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| Tomatoes and Violets |
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| Blackberries |
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| The beds are full |
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| Fragrant Basil |
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| Red Kale Jungle |
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| "Gold Rush" Zucchini's bathed in golden light |
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| Skyscraper Corn |
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| Ear that? |
Just some of the treasures from my vegetable garden.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The garden in February
Just some of the treasures from my vegetable garden.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Potatoes
Decided to finally dig up the last of the potatoes tonight. Wasn't expecting this many!!!
The varieties are Cliff's Kidney, Jersey Benne, Purple Passion, Desiree and some special Maori varieties: Tutaikuri and Karuparera. My favourite are the Karuparera.
Me and my 2-pronged fork did a really good job!
Most interesting potato dug up was this one:
Use your imagination!
The varieties are Cliff's Kidney, Jersey Benne, Purple Passion, Desiree and some special Maori varieties: Tutaikuri and Karuparera. My favourite are the Karuparera.
Me and my 2-pronged fork did a really good job!
Most interesting potato dug up was this one:
Use your imagination!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
The evolution of the salad
Salads historically in NZ consisted of some iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato. Then some marketing genius came up with the idea of selling bags of salad greens (mesclun) and housewives right round the country started experimenting with greens that were weeds in a former life.
My salads usually consist of lots of peppery rocket, cress and baby beetroot leaves. To liven this up even further I decided to grow some edible violas.
These beautiful delicate flowers come in a variety of colours and are so intricate to look at. They look stunning in a salad.
And yes I was brave enough to eat them. Not a particular strong taste so completely palatable. A good dressing always helps!
Violas are not the only edible flower. I use borage flowers from my garden in salads and freeze them in ice to add to summer drinks. Nasturtiums are also bright and beautiful to add to salads. Check out this chart of all the different types of flowers you can eat and what they taste like.
I think it's time again to get a little bit more creative with the salad greens (or purples, yellows, blues and reds). Leave your iceberg lettuce for lunch at Grandmas and play around with some edible flowers instead.
My salads usually consist of lots of peppery rocket, cress and baby beetroot leaves. To liven this up even further I decided to grow some edible violas.
These beautiful delicate flowers come in a variety of colours and are so intricate to look at. They look stunning in a salad.And yes I was brave enough to eat them. Not a particular strong taste so completely palatable. A good dressing always helps!
Violas are not the only edible flower. I use borage flowers from my garden in salads and freeze them in ice to add to summer drinks. Nasturtiums are also bright and beautiful to add to salads. Check out this chart of all the different types of flowers you can eat and what they taste like.
I think it's time again to get a little bit more creative with the salad greens (or purples, yellows, blues and reds). Leave your iceberg lettuce for lunch at Grandmas and play around with some edible flowers instead.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Lots and lots of cabbage
On Wellington Anniversary Day I entered my first ever A and P show with some homegrown produce. And wouldn't you know it I got first place! (Please note that even though the competition level wasn't as high as one might have expected my cabbage was still the bomb regardless).
But alas what to do with all the cabbage afterwards. After 3 meals of coleslaw there was still ¾ of a cabbage left. My only other experience of having this much cabbage was in Form 1 when we learnt to make coleslaw in cooking class. The teacher (Mrs Watson) gathered all the leftover cabbage and made sauerkraut with it. Then for the rest of the term we used sauerkraut in other recipes. In particular I remember putting sauerkraut on pizza.
Mrs Watson had some interesting ideas about cooking (she pretty much put lemon pepper on everything) but I like that she didn't want to waste the cabbage and came up with another way to use it. Kiwi ingenuity for you (with a german twist)!
So anyway I don't have a copy of her version of sauerkraut and all the recipes I read involve quite a process of fermentation. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to such lengths considering I can't even remember what the stuff tastes like!
So I found this straight forward option for pickling cabbage here. It pretty much involves packing shredded cabbage into sterilized jars then putting some honey and salt and then hot water, sealing them and then leaving them in the hot water cupboard for a week.
I added some grated apple and caraway seeds to my mix. Next time I may be a little bit more adventurous.
So apparently I can open and eat the cabbage in a weeks time or wait another 6 but if I open it between weeks 1-6 it will be quite sour. This is all a bit scientific but it has to go through 3 stages of fermentation. Interesting stuff!
Will follow up with some notes once it has fermented!
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| Mega cabbage |
Mrs Watson had some interesting ideas about cooking (she pretty much put lemon pepper on everything) but I like that she didn't want to waste the cabbage and came up with another way to use it. Kiwi ingenuity for you (with a german twist)!
So anyway I don't have a copy of her version of sauerkraut and all the recipes I read involve quite a process of fermentation. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to such lengths considering I can't even remember what the stuff tastes like!
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| I wasn't kidding about the amount of cabbage |
I added some grated apple and caraway seeds to my mix. Next time I may be a little bit more adventurous.
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| With a bit of honey and salt on the top awaiting hot water |
So apparently I can open and eat the cabbage in a weeks time or wait another 6 but if I open it between weeks 1-6 it will be quite sour. This is all a bit scientific but it has to go through 3 stages of fermentation. Interesting stuff!
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| Sealed and ready to be banished to the darkness |
Will follow up with some notes once it has fermented!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thrifting in the Hutt
Op shopping (or thrifting) is perhaps one of my favourite pastimes.
I get a huge rush when I find a small "treasure" or two for a small price.
I have to be careful that I only buy things that I need (which can sometimes be hard) but the best thing about this type of shopping is that its ethical and its green. I am buying somebody else's unwanted item therefore I am not contributing to mass consumerism or production. Plus lets face it old stuff is way more cooler.
This particular mission was to find items for the kitchen, namely more Crown Lynn and perhaps some furniture. No luck with the furniture - all a bit too pricey for me to make a decision on by myself.
So here are my finds for this week:
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| 4 beautiful Crown Lynn bowls - $1 each |
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| Crown Lynn dinner plate $2.50 |
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| Crown Lynn "Woodglen" dinner plate $2.50 |
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| Glass bottles $3.50 each |
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| Recipe book holder - $3 |
Good score!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Giving back to my community
For the past 6 months I have been involved at getting our local community garden up and running.
When we moved to the area I saw an article in the local paper about it, got in touch with the organiser and began growing seedlings for it.
On December 10th 2011 the garden was made and the first lot of plants put in (including some of mine). I had best intentions of being there for this momentous occasion but a bout of food poisoning got the better of me. However I have since continued providing the garden with plants.
Last night we had a planning meeting to set up the infrastructure for the garden for the next 5 years. These included plans around drainage, on-site water, a nursery, windbreaks, a teaching space, bbq area etc. Actually there was a lot of the wish-list!
My ideas towards the garden stem from the reasons why I wanted to be part of it in the first place. I value community and communities looking after each other. There are many socio-cultural benefits from having a community garden. People can learn how to garden, people gain social connections to their neighbours, it brings people together and ultimately it brings us all together and talking!
One of my suggestions was around how to get people interested in being involved. We actually need to tell people what resources we need whether that be wood to build a garden or the skills of someone to draw up a plan. I think sometimes people want to help but don't know what they can contribute.
For example there was these 2 old ladies at the meeting who basically said that they had turned up to the meeting to be a bit nosy because they couldn't garden to save themselves but they could make scones! Well terrific - welcome on board. There is always the need for someone to make the scones!
The best thing about this community garden project is that it is connected to several other initiatives in the community including a community orchard, a native planting scheme (which will have a nursery on the site) and the local Papa kāinga, who hope to teach courses in traditional Maori medicine, plants and raranga/weaving.
All very exciting. But in the meantime I will enjoy the immediate harvest!
When we moved to the area I saw an article in the local paper about it, got in touch with the organiser and began growing seedlings for it.
On December 10th 2011 the garden was made and the first lot of plants put in (including some of mine). I had best intentions of being there for this momentous occasion but a bout of food poisoning got the better of me. However I have since continued providing the garden with plants.
Last night we had a planning meeting to set up the infrastructure for the garden for the next 5 years. These included plans around drainage, on-site water, a nursery, windbreaks, a teaching space, bbq area etc. Actually there was a lot of the wish-list!
My ideas towards the garden stem from the reasons why I wanted to be part of it in the first place. I value community and communities looking after each other. There are many socio-cultural benefits from having a community garden. People can learn how to garden, people gain social connections to their neighbours, it brings people together and ultimately it brings us all together and talking!
One of my suggestions was around how to get people interested in being involved. We actually need to tell people what resources we need whether that be wood to build a garden or the skills of someone to draw up a plan. I think sometimes people want to help but don't know what they can contribute.
For example there was these 2 old ladies at the meeting who basically said that they had turned up to the meeting to be a bit nosy because they couldn't garden to save themselves but they could make scones! Well terrific - welcome on board. There is always the need for someone to make the scones!
The best thing about this community garden project is that it is connected to several other initiatives in the community including a community orchard, a native planting scheme (which will have a nursery on the site) and the local Papa kāinga, who hope to teach courses in traditional Maori medicine, plants and raranga/weaving.
All very exciting. But in the meantime I will enjoy the immediate harvest!
Rhubarb Fizz
Having made Rhubarb cordial before (see here) I was most excited when I saw a recipe for Rhubarb Fizz in my favourite Good magazine.
My garden has rhubarb a plenty at the moment. They must enjoy this crazy rain/sun/rain/sun weather. I'm glad somebody does!
So here's the recipe - bloody easy if you ask me!
Rhubarb Fizz (courtesy of Good magazine)
1) Cut into small pieces about 8 stalks of Rhubarb (4 cups).
2) Cut up 1 lemon into small chunks
3) Place into a large bucket and add 1tsp white vinegar, 680g of sugar and 4½ litres of water.
4) Cover and leave for 48hrs
5) Strain and pour into bottles with screw top lids.
6) Leave for at least a week.
7) Refrigerate and then enjoy with ice in a tall glass!
NB: The recipe suggested using a bucket or plastic container with a sealed lid. Do you know how hard it is to find one of these? Anyway I improvised with a food covering/shower cap like thing. Please also note that the longer you leave your fizz the more fizzy it will get. Slowly loosen the cap each day to relieve the pressure in the bottle. Also be careful when opening - you could get a rhubarb shower instead!
A week later:
Wow! Not only is this drink naturally carbonated (definitely got a fizz to it) it tastes amazing! Kind of like a mixture between ginger beer and lemon cordial with a hint of rhubarb. Quite sweet so perhaps add lots of ice cubes to the glass. I tried it with a bit of vodka too - very palatable!
Final verdict: SUPER SIMPLE TO MAKE, TASTES GREAT!
My garden has rhubarb a plenty at the moment. They must enjoy this crazy rain/sun/rain/sun weather. I'm glad somebody does!
So here's the recipe - bloody easy if you ask me!
Rhubarb Fizz (courtesy of Good magazine)
1) Cut into small pieces about 8 stalks of Rhubarb (4 cups).
2) Cut up 1 lemon into small chunks
3) Place into a large bucket and add 1tsp white vinegar, 680g of sugar and 4½ litres of water.
4) Cover and leave for 48hrs
5) Strain and pour into bottles with screw top lids.
6) Leave for at least a week.
7) Refrigerate and then enjoy with ice in a tall glass!
NB: The recipe suggested using a bucket or plastic container with a sealed lid. Do you know how hard it is to find one of these? Anyway I improvised with a food covering/shower cap like thing. Please also note that the longer you leave your fizz the more fizzy it will get. Slowly loosen the cap each day to relieve the pressure in the bottle. Also be careful when opening - you could get a rhubarb shower instead!
A week later:
Wow! Not only is this drink naturally carbonated (definitely got a fizz to it) it tastes amazing! Kind of like a mixture between ginger beer and lemon cordial with a hint of rhubarb. Quite sweet so perhaps add lots of ice cubes to the glass. I tried it with a bit of vodka too - very palatable!
Final verdict: SUPER SIMPLE TO MAKE, TASTES GREAT!
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