organic vegetable gardening courses, growing tips and homegrown recipes.
Here are some more or less gardening related gift ideas, to add to last year's ten vegetable gardening gift ideas. I'll send a gift card if you'd like to give someone a place on the fresh food garden course. Next one is Saturday 28 January 2012. 1 The best pair of secateurs money can buy - everyone one loses a pair (or ten) in their … [Read more...]
I bought a kit from the Mushroom Gourmet and got a wonderful crop after a few weeks. There will be two or three more flushes if I'm lucky. You get a box filled with straw and send away for the spores. You soak the straw, add the spores and wait for a few weeks for the mushrooms to grow. Alternatively if you're in the Wairarapa you can buy mushroom … [Read more...]
This was my first attempt at home hot-smoking. I put a piece of fresh salmon (about 500g boned with the skin on) on a grid in a roasting pan lined with aluminium foil with a handful of sawdust at the bottom. I sealed it with a double layer of foil in a tent over the top. I used macrocarpa sawdust which gives the food a very distinctive … [Read more...]
This magnificent beetroot is 'chioggia'. It looks even better grated. If you fancy some beetroot you can sow them now using my 'seven tips for growing root vegetables'. Beetroot 'seeds' are a cluster of seeds in a corky husk so if you sow what appears to be one, you may get three or four seedlings. You can fit 16 in a square 30cm by 30cm (4x4) so … [Read more...]
I made this dip to have for lunch with some carrot and apple slices. Tess enjoyed the apple core and ends of the carrot so it was a lunch we could share. It's surprisingly sweet and goes rather well with raw vegetables. I didn't add any salt as it seemed seasoned enough from the salt in the cheese. If you don't like broad beans you may still like … [Read more...]
I love carrots, beetroot, radishes and turnips from the garden. I never seem to grow enough of them. You could sow some this weekend. 1 cultivate the soil - the root is going to have to push its way down through the soil so give it a head start by lifting the soil with a fork or digging it over, particularly in heavy clay soil. They are … [Read more...]
Rodriguez, the rooster, now has chickies all over Wellington. If you'd like to raise some of your own, you'll need some tips for raising chicks and a broody hen. I sell fertile chicken eggs and my neighbour has turkey chicks for sale. Please email me if you are interested in either. We had a beautiful day for the Ohariu Valley garden ramble … [Read more...]
I've mulched round my pumpkins with cocoa husks and the whole garden smells delicious. I still put a bottomless flower pot over the plant to protect it from wind and bird scratching. Mulching your soil is the easiest thing you can do to improve it. You can use straw, seaweed or bark but Whittaker's cocoa husks look lovely and smell even better. … [Read more...]
