Look who's got Gooseberries!

Cape Gooseberries. . . 

The Gooseberry is an unusual fruit, especially here in Australia, I don't actually know a lot about it, II have some wonderful child hood memories of eating gooseberries that grew wild in my backyard and  have always been fascinated by them and their little cases.Cape gooseberries that is.  

I have never seen nor tasted an English Gooseberry. 

Go to the fact sheet here for some more info on The Cape Gooseberry and here for info on the other Gooseberry...

The Garden Post

Its so nice to be able to comfortably walk out and about around the garden again.  I have been quite surprised at how much my veggie garden has contained itself over the past few months, completely neglected by it's keeper in the later stages of my pregnancy, the rain and natural elements have been kind enough to keep it in relatively good order.  These veggies have all been grown from my previous spring planting.   The eggplant were slow to grow but certainly impressed once they started producing, a lone cucumber vine appeared 3 months after my cues were picked and pickled, the capsicums just  keep coming and the tomatoes seems to have got a second lease of  life and are producing more tomatoes they did than earlier in the season. Just one problem though . . .

Anyone got any good green tomato chutney recipes, Something in the area seems to be picking these little lollies off the vine the minute they get  a tinge of colour on them, I am presuming it's birds of some kind, I must invest in a net, see if I can save me a few ripe ones.

I've been tossing a bit of capsicum and eggplant into everything lately, unfortunately the eggplant are not a   favourite with the kidlets so they're not getting eaten as quickly as I would like them too, Any suggestions on freezing Eggplant or easy peasy yummy recipes?

And for those Baby Watchers out there, here's our little Laura's latest photo...

Yes, she's smiley and she's chubby!

5 1/2 weeks old

Happy Gardening!

Almost Fruit Salad

Fruit Tree Production to date: 2012

1 x Papaya

1 x Mango

Just enough for baby & me . . .   : )

A Dry Harvest

This may just be my last harvest for a little while now.  

With the weather a little cooler and kinder yesterday I ventured down yonder to see what was really happening in the veggie patch.  

  After three weeks on and off away in hols, sky rocketing hot temperatures and not a drop of rain it was a very sad and sorry sight.  

The corn that wasn't picked before Christmas 

 was eaten by the wild King Parrots

The capsicum all dried and shriveled, such a waste...

The silver beet and chard have really had their day...

Doesn't look like these young  lettuce will be used in our salad anytime soon...

A few bushes of green tomatoes still stand awaiting to ripen

   but most of them withered and fallen to the ground if not eaten by the birds and grubs. I'm hoping to save some seed from these, most of them were heirloom varieties I had purchased from Diggers.
And this would be the forgotten Choko Vine...
I think I'll be needing to talk to that old scarecrow of mine about the importance of doing his daily job and maybe a stern word to the watering system that just happened to Kark It right when I needed it most!  I just can't stress enough how important water is for a healthy and productive garden yet, here I am in full neglect of mine....
Just Shameful !
    However, all was not lost, amongst the anguish and disgust I still managed to harvest up a few goodies...                 

I found a few Garlic hiding under the old bean stalks

I love the garlic flower bulbs, they are so pretty in flower and in seed.  
Anybody got any advice on growing garlic from seed rather than bulb?

Most of the beans left on the vine were well and truly dried out 

They will be stored away for the next seasons planting, as will the rocket seeds I had been trying to gather for months.

The Celery has gone crazy in seed and is just starting to dry out now, I have heard that Celery seeds can be quite hard to come by in the supermarkets so I will be storing these away in my herb cupboard for later use with my pickling spices.

 I managed to salvage a handful of coriander seeds as well, not sure yet if these will go into the seed pile or the herb cupboard along with the Celery Seeds.

So you see, all was not LOST.

 There are a few showers lurking around this week so with the children on their last week of school holidays maybe we'll get down to the garden and give it a bit of a TLC, rip up the old has beans and maybe start digging in a little mulch and manure, Weather and Well Being permitting of course, sound like a good plan, we'll see what the week brings. It would be nice to plant just a few salad and herb basics again but I really don't think the ground will be getting that much future loving from me. 
Counting down the days now, only 10 weeks to go until I'll have another little Bubba down in the garden with me ready for  the annual Winter planting....

Getting back to Nature . . .

 

 

While the kids amuse themselves, 

I'm locked away in the lounge room, with the air conditioner on full blast!  Is it just me or is it HOT!  I thought it was time my little blog had a bit of a face lift, please bear with me while I make a few new changes.  

I pickled the Cucs!

In my last post some of you suggested that I pickle my excess cucumbers, so that's just what I did, with a few other fresh ingredients from the garden.

Pickled Cucumbers

also known as Bread & Butter Cucumbers,  they are so delicious you'll want to have them on the table with every meal. 

I used 6 medium size cucumbers

2 onions

1/2 red capsicum

1/3 cup salt

4 cups cider vinegar

1 1/4 cup of sugar

1 teasp ground turmeric

2 teasp mustard seeds

2 teasp chopped dill

2 teasp celery seeds

Slice the cucumbers, onion and capsicum and mix together in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt.  Cover and let stand for about 4 hours.  

In a large saucepan combine the rest of the ingredients.

No celery seeds in my cupboard so I used the next best thing, the celery flowers straight from the veggie garden...(they would have been seeds one day had I had left them to mature!!)

Bring to the boil then add the well drained cucumber mixture. Bring back to the boil then remove from heat. With a slotted spoon ladle the pickles into wide mouthed sterilized jars.  Seal and water bath. 

Enjoy. . . or give to the neighbours for Christmas. . .

On the Vine

Pumpkins, Yes they are Pumpkin Delicata Mini Sweet.  I had to check my Diggers order to see just exactly what they were, Aren't they cute!  I don't think they grow much bigger, I was looking for a compact vine, and that it is, and just loaded with these sweet little pumpkins.

A Rockmelon, another compact vine this one is a Rockmelon Minnesota Midget.   Looking forward to these ripening...   

The last of my Beans, pods too old to be eaten now, I'm planning on drying these, some for winter casseroles and some for replanting next spring.

Not a vine, but oh so Pretty, Garlic flowers next to my bean vine... And can you see the height of that corn in the background

My first season ever growing corn, and I'm extremely pleased with how they are going...

Any tips on when to harvest Corn?

Capsicums, Capsicums

and more capsicums...

Cucumbers  The description 'Double Yield' and  growing like mad

Too quickly actually

I can't eat them quick enough, and they mature overnight, It's nice to have extras to give away to visiting family and friends.

Tomatoes

Many Varieties

Ready to ripen

Pick and Eat

And a Choko vine, running madly alongside the childrens sandpit...

Pretty in flower

and bearing the first Choko of the season...