Harvest Monday

 Despite the warm weather we've been having I don't think the capsicums will turn red so I've been picking them green.  Most recipes call for red ones though so I'll have to look around for some interesting ways to prepare them. The stripey eggplant are still coming and I pulled some beets - choggia and red globe.  The choggia are lovely and turn a beautiful blush-ink colour when roasted. I want to try out a new recipe with the beet tops - Crustless silverbeet and pine nut tart from Stephanie Alexander's kitchen garden.

Getting a bit crafty

Now that the nights are drawing in and I can't spend all evening pottering in the garden, I've been getting a bit creative with some sewing and knitting projects.  I've always enjoyed making stuff - I remember some particularly hideous multi-coloured batwing jumpers that I knitted with Mum's help in the 80's (of course I loved them at the time) but it has been ages since I've used my sewing machine and I'd pretty much forgotten how to knit.

My first project was a Blossom Bunny softie from this book using fabric scraps and the stuffing from an old pillow.  She was surprisingly easy to make and the only really tricky bits were sewing in the ears in and teaching myself some embroidery stitches - blanket stitch and french knots (thanks You tube!). I used a small bag of rice in the base so that she can stand upright and I think  the end result is pretty good!  She's a  bit cheeky though, as you can see from my new blog image it wasn't long before she sneaked into the garden to check out the pumpkins.  

For my next project, encouraged by Suburban Jubiliee's "knit with me" series I'm knitting a square in Flat Rib from some wool that I got in the op shop. It's not perfect - a few dropped stitches here and there, but I'm getting better and the process of slowing creating something is very relaxing. 

Pumpkin spice bread for an Autumn day

A little while ago the compost pumpkin vine that is taking over my garden got so heavy that it pulled down the (admittedly slightly shoddy) trellis that I had put up to support it.  One pumpkin fell off  and I hadn't got round to eating it until yesterday.  It was a good size, maybe a few kg, so some went into a lentil, veg and pumpkin soup (just the thing to soothe my cold), some into a roast pumpkin, feta, lemon mint and pasta dinner, and the rest into this:  pumpkin spice bread. 

It was a blustery, cool, fresh day here today -  perfect for baking and the spices in this bread smelt so good wafting around the kitchen. This delicious recipe is adapted from Skippy's Vegetable Garden and is  especially good warm with some butter.  I left out the walnuts as LittleFB isn't a fan, but I think they wuold be nice. 

3 cups plain flour
1 tsp each baking powder, baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each nutmeg, ginger
dash each ground cloves
2 tsp cinnamon

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar - could use less as the raisins are quite sweet
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups grated fresh pumpkin (peeled)
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Combine eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla and mix. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture. Add grated pumpkin, raisins, and nuts (if using). Stir well. Pour into 2 generously buttered loaf pans. Bake at 180C for 1 hour or until done.

Comforting breakfast

I'm a little under the weather today and needing something comforting and simple to eat - a perfect boiled egg, freshly laid by one of the girls.  I found these beautiful duck-egg blue eggcups in the op shop. They are too lovely to hide away in the cupboard so I've put them on my mantelpiece. The book was written by my Grandad in the 60's 40's(thanks for the correction Mum!).

Despite my cold, I couldn't resist a small potter in the garden this morning.  We've had  some rain so the ground was nice and damp, perfect for planting out some spinach and perpetual spinach into the edge of the pea bed.  When I was doing this, I noticed that one pea, planted last weekend had popped up. I'm feeling a little better already.

Sri Lankan eggplant curry

I got round to making the Sri Lankan curry last night.  The recipe was adapted from Madhus Jaffrey's World Vegetarian.  I love this book - it is organised by vegetable and has so many interesting recipes.  There is an Indian grocer at the end of my street so I was able to get fresh curry leaves, but  the recipe suggested using basil if these were unavailable.

The curry was aromatic and rich, with just a bit of heat, and the eggplant had a nice silky texture.  It doesn't look too appetising in the photo - brown food is apparently the worst to photograph - but it did look nice with the green curry leaves and red from the chilli.

For the curry:
About 450 g eggplant (I used three of my small-medium ones)
2 Tsp vegetable oil
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 round fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tsp lime juice
1 small stick cinnamon
15 fresh curry leaves
1 small onion cut into rings
1 red chilli chopped
175 mls coconut milk (I used the light version)
1 tsp ground brown mustard seeds (the recipe used more but I found them bitter so reduced the quantity)

Cut the eggplant into slices, rub with salt, brush with  1tsp of the oil and grill on both sides until brown.  Cut into chunks. Put into a bowl with the cumin, coriander, turmeric, fennel, cayenne and lime juice. Toss to coat.

Put the remaining oil in a large pan and when hot add the cinnamon stick, red chilli and then the curry leaves. Stir and then add the onion.  Cook until brown. Add the eggplant and cook for 4-5 minutes.

Mix the coconut milk with the mustard seeds and add to the eggplant.  Cook, uncovered for 3 minutes,  Check for balance of salt, heat and lime and add whatever you need. Serve with plain rice. Serves 3-4.

Creating communities

This post isn't directly about gardening, but it is about  linking into communties of like-minded people, some of whom may share an interest in growing food, cooking, chicken keeping, whatever.

Being part of a community is very important to me.  My immediate family live overseas so having friends nearby that I can call on for support, advice and the occasional cup of sugar is invaluable.   I am really lucky - my street is a little community in itself.  We share produce and garden tools, eat dinner together and look after each others kids.  In the summer there are street parties and cricket games. It's lovely.  Not everyone has this though, which is why projects like the sharehood are so good.  I found out about this at the Sustainable Living Festival and recently joined.  The aim is simple, to link people together who live geographically close and who may want to share for example, skills, tools or produce.

Joining is easy. I signed up online (the website is very well designed and easy to use), put in a few details about myself, such as the type of household I live in, my interests etc.  There is also a section where you can list what you are looking for (for example a lanwmower) and what you have to offer (worms for a worm farm anyone?) .  There is a currency  that can be used for services although I'm not quite sure how this works.

I found out that my nearest sharehood 'neighbour' lives right around the corner and we might be doing a bit of swapping soon - some scraps for my chickens in exchange for some seeds, and I've already told them about the food swap. 

Do you have something similar where you live?

Harvest Monday

Eggplant, chillis and some pak choi. I'm going to make a Sri Lankan curry with the eggplant and chilli.

Pea stick mini-forest

What a beautiful day it was yesterday. Perfect for pottering, and planting pretty podded peas (couldn't think of more adjectives beginning with "p") . MMTSL helped me build a trellis for the taller climbing types (Telephone and climbing snow pea) and I put ins ome pea sticks - just prunings from the bottlebrush - for the Roi de Carbouby snow peas.   I couldn't be bothered to take all the leaves off so the pea sticks look like a mini forest in the garden which is quite cute. The soil was in pretty good shape after the green manure crop, but it was a little acidic so I gave it a sprinkle of lime.

I will be good to have a winter legume. We've been harvesting beans from the second planting - purple king, blue lake and sex without strings- when earlier on I thought that this year might be bean free. It was definitely a good decision to put more in after spider mites wiped out the first crop,.  This is one thing that I am lowly learning about growing veggies, to get a continual supply, seeds need to be sown in succession rather than all in one hit.

Garlic shoots

The garlic, planted 10 days ago is shooting up little green spears through the covering of straw. So far only the Purple Monaro has appeared - no sign of the silverskin or Australian. Some of the s hoots are just emerging and some are about 15cm high.

I picked the last of the tomatoes today so I'll be clearing the last straggly plants from the bed  to make way for leeks and onions.  I also planted a few more brassicas - quickheart cabbage, cavalo nero and broccoli and some coriander. Tomorrow  it's pea planting day!