The Production Line

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Posted on September 16, 2013

Having a productive garden entails more work than just planting, watering and harvesting the crops.

The next step is to make sure that the produce is used wisely. It is difficult not to have some wastage, especially when there is a glut.

At the moment we have an over-abundance of lemons and grapefruit and are doing the best we can to deal with them.

On Saturday evening, The Duke and I juiced and froze about 3 litres of lemon juice and a litre of grapefruit juice. Most of the lemon juice is in 1 litre quantities so that I can thaw it and make cordial when required. However, I did put some into ice-cube trays for those moments when I just need a tablespoon or so of juice. We have 2 lemon trees and it is only a rare time when there are no fresh lemons available but it is best to be safe and have some on hand.

You can also see more beans and carrots that we picked on Saturday.

What are you harvesting at the moment?

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.

Shopping In The Garden

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Posted on June 21, 2012

This afternoon I went down to the garden and picked a bucketful of oranges, some mandarins, limes, perennial onions, grapefruit, chili and avocadoes as well as collecting 16 eggs.

Here is some of the haul.

Mandarins

Eggs

Ornages , limes, grapefruit, onions and chili in this bucket.

I set the oranges out ready to juice them.

These yielded 3.5 litres of juice and enough pulp to make 2 dozen orange and poppyseed muffins.

The juice is frozen in single serve (250ml) portions.

Here is the orange juice packaged and ready to freeze. Once it is frozen I will remove it from the containers and place in double plastic bags for ease of storage.

I took a pack of grated zucchini (from the garden last summer) from the freezer and made a zucchini quiche for dinner. While this was in the oven I made the muffins and a Lemon Delicious for dessert as well as roasting some sliced pumpkin ready to use on home-made pizzas tomorrow night.

The 2 grapefruit are prepared for The Duke for his breakfasts and the mandarins will be used in packed lunches.

The avocadoes are in the fruit bowl as they will take about a week to ripen.

I chopped the chili and onions and added to some cold rice. Lime juice, oil and pepper made a dressing to toss through the rice and we had this and some carrot sticks and sliced mushroom with the quiche for dinner.

I used 9 eggs in my cooking and am left with 34 in the refrigerator. Must be time to give some more away.

We are lucky to have a productive garden so it is important to make sure that we use what is available and store any excess so that it does not get wasted.

When Life Gives You Lemons………

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Posted on June 18, 2011

………….make lemonade, or in my case, lemon cordial.

It is winter and the time of year when the citrus trees are absolutely laden. The branches are groaning with the weight of luscious fruit waiting to be harvested.

We have 2 lemon and 3 orange trees as well as a lime, grapefruit and a mandarin. One lemon and one orange were here when we came but we have planted the others. The original lemon tree is a Meyer variety which is actually a cross between a lemon and an orange. This variety is particularly suited to the warmer, more humid climate of coastal Queensland.

The tree is only quite small and looks very ordinary, to the point where we think that each year may be the last. Here it is with the few remaining fruit after I had picked most of them.

However, it keeps bearing amazing fruit. Unlike other lemon varieties, you cannot leave the fruit on the tree once it is mature as it does not last and tends to spoil.

Late one afternoon when I was in the vegie patch picking some produce for dinner, I noticed that the lemons were very ripe – skin tends to turn to a golden yellow and a few were starting to fall from the tree. It was time to harvest the lemons and I picked almost all of the fruit from the tree – 117 lemons!!

It is times like this that I am very thankful for technology. I could not imagine squeezing all of them by hand. There were about 6 buckets of lemons which yielded 11 litres of juice which is about 100ml per lemon.

My food processor with juicer attachment.

My lemon cordial recipe is an adaptation of the one with was originally given to me by my mother-in-law. I have adjusted the recipe over the years and have reduced the amount of sugar as well as taking out various preservatives such as sodium benzoate. What I am left with is lemon juice and sugar and I am very happy with the result.

Since the recipe has no preservatives I err on the side of caution and store it in the refrigerator and make about 2 litres of cordial at a time. Modern appliances come to the rescue yet again as I store the excess juice in the freezer until required to make another batch of cordial. Do not try freezing the cordial as it does not stay properly frozen, probably due to the high sugar content. I freeze my juice in 2 litre ice-cream containers which easily hold 1.5 litres of juice with a little headspace.

LEMON CORDIAL

1.5 litres of lemon juice

750g sugar

Mix together until the sugar has dissolved.

Pour into bottle and store in refrigerator.

I choose to use raw sugar so my cordial is quite a dark, but not unpleasant colour.

Use within 3 months.

Mix 1 part of cordial with 4-5 parts of water,

We use this cordial mixed with soda water made with the Soda Stream soft drink maker to create an excellent substitute for bought soft drink. This is what we serve at functions and special occasions.