow but we like a bit of variety so for the following year I am going to try growing things I've never eaten before, like choko, and stuff you can't buy in shops because it doesn't store well. This will also mean trying new recipes to use up the produce we grow. I'm planning to get my hands on a copy of Indira Naidoo's new book, 'Edible Balcony', because it contains recipes and ideas for using home-grown produce. Check out her foodie blog.

I also find Jackie French a great source of inspiration. I came across this great self-suffiency article by her today as I searched for ideas to expand growing space. I'm rapidly discovering that you can never have enough vegetable beds! One thing's for sure, I've been well and truly bitten by the gardening bug. When I woke up this morning my first thought was, "I forgot to put the netting back on the blueberries." Luckily the birds hadn't gotten to them because there are plenty almost ready to ripen to be added to muffins and stacked on to pancakes along with home-grown strawberries.

Peas please



Peas in the pod

Peas are one of my favourite things to grow in the garden. They remind me of my childhood, popping open pods to find delicious plump peas. Knowing when to harvest has been a bit of trial and error but recently we've had a few meals where the greens portion has been solely from the garden, not needing to be supplement by store bought vegies. These snow peas added some lovely texture to a creamy paprika chicken dish.

Today I planted out some tomatoes that I grew from seeds I harvested last year and also some cucumber seeds given to me by a friend as well as some lettuces. We have masses of celery so I pulled up three bunches and gave two away to neighbours.

Snow peas!

My snow peas seemed to have fruited overnight. Perhaps because of the sudden arrival of Spring. I picked four to add to tonight's meal and there are plenty more flowers so it would seem we'll have a glut of snow peas over the next few weeks.

Stir fry chicken with pak choy, brocolli, carrot and snow peas (all vegetables from the garden).