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!

Veggie Patch :: Update

I am so delighted to be finally harvesting lovely fresh, home-grown produce from my garden!  The snow peas are proilific, as are the radishes.














The tomatoes are have grown to almost my height (all of 5 foot!) and are producing plenty of fruit, although none of it is showing any sign of ripening as yet.

This looks like a jumbled mess, but it's actually thee rows of
iceberg lettuces, interspersed with radishes.

The lettuces are very big and have started to set nice tight hearts inside all those floppy outside leaves.  I pluck a few juicy green leaves now and then to throw into our salads for dinner or lunch.



The cucumbers are coming along fantastically and are starting to weave their way up the 45 degree terrace that Wayne built for them. 

Underneath, hanging vertically are lots of lovely baby lebanese cucumbers!

The beetroot have come on so well that they can afford to lose a few baby leaves for our salads, too even though the beets themselves are not yet big enough to dig up.

The broccoli are getting bigger every day and I have managed to keep the grubs from eating them up by using a bio-insecticide called Dipel, which is a bacteria that affects the grubs but not other animals or humans.  However, I haven't yet seen any flower heads coming up.

The one and only eggplant has put out one single fruit, which looks beautiful, but lonely.  So, I have bought and planted another grafted eggplant to be its buddy, as well as eight baby Lebanese eggplants.  Hopefully all this company will encourage it to produce more fruit, showing off to its new neighbours!

Just to make sure, I sprinkled a line of Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) around all the eggplants.  This was recommended by quite a few commenters on the Gardenate website, when some gardeners complained that their eggplants were flowering profusely but not setting much fruit.  It will be interesting to see what effect it has.

The spring onions are coming along nicely, but were being extremely untidy - falling about the place like drunken sailors.  So, I put stakes in and tied them up to them.  Now they are nice and tidy, standing in formation like soldiers.

The pumpkin have gone absolutely crazy and were pushing right the way through the lettuces, radishes and cucumbers.  So, I have taken each trailer and gently lifted it over the wall of the veggie patch and told it it will have to continue growing "on the outside" now.  They looked very sad this morning, with all their leaves facing down, but this afternoon they had got over their disappointment and their leaves were facing up to the sun again.

The pumpkins are full of male flowers at the moment, but I did notice one female flower bud starting near the end of one of the plants. 



This photo has been classified by the ACB as R-Rated

When she is a little older and opens up, I will perform a marriage ceremony between her and one of the male flowers.  Unfortunately, this means the death of the male flower, as I will have to pluck it, strip its petals and rub its stamen into the middle of the female flower, but the sacrifice should be worth it!  No pain, no gain, honey!

The little celery plants have been doing very little for the past few weeks.  But, all of a sudden this week, they have realised that they should be doing something worthwhile and have begun growing.  AT LAST!!!

Considering how well they had all been behaving, I decided to reward the veggies with a delicious dose of PowerFeed for Veggies.  As I sprinkled this beautiful brown liquid from the watering can onto the plants, I was sure I could hear them sighing, sitting back and enjoying it ... something like how we might enjoy a lovely cab sav.

So, all in all, the veggie patch is coming along fantastically!

First Fruit!!

What joy I had today to go out into my lovely veggie patch and discover that the tomatoes have set their first fruit!  The little tommies are so tiny now, about the size of my little finger nail, but they're still there!

This one (on the right) still had its flower dangling from the bottom, which reminded me of the dried up umbilical cord on a newly-born lamb.

The tomato plants are all growing so well.  They've all reached the top of their climbing frames now, so I'll have to get some taller ones for them today.

The eggplant that Wayne bought me a couple of weeks ago is enjoying its special spot right in the middle of one of the climbing bean teepees and has put out a couple of beautiful flowers, too.

The beans are just putting out their first climbing shoots and I will soon be able to guide them up the teepees.  You can see them here, amongst all the feathery fronds of the carrots.

The beetroot and spring onions are still small, but healthy.

And the little celery seedlings that I put in last week are all showing healthy growth.

But, the pumpkins, cucumber and broccoli are all growing vigorously and I will have to build a trellis soon for the cucumber.

One of three pumpkins that I have grown from seed.

Cucumbers, almost ready for a trellis.

Broccoli - having to inspect regularly for the eggs of white cabbage butterfly on the underside of the leaves!

All in all, my veggies are coming along beautifully and giving me such pleasure every day!