Vege Garden Dreams

Last September Mr Gadget built me a dedicated vegetable patch. A raised garden bed in a sunny corner of the garden. Prior to this my vege plantings were rather haphazard. I brought and planted punnets of seedlings in any vacant spot I could find in the garden with not much success. The seedlings were competing with other plants, in poor soil, or getting too much sun or not enough.

With the new vegetable patch I developed an interest in growing my own vegetables from seeds and also in saving seeds for use in the future.

Last summer I had great success with basil, cucumbers, eggplants and cherry tomatoes.

This winter I have a great supply of carrots, parsley, radishes, lettuce and chinese cabbage.

I have dreamt of the day I can go off to my vegetable patch and pick all the vegetables I need for the families dinner. Well yesterday I did. We had fish with lemon juice from the tree out the back and rice with home grown carrots, parsley, radishes and tomatoes. Such a small thing but to me it represented a great success and I am feeling rather chuffed at being able to provide my family with home grown fruit and vegetables.

But now I am in need of more room for vegetable growing so I have a vege patch in the front yard. I have large pots growing more carrots, Styrofoam boxes from the fruit and vegetable markets growing chillies, capsicums and more vegetables.

I have a potting area near the water tank for growing cuttings and more seeds and another seed raising area on top of the bunnys cage outside the kitchen window.

My vege garden dreams are coming true and I am happy.

WINTER GARDEN

The boys have all had winter lurgies - coughs, chest infections ear infections. One gets better and the next gets sick and now they are starting all over again.
I haven't been spending much time in the garden, other than wandering arond with a nice hot coffee in my hands.

I have lots of tomatoes growing. When I emptied the ocmpost loads of seedlings shot up. They seem to be copeing all right with the cold so I will leave them and see what happens.

This year I planted small carrots in pots. These carrots only grow about 10cm deep. They are sweet and full of flavour. We have been eating them raw or with dips. Yum!

Lavendar is my favourite flower. I can't get enough of them. On my kitchen bench I have 4 mini vases and I pick lavendar for here. They give the kitchen a lovely scent. Last year I planted 4 new varieties in the front yard. Two are early flowering varieties and 2 later ones. I want to have lavendar flowering all year long. The bees and insects love this little unassuming flower as much as I do.

The potatoe vines are also flowering over a coupleof arches in the back garden.

The citrus trees are weighted down with mandarins and lemons. The orange and other lemon are still too small to be fruiting. I have been juicing the fruit and we enjoy a glass each day.

Finally a couple of the new fruit trees. These are the apple trees - granny smith and pink lady. I have duo planted them on raised soil. The blue pipes are for watering so we can get the water down to the roots.

FRUIT TREES

I have been making room in my garden for some more fruit trees. I went through Daleys fruit tree catalogue http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruitindex.htm and made a list of the fruit trees I would love to have in my garden. The list was long, more trees than I had space for. So I narrowed it down considerable to just four new fruit trees.

Then I had to decide where I would plant them. This wasn't easy as the garden is full. I have had to sacrifice some hebe bushes to make room. And dig up more lawn to extend the garden. My backyard is long and narrow. It is over 40 metres long and 4 metres wide. The house runs one length and the back fence the other.

In winter the backyard is mostly in the shade except for some sun in the later afternoon towards the fence. In summer this area gets a lot more sun though. I am hoping that the lack of direct sun in winter will mean that the fruit trees I have selected get plenty of chill hours during winter.

The fruit trees I chose are a fig tree (black genoa) - Fig Black Genoa
A large sized fig with purple skin and red flesh and a very sweet rich flavour. It is a high yielding fig making it popular for home gardeners.

Peach - Angel Peach Tree Donut Peach. The Angel Peach grows to approximately 3 metres by 3 metres, and has a beautiful spring flush of pink flowers. There are two varieties of the Angel Peach which can be grown around Australia - a high chill variety, which fruits in January / February, for the cooler areas and a low chill variety, which fruits in December, for the warmer areas of Australia. I brought the high chill one The fruit are donut shaped. It is a very sweet white fleshed variety, which is more soft and juicy in texture compared with standard peaches. Performs best in temperate climates. I have planted it closer to the house. In winter it will get mostly shade so should get plenty of chill hours.

Apples- Granny Smith and Pink Lady. I have plaanted these two trees as a duo planting - planted in the one hole, see the link for more information. http://www.flemings.com.au/documents/plant_a_duo_guide.pdf

The fruit trees I have now include the four above and 2 lemons, 1 mandarin, 1 orange, 3 passionfruit vines, 1 dwarf banana, 1 dwarf avocado, 1 mango, 1 plumcot.

LIKE MINDED PEOPLE

A few weeks ago I was invited to a gathering at a friend of a friends house. There was a lady there who was going to talk about how her whole family have changed to an additive free eating lifestyle.
Gathered in the room were at least 20 other women around my age, some with kids, some without, some working mothers some not but all interested in a simpler, healthier eating style.
The lady talked about how and why she decided to change her families eating habits and how she eliminated all additives from their diet. Their family have maintained this healthier lifestyle for over 18 months now. She had lots of wonderful hints, delicious recipes, talked about additive free treats for the kids and their additive free birthday parties. She explained where she sources her organic foods from and a normal daily eating style for their family. Her kids have chips, chocolate, biscuits and cakes. they eat sausages and lots of other meats. But the difference is that she buys foods with no additives or if she cant buy them she makes them.
After the talk she had books for sale. Then we all had nibblies and stayed around to chat.
The talk went from eating habits, organic foods, growing our own foods, cooking fresh foods to making yoghurt and bread, soap and perfumes.
Everyone seemed to have something to contribute and different people had different things that they were interested in or talents to share.
We ended up swapping email address', and names and phone numbers.
We have decided to all get together again and share some of our knowledge.
We have organised a yoghurt making day and a herb swapping day as well. We have labelled our little group "Living Good".
One lady has sourced a bulk buy of local organic grown macadamias, macadamia oil and macadamia body wash at a fantastic price. We are also investigating bulk organic chicken and beef group buys and organic grains as well.
I am very excited by all this! It wasn't that long ago that people interested in organics, growing own veges, making yoghurts and breads were a rarity. Now it is becoming a trendy thing to do - a trend I am very happy to follow. I hope it isn't just a trend though - I hope these changes I am seeing everywhere are here to stay. Times are changing, peoples attitudes are changing and I am excited.

MAKING SOAP

Soap making - this is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have read about it and always felt like it was a complicated thing to do. Also the danger of using sodium hydroxide has scared me off in the past - it is a powerful corrosive and can cause blindness if splashed in the eyes, it can burn skin.

So I chose a day when no kids were at home.

I used a basic soap mix recipe from Organic Gardening Magazine (Jan/Feb 2008 issue).http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/features/organic_gardener.htm

The instructions were very easy to follow.

First I gathered my equipment.

Now let me say right here that stainless steel pot is the go! NOT ALUMINIUM! I tried making soap in an aluminium pot (I didn't realize it was a problem) and the sodium hydroxide reacts with the aluminium. The mixture instantly reached boiling point and great bubbles burped from it. Then clouds of horrid steam came into the air. I was in the laundry and left until the steam had settled, leaving a fine dusting of chemicals over the surfaces. The smell lingered for ages too.

This time I worked outside. I donned my safety goggles, gloves and long sleeves. I made sure I had some vinegar handy as vinegar will neatralize the soddium in case of splashes. I added the sodium hydroxide to the water (never the other way around). There is an instant chemical reaction that heats the water. I stirred a few times with a wooden spoon which I will use only for soap making and then left until the mix had cooled to 48 degrees.

After this I added the oils being careful not to splash myself. Then I stirred... and stirred...and stirred. Stirring helps saponification. This brings the acids and alkali into contact and helps neutralize the mix. So although soap is made with sodium hydroxide it doesn't contain any at the end of the process. The recipe said to stirr until trace occurs, 5 -40 min. I stirred way over an hour and got the mix to a light trace. Trace can be recognized when you dribble a bit of the mixture on the surface and it sits on top for a while before sinking. I read in another soap making book I have Gourmet Soap Made Easy by Melinda Coss http://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Soaps-Made-Easy-Melinda/dp/158180217X that trace can sometimes take several hours and dont worry if you are sure the mixture was correct just pour into a mould and leave it to set.

So I poured the mix into my mould and left for 24 hours before taking out of the mould and cutting. For a mould I used a shallow cardboard box and lined it with freezer bags opened up so they would cover the base and sides of the box. Now it is in a warm, ventilated place curing for another 2-3 weeks. Looks rather rustic , doesn't it. The cutting is rather haphazard. This being my first batch, I decided not to add any essential oils. Next time I will experiment with some herbs or oatmeal or essential oils. I am also very interested in making soap with goats milk. Has anyone had experience with using goats milk? I have read that the milk can curdle and turn a nasty yellow and makes the initial mix smell strongly of ammonia.

SWEET POTATOES

I've never grown them before.

I planted a few sweet potatoes that had started to sprout a few months ago and picked the first one today. I had a bit of a dig around but the others aren't big enough yet so I will wait a while longer before digging them up. The sweet potatoe plants have just started to flower - pale purple flowers that remind me a bit of morning glory flowers.

I have just made a potatoe bake with normal potatoe and sweet potatoe for tea tonight.

M xx

TO MARKET TO MARKET

... to buy lots of fruit and vegetables.

Locally there is a fruit and vege market. It is only open to the public on Friday mornings and mostly you can only buy veges in bulk. Last Friday we got together with 4 others and each put in $30.00. Then we divided the large boxes of fruit and veges between us.

I came home with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, corn, pumpkin, oranges, pears, apples, spring onions, spinach. Lots and lots of each.

So this weekend I have been busy cooking.

Stewed apples for the freezer - will be used for apple crumbles, muffins, pies etc.

Tomatoe sauce to freeze. This is very easy - cut up tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, herbs from the garden (I used mint, oregano, chilli and parsley). Boil until soft and then blend slightly, ladle into containers and place in freezer. This sauce is wonderful with pasta or in casseroles.

TOMATOE AND CHILLI SAUCE

4cloves garlic

3 tsp cloves

3 tsp peppercorns

2 kg ripe tomatoes

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup white vinegar

2 tsp sea salt

4 fresh chillies

Stir all ingreddients over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil and boil everything for 45 mins or until mixture thickens slightly. Blend until smooth. Strain through sieve to. Pour sauce into hot sterilised bottles and seal when cold.

PEAR GINGER AND LEMON JAM

5 medium lemons

8 pears, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup glace ginger, chopped

1 1/4 litres water

4 cups sugar

Slice lemons(unpeeled) and combine in pot with remaining ingredients. Stir over heat without boiling until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, simmer uncovered for 1 hour or until jam jells when tested. Pour jam into hot sterilised jars, seal when cold.
M XX