Pesto

This afternoon I met up with Richie for a coffee and chat.  The basil in my veggie patch has also been going berserk, so I harvested quite a bit and decided to make some basil pesto for my own dinners and lunches, and to also give some to Richie.

Using the mortar and pestle to crush pine nuts with the basil leaves.

Then mixing in crushed garlic, grated parmesan cheese and extra virgin olive oil.

Richie was very pleased with the fragrant, fresh pesto and I also gave him some basil leaves to put on his home made pizzas.

We had a lovely time together at a wonderful local coffee shop I have just discovered in Kilsyth.  It's called Essenza and came very highly recommended.

Richie said the coffee was really great.  I don't drink coffee, but I had a peppermint tea and we shared a savoury muffin.  It was presented so beautifully - it looked like a pot plant - and tasted delicious with basil pesto, slightly warmed cherry tomatoes and parsley on top and butter and tomato relish on the side.

Veggie Patch Update

It has only been four weeks, but my veggies have been growing amazingly!

I have been harvesting lettuce leaves for my lunch and dinner every morning for the past three weeks.  So beautifully fresh, crisp and delicious!

The tomatoes have literally gone bananas!!  They are almost a metre tall, with flower buds all over them.

So, this morning I trimmed all the lower leaves and re-staked each plant.

The zucchinis have not only all survived, but are now crowding each other out.

So it was time to re-home some of them to the other side of the peach tree.  It was such a warm and dry day today (about 25 degrees), so they immediately flopped and showed me how unhappy they were with the move.

But I gave them a treat, along with all the other veggies - a delicious dose of veggie feeder!  Then I gave them a lovely long drink of water.

I had noticed that there were also some unexpected pumpkins coming up through the lettuces and tomatoes.  There must have been some pumpkin seeds amongst the compost I had dug into the patch.  So, I re-homed them with the zucchinis.

Then I threaded a soaker hose through the patch, to make it easier to water all these thirsty plants as the weather gradually warms up towards Summer.

It seems my long-held black thumb has turned green at last!

Crop Swap

With my garden beginning to burst with so much wonderful produce, I am now in the fabulous position of having more of some things than I need.  So, this morning I took some of my excess fruit and veggies along to the local Permaculture Crop Swap.

I took seven lettuces, about twenty mandarins, a dozen lemons and I also bagged up some kaffir lime leaves (fantastic in curries!).

The idea with the crop swap is that you take your stuff and lay it out on the benches with everyone else's.

Then you stand around admiring everyone else's produce and talking about their gardens and yours.

There's morning tea.

Then everyone takes some of the other people's produce that they don't already have at home.  I took some spinach, rhubarb, broad beans and some seedlings of cucumber, rosemary and sage for the garden.

Even though there isn't any direct swapping involved, everyone just took a little of what they needed.  There was no "bun fight" and everyone was very respectful.

After that, there was a demonstration on how to make your own beeswax wraps.

I have seen these in some craft and wholefoods shops, but had never really understood what they were used for and how great they are!  Also, they are very expensive in those shops - $50 for a set of five!

And yet this lady showed us how easy it was to make them and they can be used to wrap any food items from watermelons, to cucumbers, apples, celery, capsicum, salad bowls, left overs, etc.

Even make your own popcorn bags to take to the movies!  They are completely reusable.

I was very impressed with these wraps and once you have a set, you can basically throw away the cling wrap (which will save some birds' lives, because they tend to eat the stuff)!

I think my family know what they are all going to be getting for Christmas this year!

Wisteria

I can't believe how truly magnificent my Wisteria is!  

After so many years of wishing I had a flowering one, I now have one of the best I've ever seen!

Sadly, this magnificent display only lasted about three weeks and now it is all leaves and runners looking to climb underneath my carport roof.  Time to get out the secateurs!

Nevertheless, I have had the joy of sitting underneath it and just marveling at its wonder for most of the month and it has given me great happiness.