SPRING HONEY HARVEST

This afternoon we spent harvesting some wonderful honey from our 2 hives. It was great to see fully capped frames after a disappointing harvest last year. It’s always a great experience although at times a bit stressful .The next harvest will be after Christmas when the chestnuts have finished flowering. Chestnut flowers produce really special honey.

Vegetables for the table year round.

The first thing you notice about my home vegetable garden is that it is well fenced to keep poultry and dogs out.

The large banana passionfruit vine is a good deterrent as they can’t see through and see what they are missing.

As you enter there is always a vast array of vegies, some growing, some ready for the table and some going to seed to ensure future crops.

Established in 1983 the annual  garden is 10 x 18 m and includes a tool shed (in need of new door!) propagation area, cold frames and its own compost area.

THIS VEGETABLE GARDEN IS DESIGNED TO PRODUCE A STEADY SUPPLY OF TOP QUALITY PRODUCE WITH MINIMUM WORK. THE BASIC FEATURES ARE : *PERMANENT RAISED BEDS. The soil from pathways was used to build beds. Each bed is enclosed to keep soil in. The width of the bed ensures easy reach. GARDEN BEDS SHOULD NEVER BE WALKED ON!!!! *VEGETABLES ARE GROWN IN SOIL ENRICHED WITH OUR OWN BIO DYNAMIC COMPOST. * EACH BED HAS ITS OWN IRRIGATION SYSTEM. *THE SOIL TILTH REQUIRES MINIMAL EFFORT IN CULTIVATION. WEEDS ARE EASILY HAND PULLED, SOIL RAKED & THEN SEEDS PLANTED. *THE AREA IS KEPT IN BALANCE BY PROVIDING HABITAT AREAS AROUND THE PERIMETER (THE WILD AREA) FOR BENEFICIAL CREATURES. SEED+ SOIL+COMPOST+WATER+SUNLIGHT=HEALTHY VEGETABLES

Cold frame & parsley	Broad beans & broccoli
There is always something for the table.	Garlic crop
Garlic & chicory. Meals revolve around what’s in the garden mixed with what has been preserved.	Flowering turnips
miners lettuce & mache	Green wave mustard
Cabbage	Kale
Snow peas	Cardoon
New round garden fed and watered by worm farm	Borage grows wild throughout the garden. Great for attracting bees.

Behind this area is the perennial garden and herbs. Perennial plants need different attention so it made sense to separate them.This is a relatively new garden established in 2000.A fenced off area 12x 10m which contained 5 old apple trees, sour sobs, other bulbs, grasses and clovers. The area received the morning sun especially after the removal of a large pine on adjoining property.Artichokes, rhubarb, strawberries,asparagus,hops, comfrey, nettles, rue,wormwood, valerian and 1 apple tree all share this garden.Camellia flowers provide a great fairy carpet mulch.

The successful growing seasons can be simply extended by the use of cold frames which are easily constructed and a 6 x 4m tunnel which is a thin sheet of plastic which can keep plants growing during the cold wet winters. Although many things grow outside in winter they are often sitting there which is great for the root crops that get sweeter but lettuce just gets bitter so its ideal for indoor growing.Capsicums never ripen outdoors here so they do well along with the sweet potatoes and ginger. There is also a heated propagation area to get summer veg off to a early start.

  

Want to learn more about producing  vegies for your table everyday and how to grow them successfully using proper organic methods.Deb shares 30 + years of experience of how to do it easily. Workshop Details

  

Berries -Creating food traditions

Australia being a young country made up of many cultures as an ever changing food traditions.Each region , even parts of regions have very different seasons and range of produce that grow and so develop their own recipes and way of using foods. Unfortunately if you pick up a magazine or heaven forbid see a TV cooking show you can almost grantee  the regional seasonal foods are missing or worse they are among a vast array of ingredients  (usually ingredients that are not in season at the same time)designed to kill off any fresh  subtle flavours.
Early Summer here in the Adelaide Hills is usually about berries, as well the orchard produces a wonderful  perfume from the chestnut and linden flowers and waves of common brown butterflies and dragonflies fill the air.The vegies are just starting with an abundance of fresh greens, carrots, beans and the first of the Richmond green cucumbers.

When people think of berries they usually think in terms of adding cream, ice-cream or toping a pavlova.(this is what our customers tell us ) a lot of recipe books cook, sieve or  sauce thus loosing all those fresh subtle flavours. I prefer to enjoy them as they are usually at room temperature. 
Here at Nirvana they form an important ingredient that adds something special to a wide variety of foods.

Raspberries- go well in green salads. add great flavour as well as colour as they are ready long before tomatoes	Red & White Currants- add unique tarty sweetness and colour. go well in green salads, or with carrots. Use in fruit punches or to decorate drinks and cakes
Blackcurrants-are magic in a green salad as they add a real zing.	Gooseberries- add tang and crunch to green salad. they are great on the barbie.Just as the rest of the food is cooked roll on a handful.The skin is quite tough so can withstand the heat.They are ready just as the skin starts to blister.A nice little fruit bomb. Goes well with meat or fish.   Similarly they can be added to stir fries in the same way.

 
 

Cracking Good Time

Growing nuts is one thing, being able to make the most of the bounty and having a good supply for the kitchen needs good equipment.There are many types of nutcrackers some work and others may be total duds and a waste of effort.
While staying with a friend in France, we visited her parents and her mother gave me this great nutcracker. She said it was Swiss made so of excellent quality. (She was Swiss) She was right and its so efficient to use. It does not matter how large or small the walnut or hazelnuts it does a great job.








I have seen similar nut crackers in Australia – they are often promoted as champagne openers. I think there are easier ways of opening champagne.

Macadamias present a challenge. There shells are extremely hard. I used a hammer where as Quentin preferred to use vice grips.Both method were very slow and inefficient so the harvest of macas just sat in storage and where cracked only in small quantities usually only to make pesto. Recently we brought a Queensland made macadamia nutcracker… Wow it works so well. The hinged long handle makes it so easily to crack the macas so now we are using them as fast as they are harvested and dried. In our climate a lot of nuts fall off with the green outer shell still on and uncracked these where a pain to remove before drying but the maca cracker does this job as well. For more info http://www.tjsnutcrackers.com/

November in the Garden

Now the teaching season is over, the orchard weeding almost caught up I can, weather permitting get stuck into the gardens around the house including the vegetable garden. Its been an ‘average season’ which is great as we have had a several drought years where there was no subsoil moisture. The plants especially the trees have responded well and look lush and happy. The flowers have been  abundant as have the bees.

The Elder is abundant with flowers. Yesterday I made a batch of elderflower cordial and next week a couple of batches of elderflower champagne.






In the vegie garden the main seasonal  harvest is of broad beans and asparagus. While many of the winter vegies are going to seed (many to be saved) there are still plenty of greens,the last of the carrots, the peas are almost ready, the garlic is looking good as is my crop of rye , planted to make a traditional dough raising basket from the straw and a few grains of rye for the bread as well. The new crops of tomatoes, capsicums,  eggplant, cucumbers and pumpkins all grown from seed planted back in August in the tunnel house have been planted out and excess given away. Regular seed planting  continues (see sidebar for what I plant). Overall from now til Autumn is regular plantings, harvests and a little watering to provide a majority of our vegie needs. Out in the orchards the fruit set is looking good so hopefully it will be a more productive harvest than last year.

Garlic, Broad Beans , Rye	Broad Beans
Asparagus	November Plantings
Nasturtiums	Herb Garden