Top 5: Edibles to add colour to the Garden

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Liz

My garden is looking a bit flat at the moment, this is partially because its winter and partially because I haven’t really taken as much care as I should have with what I planted where.  This weeks top 5 is really what I should have done or rather what I should have planted more of.  The edibles which could happily sit within any garden, productive or decorative.  These are the ones that although we grow them for their taste they also look damn good as well.

1. Fruit Trees- I have grouped fruit together because lets face it fruit trees are generally big and most suburban gardens don’t have room for more than a couple.  So whether it be a tamarillo with its tropical looking leaves and lovely red fruit, an orange with those lovely balls of brightness or a gnarly old apple tree you can pretty much guarantee its going to add interest to the garden.

 

2. Rainbow Chard – I love the look of rainbow chard, those vivid stems against the beautifully deep green leaves.  You could put rainbow chard happily in a border and it wouldn’t look out of place.  Equally a mass planting of different colours looks fabulous in a raised bed.

 

 3. Eggplants – I think eggplants are really pretty plants.  Yes they can start to look a bit ragged by the end of the season but they don’t get nearly as bad as tomatoes and most of the time the plants look good.  I also think their fruits are beautiful, especially the purple varieties – smooth and really tactile.

4. Chillies – What would a top 5 post be without a reference to chillies?  Even the nurseries near me agree – chillies look great.  There seem to be almost as many ornamental chillies for sale as there are culinary ones.   I can see why too – they look fabulous: the fruits are fun shapes, often vivid colours and the foliage is pleasant as well.

 

     

5. Red Cabbage – Is it just me or does red cabbage look quite sophisticated?  I love the colours of its leaves, their shape, and its size.  I see no reason why it wouldn’t look absolutely fabulous in a mixed planted scheme.

  

or maybe you could grow Cavolo Nero – I just love both its texture and colour.  But that’s 6 and that would be cheating….

So which edibles would you grow even if you didn’t want to eat them?  What fabulous additions should I be adding to my garden.

Finished here? Then head over The New Goodlife for her Top 5 – Lessons as a Mother.

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Monday Harvest – 2nd July 2012

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Liz

Hooray for the winter solstice and the beginning of the, ever so slow, return to longer days.  Perhaps now my plants might start growing again.  Even my ever reliable silver beet has had something of a go slow, but I did still manage three harvests from it this week.  this is one of them:

The arrival of July has got me thinking about planting tomatoes and the sudden realisation that starting to think about preparing a bed for them might be prudent.  The designated tomato bed had some beetroot in it which had pretty much stopped growing due to constant shade.  I pulled them and some parsley in order to give at least part of the bed a few months rest before Spring planting.

Some of the beetroot became a salad with horseradish dressing which I served alongside some steak and chips.  The parsley I’ve used in everything from salads to more braised lentils.  This cavolo nero also went into the lentil dish along with the celery:

At the moment parsley is my most prolific grower, I have plants scattered throughout the garden and as a result I eat a lot of it.  Here’s another harvest from this week with one of the last tamarillos and a lime.

Not to forget the broccoli which is coming along after getting off to a slow start.  I’m growing a new variety which has very small heads but loads of side shoots and it is these that I’m now harvesting – not as often as I’d like admittedly, but only about half my plants are currently producing so I think I will start getting enough soon.  In the meantime we’ll just have to eat a lot of parsley pesto  and be grateful that at least something is enjoying winter.

For more harvests including many from much warmer climes head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for some serious harvest action.

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Growing Turmeric – Was it Worth It?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Liz

Like ginger, turmeric isn’t really that well suited to my climate.  I live in a temperate climate but really it is a tropical plant.  So was it worth growing turmeric in Melbourne?  Well I think the answer is yes, particularly if you enjoy cooking with it but have trouble finding it fresh.

I bought turmeric rhizomes from Green Harvest last Spring and planted them in September.  I did the same last year with less success but this year my crop has been a lot more substantial.  The rhizomes cost me $6.95 and based on the price of fresh turmeric at Preston Market my crop was worth about $8.00. Whilst this doesn’t seem to be a great return I should mention that I only planted out half of the rhizomes in pots the rest went in the ground, and pretty much all of that return is from the pot grown plants.  I also have plenty of growing material for next year so the $6.95 is just a start up expense.

Even if you don’t get a crop you may find the plants attractive enough to grow for their foliage.   The larger leaved plants in the picture below are the turmeric.  They certainly gave my garden a lush tropical feel which I really enjoyed.

I planted out my rhizomes in September, I also had some that I’d left in the ground from last year.  Those planted direct in the ground had stunted growth and didn’t form many rhizomes at all.  The pot grown ones were far more successful.  I think that this is because they had no competition and as a result got much larger quantities of food and water than those grown in the ground.  They also had a bit more sun.

I harvested once the foliage began to die away in winter:

This is some of what I found beneath the soil:

Altogether I harvested about 500g from 3 rhizomes planted into a 40cm pot.  Whilst I’m sure that I would have got a lot more if I was gardening in the tropics it was still a fairly satisfying amount.  The other thing I should admit is that whilst I’m pretty sure that this harvest was from rhizomes planted this season it may be that some of it is from rhizomes that had been in the soil for 2 years.  I did leave some in a pot over winter and I’m not sure if it was part of this harvest or if it was one I pulled much earlier in the year.  Most of this harvest looks like new growth so regardless I’m confident that most of the growth occured this year.

You can see some of what I presume is older growth in the front of the above picture.  Its skin is much darker and internally it is a stronger colour.

I use fresh turmeric in both curry pastes and stir fries, the taste is fresher and lighter than the powder.  If I had more I would consider trying to dry some to grind as I do enjoy using it in powder form too.

I have set aside some rhizomes for replanting in Spring, and have put a couple of pieces into little pots inside to see if I can get them going a bit earlier by keeping them inside.  All in all a fun experiment.  Now I want to try galangal – I’ve planted some the last two years but it hasn’t shooted.  I plan to try again this year with material bought at the market and see if I’m more successful with that.  Anyone done this successfully?

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Lemons & Meyer Lemons

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Liz

I was recently asked to describe a Meyer Lemon.  In the process of attempting to describe it I realised that describing flavours is actually quite difficult, and yet here I am about to have another go.

For anyone not familiar with Meyer Lemons, the first thing you need to know is that, technically, they are not lemons.  Native to China, Meyer lemons are thought to be a cross between a lemon and another citrus – most likely an orange or mandarin.  As you can see in the picture below (the Meyer lemons are on the left) they are a brighter yellowy orange colour with thinner skin than a ‘normal’ lemon.  This thin skin is what I presume prevents them from widespread commercial growing.   The only place I have ever seen the fruits for sale are farmers markets.  I would be interested to know if anyone has seen them anywhere else.

I find that the fruit tend to be smaller than either Eureka or Lisbon lemons (the most commonly grown lemon varieties in Australia), although they often give just as much juice as they have a lot less pith.  The trees are generally smaller than either of those lemon varieties – growing to about 2m.  You can also buy them on dwarf rootstock as mine is.

In terms of flavour; to my palate they taste like a more fruity, less sour lemon which I guess is kind of what you’d expect given their parents.  They are certainly more lemony than mandariny or orangey though, which I guess partially explains the inability of sources to agree on their antecedents.

Although they can be substituted for lemons in most dishes I do find that where you want the lemon to provide a really acidic note you are better off using a traditional lemon.  I love using them in salad dressing, sweet dishes and a chicken, lemon & sage dish I cook quite regularly.

In terms of cultivation they seem to have much the same requirements as other citrus – well drained soil, a reasonable amount of water, sun and some protection from extreme cold, all of which a typical Melbourne (or anywhere temperate) garden can easily provide (periods of drought notwithstanding).   They seem to be just as attractive to citrus gall wasps as my other citrus trees (if not more so) which is very irritating.  They also seem particularly attractive to leaf miners.

The lemons in the picture are from my parents trees.  Whilst both my lemon and Meyer lemon bore lemons this year they certainly don’t produce large amounts of lemons regularly….well not yet at least – they are only a couple of years old after all.

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Top 5: Ways to use Cauliflower

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Liz

Last week I posted on my Top 5 Brassicas and after everyone’s enthusiasm for all things cauliflower I feel its only right that this weeks Top 5 should be about that very vegetable.  So with no further ado these are my Top 5 cauliflower dishes.

1.  Aloo Gobi – How could number 1 be anything else?  After all, the fate of many marriages in the Punjab apparently rest on the ability to cook a decent aloo gobi, or so the hero of Bend it Like Beckham’s mother would have us believe.   Bend it Like Beckham is a film which is unique, I think, in being about soccer but also having the director show us how to cook aloo gobi in one of the extras on the DVD.

2. Spicy Cauliflower with Ginger – And because they really do know how to cook cauliflower on the sub-continent my Number 2 dish is also Indian.  I really like the combination of cauliflower and ginger – really, really good.

3. Cauliflower Risotto – I love this risotto, I love the cauliflower taste of the rice and how the breadcrumb adds a fabulous contrasting texture, really really good and there is some possibility the kids might even eat it.

4. Fried with Tahini sauce – Decadent I know but if you fry it in olive oil then its not so bad is it????  Separate the cauliflower into florets,  dust with flour (either plain or besam works well) and fry until golden brown in hot oil.  To make the tahini sauce combine tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and extra virgin olive oil with a bit of water.  Blitz together.  Parsley also works well in this if you feel so inclined.

5. Pakoras  – And back we go to the sub-continent, or perhaps the middle east depending on the recipe: either way mixing cauliflower with spices, besam (chickpea flour) and then deep frying it is absolutely lovely.

Oh and throwing some cauliflower in to roast along with your chicken is really really good too- it takes up the lovely chicken flavour, along with a bit of the fat – Yum!  That was my Top 5, what would make yours?

This week the New Goodlife has five interesting facts about herself and some awards to share – head on over to see who she gives them to.

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