What's Growing: February 2014

It's all go in the garden at the moment. There's hardly room to move for vege that needs harvesting or a weedy that needs pulling.



The cucumbers are in fine swing, and the corn has been doing magnificently. There is nothing better than attacking the garden for salad or dinner or lunch ingredients. It makes all the hard work worthwhile. The tomatoes are just coming along, with the first being used in some 'everything from the garden' tabouli.



Last weekend I sorted out the strawberries. With much chagrin I did in fact remove the runners, planting them in the greenhouse to strike. It was hard, normally I just let them go, but I do want more berries this year. Then they got all weeded and spread with pea straw after a jolly good watering.

The greenhouse is sooooooo hot at the moment. We have to keep opening it, and watering things so often in there. We planted a taro plant and watermelon seeds, which have germinated just over the last 2 weeks. I hope they do well,a a I would love watermelon for the effort. The strawberries are there too, and the lettuce and mescaline doing great - and they were only planted there because I needed to put them somewhere.









In my new garden bed the tops of carrots, beet root and rocket can be seen, and radishes sprung up almost overnight.



We harvested about 2 kilos of chilies the other day, so well ahead of schedule.



Soon there will be passion fruit and apples ready, and I do need to do something with the bok choi as it's doing really well.


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Help! There's a Vegetarian at my BBQ!

As a vegetarian, who is the only vegetarian in my close circle of friends, I have been to soooooo many dinners and barbecues where the only food to eat was the salad. And telling you now, seriously, vegetarians like hot food too! Like the amazing skewered vegetable recipe at the end of this post.

The thing is, often someone will bring a +1 to a dinner party or BBQ, and even the partner won't know they are vegetarian. (My husband of 12 years still forgets....) so being prepared for the event that a vegetarian could show up unannounced, and having hot food ready to go.... Guaranteed BBQ success.

The tricks to feeding a vegetarian at a BBQ:

- always have 2 types of salad. I always have a boring lettuce or spinach salad made f garden vege, dressed with salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice. This caters for those allergy types as well, as clearly every ingredient can be seen, saving a lot of, 'are there any nuts in this?'. And then I pair it with either a potato, rice or pasta based salad with a boiled egg in it. This won't help with your vegans, but they have the green salad, and the egg helps to cater to the protein of your vegetarians.

- Corn on the Cob. In summer we always have this growing wildly. I usually just go and pick one cob per guest as the BBQ is cranking up. Throw the cob, husk and all, on the barbie and forget. Peel the husk back creating a handle, and a glorious corn experience awaits.

- Falafel. I keep a ready supply, but if you don't, don't stress. But an instant falafel patty thrown on the hot plate (I use a non-stick aluminium foil underneath) makes an easy burger patty.

- Asparagus. Throw it on the grill, rotating as it gets those grill lines, and serve hot.

- Large, flat mushrooms. Giant flat mushrooms drizzled with oil, pepper and a little chili powder make a meaty meal.

- Potato Slices. Sounds strange, but I learned this one in China at a Korean BBQ... Take a sheet of non-stick baking paper and put it on the hot plate. Using a mandolin, thinly slice a potato. Wash well. Place on the BBQ... When the edges are slightly browned, turn the slices over. These will take the longest to cook, but they are delicious with a dipping sauce.

- Vegetable Skewers. See below

- Dipping Sauce. Everyone loves a choice. I like to have tomato sauce (duh), a Thai Chilli Sauce (sweet with ginger), and a spicy Satay sauce. This gives your guests flavour options which will blow their mind.

Also, those carnivores need to eat vegetables too.... When dished out to the boys, these skewers never disappoint.



Vegetable Skewers

1. Soak long wooden skewers in water for about an hour.

2. Wash button mushrooms in water, slice a yellow courgette, slice a purple onion, slice thickly a green pepper, and rinse cherry tomatoes.

3. Thread into a colourful arrangement on a skewer

4. Optional: marinate in a mix of olive oil, dark soy sauce, pepper and chilli powder.

5. Throw on the BBQ- can be cooked on the grill or hot plate.

6. Serve on the stick, optionally with a drizzle of sauce.

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Greenhouse Gardening - Making a start

We bought a greenhouse! It was one of those, "I've always wanted a greenhouse".... Followed by a "hey look, this one is for sale".... Then some googling alternatives, and picking one.



It's awesome. However, I have noted that the internet is limited about advice on actually greenhouse gardening, so I will be making a series based on our experiences, and hopefully helping others to learn from where we went right and wrong....

To start we picked a polycarbonate greenhouse. These are basically like a super strong, UV treated, plastic paneled greenhouse. We have dogs and high winds... So the idea of glass or a plastic tunnel house was out right away. This one is concreted into the ground using the 6 feet on the structure... It is also about 2 1/2m wide and 3m long... So it's pretty big.



Then assembling the damn thing... My husband described it as a divorce inducing process. The instructions were..... Lacking. So I ended up in tears, the husband frustrated, the mother and father both called in, and eventually, a greenhouse set up.


Divorce averted. Today.

Then I decided we would grow things in slightly raised beds inside the greenhouse. I build a 6x2 raised edge, bolted together, (like my tutorial on building a small raised bed). This was filled with mushroom compost, though any compost will do. This means that we get the benefit of planting in the ground from worms, water etc, as well as the benefit of increased temperature by raising it off the ground within the greenhouse.

I also put in a pathway... Mainly to be pretty....



So far we have planted a tamarillo tree which we hope will fruit... And some lettuce and watermelon. Mainly, as it is summer, and it's too hot in there to grow many things. Everything I have read indicates that summer is the time to replace compost, to clean the greenhouse, and to prepare for autumn plantings. We however want to get something going, so we are trying subtropicals. I will be buying taro and a banana plant to attempt that. I am a huge believer in companion planting, so I'll be carrying that on in here. So far I have marigolds to keep out bad bugs, and lobelia and alyssum to attract the bees.



The greenhouse still needs a lot of water at this point, mainly because the compost is still decomposing into soil, and the ground below the greenhouse was super dry when we erected the structure.

Hopefully I'll have another update soon on how we are reworking it to our needs.


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What's Growing: January 2014

It's already 2014, and the year is flying by. Basically the whole year has been in the garden. Last year my trip to China left my husband and the dogs at home, doing their best to maintain the garden. Now it is all back in action. Actually, our old dog, Spice, died after a stroke while I was away... And now we have a new set of trouble with a beagle boy currently named Solo.



In 2013 I set myself the goal of growing year round, and it worked. Admittedly over winter all we really had was spinach, chard, spring onions and leeks... But it did keep us in fresh greens over those hard-to-eat-fresh months.

This year my goal is to grow year round, as well as keep the blog updated with the garden. Last year I didn't want to commit too many goals to the internet in case I didn't get there.... And often the garden has weeds....



We have plenty of fruit and citrus trees planted around the place now, and they are slowly producing. Still not enough to cater to our supreme citrus needs, we use a lot of lemons... But getting there. We also planted extra fruits, like cranberries, this year. I bought a coffee plant, which the new beagle did eat, but I am determined to have a flourishing coffee plant on my back deck where I drink my morning java. In fact, it has a coffee-rail. It's basically the top of the hand rail... But I insisted that the handrail was large enough to lean on and safely hold a cuppa.






We have been doing well with the corn, and the passion fruit, though neither are quite up to harvesting yet. Yesterday I fertilized the passion fruit, tomatoes and strawberries, and I may through sulfate of potash on them today to encourage their fruiting.







The peas are now growing up a make-shift obelisk like the cucumbers, and I am impressed with how they are doing there.

We had our first chilli harvest yesterday, at least a month earlier than last year. Also, the back composting gardens are being converted to actual gardens... So I'm looking forward to seeing how they hold up with plants in them.

Lastly, I had my first go at building a garden bed.... Now I will try to build a 2 layer one next. I'll put a tutorial up at some point... So others can copy.... And so that I can remember how I did it!



My garden has so far been a haven of solace this year, and I have enjoyed working it, even with the scratches, bruises and broken fingernails.


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Butternut and Carrot Soup

I love pumpkin soup.... Well, I guess it's all technically squash here in New Zealand, but I love it. Usually I make one with the ol' classic grey pumpkins. This however is butternut squash. So much easier to deal with.

Final blitzed soup in the pot

Ingredients:
- 1 butternut squash
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground chilli
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 litre vegetable stock

Method

Peel the butternut squash. I use a simple veggie peeler. So much easier than the tough pumpkins. Cut the squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. I tend to just throw these in the garden. Next year they just pop up as squash.



Peel and cut the onion and carrots. Cut up the squash into palm sized chunks. Throw all ingredients in a soup pot. Boil the whole thing on a low heat, and keep stirring. After about 30 minutes, turn the heat off, place on a lid, and rest.

I like to leave it overnight at this point because everyone knows soup gets better with age. Remove the bay leaf.  Blitz the soup with a stick blender. Boil.

You can add parsley, chives or cream at this point, or leave it as it is. I like to section some off into 2 cup baggies and freeze for a later date. Don't add cream if you are going to freeze it.

This recipe yields approximately 2 1/2 litres of soup, depending on the size if your veggies.

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