Monday Harvest – May 28th 2012

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Liz

We had rain!  Lots of it!  All is right with the world again…..for the moment anyway.  I also am incredibly busy at the moment.  I’m doing some paid work (from home) which is eating into my blogging time considerably so apologies for any silences of my part.

I did fit in a few harvests though.

More tamarillos – I’m still not sick of them but the time may come soon…..

We are still harvesting eggplants, chillies and the occasional potato, not the mention the fairly ubiquitous chard.

My final photo this week is not so much a harvest as a basket of treasures collected in the garden by Mr 2 and a friend of his – Miss 3.  The last cherry tomato plant (a Tiny Tim) is now devoid of fruit.

For other garden treasures from around the globe head over to Daphne’s Dandelions.

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An Autumn of Salads – Nicoise Salad

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Liz

I have had a few issues with my salad leaves this month, not least a 2 year old boy who decided it was fun to pull out entire plants to feed them to the ‘chooks’.  You will note the italics are the word ‘chooks’ this is because they are, at this stage, still imaginary and will remain that way until the run gets built – a far more complicated process than I envisaged.  I did have enough for a lovely Nicoise salad though.

On the face of it this looks like a summer salad but in Melbourne it can be enjoyed right into May….just.  For me this salad contained a lot of last ofs; the last of this seasons beans, the last of the current crop of Kipfler potatoes, almost the last cherry tomatoes and the last of the red shallots harvested in January.

I like main course salads like this one – it means I don’t have to worry about making two dishes while at the same time ensuring everyone eats their veggies.  (Well everyone except Mr 2 who pretty much just picks out the egg whites, olives and tomatoes eats them and leaves the rest).

Except for the dressing I’m not providing anything other than vague amounts for this salad as I don’t really think it matters what you put in it, other than beans, tuna, olives and eggs – a Nicoise salad should include them.  Having said that a true Nicoise salad should really also include anchovies, but mine didn’t as I have been quite lax shopping wise of late.

Nicoise Salad

  • a handful of salad leaves per person
  • an egg per person
  • a few small potatoes per person
  • a handful of beans per person
  • a few olives
  • a small to medium tin of tuna
  • some cherry tomatoes
  • some herbs including parsley, and basil
  • a red onion or two thinly sliced

Dressing

  • 1 tblspn lemon juice (or more traditionally red wine vinegar)
  • 3 tblspns extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tspn dijon mustard
  • sugar to taste if needed
  • Salt & pepper

Boil the egg until hard-boiled.  Cook the potato and beans, drain and refresh under cold water.  Assemble the salad, topping with the egg, potato and beans.  Dress.

For dressing mix all ingredients together mixing well until they emulsify.

I’m sharing this salad as part of Veg Plotting’s Salad Days series.  Head on over for all things leafy.

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Parsley Soup

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Liz

Parsley is something that is growing prolifically in the garden at the moment.  This is a good time of the year for green things.  Of all the crops I have growing the parsley and the silverbeet are probably doing best.  As a result I am cooking lot of both of them.  I have to thank Nina, one of my regular correspondants, for this recipe.  I am always on the look out for good parsley recipes but strangely I’d never thought of making soup.  Well I have now and I definitely will again.

Parsley Soup

  • 150g parsley, leaves seperated from stalks and both chopped finely.
  • 2 celery stalks – finely chopped
  • 2 medium onions – finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic – finely chopped
  • 200g potatoes – diced
  • 50g butter
  • 1 – 1.5 litre chicken or vegetable stock (it will be richer with less stock but serve more people with more).
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large pan.  Add the onions, parsley stalks and celery.  Saute over a low heat until softened.  Add the garlic and saute for another couple of minutes.  Add the stock and potatoes.  Bring to the boil and then add salt & pepper to taste.  Add half the finely chopped parsley leaves.  Simmer until the potato is cooked.  Puree.  Add remaining parsley (or add it just before pureeing for a smoother texture) and cream.  Mix together and heat through.  Serve, ideally with some nice toast.

I’m sharing this recipe on The Gardener of Eden’s Thursday Kitchen Cupboard , and Greenish Thumb’s Garden to Table.

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Top 5 – Melbourne’s garden oriented places to visit with kids

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Liz

As you can tell by the summery weather in some of these photos this is a post I’ve been working on for some time.  This weeks Top 5 is: The best places to visit in Melbourne to look at gardens (particularly kitchen gardens) with the kids in tow.  There are a few other places that may have made the list had they not been outside of Melbourne (ie Churchill Island on Phillip Island) or if they had a kitchen garden as well as stunning native gardens (ie the Australia Garden at Royal Botanic Gardens – Cranbourne).  But in Melbourne this is what I have come up with.

1. ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS – I love the children’s garden at the botanical gardens.  Not only is it right next to the kitchen garden.  Not only does it have nice bits of lawn to laze on.  But it also has sprinklers in summer for the kids to play in.  They can get very excited running in and out of the ever moving jets while you check out the cool pumpkin growing structures.

     

     

2. CERES – I do have occasional shopaholic tendencies, particularly in nurseries or garden centres.  At CERES they have a fun sandpit complete with old tractor to ride on inside the nursery, they also have chooks.  Enough entertainment then for the kids whilst you shop for seedlings or perhaps one of their excellent range of fruit trees.  One thing to note though – the sandpit is not enclosed, the kids can escape and there is a dam quite close – enough said.

  

3. COLLINGWOOD CHILDRENS FARM FARMERS MARKET – The farmers market at the Collingwood Children’s farm is on the 2nd Saturday of the month.  The $2 entry fee lets you shop, ogle the allotment style plots from the comfort of their elevated walkway and get up close to the livestock.  The market usually has a stall selling seedlings and more attractive to the kids is one selling frozen orange juice on a stick.  After shopping and devouring frozen products its off to see the pigs and goats.

   

4. HEIDE – I wish I had some photos of Heidi but unfortunately circumstances have conspired against me so you’ll have to content yourself with this link.   Heide is a museum of modern art, which in itself isn’t hugely suitable for small children – the staff can look very worried if you approach with a toddler.  What is fabulous is that the museum is set in the most lovely gardens.  There’s a huge kitchen garden and more interesting for the younger members of the party there’s a very cool sculpture garden.  I really like visiting at this time of year when the sculptures are often offset by a bit of mist and fog.  Having said that the kitchen garden, which is also used by Cafe Vue which operates on the premises, is probably more interesting in summer.

5. THE ZOO – The attraction for the kids at the zoo is fairly clear – lots of exciting animals.  But it also has a lot to offer the gardener.  There are some really nice native gardens, particularly near the Australian animal enclosures and they usually have some raised beds dedicated to veggies to have a look at.  And then of course there are the animals – my personal favourite being the orang-u-tans.  Very cool indeed.

  

Had enough tourism, then head over to The New Goodlife for her weekly top 5, but before you go I’d love to know about your favourite places to take the kids.

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Monday Harvest – May 21st 2012

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Liz

Its really starting to feel like winter’s coming now, I’m craving soups and the nighttime temps are due to sink to single figures (Celsius that is) by the end of this week.  With that in mind I’m pretty pleased with this weeks harvest.  As usual I harvested silverbeet and oregano, this I used in a silverbeet and ricotta canneloni – my kind of comfort food.

Other usual suspects, harvest wise, included parsley…and more parsley…..

  

These lots were turned into soup and pasta puttanesca and the lot in the basket below went into a veg stock, along with the rest of the baskets ingredients.

Adding some colour to this weeks bounty were more tamarillos – I reckon I’ll have about 3 more weeks of harvesting tamarillos left.  Incidentally how do other people growing fruit account for it on their spreadsheets?  Tamarillos are $1.50 each at Woolworths (which is where I get my veg prices from) but given I will probably harvest close to 300 fruit it will distort things if I account for them at $1.50 each.  I think I will cap income from them at $50 (which is what I did with passionfruit earlier in the year) but I would interested to know how others see it.

Although its the end of May I do still have one tomato plant left in the ground but the tomatoes its producing are pretty sad and sorry individuals.  I should really pull it but then I’d be admitting it really is almost winter.

Norma at Garden to Wok has inspired me to do more cooking with tofu, so this week I made a lovely (although the rest of the family didn’t agree) lemongrass and turmeric tofu.  The below lemongrass went into it, the thai basil and the pak choi went into the noodles that I served with it.

To prove we really are headed into winter my last harvest of the week was a very seasonal one – my first ever orange.  It is a Washington Navel and I picked it too early but I still loved every mouthful.

  

For more harvests from around the world head over to Daphne’s and feast your eyes on some more delicious veg.

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