New Tomato Bed

I was given a box of Heritage Tomato Seedlings, Black Russian, Black Krim and Rouge de Marmande. What an amazing Blessing.  But I didn’t have garden space, so time to extend the garden bed. I dug holes in the grass, because I wanted to plant the tomatoes deep. They were already quite leggy and I wanted to make sure I gave them the best chance of survival.  Six barrowloads of soil from the back corner of the garden where I’d had multiple compost heaps. And the tomatoes are planted.  Stakes are in ready for the new growth.  All we need to do now is water them.

Lawn that needs to disappear

Tyres down, Wood surround, Holes dug, Garden started.

Black Russian Tomatoes and Black Krim Tomatoes

 

 

Gardening is like life…

You have to get the foundations right.   So the beds have to be prepared, soil has to be good, it is far more about what the seed goes into than the seed itself.

When we put good foundations into our lives,  our lives will flourish no matter what twists and turns life throws into our path.

Today I kept thinking about the passage in Jeremiah 29.  Speaking to those in slavery – God says “build houses, plant gardens, and eat what they produce, marry and have sons and daughters.”  I am not in slavery I have so much in my life that is wonderful and I am grateful for. But I am not where I thought I would be or doing what I expected. Life has happened with its twists and turns and so here I am planting gardens and eating what my garden produces, raising my children and living a good life.

It’s a good place to be.

Today I planted lots of seeds. Carrot, Beetroot, Vegetable Spaghetti, Calendula, Anise & Nasturtiums. I also planted tomato seedlings. Staked the beans. Cut down the Bougainvillea which was a bit sad as it was looking beautiful. But it did cast shade on the carrot seeds and it was heading over the roof of the garage.

Back from Perth, The garden is still alive, thank you family.

The garden is alive and well, thanks to plenty of rain. The only thing that didn’t survive were the micro greens. I think the verandah got too hot.  We are eating fresh tomatoes every day.

Tonight I cooked Indian food and topped with fresh coriander from the garden and a very simple salad of mizuna lettuce and nasturtium leaves. No dressing on the salad because the leaves themselves have so much flavour.

I don’t eat salad without salad dressing because so much that you buy has so little flavour, but this home grown food doesn’t need any dressing its truly nude food delicious just as it is.

The spinach has gone to seed, the rocket is on its way and the coriander is full of flowers. Last year I had a coriander plant come up on its own and go to seed. I collected all the seeds and popped them in a pepper grinder, they are just about finished. Won’t be long and I will have some more.

This weekend needs to be a big gardening weekend, I have lots of seeds and some prepared ground, and some containers.    I am off to Northern Rivers next week for 4 days.

Beetroot, Beetroot leaves walnuts and feta cheese.

I pulled up all the Beetroot today. Its a good job you can eat the leaves because we had one serving of beetroot. We have had a few earlier, but really today was it.  It was very tasty, I cooked it very lightly and sprinkled a little apple cider vinegar over it.  We had too much rain when they were first planted and their growth was stunted,  which sounds odd but true.   Never mind the leaves are great and very healthy leafy green. So we ate them tonight with walnuts and feta cheese.  During the week we will have one of my favourite recipes “Stoved Howtowdie with Drappit Eggs. I will use the rest of the Beetroot leaves instead of spinach.

The garden is growing so beautifully. I am loving everything growing. Today I planted chillis and redid the salad bowl filling it with curly parsley.  More Mizuna lettuce and mignonette lettuce.  I am starting to plan my water garden and thinking about how to grow micro greens simply and easily.

Growing, Growing, Growing and Making Mayonaise.

Carrots and Homemade Mayonaise

Everything is growing. When I got back from Sydney the beetroot are coming up, five of the English Spinach are showing. The radish, the Mizuna lettuce, the silverbeet all flourishing. We didn’t buy lettuce this week there is enough in the garden and the lettuce we pick fresh daily has taste and flavour.

Silverbeet is my alltime favourite leafy green,  tonight I sauteed an onion a couple of cloves of garlic, the silverbeet and a handful of blackeyed peas. With a couple of eggs dropped in. Lovely and very healthy.

Making Mayonnaise,

Beat egg yolk with a little mustard. Add oil very very slowly.  My recipe was one egg yolk and 500 mls of oil. The first batch I made separated, the way to recover the mayonnaise is to simply re-do it using another egg yolk.  Beat an egg yolk  and add the separated oil.  Same problem too quick, it separated.  I am determined to work this out.  Another egg yolk, this time I added the separated oil teaspoon by teaspoon. It worked perfectly I added a good squeeze of a nice juicy lemon and a clove of crushed garlic made it into an aioli.

The secret is slowly slowly slowly add the oil. The finished mayonnaise was thick creamy and tasty.

Micro Greens so full of flavour

From a bit of grass, to a garden, to tiny seedlings, to delicious micro greens.

Today I thinned out the seedlings and took a whole plateful for dinner, tiny radicchio, tiny kale and tiny choy sum.  They had the most amazing intense flavour.

Tomorrow I am off to Sydney for a trade show, and will be back on Tuesday.

Thank you to everyone who checks out my gardening cooking life. I really appreciate you.

Growing vegies and impacting your world.

I am loving growing and eating my leafy greens.  I am feeling healthy and hopefully my cholesterol is on its way down.  But there is more to growing, cooking and eating your own food.  I was so inspired by the article linked below Will Allen on 3 acres feeds more than a whole community,  Fish and Vegetables.  But he doesn’t just feed them, He is in one of the poorest areas in America and through his tiny farm he teaches others how to grow their own food, how to eat healthy.

Huge profits are made from food, in Australia our supermarkets hold us to ransom they sell so much that has  negligible nutritional value.  They sell fruit and vegies that are polished and perfect,  grown so they can be packed, handled and stored for weeks and months without damage.

Teaching our children to cook healthy food, and to grow vegetables sets them up for life. I love visiting my daughter in Perth, eating her yummy cooking and seeing her fridge and cupboards full of real food.  I love it when my 16 year old gets in the kitchen and makes brownies or an apple pie.

Inspirational article

http://zacharysuhar.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/will-allen-planting-the-seeds-of-the-future/

Beetroot leaves, mung bean sprouts and a dairy free pumpkin pie.

The Salad

Leaves for Salad. The darker leaves are pumpkin which will be chopped finely for the gnocchi.

Beetroot luckily the leaves are just as good as the roots.

It’s  a good thing that you can eat beetroot leaves, because I have lots of lovely leaves but no beetroot.  The problem is too much water.  Beetroot does like lots of water, but too much will cause lots of leaves to grow with no swelling of the root.  These beetroot were planted in all the rain we had in a bed that stays damp longer than the rest of the garden.

So we had a lovely salad of beetroot leaves, radicchio leaves, purple onion, mung bean sprouts and a marigold flower.

Pumpkin leaves are edible but need cooking, you only use the new tender leaves and shoots.  I chopped these finely and add them with garlic, onion and a little of the pasta sauce to put over the gnocchi.

Pumpkin pie recipe will come shortly, realized the recipe has some discrepencies and want to re-do and make sure it works properly.  If you want it urgently email me at rosieg1sam25.3@gmail.com  and I will send you a recipe that works.

A Salad from all the new green leaves in the Garden

A salad using every new green leaf

Baby Kale

Baby Choy Sum

A Salad from all the new green leaves in the garden.  Baby Kale, Baby Spinach, Baby Mizuna Lettuce and Baby Choy Sum.  It was the taste of the Baby Choy Sum that inspired me to create another garden bed.  It was so delicious, I had to have more, and the thing I love about Choy Sum is the yellow flowers.  If I didn’t grow more Choy Sum I would never get those gorgeous edible flowers.  Choy Sum to me  looks like it should grow beside the stream in an English Meadow.  So I have to grow more.

We ate it with a middle eastern inspired Goat casserole which had the rest of the chick pea sprouts.  Chickpea sprouts can be used anywhere that you would use cooked or tinned chickpeas. But these are fresh and green very healthy.

To Chargrill Capsicum bake whole in a hot oven till skin is charred, drop in a plastic bag, place in the fridge till cool. Tear the skin off throw away the seeds and break the capsicum into smaller pieces.  Place in olive oil and vinegar with salt, pepper and slivers of garlic.  This can just stay in the fridge and come out every day till its eaten.

Beetroot leaf and Chickpea salad.

The great thing about Beetroot is whilst you are growing beetroot underground, you are getting leaves above ground.  Beetroot leaves taste like beetroot just lighter.  Delicious in a salad with sprouted chick peas, purple onion and apple cider vinegar dressing.

The Chickpeas are protein and carbohydrate very good for the women planning to run 10k tomorrow morning.