Time to get planting!

I was strangely excited to start planting seeds again after a years hiatus. On the heated propagating mat inside I have peppers, tomato, eggplant and basil. I've being quite restrained this year on the tomato front - only 5 different varieties (cherry rainbow, and mortgage lifter for eating, and oxheart, principe borghese and san marzano for bottling), although I confess to going a bit OTT on eggplant varieties (little finger, snnowy and greek). My excuse is....well, other than the seed was only $3 a packet there is no excuse :-)

On the direct sowing front I have also planted out snow pea, sugar snap, beetroot, swede, lettuce mix and carrot. For the lettuce and carrot I trialed a nifty UK seed sewing device (seedsava) muma and papa Jerry gave me. I confess I have had it for a while, but really haven't put it to good use until now. However, on small seeds like carrot and lettuce it is brilliant. There are 4 different seed holders, each with a different size seed hole. Orange is the second smallest, and good for lettuce and carrot. You put the sizy you want into the base, and click so it is shut (seed holes covered so they can't fall out). Seeds go in the spoon part, then you shake them along the device until each hole is filled with seed. Then you place it on the bed where you want to sew, and simple slide the coloured section along, which opens the hole and lets some seed drop in. You do get a few seeds in each hole, but they are sewn at intervals making it easier to thin. It was easy, and I suspect there there was less wastage compared to broadcasting the seed.

I'll update you on progress as the seeds come up.

7 days later and here's the update - I hit save not publish and just realised :-). The basil and most of the tomatoes are looking good - the cherry rainbow is the forlorn punnet in blue. These seeds were just about at the end of their use by date so I'm not entirely surprised germination is almost non existent. The eggplants, chilli and capsicum are taking longer, but the first eggplants are just pushing up.

Is it April already?

How did that happen? It doesn't feel like more than a month since I last posted...but if it's any consolation you haven't missed much!

I thought I'd get back in to the swing of things with some garden updates. After 10 weeks away last winter/spring, and uni and work over summer the garden is really in a "state" (to put it mildly). Thank goodness for berries and the peach tree so the harvest season hasn't been a complete bust. The tomatoes were an epic fail this year, other than the self seeded cherries and tommy toes, which just keep on keeping on. I have had small successes with a couple of chilli plants, the eggplants were a waste of time, but the parsley and basil varieties have been outstanding.

Many locals have reported poor tomato crops this year, probably due to the late start to summer and a few cold snaps in November. As for the rest I'm not sure why - this year I bought seedlings rather than started from seed, and it is tempting to blame that, but who knows. Berries have been the hero crops this year - around 35kg of them. However I must put in a mention for the peach tree I was going to pull out 18 months ago. I cut it right back to 3 "stump" branches, but it wasn't going to give up without a fight. It surged back, and this year we harvested 17kg of the most gorgeous peaches - some up to 350g. Needless to stay its survival is now assured.

The garlic did very well again, and I have enough bulbs to eat, as well as to plant out for the next crop.

Updated garden pics to come in the next post

Yes, I still have a garden!

But it is going to be a lot smaller this year, as we were away until October so missed the main tomato/chilli/eggplant/capsicum seedling raising months. I did buy some plants at a local charity market, but not as many as I would normally grow from seed. It feels really weird to only have one bed of tomato plants!

I will probably only have about half of the beds in production this year for several reasons

• work plus study means I have to scale back my garden ambitions
• it will take a few more months to weed and rejuvenate some of the other beds
• we are planning to move a few things around in the autumn, and redo the fruit cage so I'm deliberately not doing anything with some of the beds

To fill in the gap we're getting a weekly organic veg box again this year from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) family farm about 10k away. Can't argue with those food miles!

This overgrown mess is what almost all the beds looked like when we came back from holidays...although the garlic beds were looking in better shape!

New plantings - eggplant, chilli and capsicum, and lettuce and basil, with a few sugar snap pea seeds that hopefully will germinate soon.

The tomato cages are back in use again. This year I have planted tommy toe, black russian, mortgage lifter, another beefsteak variety, and two paste type tomatoes whose exotic names I can't remember!

Cucumber, herbs and a zucchini. On the right is the red table grape - this is the best it has ever looked in 5 years, and it has loads of fruit on it.

 

In spite of some curly leaf (I wasn't around to spray in time), the veg patch yellow peach tree is laden with fruit. Lovely! The other white peach in the mini-orchard is far less impressive. To the right are the raspberries and brambleberries - both promise to give us a good few months of berry delights.

 

Last tomato harvest

In June, and after a number of frosts. Clearly shade cloth provides good frost protection. They won't ripen, but will be useful for some more chutney - waste not, want not!

Quick catch up

Once again apologies for the long time between posts, but between work, work and uni there hasn't been much time for fun stuff like blogging. Also, as I didn't really grow much this season there hasn't been an endless supply of produce and recipes to blog about.

My staples of tomatoes and garlic have been very successful. I harvested over 200 garlic bulbs, and I've been dehydrating some and making my own garlic powder before it all starts to sprout. It's really easy, and smells amazing. Hopefully that will carry us through the "garlic gap"  between harvests.

We're still picking tomatoes, although with the first hard frost predicted this weekend there probably aren't many more to go. So far I've eaten, bottled, pureed and chutneyed my way through 114 kilos. From about 26 plants. I lost probably another 5-6 kilos at least to blossom end rot. Mostly Romas, which I've never done well with. Next year I think I will concentrate on amish paste / oxheart for bottling, as they just keep on keeping on, seem more resistant to problems like end rot and taste lovely. I had a few plants of beefsteak tomatoes that did well and they were just divine eating, so I will grow them again too.

I have about 50 bottles of passata / diced tomatoes. Not as many as I would like, but I can make them stretch I hope! So far I've made 30 jars of green tomato chutney - and that only used up 7kg of green tomatoes, so there's still more chutney to make.

It's been a good year for chillies as well - those plants that survived the attack of the bower birds. I've harvested about 2kg, and dried they will keep me in chilli powder for at least a year.

I have also just picked a few of the random pumpkins that grew out of the mulched up vegetable scraps we got from the green grocer. No idea what they are but they look tasty. I grew a few butternuts this year, but they fell prey to possums before I could net them.

The raspberries are still going, but again I don't think there will be many more to pick. We've harvested just over 8kg this season. I've made jam, muffins, raspberry vinegar and also frozen a lot for muffins. We've also had raspberries with breakfast almost every day for the last 3 months. The strategy of planting early, mid and late varieties has worked well again this year, with raspberries available for eating from early December until now, mid May. The flavour of the early ones is the best to me, with a delicate perfume that the late varieties can't match, but they are all lovely compared to the shop bought options.

Once semester finishes in a few weeks I'll be getting back into the garden for a major tidy-up and mulching for winter.

Tomato time

So far this season I have harvested about 27kg of tomatoes. It has been a bit hit and miss - the romas and Marzanos have really bad blossom end rot, but the ox hearts in the same bed are fine. The beefsteak varieties are going great guns, as are the grape and cherry red pear varieties.

27kg sounds like loads, right? Well, not really. You see I try to grow enough tomatoes to last the whole year. I fact I have not bought tinned tomatoes for about 4 years now. But to be self sufficient in "tinned" tomatoes, you need to grow a LOT. Of the picked tomatoes I'd say I have preserved about 24kg. The romas and a few others I roasted and then ran through the mouli for a kind of passata, and the rest I have preserved as halves or chopped tomatoes. I have about 11 litres from that, which is roughly equal to about 22 tins of tomatoes. Now if you use 2-3 tins a week, which we can easily do, that is less than 3 months worth of tomatoes. And that does not include tomato paste...which you need a lot more tomatoes for. In fact I normally buy a 10kg box of seconds to make my paste, but I'm not sure I will be doing that this year. And then there are the tomatoes for salsa, semi dried and chutney......

So that's why I will be happier if the end of the season the harvest is more like 100kg. But even then it won't be enough to make everything. This self sufficiency stuff - even on a small scale - is hard work.

 

Pickled radishes

As work plus uni plus a real need for soil improvement means that our garden will be limited this summer, we're getting our veg from a local organic CSA this season. This means that sometimes you get things you wouldn't normally grow or eat. Radishes are one of those things. After 2 weeks of radish bunches we had way more than we could use before they were beyond their 'use by' date. Fortunately I remembered reading a recipe for pickled radishes on David Leibowitz's excellent blog here Pickled Radishes | David Lebovitz.

And of course then I forgot about them in the back of the fridge. They were rediscovered today and we had our first taste....MAGIC! Crunchy and flavoursome, they will be brilliant on a cheese platter or plate of mixed nibbles. I highly recommend giving them a try next time radishes are in season where you live.

 

Curing the garlic

I've harvested 185 heads of garlic so far, and there are another 15 or so still in the ground in various spots. As it is so hot here today I have them in the sun to start curing.

I think we will be vampire free for another year :-)

 

This one's for you Jason!

Jason's comment on the last post gave me the perfect opportunity to make another chart - and I didn't even pay him :-)

He asked how the 2011/12 season compared to last year - et voila! Last year we had about 261kg (of the things I counted), and this year is 189kg so far, but I did harvest at least 5 kilos of yacon on the weekend, and the oca is still in the ground. However, in spite of that I don't think we'll get too much closer to last year's harvest total. For those who are interested the 09/10 season total was 268kg (167kg accounted for by tomatoes!).

The main reasons this year's harvest is smaller, in no particular order

• The birds ate most of the apple crop, which wasn't as abundant as last year on the main tree
• I planted half the number of tomato plants - although interestingly they were almost as productive - I think this is due to the cages we used rather than traditional staking
• The brambleberries had a significant haircut last year, and as they produce on last year's growth we knew we wouldn't' have many this year. Ditto redcurrants which I think were down due to over-zealous pruning
• I was a pumpkin failure (again) this year
• The damp summer wasn't good for the courgettes

However, the value of what we've grown this season is over $3,000 - which is a pretty satisfying saving all round!

Harvest tally update

So far at least 189kg of produce, which isn't too bad I guess. I don't count lemons, limes, herbs or leafy greens. Or eggs.

The water chestnuts were a big fail, only growing thumbnail size - very disappointing

I still have yacon, oca, cabbage, swedes, turnips, kale, collards, silverbeet, carrots, beets and cauli in the garden. Oh, and garlic - LOTS of garlic.

Not blogging - studying (and, er, blogging)

Sorry for the prolonged absence. Work became more work and has now become "I have an assignment due in 8 days". Paradoxically the assignment includes making a blog - just not this one  - so I'm working on that one this week.

In the meantime here's some recent photos of the harvest:

Been roasting lots of tomatoes for passata

 This was a super-local dinner. Local rabbit, (traded 2 for a bottle of wine) with home grown carrots and turnips and local red wine. Lovely. Got 6 meals from one bunny so very economical.

Saving over $2k without even realising it

Wow. Sometimes it really does pay to pause and reflect. Over the weekend I updated my harvest tally for the  2011-12 season, and came to the staggering conclusion that even this early into the season we have grown over $2000 worth for fruit and veg!! I have weighed recorded almost everything we grow (minus what I eat in the garden , and herbs and leafy greens). On Sunday I did some online research and put per kg prices for the equivalent organic item next to everything and added it up - $2047. And that's probably a bit higher as I didn't weigh or include all the lemons and limes.

Crikey!

Now, the bulk of that - a staggering $1450 - was for the berries and currants - which have an average organic retail price of $52 per kilo  (assuming you can even get them - and I suspect the redcurrants and blackcurrants would be more as they are harder to pick)

It really is quite sobering to see how much all that produce is worth - we tend to take it for granted a bit. In  some ways it is a paper only saving - we'd never actually spend that much on berries if we had to buy them - we'd just be going without. But either way, it has been an interesting exercise.

Yakking about Yacon

I've grown yacon for a two years now, but I realise I've never posted about it  -thanks Dixiebelle for the reminder . What is it? I hear you ask - it's a crunchy tuber vegetable, aka Peruvian Ground Apple . I've grown it successfully here in the least frosty part of the garden near the water tank - always planting out after the last frost has passed.

This year I planted four plants, and I have a generous basked full of tubers. Raw they have a lovely crunchy apple/cucumber like mild flavour (peel the skin and the white part) - great for a salad.

Last night I made a pork stir-fry and cut up some chunks of yacon  (the pale/translucent chunks in the right photo) to include with the courgette, basil and mushroom. I must say it was pretty good - it retained a crunch (a bit like water chestnuts), but also soaked up the flavours of the sauce (a mix of mirin, tamari and fish sauce). Served with rice it was a dinner winner!

Been busy

and this will give you an idea why - 175 kg of produce so far this year, not including leafy greens and herbs

The apples are all from the tree that the parrots normally eat bare, but there were so many this year we actually have a few! I've been working the steam juicer overtime making a range of apple jellies. Apple and mint, apple and ginger, and apple, ginger and chilli - using home grown thai chilli powder. It's hot but lovely. Made 8 jars of that yesterday, along with 6 smallish jars of apple purée plus 4 jars of roasted tomato purée. The pantry is starting to really fill up now!

Basic Apple Jelly Recipe

Once you have your juice (either via steam juicer or the normal cook with some water then strain through muslin overnight method - or even bought pure juice) add 450g sugar to every 600ml juice. I also added in a 7-8cm piece of ginger (grated), and a sprinke of chilli powder. Other alternatives are just ginger, or mint (add in near the end of boiling time) or even just plain apple. Stir over a low heat until sugar is fully disolved, then boil rapidly until setting point is reached, pour into jars and seal via your preferred method and seal.

Last but not least we got our first double yolker a week or so ago - from a massive 88g egg!

Garden update

Plum, peach and nectarine

I can't believe we still have green grass in late january! Plus sweet potato (my first attempt at growing these - might not be hot enough this year), borlotti beans and capsicum

Roma tomatoes, beans, nasturtium and basil. There is also a cucumber in there somewhere. Zebra beans climbing over the fruit cage, and chillis.

 

The passionfruit is looking a lot happier this year, and has even had a few flowers. I've also started off my autumn brassicas (collards, red and green and Chinese cabbage, and kale)

I'm delighted that the elderberries we planted a few months ago are doing quite well. All have flowered and we even have some berries!

Lucky chick contemplates the sunflower - probably wondering how long it will take the seeds to appear :-). The old apple tree is groaning with apples - even the marauding rosellas and parrots can't keep up!

 This is the first year we've been here when here has been so much rain and it has really made an enormous difference - although I'm very happy we have raised beds!