From Garden to Table

 Yesterday I harvested 2 kilos of cherry tomatoes, gave  some to my neighbour, used 500g in a Moroccan Tagine meal for dinner and cooked up the rest to make a delicious home made sauce. We will use this with pasta, on pizzas and when we make home made meataballs and bolognaise.

 The plants still have many tomatoes on them, so I will be picking again today and cooking again this afternoon. We use recycled jars and just add caster sugar and water, though next time I may add a few herbs too.

 Another first today, Creamy Spinach Soup, I am really pleased with it and will certainly be making it again.

Volunteer Tomatoes

We have four volunteer tomato plants this season and  they have so far produced over 8 kilos of tomatoes, with heaps more on the bush. we are really pleased and have made Pasta sauce, Tomato and Basil salad and eaten lots of fresh tomatoes. We are even lickier that each of the plants is a different type, we could not have planned it better!

36 kilos of Produce and Purple Dragon Carrots

Just a few of the items that we are growing, here you can see Purple Dragon Carrots, Tomatoes, Chives, Spinach,  Capsicums and Spring Onions. 

Could not resist taking a photo from another angle, the carrots are interesting as they are an heirloom variety with a purple skin and are orange on the inside.

Extending Pool Edge Garden 18th April 2010

I started the pool edge garden in January 2009 and to be honest it is much better than I expected, we even have three volunteer Tomato plants in there at the moment. But I was still only half way along so decided that I should do more today. Andy had pulled up lots of the pavers when he made the edges for the trees on the nature strip which was a big help.

Now we just have to gradually fill this garden with compost etc and then we can plant come more great plants - inch by inch we will have an edible garden.

Tomatoes, Dehydrators and Pasta Sauce

Well, i certainly learn something new everyday on this journey. Today it was all about using a borrowed dehydrator, and not rushing, to produce Dried Tomatoes, Grapes and Mango Yoghurt. I also collected more Cherry Tomatoes and cooked some to make a bottle of Pasta sauce. And finally I cannot help but admire the Cherry Guava tree which is still only about 6 inches high and has a bout a dozen fruits budding on it! It will be interesting to see what happens to them and what they taste like.

First attempts at Drying Feb 01 2010

We unloaded our neighbors Grape Vine and the huge Tomato bush out the front and are trying solar drying for the first time.

Front Garden -January 31st 2010

The Rock Melon vine has taken over the plot, we have harvested 4 and there are another 6 on the vine plus lots of flowers. the Tomato bush is huge and we have picked buckets of Tomatoes, hopefully the seedlings, Sweet Potato vine etc will survive.

New Fridge No Dig Garden November 2009

Once filled up Andy planted a Capsicum, Red Mizuna, Tomato, Lettuce, Basil, Orange Thyme, Rocket and a sprouting Ginger. On either side you can see the Globe Artichoke and the Blackberry Bush. For lunch we had salad stuff that was almost entirely from the garden.

More Potted Food

We are really keen to have as much food in our small space as we can get. Lots of reasons, the environment, the convenience, the cost and of course the plants are beautiful and useful. Here you can see that we have made some progress, from left to right, a Loquat Tree, Capsicum, Nectarine and Pansies, Tomato, Fig tree. Also there is a ginger plant growing from a ginger plant that grew a root on it in the food pantry and the Basil is a propagated plant from one that i had cut and placed in a vase. In the wheelbarrow you can see Pansies, Strawberries, Spinach and Marigolds, out of sight is a tiny volunteer Lettuce.