show and tell

Well what have we here folks. The one (1) cucumber produced by the Sweet and Stripey cucumber plant. I had a disappointing harvest from the rarer cucumber varieties I bought from diggers but I have to say this one was a plate stopper and also extremely sweet. Almost too sugary.








Here's the missus. Well, she's behind that zucchini plant which is being removed. At one stage it took up over 2 square metres and boy was it pumping out the fruits. Costa Romanesco - ribbed for your pleasure, firm and delightful.









And here's yours truly not afraid to look a little silly cos gosh damn i sure was excited to harvest this little baby. First melon I ever grew. It's a Blacktail Mountail watermelon. Next year hopefully the housesitter won't move my trellises and so maybe the mildew won't get the melons so badly. Not bad for a first try, room to improve. Talks too much in class.



ps. yes i'm standing on a winner's podium.

now i'm back. for real.

I have been cooking like a maniac this past week. And the garden has been like a toddler - can't be left alone for a second. And responds well to lots of attention.

Today is a case in point. With that 40 degree forecast I got up at 6am to collect all the fallen fruit from the nectarine trees and pick whatever was ripe on the branches. Then I started a batch of jam using pie queen's method, stewed some nectarines and rode over to Shannon's to cook up some pancakes to eat them with.

Now I've got some pastry chilling in the fridge for the River Cafe's Apricot and Almond Tart, another batch of nectarines stewing and a head full of crazy. Yup.


But this post is about a similar crazy day I had last week where I decided I better finally figure out what to do with this cucumber. I've decided that bitter cucumbers are my punishment for picking up a few seedlings (starts) from Bunnings, evil corporate big-box that they are. They're too bitter to eat so I decided I'd finally try a recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop's excellent Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook that I'd been eyeing up.




It's very simple and it makes bitter cucumber taste deliciously like a mild bitter melon. All you do is cut diagonal half moons, fry in a wok covering as much of the surface as you can. Add a little soy and rice vinegar and some garlic and chilli. Remove from the heat and dress with sesame oil and shiso/perilla (or basil in my case). Yum! And good for my liver too I bet.

Meanwhile, while you're snacking on that if you're really crazy you can whip up a batch of the River Cafe's apricot jam, complete with kernels from the inside of the stones.









































ps - sorry about the ugly blog design. i will fix it someday.

smelly gardeners unite...

Check out the boss looking all pensive in the garden!

Now can someone just do us some t-shirts for the Smelly Gardeners Union?
I water my vegies, and don't wash?

not much less garden crazy....

With apologies for yet another non-cooking post I proudly present today's photos.


For all those who wondered what was happening with the corn I sowed.

Today as I was committing the illegal act of watering in my new seedlings I thought about what I would say in court should my neighbours decide to get all high moral ground on me. What I'll say about local food, about agribusiness wasting water, about feeding people in cities... Yeah, that's me - the big criminal. I just hope they don't get violent. Yes water is life, but hey - come give me a sniff and you know I ain't wasting it in the shower. The lawn don't get any either.

Also, I'm hoping for rain in my new tank:

240 litres is better thank nothing for us renters. And yes, that's just a big wheelie bin. I couldn't show you its face due to slightly less than legal procurement from a friend's now vacant warehouse.

In other garden news, these fellows are now being salted for pickles:


And this monster is making some seed for the next round:


Meanwhile I'm digesting the omelette that had these delicious swiss browns in it. From the shed mushroom farm no-less.

I'm sick of my corn seeds not germinating. Last year I blamed old seed. I dunno but after one batch failing to poke it's head up already this year I'm doing some research. Which is where I came across this excellent olde saying:

"One for the cutworm, one for the crow, one to rot, and one to grow."

Well, no crows here but I think I'll plant in the seedling house to avoid cutworm and cross my fingers for the Balinese corn I'll be planting tomorrow.

of ears and sprouts

Well as I write this my skin is still crawling where i just picked an earwig off my shoulder. Sure I find it endearing that they are named that because people thought they would crawl into your ears. Sure. Argh!!! No, it's too much. This bounty of artichokes is a joy it's true but killing the 40 odd earwigs that were making their homes under the outer leaves was not. Sigh, such are the joys of sharing a garden with the rest of the ecosystem. These fuckers eat my seedlings too. So it's nightly torch patrols again.


Still, all is full steam ahead here. I've been having some great germination successes with my new seedling house. All from waste. This is a hard rubbish set of shelves and plastic salvaged from the bins at Spotlight and a local factory. The front cover rolls up for access and hot days.

When the seedlings have their first leaves I've been potting them on as suggested by guru Linda - into boxes filled with 2 litre milk containers (tops and bottoms removed). The idea is that these will reduce transplant shock because there's no turning the plants upside down or loosening the roots - just slide the plastic up where it can act as a little pest guard for a few days before removal. We shall see folks. And report back.

ps - Lets see the earwigs try and crawl up these legs onto my seedling table. The legs sit in cans full of beer for them to drown in. Suckers.

green soup

So spring is getting on with it. The first tomato seeds have sprouted and stuck their necks outta the soil. The blossom is already falling and the broccoli is trying to turn into flowers the second you turn your back on it.

So I decided to pull up my patch of broccoli raab (aka cime di rapa). It was my first time growing it and I'd say it was a big success. Except I didn't know how quickly I had to eat it so now what's left has gotten quite tough as it turns into bright yellow flowers.

So, in our new friend Mr Red Pot we have - green soup. Should you find yourself wondering what to do with all your going to seed brassicas you might like to try it.

Fry some chopped almonds.
Add some garlic.
Fill the pot with chopped up broccoli and cime di rapa.
Cover with water or stock.
Boil for quite a while.
Blend.

It wasn't bad at all. The almonds add a good creaminess. The only problem was all the long fibres. I reckon a food processor woulda helped - I used the stick blender and that was quite ineffectual. Or maybe strain it somehow?

Did I mention I love my garden. Oh yeah, I did. But this is winter and after a week sick in bed at the ranch hospital (thanks guys) it was so good to come home and have my garden feed me.

The chicory is a special red stemmed one that I am in love with - mild enough for salads. The daikon is gonna be kim chi because my last lot went (shock) mouldy. The sprouting Calabrese broccoli makes me very very happy - I've never had this much brassica luck before. And yes, rocket galore.

We had a simple onion broth with agnolotti and broccoli, lots of fresh parsley and parmesan. And salad of course. The red shines so well under dressing.

Treat me good

My garden is treating me so good right now. Better than I deserve.

I try and love it whenever I can. I give it seeds and the water I'm allowed to give it. And buckets from the shower and the sink and all that. Not much but I give what I can. But it never complains hardly...

and today when I got home so so tired from weeding all day at work and carrying scarecrows, listening to droning men, cleaning out the chicken shed, working overtime and sore feet and hungry...

well my garden put out so much goodness for me. handfulls of beans hiding all coy under tangly vines, beans that are slightly downy and ever so tender... little lebanese zucchini firm and stripey and big shiny wads of basil... grilled the zucchini and they are uncannily sweet. perfect with beans on top of the mashed potato i'd been craving. threw the basil in the mortar and pestle and bashed it with garlic and pine nuts into quasi pesto, haloumi in the frypan to top it all off melty melty...

mmm baby you're so good to come home to.

pumpzini?

The funny thing is that I was reading all about seed saving at the end of last year... learning properly for the first time really about cross-pollenation, hybrids and how much this varies between species.

And I was awfully worried that all my zucchini seedlings had succumbed to slugs and I'd just have piles of pumpkin. But as my little plants grew I became very confused... they looked like zucchini plants, but why were the fruits so round? And so, I present - pumzini!

I think the japanese pumpkin seed I got from the seed bank at work must have been cross-pollinated. There have been suggestions I could call them jazzini instead but that's a little too hip for these babies. I've been picking them young so I don't know if they'll go orange or not. I had a dream I let one grow real big and it was orange inside. They grow damn fast and prolific like a zucchini though. And they cook up quite like a lebanese zucchini - quite firm, a little melty. They have more seeds in the middle though - like a pumpkin... Yeah you get it.

So now, what to cook with them? So far I've just done them a 'la Mr Malouf - sauteed with garlic and then lots of chopped mint. Tasty but not really a main event. I'm thinking zucchini poufs. They were a huge hit at new years. And so many opportunities for silly puns.

purslane

I can't tell if it's cos mega food just don't seem that exciting since the mini food or because my fridge is broken but lately I'm lacking cooking inspiration. I am however, very excited about eating from the garden and that's gonna be my inspiration reviver I think.

This little would-be weed is all over my garden. Then I noticed it was also in a lot of the gardens at work, at the Flemington Community Gardens. It's mainly gardeners from the Horn of Africa who grow it and they call it "regla". At least the Tigrinya speakers do.

My co-worker informed me it was "purslane". A ha! I'd been reading about purslane in Mexican (verdolagas) and Lebanese cookbooks but had no idea where to get it. I love that it's all over my vegie patch and coming up in the cracks of the drive-way. Even colonised this empty oil tin planter.

Yesterday one of the gardeners brought a big stack of injera down to the gardens along with a tasty green stew/sauce. This was regla I was told. To be honest it could have been any green, it was so finely minced but it sure was good. I think the mucilaginous quality of the purslane did make it deliciously thick.

So check your weeds and send me your favourite purslane recipes.

it grows

You know that feeling the day after the day after. No more seediness, and the sun's shining. You come home and there's time to play in the garden, to transplant little lettuces and not worry about if they'll get torn up by marauding chickens. The shit that ate your head up last week seems to have scampered somewhere on the dancefloor and you don't feel the need to worry about if it'll come back.

The plants are in so you wash the dirt off your hands and pick the leaves off the radishes, and the young shoots from the pea straw. The nettles you rescued from another garden are growing faster than myspace and you manage to pick a handful without any prickles. So it's into the kitchen..

The greens are washed and wilted in the water that clings to them. They're tossed with chickpea sprouts* and a diced radish. There's lemon juice, balsamic and some of the really good olive oil mum passed onto me. Oh and sesame seeds.

You know the feeling when you're cooking something really good from things you've grown yourself? When you've done unhealthy things to your body all weekend and no matter how hypocritical you just love the feeling of looking after yourself with vegetables and sunshine and maybe a kick of the footy after?

Well maybe it's just me, I shouldn't try and universalise... but I hope you have some similar feeling.

*Chickpea sprouts are so easy and good I can't believe I never ate them until this year. These ones were made when I soaked chickpeas and never got around to cooking them. Instead of leaving them in water to go fetid just drain the water off and then rinse once a day or so.