Potatoes

I was checking out The Kitchen Playground this morning, admiring the variety of potatoes in the first photo. It inspired me to get into gear and write a post about our own spuds.

We dug up our potatoes ages ago. Even I was impressed with the crop: about four bucketfuls. We ate the tiny, knobbly ones that first night and have been steadily making our way through the rest since then. After digging them out of the ground Anthony and I painstakingly checked each potato for any cuts or torn skin, gave them a brush and then stored the best ones in an old pillowcase inside a nappy box, high on a shelf in our downstairs laundry where it is cool, dark and dry.

Here are the Pink Firs washed and ready for cooking:


Here they are boiled, buttered and salted:


Of course they didn't last long!

The potatoes we planted came from The Digger's Club. We planted the Gourmet Potato Combo: 8 seed potatoes each of the Bismark, Dutch Cream, Pink Fir Apple and Kennebec varieties.

Sunflowers

I took these photos late one afternoon recently, sitting in the backyard with the babies while AJ toiled over the vegies. A thunderstorm was rolling in, much like the one going on outside right now. For weeks, every time I passed the sunflowers I'd made a mental note to return with the camera but I didn't get around to it until most of the flowers were well past their prime. Now I need to get around to collecting the seeds. I didn't plant these for any particular reason, there's just something about the flowers. I love them.

More of the same at Flickr.

A Basketful Of Tomatoes

Picked yesterday.

Still At It

We've been away, busy with other things, tiresome doctor's appointments, etc. Blah, blah, blah.

We've been immersing ourselves in All Things Hugh. I discovered an archive of his newspaper columns and have been slowly working my way through those. Anthony gave me The River Cottage Family Cookbook for Christmas and we've been trying some of the recipes. And eating dinner while watching Hugh on TV has become a very satisfying weekly family ritual.

We've been plodding along outdoors, avoiding the midday heat, doing bits and pieces at either end of the day. We've harvested potatoes, replanted zucchinis, corn and cucumbers, picked limes, podded "past it" beans and tied up our feral tomato plants. We're yet to attack the overgrown back vegie bed.

This morning I read and enjoyed this article about Victory Gardens, found via Apartment Therapy.

I wish I could post photos straight from my computer. There are so many I need to upload. :-)

New Plans For A Bed

Tomorrow / later today we attack the side vegie bed. The potatoes have died back, which means they should be ready to dig up. It seems awfully early but who knows? Hopefully they will be ready.
(This is an older photo - the plants are now completely dead and on the ground.)


We over-planted the zucchini and Anthony has resolved to rip them all out and start again. The zucchinis that do grow seem to rot easily and the plants have developed mildew - something that happens every year but usually not until much later (or maybe we just planted earlier this year...?). It's hard to get between the plants, which means that rather than the fun it should be, searching for zucchinis is a chore.


The cucumbers will stay, but need a tidy up. We'll re-thread the vines along the trellis and with luck will pick a couple of ripe cucumbers tomorrow.

Anthony wants to re-plant the bed with corn but I'm leaning towards the tried and tested, low maintenance option: a pumpkin vine.

Christmas Bush

Funnily, a renewed interest in recording the goings-on in our garden coincides with my final "week" of work for the school term. As if my brain couldn't cope with thinking about two things at once.

The picture shows the largest of our NSW Christmas Bush trees. When we arrived here four and a half years ago the only plants in the garden were the Mango tree and a few scraggly specimens of Christmas Bush.

I've grown to love this tree. I love the way it attracts all sorts of birds to our garden. I like the boxes we added to provide nests for birds but have instead become homes for frogs and ants. I love the way that every year when I finally pause to look out the window after a mad few weeks of assessing and reporting, I know it's December 1st because the tree has turned completely red.

Right now the garden is an overgrown, over-planted jungle. I have so many photos to post. There are so many jobs to do. I'm glad it's almost the holidays.

I can smell a Christmas cake cooking in the oven.

:-)

Baby Fruit

NectarinesWhite Nectarines
Plums
Strawberries
Mangoes