Midsummer in Australia is too hot for growing most produce but there are a few things in our garden which are thriving despite, or perhaps because of the heat.
Chilli bush. This is in a large pot on the front patio with a northern aspect. During the winter it was reduced to barely 2 dead-looking sticks thanks to a few heavy frosts. However, some warm weather and water and we have the start of another amazing crop of tiny, hot chillies. I use these fresh, frozen, dried and ground into chilli powder or made into my version of Tabasco sauce.
The small daisies are some escapees from a nearby garden.
Olive tree. Also in a large pot on the front patio. This tree is about 2 years old. Last season there were a small number of fruit which we completely overlooked. This year could be a worthwhile harvest so I will be researching how to brine and preserve them.
A close-up of the actual fruit.
Tomatoes. These are not loving the extreme heat hence we have them covered to protect them from the worst of the sun, however, there is a good crop on this single plant of the Roma variety and they are beginning to show signs of ripening. I am looking forward to a good haul and hope to freeze or bottle some for use during the winter.
Although I often post about the significant and eventful happenings here, there are many days that just hum along as we do the things we do. I find this particularly so during autumn as the extreme heat and occasional storms of summer are behind us.
Autumn weather brings a benign mildness as the leaves begin to turn and we continue to harvest the last of the summer produce.
An outdoor view.
Picked from the garden.
The tomatoes I grew were from gifted seedlings from 3 different sources. I am not sure of all of the varieties but some were definitely ‘Beefsteak’ which is now my favourite tomato. So, when I discovered that one of these tomatoes had been attacked by some wildlife I decided that it was the perfect specimen from which to salvage some seeds.
Tomato seeds drying on some paper towel.
I did two loads of washing which included our bed linen. I remade the bed with the freshly laundered linen after it had dried in the warm sun and breeze.
We have plenty of plans for developing various aspects of the garden further but in the meantime we are pleased with the parts which are established.
GMan recently participated in a one-day workshop on pruning techniques and more particularly, the benefits of summer pruning of fruit trees. He has since purchased some new equipment and yesterday he applied his newly-acquired knowledge and pruned our 3 espaliered fruit trees. There are 2 Nashi pears and a nectarine.
Meanwhile, I have planted a punnet of pea seedlings.
The summer garden continues with tomatoes and zucchinis ripening and ready to pick every day or so.
I have at least a dozen packs of grated zucchini in the freezer which I can use to make zucchini quiche throughout the year. Of course, we have had fried tomato and zucchini as a side dish with plenty of meals recently.
The tomatoes have been especially prolific. I used 6kg to make sauce and there is more than enough to eat with almost every meal. There is nothing like the flavour of homegrown tomatoes.
This is what is on a rack on the kitchen bench at the moment as I constantly use some then add more from what I harvest almost every day.
Bed changed, 2 loads of washing done, some volunteer admin work and visitors this afternoon for wine, cheese and chat.
Somewhere in between all of that I made time to make another batch of tomato sauce for the pantry.
We have almost finished the last bottle from last year and this is the first time in several years that I have almost run out. I am hoping to make more batches to stock up.
I had less tomatoes than the recipe so I did some quick calculations to reduce the other ingredients proportionally. I took a fairly easy option by chopping the tomatoes and onions in the food processor before simmering them with the sugar, vinegar, salt and spices. You can find the actual recipe here.
We are expecting tradesmen tomorrow to remove and replace some doors and windows so I will hopefully have interesting before and after photos to share before too long.
I have had my head down working on an admin project for a volunteer job that I am doing so there is not too much to report on the home front just at the moment.
However, our next door neighbour kindly dropped in a box of home-grown tomatoes and a zucchini a couple of days ago. I plan to make some more sauce with the tomatoes and the zucchini will be used in a meal in the next day or two.
Meanwhile, I took a break today and we went to Castlemaine to do a couple of things and I had time to pop into one of my favourite op shops. I found these small glass serving plates for $1 each. There are 7 of them and I will use them at a function next week at the local film society. Other than that, I think they can live in my sideboard and certainly get some use. They could be perfect for those occasions when a huge serving platter is not really required or appropriate.
The other thing to note is that we are finally enjoying some more moderate weather than the heatwave conditions we have endured recently. In fact, the forecast for tomorrow is only 17C which is much better than 37C (or more). The next 7 days are looking rather pleasant though some rain would be nice for the garden.
When choosing this title I noticed that I had used it before in 2021 – except that it was in early November. It is now late summer here and everything seems to be ripening in abundance so we are fully occupied making sure that none of it goes to waste.
Here are a few of the things we have been doing in the past few days.
When we moved here we inherited two espaliered nashi pear trees which have borne prolifically. We did not net them so the parrots have enjoyed quite a feast but we have still managed to pick several hundred fruit. Once we discovered that we really like the fruit stewed, GMan has made it his mission to peel and slice the seemingly never-ending supply and the freezer is full of containers of stewed nashi which we will enjoy in the coming months.
It is now about 6 weeks since I picked the first of our zucchini and I been managing to use them at pretty much the same rate as we were picking them until the last few days. So, today I made zucchini slice. I have been trialling making them in individual serves in the airfryer for some time now and am happy that I have finally got the amended measurements and cooking times right. I will post an amended recipe in the next blog post.
I also grated several extra zucchini and have them packed in bags of 200g in the freezer for future zucchini slice making.
Meanwhile, the tomato sauce was simmering on the stove.
This was the result.
I made another of my experimental versions of basil pesto and am pretty happy with this one. Almonds instead of pine nuts. Some grated zucchini mixed with the basil makes it milder flavoured. Nutritional yeast rather than cheese makes it dairy-free, vegan and reduces the cholesterol. Yes, minimising the cholesterol intake is going to be more of a feature of my cooking in the future. I also add the juice of half a lemon as it makes it a bit less oily.
The bumper harvest has not been confined to just our garden and our neighbour’s. I picked up a bag of plums from a roadside giveaway earlier in the week. I stewed these and have some each morning on my cereal.
Processing gluts of home-grown, gifted or foraged produce can be time-consuming but it is a worthwhile activity which helps to minimise the amount of food going to waste.
I am always looking for ways to store the inevitable summer glut of home-grown tomatoes. I make tomato sauce (ketchup) but there is a limit to how much of that we need. The recipe is here if you are interested. I also used to freeze cherry tomatoes whole for use in casseroles and other cooking. I have dabbled in making tomato paste and tomato powder. These have all been reasonably successful but somewhat labour intensive.
Our tomatoes are not ready yet but the neighbours have generously shared their harvest.
I had these spread out to ripen and today I selected the reddest ones and cut them into quarters. I placed them into a round cake tin with 2 large cloves of garlic and a handful of basil leaves (all homegrown) and a drizzle of olive oil. I cooked them in the airfryer for 25 minutes at 170C then blitzed them in the high-speed blender.
I now have a couple of jars of delicious sauce which will be perfect for pizza bases, pasta dishes or adding to other dishes for a rich tomato flavour. This was super quick and easy and I will definitely be doing it again in the future. I choose not to process the sauce but simply store it in the freezer.
At the end of my last post I mentioned that I would share some details of the food preparation that I do.
In the past few weeks I have been fortunate to score some great bargains on fresh produce. A food bargain is only a bargain if you actually use the food. This can be a particular challenge with fresh produce but with a bit of know-how and some time you can make the most of bargains that may come your way.
Today I want to show you how I used and stored large quantities of cheap bananas, pineapples and tomatoes.
I bought a 10kg box of perfect, ripe Roma tomatoes for $10. $1/kg was too good to pass up. I could have bottled them straightaway but they were so firm, red and perfect that we decided to enjoy them fresh for as long as possible. I spread them out on a couple of racks so that would be able to easily identify any blemishes or potential rotten ones. Fresh tomato salsa was served with at least one and often two meals every day. Here is a selection of our meals.
L to R: Chicken tacos, Mexican quinoa and Baked potatoes with refried beans
This strategy worked well for just over 3 weeks which is testament to the perfect quality of the produce. In fact, I have no idea why they were being sold for $1/kg.
The remaining tomatoes were diced and packed into jars to go in the freezer. These will be added to casseroles and other dishes instead on buying canned tomatoes.
Next were the bananas. These were also $1/kg and I bought 12.5kg in a box. The bananas ranged from partly green to overripe but the majority were ripe and flavoursome although the skins were showing blemishes. We eat sliced banana on our cereal every day so about a dozen of the least ripe ones were added to fruit bowl to be eaten over the next week.
Two very ripe ones became banana cake and the remainder were peeled, cut in half and frozen on trays. They can be sliced and added to cereal with no further preparation.
You can see the less ripe bananas in the fruit bowls in the background as well as trays ready for the freezer and two bananas in the bowl which were about to be turned into banana cake.
Finally, the pineapples. I spotted this box of 5 pineapples for $4 and knew exactly how I could use them.
Dried pineapple is a delicious treat so it was a simple matter of peeling, coring and slicing the pineapple and then into the dehydrator. We like it semi-dried (a bit chewy but not crunchy). I store it in a container in the refrigerator.
L to R: Fresh pineapple ready to dehydrate, dried pineapple, ready to store in the refrigerator.
I would love to hear your stories of bargains or gluts and how you make sure they do not go to waste.
Most of us are trying to make the most of our grocery budget as food prices seem to be increasing on an almost daily basis. Extreme weather events driven by the impacts of climate change along with global conflicts are combining to disrupt supply chains.
This is the background upon which shoppers are doing their utmost to spend their food budget wisely.
There are not many, if any, items which can regularly be purchased for $1/kg. So, when I spotted Roma tomatoes for $1/kg at our local greengrocer, I took advantage of the bargain. Although the tomatoes were loose on a display stand, I discovered that I could purchase an entire 10kg box for $10. This was too good to pass up.
Here is my haul.
Of course, a bargain is only a bargain if there is no wastage. I have spread the tomatoes out on the kitchen bench and there are no soft spots or blemishes – all absolutely perfect.
Tonight we will have slices of fresh tomato on our pizza. Tomorrow I will make salsa to have with our bean tacos and I am sure they will feature in other meals over the next week. Other than that, I may dehydrate some, make pasta sauce and bottle or freeze them whole.
Making the most of seasonal and often cheaper produce makes good sense as we try to stretch our budget a little further.
It was nothing like ‘Tomato Day’ as described in the novel, “Looking for Alibrandi” but The Duke and I had our own mini version when we cut up 5.5kg of tomatoes yesterday.
A couple of weeks ago I asked at the local fruit stall if they had any cooking/sauce tomatoes as I wanted to make tomato sauce. After some discussion it was agreed that they would try to get some from the market if there were any available and let me know. I had not heard anything so I asked again when we went yesterday to buy our weekly supply of fruit and vegetables. B then presented me with a box of assorted over-ripe tomatoes which had been sorted from the regular ones rather than specifically purchased. These were then given to me as they would otherwise have been thrown out.
Back at home, we only had to discard 3 or 4 that were completely rotten and the rest were chopped up and placed in bags in the freezer. I simply do not have the time to make sauce this week in the lead-up to Christmas and holidays so they can stay in the freezer until I have time to make the sauce.
This is an example of the benefits of eating seasonal produce and also supporting and getting to know your small, local retailer. I could not imagine this scenario happening at my local Coles or Woolworths supermarket.
organised castle 