Harvest Monday Oct 18- first potatoes

There was much excitement in the garden today as Little FB and I dug gently under the straw in the raised bed to look for new potatoes.  And there they were - mainly little kipflers, about 10cm long and with papery skins.  We wanted to get the full taste of them so we boiled them until just tender and ate them with poached eggs for lunch.  Simply delicious.   The potatoes were planted back in August so have a  few months to go before they die back and are dug up, so we should be able to sneak a few more before then.

MMSTL and I spent all day Sunday on the front garden project which has involved a LOT of digging (mainly him), lugging around of bricks (both of us) and shoveling two cubic metres of topsoil. More details on this in a later post. After our hard graft we were in need of some comforting carbs so, with some larger store-bought potatoes I made a tasty supper dish from Nigel Slater's Appetite. My Dad will be proud of me for eating so many spuds!

Potato supper
Waxy potatoes (like kipflers) sliced lengthways into 1cm slices, 5 per person.
1 small onion per person
Portobello mushroom, 1 per person
Sage leaves
Vegetable stock (I used stock powder)
Olive oil and butter

In an oven-proof pan fry the potato slices, onion and mushroom in the olive oil until lightly browned (you may have to do this in batches depending on the size of the  pan)  Add enough stock to cover, dot over some butter and scatter over a few sage leaves.  Bake in a 180C oven for 45mins -1 hour until the potatoes are tender and have absorbed most of the stock.  We ate it with some cavalo nero quickly fried with some olive oil and garlic.  A simple, comforting and tasty meal.

Food swap: spring is in the air

 

 I went along to the food swap on Saturday. I hadn't been for a while, having been away for the best part of a month but there was a noticiable increase in the size and diversity of peoples' harvests.  The whole table was full of mainly green produce: silverbeet, cavalo nero, herbs, and lettuce as well as lots of seedlings, lemons and flowers.  I took along eggs, 14 to be precise, some celery and some cavlo nero.  These swaps are always fun and a great opportunity to meet other passionate veggie growers.

My basket always seems fuller going home, and this time there were lemons, herbs (purple sage, oregano and thyme), some endive, ruby chard and some seedlings of tommy toe tomato, dill, Lebanese cucumber and spring onions. I also took home some beautiful roses so that I could make  rose petal syrup.

Rose petal syrup
4 cups rose petals, washed. Dark pink or red work best and only use ones that have not been sprayed with pesticides.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and cook over a low heat for about an hour until the syrup is reduced and a lovely pink colour.  Strain.  The syrup is delicious over ice cream or with yogurt and pistachios.  You could even mix it with some soda water for a pink, perfumed summer drink.

I'm back, and how I missed my little garden

Little FB and I returned from our trip to the UK at the weekend. We arrived in Melbourne to a glorious sunny weekend and spent many happy hours in the garden with MMSTL enjoying the spring-like weather,.catching up on some gardening and finding all sorts of garden produce to eat. I am always amazed how much veggies can grow when  you have been away from a few weeks.  The snow peas were laden with pods, the spinach had leaves the size of plates and the broad beans were taller than me!  There are also some beautiful flowers on the crimson broad beans.

The sunny, warm weather spurred us into action so beds were cleared, compost bins emptied and seeds planted:.

Climbing beans - purple king and blue lake
Pumpkin - butternut
Cucumbers- spacemaster
Zucchinni - blackjack
Corn

I planted all my tomato seedlings before I went away and they had been carefully nurtured. I think they will be ready to go in the ground in a few weeks. 

As a surprise while we were away MMSTL had started work on the front garden which we want to turn into an edible food forest. He dug out a huge area under the fruit trees which will be under-planted with edible herbs and flowers.  It's all very exciting. I love this time of year!