Changing Seasons -The April garden

The challenge in the vegetable garden as the seasons change is to continue to get the last of the summer bounty harvests while at the same time continue planting to ensure harvest in the months to come. At present I’m still harvesting the last of the tomatoes, zucchinis, capsicums, basil, beans and about to harvest my cardoon. The pumpkins will be harvested in the next couple of weeks meanwhile carrots, chard, chicory, lettuce, endive, nasturtiums, augula, spring onions, kale, red cabbage, celery, parsnips, turnips, beetroot and self sown garlic as a salad green are all being enjoyed.

Veggies planted previously for future harvests include cabbage, cauliflowers, brussels sprouts, leeks, fennel, carrots, parsnips, Swedes, turnips, kohlrabi, spinach & an array of salad greens. The garlic, planted last month into warm soils, followed by gentle rain look wonderful already over 25 cm tall. The romanesco broccoli Kate gave me as seedlings in spring may be just getting around to setting a head or many smaller heads which will properly be more useful.

Most of the seedlings grown in containers in March have been planted out or given away. As usual I sowed my April seeds 2 days before the full moon on the 18^th .The seeds I sowed include beetroot, carrots, spinach, spring onions, peas, broad beans, swedes, turnips, chicory, miners lettuce, mache, a mix of lettuce, Kate’s’ pale spinach.

The other essential April activity now that it has rained a bit is to apply the biodynamic preparations to the garden a horn manure (500) & barrel compost (also known as cow s well as the farm. Next week I will apply both pat pit) the garden received both in March after the rains. Each preparation is stirred in the afternoon and applied on consecutive days .In general its recommended to use these preparations once in Autumn and Spring but I have found for the vegetable garden, which is asked to produce year round, that a couple of applications makes the garden sparkle and the produce grown there be strong , healthy, disease resistant and flavorsome.

Take a photo wander around the April vegetable garden.

Harvest Moon Celebrations

On Saturday night we celebrated the harvest moon with a pretty typical meal , roast goose (one of ours, naturally ) and vegetables fresh from the garden- beans, 3 types of carrots, turnip, parsnip, beetroot , butternut pumpkin and potatoes. I don’t actually plant potatoes but there are usually a few around to harvest. These ones came from under the kiwi fruit and where growing amongst the nettles.
To start the meal we had delicious fresh figs, a sprig of sage wrapped in prosciutto and baked in Seville orange juice and a little butter. We had no need for dessert as the taste of figs, roasted goose and delicious vegetables lingered long into the night as we slowly enjoyed this delicious meal and chatted.
The harvest moon is important for a couple of reasons here. Firstly the garlic is always planted 2 days before the harvest moon and this time also marks the beginning of the chestnut harvest.
The best part of growing lots of different crops is that you can have lots of harvest celebrations.

FIGS

Oh its so nice to walk around the fig tree and see ripe figs hanging down ready to pick. That is the difference netting makes, ensuring a good harvest.

Apart from ripe and fresh, warm off the tree,(which is just delicious) I like to dry some for winter celebrations and fig bread. .

I first came across this recipe at the Barossa Slow 2006 orchard tour.

Dried Figs

Figs

1kg sugar

100ml white wine vinegar

500ml water

Prick the figs all over with a fork .Make syrup & bring to a rolling boil. Simmer figs 1.5- 2 hours in syrup .Let cool in syrup drain for 6 hours. Lay out to dry.

Fig Bread

I mostly just add chopped figs and fennel to my rye sourdough. But here’s my simple, quick method

3 cups flour

1 cup rye flour

11/2 cup chopped dried figs

2 tablespoons fennel seeds.

1 tablespoon dried yeast. (Fermipan freeze dried yeast)

1 teaspoon salt.

1 teaspoon malt. (Either extract or powder)

1 tablespoon oil.

2 cups warm water. (Approximately)

Mix flours, figs, fennel and yeast in a bowl. Dissolve salt and malt in 1 cup of warm water, add to dry ingredients, mix, and add oil and water to form dough. Knead. Cover and leave to rise 60 minutes.

Knead dough until it is elastic, about 5 - 10 minutes. Shape into 2 loaves

Bake at 200 C, 35-45 minutes loaf.

Goes well with cheese or just serve lightly buttered.

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One of those Days

One of the things we enjoy doing is playing social petanque. A few years ago Quentin started playing and encouraged me to come out at least to meet new people as he thought I ‘spent too much time working and needed to get out more.’ Although I really enjoy working from home,in my own quite space it is nice to meet different people. So each Wednesday morning we go off to play petanque with the Adelaide Hills Petanque Club down at Stonehenge reserve in Stirling. Quentin takes it more serious playing on Sundays as well as the occasional league games.

Wednesdays are very social with around 30-40 people playing. Each week there is a draw to make up teams of 3 or 2. We then play 3 games punctuated with morning tea, laughter, chat, much fun and sometimes a prize or 2...

It is from this atmosphere that the Derrick Rowley Trophy, in memory of Derrick is played. A competition that players go into a draw to determine teams. In the past it has been triples but this year because of numbers it was doubles. Quentin and I drew together (some thought was rigged but that’s the way a draw goes) I was actually looking forward to playing with someone I did not know and having a bit of a laugh but playing with Quentin I was bound to take it a little more seriously as it would be good to win a game or two especially since he had been feeling a little down with his hip and being restricted in what he could do.

In round one we drew to play our club president and Australian representive player, Brenton & his equally good partner John. We got off to a flyer and were well in front when we got stuck on 12. They clawed their way back but we finally won 12: 9 .That win would have done me for the day Next round another one of our Australian players & a league player from Adelaide club. We won 13:2 WOW. Next round against 2 league players 13:3 Forth game and we lost the toss, again 2 more league players they chose a heavy piste . This was a short game , all over in 3 ends 13:0 This was amazing I had never won so many games in one day!

Final round, crunch time we were up against A grade league player Jenny and Lorenzo , one of the better Wednesday players they had also won 4 games. This was the best game of the day highlighted with excellent pointing, with carro and counter carro and some good shooting. We where finally victorious at 13: 9.

WE WON the Day and the Trophy and some wine

Quentin can still take it serious and play league & I’ll stick to Wednesday social and a bit of fun.

Breakfast at Nirvana

Breakfast is always an important time. Like all meals it reflects the seasons. Those fleeting flavours that come and go so quickly.

Sure we preserve various things to enjoy latter like fruit to add to the porridge in winter.

Although we mainly have some form of oats and fruit and yogurt, pancakes on Sundays and once a week usually Saturdays (This reminds us what day it is) we have a cooked breakfast.At this time of the year it’s

Eggs Poached in Fresh Tomatoes

Cover the bottom of a small saucepan with small tomatoes (we use principe bourghese) cook gently till they burst add a couple of chopped garlic cloves and two eggs, poach till eggs are firm but soft. Serve on rye bread.

February seeds

Today was seed planting day (2 days before full moon) or rather it started off as reseeding some of the January plantings. This time of year is some what challenging when it comes to seeds. Firstly there is the heat that dries out the seedbeds very quickly. In January I put shade cloth over the seeds & covered the area with old sheets. It worked very well with excellent germination. I took away the covers; everything looked great until the blackbirds decided they fancied digging in the damp soil. They dug up and destroyed all the seedlings along one side so I replanted and covered the reseeded area with racks. So then naturally they dug up the other side. Time to get serious so today that side was replanted. The parsnips, some carrots, chard, chicory and beetroot where replaced and now the whole bed was covered with bird netting. If the cool change does not come tomorrow I will cover it during the day with sheets to keep the moisture up.

So now it was time to plant this months seeds. The other challenge at this time of the season is finding space, a bed growing bush beans which had produce early and now on the wane was cleaned up and Lauren, my able assistant/student (University of Life).then prepared the bed and planted the swedes, parsnips carrots, lettuce, kale, spring onions, Earliball cabbage, endive, arugula ,turnips and kohi rabi. The polly pipe frames where then erected and bird netting protection added to give the seeds a good start.

Harvest at present is dominated by beans, bush beans like redland pioneer, amethyst, borlotti, and climbers, I planted lots of climbers, my main trellis is made from a bike wheel and string but I’ve found some of last years plum prunings made neat trellises for the zebra, purple king, blue lake and some small black bean seeds to grow on. But the kings of them all are the scarlet runners they grow so big yet are so tender. The carrots & parsnips are also at their best while the tomatoes, cucumbers and greens are all providing a valuable addition to the daily diet. So much flavour!

Summer Evenings

It’s nice to get in the swing of regular BBQs again. Our barbie has been rebuilt i.e. a ‘new’ ½ 44gal drum. This one is a good heavy duty one and took a bit of cutting but will last many years and the other half is there ready for when it finally burns out. I love cooking with wood; it has a special quality especially when you grow your own.

The garden provides the vegetables and fresh salads. The meat is usually local and bartered. Last week we had Urrbrae sausages that Maggie & Bob brought along to the wine making. Last night we had Gibberagunyah lamb chops from out at Nairne. Part of a whole lamb swamped for a couple of geese. Not many food miles to our veranda.

Such meals are simple and a great celebration of fresh flavorsome foods. When ever the weather is not too cold we eat in our dinning area on the veranda enjoying the peaceful view and sights and sounds of the birds before the dark takes over.

Last night the moon was extremely bright. The moon is full on Thursday and it also reaches perigee which means it’s closest to the earth for this month. This intensifies the effect of the full moon. Therefore Tuesday is vegetable seed planting day. Especially important for getting winter vegetables going before the cold sets in. The main challenge is finding space for these as the summer vegetables are just reaching their peak.