Pruning and Planting

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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.

Harvest Time

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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.

A Quick Return

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Today I picked the first zucchinis of the season.  For an outlay of $2.50 for a punnet of 4 healthy seedlings on 12th September I have harvested 4 zucchini with a total weight of 1.2kg.

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This is only the start as there are plenty more small zucchini and flowers yet to mature.

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In just less than 6 weeks – 40 days to be precise – the transformation was complete.  The leaves are drooping in the heat of the day.  You can also see the last of the lettuce and bok choy which were planted at the same time and we had been harvesting for about 3 weeks.

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I have not grown a great deal over the past couple of years as I just seem to have been too busy but I am determined to make more of an effort and successes like these definitely inspire me to keep going.

 

 

 

 

What a Difference

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……a week makes!

These are the seedlings when I planted them a little over a week ago.

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And here they are a week later.

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The comparison is not entirely accurate as the photo is taken from the opposite end of the garden.

Everything has more than doubled in size but the zucchini have shown the most spectacular growth.

Unfortunately, something is having a munch on a couple of the bok choy – probably caterpillars from the white cabbage moth.  I could try covering them or I might try a tip I saw on ‘Gardening Australia’ last week.  Sophie has made fake white moths attached to small stakes in the garden because, apparently, the white moth is territorial and the fakes bluff the real moths into thinking they have to go somewhere else.  It would be wonderful if it really is that easy.

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Gloriously Gluten-Free

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I made a gluten-free lasagne for dinner tonight.  That is not particularly earth-shattering as I know that you can buy gluten-free pasta and I have used it on previous occasions.  However, this time I was inspired by a Facebook post from a friend and decided to substitute the lasagne sheets with sliced zucchini.

I use a combination of potato flour and chickpea flour to make the bechamel sauce.

Here are all of the components prepared before I assembled the lasagne.

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The last layer in place.

010Ready to serve.

001Plated up.

002The verdict?

The zucchini did not provide as much support as lasagne sheets, therefore, the lasagne did not translate neatly in one piece onto the plate.  The taste was excellent which means it was a success by my standards.  I would definitely make this again with a few adjustments.  I would make the meat sauce drier which I think would help in maintaining the shape.  The zucchini could perhaps be sliced a little thicker.  You could also make the serves in individual ramekins.