organic vegetable gardening courses, growing tips and homegrown recipes.
It's a busy time of year picking beans, cucumbers and zucchinis. The trick is to pick them before they get too big - that's why I like yellow zucchinis as they're much easier to spot. These recipes will help out on the zucchini front. Zucchini fritters can be lunch-box fillers, pass-arounds or barbecue fare. Zucchini and corn self-crusting … [Read more...]
The next fresh food garden course will be on Saturday 18 February 2012. I'll happily send gift vouchers if you want to buy a place on one of the courses as a gift. There will be a seed sowing session for sowing winter crops on Wednesday 22 February 2012. FAQs about the fresh food garden course. … [Read more...]
Just over three weeks to Christmas so if you sow some lettuce seeds now you can keep them watered (either in pots or in the soil) so they'll be established enough to survive without watering if you go away. Or you'll have some lettuce to eat from your garden in the New Year. They grow quickly at this time of year and prefer some shade, particularly … [Read more...]
My tomato plants are outside now, tucked into bottomless-pots to keep off the worst of the wind and to stop the birds scratching out the plants. I'll take the pots off when I put up strings to support them once the plants are established. I've put up bamboo canes onto which I'll tie the strings. Here are some more ideas on how to get the best from … [Read more...]
Pastry is a tasty, flexible and waterproof layer that can be formed into a multitude of shapes and sizes. You can substitute one type of pastry for another quite happily in many applications. Although making your own pastry takes a little longer than using ready-made, you control what ingredients it contains and you can make the right amount for … [Read more...]
A slow-cooked stew can be even better in a pasty. It's easier to take to work for lunch in pasty form too. You could use ready-made puff pastry. I made some rough puff pastry. I made four pasties but they seemed a bit big for my taste and I think six or eight smaller ones would be better. 500g left over stew, chopped up small and with most of … [Read more...]
Having made lemon curd, I was looking for a way to use it in a dessert. Cafe Medici in Martinborough used to serve mini lemon curd tartlets that were worth the trip over the hill from Wellington in themselves. The addition of a meringue topping was satisfying because it increased their visual appeal, it used up the two orphaned egg whites from the … [Read more...]
In a household that has plenty of lemons and eggs, lemon curd is a wonderful condiment. Very yellow eggs also mean fantastically yellow curd. It's delicious spread on scones, pikelets or freshly made bread, used as a filling for mini tartlet cases or made into lemon ice-cream by rippling it through slightly softened boughten vanilla ice-cream. You … [Read more...]
Some plants prefer to start life directly in the soil. Others are happy to be moved from being sown in pots. There are benefits and risks for both approaches. I start some beans and corn in pots over heat in September or October. When I transplant them into the garden, I plant them in a grid at about 30cm spacing in both directions. I sow some bean … [Read more...]
Cabbages, cauliflowers, kale, broccoli and other brassicas can be demolished in Summer by cabbage white butterfly caterpillars. You can opt to grow them only in the cooler months to avoid this problem. Or you can use a Dipel spray which is suitable for Certified Organic produce. This spray is effective if you are diligent in applying it but you … [Read more...]
