Today's Harvest

This is our 2nd big bunch of 5 Coulour Silverbeet, I will use this tonight mixed with a couple of eggs and cheese with some puff pastry to make a pie for dinner tonight served with some new potatoes and garlic butter.

Inspiration

Just wanted to share with you a list of TV shows, Magazines and web sites that inspire me to garden also to grow, use, prepare and preserve local in season produce. I will add to this as I come across more sites.

TV Shows

Gardening Australia

Costa's Garden Odessy

Little River Cottage

Jamie Oliver (sometimes)

The Cook & The Chef

Magazines

Grass Roots

Gardening Australia Magazine

Digger Club News Letter (club members only)

Web Sites

http://www.laundryball.com.au/index.php?&aff_id=3864

http://www.rivercottage.net/

http://www.diggers.com.au/

http://www.northeystreetcityfarm.org.au

Today's Harvest

On a lighter note, despite the dust, I've been out in the garden and picked a couple of potatoes, I've still left some in the ground I'll see if they get any bigger.
Cherry tomatoes are an amazing thing, grow anywhere with little water and give up heaps of sweet fruit, great with salad or cut in half and spead on a pizza.

We're All Gonna Die

I hate to say it, but this dust storm is a result of over farming. We need to encourage everyone to grow a few things for themselves and our farmers to put at least 1/3 of their land under trees. It is my belief that if we grow some of our own food we can reduce carbon pollution from transportation and by doing this we can encourage farmers to have a "tree crop" further reducing carbon emmissions and locking in some of the top soil that is now floating away.

Go and buy a dwarf fruit tree and grow some herbs put them in pots on your balcony, one day it may save you a trip to the shops.

I've been shopping

I was so inspired by my trip to NSCF that I couldn't help myself, I bought a Kaffir Lime for a friend and some nastusum seeds from the NSCF shop, them went and bought some herbs to plant, also some new passionfruit vines.

Northy Street City Farm

I have driven past a little community garden in Windsor called Northy Street City Farm for years and thought of it more as a hippy commune than as a place where home vege gardeners can learn more about how we do what we do. I took a couple of my kids down yesterday and we went on the free tour. They have 4 acres of land within 5mins of the city, the council lease them the land for a $1 per year as it is considered flood plain (it has gone under twice in the last year). There are many gardens for herbs and vege's which are used in their kitchen to produce lunch for the volunteer's and students. There is a native bush tucker forest as well as a not so native edible forest, a fruit orchard, area's given to compost production, open space for entertainment and education, a full kitchen , a shop and admin. The kids and I wondered around after the tour and stayed for the lunch, everything we ate was grown in the gardens, we had a curry made from arrowroot and various herbs, with a salad made up from leaves and flowers also a green PawPaw salad. I think I will sign up to volunteer and see what I can learn, I will also consider the TAFE accredited courses they offer in Horticulture & Permaculture. Their web site is www.nscf.com.au

Salad In A Bag

I have to laugh at my kids sometimes, I'd forgotten to make bread again for Friday, so I asked the kids if they wanted some old flat bread wrap with Vegemite & cheese or salad in a bag? They all jumped up and said "salad in a bag! salad in a bag!" Amazing what you can get away with, I was just too lazy to go to the shops and buy a loaf.

Tomatoes Galore

I've planted a few tomatoes from seed this year and some seedlings we recieved from a school project, the tomatoes from seed were a small egg bush type and the seedlings were an ox heart climbing type. The tomato plants in the picture have grown up out of my compost and will provide a greater quantity of tomatoes per plant than either of the other 2 varieties that I have planted. Pity about the corn I tried to plant here, it got swamped.
Speaking of tomatoes, I got another box full from the fruit shop, after putting asside 30+ for salads etc. I made another 6 litres of puree. Half of this I have made into salsa using home grown corriander and chillies, capcicum, onion and some of the garlic. Yum!

The ladies at the fruit shop gave me a few big pineapples the other day. I peeled them and put the skins through the juicer, then put the flesh into the food processor to be crushed. I heated the fruit and juice and bottled it up. I now have some crushed pineapple ready for pizza night for the kids.

Spring Has Sprung

We have had an earlyish spring this year in South East Queensland. It never really gets that cold, so I had planted out some tomatoes early and some beans left over from last year that were still growing. I am starting to get some results which is great. This is about half of what I picked, the kids got the rest! Last week I picked a large container of cherry tomatoes and about 20 lemons. My wife used the lemons as a stain remover on the kids clothes, I think it worked a bit. I will try to post each week a picture of what I have harvested from my garden.

Ain't They Cute!!!

Remeber the other week when I said I was planting watermelon seeds at the school, we planted 2 varieties, Drought Master and Moon & Stars. Well a hand full of them are up and running. We had a couple of decent showers give us 25mm rain and we're off.

Love the Smell of Damper in the Morning

I ran out of bread while making the kids lunches this morning. The day care centre were some of my kids go will reheat a meal for lunch. I had a container of pumpkin soup left over in the freezer, it went of to day care with a fresh cob of damper still warm from the oven.

I Hope You Like Jammin' Too!!!

What a week!!! Started with Mullberry's on Sunday, Jammed, Pied & Eaten' nuf said.

I had a box of tomatoes I picked up cheap, I've peeled them, purreed them and bottled them, about 6 litres.

I went to the fruit shop yesterday, well, the ladies there know what I can do in the kitchen, if you know what I mean... They gave me a whole carton of strawberry's for $5. So today I've been Jammin'

I hope you like Jammin too...