I was very glad I’d stashed a bag of our own herbs, salad and spinach leaves for a weekend away. It meant I could start my Saturday with herbed scrambled eggs and spinach without leaving the comfort of our delightful cottage. There was enough salad for lunch that day too – most of the way up Mount Holdsworth at Powell Hut.

This is a picture of one of my winter salad favourites ‘mibuna’ – an easy to grow Asian green that does well in cooler weather. Joy Larkcom’s book Oriental Vegetables: The Complete Guide for the Gardening Cook has many other ideas too.

Consumer magazine recently tested 15 ready-to-eat salads from supermarkets. Only 3 of the 15 mixes rated as good. Most of the rest were “fair”; three were “below average”. I’m as susceptible to the charms of the easy option as the next person but Consumer recommends washing ‘ready to eat’ salad, even though manufacturers usually wash salad leaves in a ‘chlorine rinse’. I soak garden greens in salted water for ten minutes to remove any bugs and then spin in a salad spinner to dry them.

Given that I can buy a packet of seeds (enough to grow about 1,000 lettuces) for the same price as a bag of salad (which I still have to wash anyhow), I’ll stick to dashing out for a few leaves for my lunch or taking some with me when I travel. Even if you haven’t got a garden you can grow a back step salad.

The Rhode Island red hens have gone to meet a young Rhode Island red rooster in Pauahatanui.

I’m downsizing my flock of chickens so I’m selling a couple of my Rhode Island red hens on Trade Me to make room for some new ones next year. There’s a reserve of $50 for the pair so if you’d like to give these lovely girls a new home, make a bid soon as the auction closes on Friday.

You’ll need some rocket seeds and some potting mix. Mark out a square in your garden bed about 30cm x 30cm, remove any weeds and water it well. Spread a layer 1cm thick of potting mix. Make sixteen equally spaced indentations (4×4) with your finger, about 1/2 cm deep. Sow two seeds in each dip. I don’t cover the seeds. Water very gently – a hand mister is good. You might need to protect from birds and cats with netting. Within a week your rocket will appear. If both seeds germinate in one position, pinch out the weakest. Don’t try to  pull it out or you’ll disturb the one you want to keep. Don’t worry if you don’t get a plant in all sixteen spots as the others will fill the gaps as they grow. Keep the area moist. Pick the biggest leaves regularly to encourage more growth. You can use a large pot or a planter filled with potting mix if you prefer. Sow another square in a week’s time.

All my top seven winter crops can be grown this way. This is based on the Square Foot Gardening method. Try some rocket ‘runway’ – halfway between wild and cultivated rocket. It’s more peppery and serrated than normal rocket and slower to go to seed. When it does go to seed, it ‘seeds freely’ meaning you’ll never have to sow it again.

150g fillet of hoki topped with lemon zest, some dill leaves and and wrapped in a couple of strips of proscuitto. Drizzled with sesame oil and lemon juice and baked for 20 minutes at 180 degrees C. Rested for five minutes and then served with new potatoes and salad.

Now’s the time to sow your greens for winter – cabbage, broccoli, pak choi, lettuces, kale, silverbeet, spinach, rocket, mizuna, mibuna, claytonia and spring onions. If you want to read more about growing winter salad crops, Joy Larkcom is my favourite expert. Root vegetables can go in now too – sow radishes, carrots, turnips and beetroot. With some sunshine and showers forecast, you won’t have to do much watering, just a bit of thinning and weeding. Everything will do better for getting started whilst there’s still some warmth in the soil.

I’ve sown some things in pots and some outside to hedge my bets. I’ve tried some peas and beans in large pots – they’re coming up after a week but I don’t know if I’ll get a crop. I’ll keep everything protected from birds and wind to help things along.

I’ve been doing some preserving. My first foray into jam making resulted in some delicious fresh peach preserve based on a Delia Smith recipe. It will be perfect for spreading on some hot cross buns. I make a secular version, without the crosses, using a spiced, fruit, dough in the bread maker. Fortunately I hadn’t got round to making Christmas cake so I still had some mixed dried fruit to spare in the pantry.

If you’re in the CBD this weekend, Sue Wickison is exhibiting some of her exquisite, award-winning botanical art at the Academy Galleries on Queen’s Wharf in Wellington from this Saturday.

This is based on Delia Smith’s recipe for apricot preserve from her classic book Delia Smith’s Summer Collection: 140 Recipes for Summer. Peaches contain less pectin than apricots so it takes more boiling to get this to set. It’s delicious when you do though – a sweet, sticky summer jam.

1kg peaches

1kg white sugar

juice of a large lemon

teaspoon of butter

Twelve hours before you want to make the jam, slice the peaches into pieces and remove the stones, reserving them for later. Put the fruit in a large pan with the lemon juice and sugar. Cover with a lid and leave for twelve hours to draw out the juice and toughen the fruit so it keeps its shape. Crack the peach stones with a nutcracker to remove the kernels. Put them in a small pan of boiling water for a couple of minutes, then drain them and slip off their skins. Reserve the skinned kernels to add to the preserve later.

Put the pan over a medium heat until the sugar is completely disolved – about 20 minutes. Pour some over the back of a spoon to check there are no granules remaining. Then turn up the heat and let the mixture boil rapidly – a rolling boil for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it sticking.

Put a teaspoonful of the preserve onto a cold plate and put it in the fridge for a minute. Push your finger through the jam – if it forms a crinkly skin it’s set. If not, boil for another 10 minutes. Test again. When it’s set, remove from the heat, add the butter to disperse any scum that’s formed and add the reserved kernels. Let it cool for 15 minutes before pouring it into the warmed sterilised jars*. Seal while still warm and label the jars when cold.

* Wash in hot, soapy water, rinse and heat jars in the oven at 150 degrees C, fill while still warm. Boil seals and lids in a pan of water for a couple of minutes. Remove with tongs and allow to dry.