Weeds That Feed

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Posted on April 29, 2013

What is a weed? A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.

If the above definition is applied then my cherry tomato plants are definitely weeds. They are not particularly pretty, grow in places where I do not want them and generally get in the way. I am forever pulling the seedlings out of the ‘formal’ vegetable beds and The Duke must mow over thousands of them in the lawn.

However, we usually have a few that we leave to their own devices in areas where they are not causing harm. There is one plant which has been growing and bearing fruit for several months on the far side of the driveway in ‘no man’s land’. It has spread over a heap of mulch and has intertwined with thistles. I had not picked any fruit for about 6 weeks so I braved the thistles yesterday and was surprised to find all of these fruit just waiting for me.

There was about 3.5kg of fresh, full-flavoured cherry tomatoes. I have cleaned, rinsed and frozen 3kg of them in readiness to make more tomato sauce. I hope to do that next weekend. The remainder are spread on a tray to ripen fully and then they will grace the last of our summer salads.

Plants that are self-sown which survive and thrive will be good as they have passed the ‘survival of the fittest ‘ test. Perhaps that is why we have such success with the cherry tomatoes. Other self-sown plants which provide use with food include pumpkins and cucumbers.

Do you harvest from any fruit or vegetable plants which just appear in your garden?

The Circle of Life

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Posted on April 28, 2013

On Friday afternoon I moved some of the wood that had been left to season. It is now in the woodshed and will be split and added to the the stash of firewood which we keep for the wood heater.

Once I disturbed the ground, I was surrounded by the chickens who were eager to feast on the grubs and other insects which were lurking under the wood. They had a wonderful time turning over the soil and looking for tasty morsels.

This weekend we have built 2 more raised garden beds. One of them is lined with heavy cardboard that I had been saving. Then we piled in a thick layer of dry leaf litter followed by some lawn clippings. We will add more soil, compost and probably some mushroom compost which we will buy locally. These 3 garden beds have been constructed entirely from leftover and salvaged materials.

I started to think about how we manage to use and recycle much of what is generated on our property.

The wood is from tree limbs that have fallen or been lopped on our block. These will be used to heat our home. The resulting ash is added to the garden beds, either directly or via the compost. Any charcoal is saved in a jar of kerosene to use as firelighters. We grow fruit and vegetables. The chickens provide us with eggs. The scraps and peels are fed to the chickens. The chicken manure is added to the garden beds. Leaf litter and lawn clippings are added to the compost.

It is all part of a never-ending cycle.

Slow Living – March

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Posted on April 2, 2013

This year I have joined with Slow Living Essentials so here we are again with a review of March. This will be interesting as we spent 16 days on holidays. We took a road trip to NSW, Victoria and Canberra and enjoyed a relaxing time. If you want to know where we went and what we did you can see more here. Meanwhile, I will try to fill in the categories below.

Here are the Slow Living categories:

{Nourish} While it was not spectacularly interesting, we did manage to feed ourselves each and every day.

{Prepare} The first half of the month was spent preparing to go on holidays.

{Reduce} The contents of the refrigerator and freezer were reduced to almost zero before we headed off on our holiday.

{Green} We took our picnic set and our own food for lunches when we were travelling so no takeaways and no disposable containers.

{Grow} The seedlings which we planted towards the end of February continued to grow while we were away and we are now picking and eating the bok choy. We are also reaping the fruits of self-sown cucumbers. These came up from cucumbers that fell and rotted from the summer crop. This is the second year that we have had a follow-on crop of cucumbers. The great thing about growing them in autumn is that the cucumbers are not as prolific nor do they ripen as quickly so we are generally able to keep up with them.

We also harvested a pineapple and mangoes.

{Create} The holiday theme is evident again in this suit bag that I made to transport the suit that The Duke wore to a wedding while we were away.

{Discover} New places and new adventures.

Woodside Beach

River

{Enhance} Sadly, death was the catalyst to renew some friendships that had languished. We were reminded of the fragility of life and the importance of nurturing relationships. However, there was happiness as well.

The happy couple

{Enjoy} We did enjoy our travels and recharged our batteries so now it is time to get back to the things we do every day and I hope my slow-living round up for the end of April is a bit more interesting.

Til next month………..

Marvellous Mango

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Posted on March 6, 2013

We have a small mango tree which we planted about 4 years ago. This is the first year that it has fruited and I am not sure whether it is due to maturity or simply the unusually warm, dry summer that we experienced up until the middle of January.

The tree is an R2E2 variety which is grown commercially here in Australia and has large fruit but the fruit we have picked are as large as any I have seen.

Regardless of the reason, we have enjoyed the half a dozen large fruit.

The flesh is smooth and firm with a fairly thin skin which is able to be peeled with a knife.This is one cheek or side of the mango.

Here is the cheek diced and ready to pack in my lunch. The remaining portion is covered in the fridge and will be used over the next couple of days.

Mango harvests are subject to seasonal variations so I will have to wait and see whether this season has been a “one-off” or whether we will enjoy home-grown mangoes each year.

I love eating seasonal produce, particularly those things with a relatively short season. Half of the joy is in the anticipation.

Weekend Work

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Posted on February 24, 2013

We have had a busy and productive weekend but it was not without some recreation as well.

Yesterday was the one bright spot, according to the weather forecast, in an otherwise wet couple of weeks. We set off early and headed to the markets at Yandina, which is about 40 minutes north of us. Our main goal was to buy some seedlings for our vegie garden. There is a great stall there and this was our first stop. We bought cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, bok choy and lettuce seedlings.

The main focus of this particular market seems to be plants and The Duke always checks out the fruit trees and yesterday we bought another mandarin tree. I cannot remember the variety but it was not one had heard of, although the stallholder said she finds it is one of the sweetest varieties. We are happy to give it a try.

Once we were back home our next project was to hang the gates to complete the new fencing. I also did 2 loads of washing. After lunch the Duke mowed the lawn. I was very thankful that the weather stayed fine and windy so the washing was all dry and I got the ironing up to date.

It was easy to stay focused on what I needed to achieve as we had decided to go to the movies last night to see Quartet. It was the first screening by the Maleny Film Society back in the revamped Community Centre. We also had dinner there before the movie and had a fun night out. The meals are catered by Pomodoras on Obi, a local restaurant and function venue which also has on-site accommodation.

Today the weather has not been quite as pleasant, and we had some rain this morning, but it has not deteriorated as predicted yet. I have made some progress with several sewing projects. Three pairs of trousers for The Duke have been shortened as well as a new skirt I bought in Melbourne.

I have put a new lining in a skirt and am working on the waistband.

Here is the lining attached to the skirt.

And the right side with the waistband partly attached.

The reason I relined this skirt is because the original lining was straight and very narrow and I had split the side seam on it. I find this disappointing and annoying when I pay for a good skirt and find that they have skimped by making a lining that does not match the shape of the skirt. I am confident that my alterations will work well and I am looking forward to getting plenty of use out of the skirt. I also did some sorting of my fabric and have some ideas for several pieces so there is plenty to keep me going for a while.

Finally, this afternoon we topped up the soil in the raised garden bed and planted the seedlings. There are no photos as it was getting late and the light was not good. I hope to post some later in the week. It is now raining lightly so the seedlings will be enjoying that.

I am still waiting to hear from SarahN to claim the giveaway. Once I send it I will share what it was with you all.

Storing the Surplus

My Choices

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Posted on November 7, 2012

This afternoon I left work early (3pm) and did the shopping on the way home. Simply Good where I buy most of my dry goods (flour, seeds, nuts and dried fruit) is only open until 5 pm on weekdays and 9am – 12md on Saturday. I am happy to support these traditional opening hours that allow retail staff to spend time with their families, however, I do have to be organised as it is about 40km away from where we live. Since it is on my way to work I decided to drive my car to the railway station nearest to the shop and then do my shopping on the return journey.

I stocked up on all of my usual supplies as well as a couple of extras for some Christmas cooking and I am hoping that I will not need to go again until the New Year. Aldi supermarket was my next stop and I was particularly to find that the cat food (fish varieties) was back in stock. Finally, a few things from the fruit and vegetable stall and I was home. By this time it was almost 6pm but still daylight for another 40 minutes.

When I arrived home I checked for mail, collected the rubbish and recycling bins that had been emptied. Next it was down to the backyard where I let the chickens out for a run, watered the vegetable gardens and weeded the small bed where the lettuce seedlings are becoming established. I picked lettuces, collected eggs and organised fresh feed and water for the chickens.

Collect the washing from the line, turn the plastic bags which were drying on the airer, unpack the groceries and decant the loose nuts, seeds etc into their relevant jars.

Then it was time to cut up the chicken and vegetables for the stir-fry and make the sauce.

While I was doing all this it occurred to me that most of these chores exist because of choices I have made, but I would not have it any other way.

I could throw out the plastic bags, put the wet washing in a tumble drier, buy my eggs and all vegetables from the supermarket, buy ready-made prepared meals and convenience foods but I choose not and I am very happy with my choices.

House Extensions & Other Projects

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Posted on October 21, 2012

Not our house……the hen house is being extended with an outdoor run for the 5 chickens. They have previously free-ranged over about 3/4 acre of our land but the current chickens are an adventurous bunch and constantly feel the need to find gaps in the fencing (or dig under it) and free-range in the neighbour’s yard where they are not welcome. I have patched up the various spots where I thought they were escaping but 2 in particular do an excellent imitation of Houdini.

Yesterday we went to Bunnings Hardware to get some materials and we have made a start on an enclosed run for them. It is not as good as letting them free-range but in the interests of maintaining a reasonable relationship with the neighbours we have decided this is the way to go.

Here are the posts all positioned and ready. We have designed it so that the existing gates can be latched in the ‘open’ position to completely enclose the run. We will let the posts settle before attaching the wire next weekend. I will post some more photos when it is complete.

This is only a temporary measure as we will eventually be building a new chicken house and large run (including the orchard) when we re-do the front fencing and permanently fence the entire vegetable garden area. Like many things around here, it is a work in progress.

The other work in progress is building more raised garden beds. Unlike the chicken run we have not bought any new materials. Here is some of the leftover iron from the wall cladding of the house.

The Duke is using rivets to join some of the smaller pieces together.

The supports are some steel posts we inherited and even the rivets and screws are leftovers from other people’s projects. We built one bed last year and used a hardwood post (from Freecycle) as the supports. Because these beds will be used for growing vegetables we do not use treated timber as the chemicals leach into the soil.

This is the first bed we built. This picture was taken when it was first done. We put cardboard down, then filled it with mulch, leaves, shredded paper and grass clippings. This eventually decomposes and we now have a productive bed full of rich soil at no cost.

We have a productive weekend and there will be more coming up.

Garden Update

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Posted on August 15, 2012

Much of what goes in the the garden happens without a lot of input from us due to the fact that both The Duke and I work full-time.

Today I want to share some progress on a couple of different fronts.

On Monday we finally had the large poinciana tree near the driveway removed. This has been planned for over 12 months but when another large limb dropped a few weeks ago we were galvanised into action. The tree lopper came on Monday and by the time we arrived home there was no sign of it apart from a small pile of sawdust where the stump had been ground.

This is now the view from our front verandah. We will be replanting beside the driveway but have yet to decide exactly what we will do.

This is the remainder of another tree stump which we also had removed to make way for a revamp of the vegetable garden area.

The harvest from the vegetable gardens has not been as great as last year but today I was finally able to pick the broccoli.

2.1kg of broccoli from 6 plants is not a bad return and that is only the main heads. As usual, there will be more smaller secondary florets. We will use some of this before we go away and the rest will be blanched and frozen.

The cauliflower has been a disappointment compared to last year but at least I got some. There was also 1 other small head which I picked for dinner last week.

Like everything else, the snow peas have not been spectacularly prolific but here are enough for the stir-fry tonight and the salad for my lunch tomorrow.

Finally, this is 836g of ginger that we pulled up on the weekend. It grew from 1 small piece that we planted last year. There is still more in the ground but I saw no need to harvest any more! We will be dividing it up and planting lots of separate pieces. The plants look lovely and thrive with the other ornamental ginger, cordylines and heliconias that are growing in the shade of the the cedar tree.

Last but not least I wanted to let you know about my 2 new blogs.

Eating For Health is about my decision to try a grain-free, sugar-free diet. Click on the link and find out more.

Somewhere, Anywhere is my travel blog. This will be an online journal of our travels, beginning with our upcoming overseas trip. You will be able to follow our adventures as all of the updates will be posted on there.