Mulch Making Monday

We have been trying to find time to put all our winter prunings through the mulcher for weeks.

Today we finally managed in 2 hours to put this great pile of organic matter through the mulcher and spread it all over some of our garden beds as summer mulch.

I still have lots of dried grass cuttings which I shall use to put around small seedlings.

Lovely organically home grown and processed MULCH for our summer garden.

Lucky we put the mulch down today, tomorrow is going to be 35 degrees Celsius.

Adelaide has lots of rain in winter so dried grass cuttings provide ample mulch and summer prunings will be mulched and then composted.

Spinach Soup with Leeks, Garlic, Black Pepper and Pizza Thyme.

Sometimes you cook something which is absolutely delicious.

After a busy day I went into the garden to find lots of spinach ready to be cooked and eaten.

I felt too tired to make spinach triangles and as it is a cool rainy evening soup seems very appealing.

So I blanched some spinach, drained it, added some cooked baby leeks, black pepper, chopped new season garlic, salt, a little cornflour blended with some milk and a handful of pizza thyme.

I cooked this gently for a few minutes then pureed the mix.

I served the soup with a dollop of sour cream and voila! an amazing delicious, nutritious soup.

All fresh from the garden and more delicious than most soups I have tasted.

From Seed to Table - a great blog to read

The Blog “From Seed to Table” has a most amazing summary of what Michelle has grown, harvested and processed this past summer in California.

What makes it even more interesting is that what she is harvesting is just about the same foods that we are planting now and hopefully will be harvesting in the near future.

I am certainly going to try several of her recipes including her November 30th post recipe for

Slow Roasted or is it Quick Dried Chile Peppers.

Please check out this blog for new ideas of how to preserve and use summer produce.

Congratulations Michelle and thankyou for such a great blog.

 

The photos below were taken last summer in our garden.

Many South Australia gardeners are still planting up peppers, eggplants and chillies.

Others here are harvesting zucchinis, lettuce, spinach, onions, radishes, rocket, basil, artichokes and the last of the broad beans.

Tomato bushes are flowering and some folks are already picking early tomatoes. Beans, cucumbers and figs are growing nicely. 

It is apricot, berry and cherry harvest time in South Australia and fresh platters of mixed berries are appearing on dinner tables.

Eating local, organic and seasonal food is exciting. There is always some favourite fruit or vegetable reappearing at the dinner table.

There is always the anticipation of different things to grow, harvest and preserve.

 

Glandore Community Garden

Last weekend some of Adelaide's most famous Gardening Gurus from the Hills and Plains Seedsavers visited the Glandore Community

Garden for a pizza garden afternoon.

Many thanks to Lyn, Helen and Harry and others who made us feel so welcome.

It was a great afternoon, with garden tours of the plots and much discussion over the size of plants and what everyone was growing there.

There was always lots of laughter and great energy as we meet together and planned bumper crops for our own summer gardens.

In the Glandore plots there were lots of winter plants going to seed and lots of summer plants coming along nicely.

The pizza from the wood oven was delicious, thanks again Lyn for setting this all up for us.

There is always something new to learn when we wander around others gardens particularly when everyone there had many, many years of gardening experience.

Some Seedsavers had just come back from touring Italy and told us all about visiting Puglia, home of the Bari cucumbers we grow and an area where Cima di Rapa (another winter vegetable we grow) grows in abundance. We initially got some Rapa seedlings from Andrew who got seeds from an elderly Italian neighbour. We passed on many seeds & seedlings to many others in the group. The Bari cucumber seeds came to our group when an elderly Italian vegetable grower asked Kate to keep his cucumbers growing on. Several Seedsavers did & now we enjoy these unusual cucumbers.

We hope to go back soon for a seed swap and chat about our summer gardens.

Here are some photos from this delightful event.

Rosella Enjoying Salad Burnet Seeds in the Garden Today

We save seeds to plant out in our next seasons garden.

We let plants go to seed so they self seed and reappear in our gardens as the seasons change.

We save seeds to give to others.

We save seeds so we have nourishing food next season.

We let things go to seed to enjoy the beauty of the flowers and seeds.

We let things go to seed so bees and birds and other insects are attracted to our gardens.

These visitors pollinate, eat bugs and keep our gardens healthy.

SEEDS, SEEDS, SEEDS!

Tell us a tale of your seed saving adventures!

A Passion for Gardening

One of the segments on Gardening Australia ABC TV (6:30pm tomorrow) will be Sophie Thompson interviewing Daniel in his amazing garden.

Daniel is one of our most enthusiastic  Hills and Plains Seedsavers. His knowledge, enthusiasm of gardening and willingness to share with others endears him to all who know him.

If you cannot wait till tomorrow, check out the video and article on the Gardening Australia website. Daniel's Garden

There is also a wonderful article in the December 2010 Gardening Australia magazine about Daniel.

Plant it, Grow it, Eat it --- Italian Style Spinach & Onion Triangles

Many months have passed since we sowed Erbette spinach seeds in our well composted garden beds (home made compost).

We waited for them to germinate, then thinned out, divided and replanted where necessary.

More waiting for the seedlings to grow and the leaves to be large enough to harvest.

Some leaves have been used in dahls, curries, Greek spanakopita, spinach soup, veggie cakes and frittatas and some bunches given away.

But as the sun heats up and the plants start to go to seed dreams of more spinach triangles flash through my mind.

So we leave some of the healthiest plants to go to seed.

Next step harvest an enormous amount of leaves to wash and blanch.

Old leaves are saved to give to the gnomes for their chickens.

Many of the plants must go so as to make room for the summer seedlings which are almost ready to plant out.

Chillies, capsicums and aubergines will be looking for space in our small garden.

 

Next step is to decide what else to add to the spinach for flavour and to add more nutrition.

Companions to cooking from the garden today were some freshly picked onions, heaps of chopped parsley and oregano (last week it was chervil, but I could have used bronze fennel or Russian tarragon, dill would have been great if we had it) and some chopped chives.

 

Mix all together with some fresh ricotta, fresh eggs, some rice crumbs, salt and pepper and a little grated pecorino cheese and use as a filling with filo pastry to bake delicious spinach and onion triangles.

 

Now all this takes a lot of time and energy to produce such wonderful fresh, healthy organic veggies.

BUT nowhere on this planet could you find a more delicious tasty treat.

The spinach and onions made a sweet silky, creamy spinach pate with a hint of oregano.

The left over filling had more eggs, seasonings, some milk and cream added.

This was spooned into a grease baking dish, sprinkled with paprika, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds, a little pecorino cheese and then  baked at a lower oven temperature until set and golden. Yummy!

This is one of many of my own stories of PLANT IT, GROW IT, EAT IT.

Happy gardening everyone.