Mandarins

The little mandarin tree is loaded and the mandarins are very sweet and juicy. Delicious eaten just are.

But some will be made into marmalade for the pantry.

As a special desert last night I made Mandarins in Ginger Syrup.

Here is the recipe

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled ginger

4 green cardamon pods

3 whole star anise

6 mandarins

Bring water, sugar, ginger, cardamon,star anise to boil until sugar dissolves. Then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat cover and allow to stand for 15 min. Strain syrup and discard solids. Chill until cold.

Peel, remove any pips and slice mandarins into rounds. put into a serving bowl and add syrup. Cover for an hour before serving.

Oh they were delicious and I will definately be making these again.

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.

FRUIT TREES

A few months ago I decided to plant fruit trees/vegetables/herbs in preference of exotics or even native trees. I decided that when deciding on what to plant my main factor would be food production, followed by trees native to this area. No more buying for pretty flowers alone or lush fast growth. No now I want my garden to be able to feed us.

My latest plantings have included 4 olive trees down the side boundary of our property.

One navel orange - taking the citrus plantings to two lemons, one mandarin and now one orange.

One dwarf banana tree.

One dwarf avocado tree.

One mango tree tree.

The dwarf fruit trees are in pots in a very sunny corner in the pool area. They get sun just about all day in this area and being on pavers and close to the colourbond fence get heat transferrred from these sources too.

My dwarf fruit trees were purchased from my local nursery. There are a few good Australian sites

http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit%20pages/dwarfs.htm

and

http://www.kendallfarms.com.au/

Both have lots of information on growing dwarf trees in pots, bags or in the ground. Now for the patiences - a few years and I should be rewarded with some delicious home grown fruits.

Funny thing is that just when I am thinking I have ran out of room to plant anymore veges or shrubs or trees I find more - a little less grass or I remove an ornamental plant. Really I think I can find a home for a few more yet!

PLUMCOT TREE

We have fruit!

Very exciting!

Very juicy and full of flavour and I am thrilled that this tree is growing and fruiting and hasn't needed any sprays or additives except plenty of water and some seaweed fertiliser. The birds haven't discovered the fruit so it has been safe to ripen completely on the tree.

This is a plumcot tree (a cross between a plum and apricot). The flesh is orange similar to the colour of an apricot and you can definately taste apricot flavour. The fruit are about the size of a medium apple. I was told when I brought the tree that it was necessary to have an apricot or plum tree for pollination but I haven't. Might be one somewhere in the area. I am thrilled that it is growing so well in this area - I have been told that Newcastle is too humid for success with stone fruits. But my success with this tree has spurred me on and I will be planting a couple more this year.

M xx