In Season in Mid Winter in NSW

June 23, 2011

I’ve been reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, (which is un-put-down-able) and thinking about how lucky we are in Australia.  Our soils are old and mostly not very good.  But a year round growing season is such a bounty. Not many parts of Australia get actual snow, and my garden is pretty near frost free. But [...]

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In Season in Late Autumn

May 2, 2011

Citrus season has started.   We are picking the first of the mandarins, oranges and grapefruit, and we have so many lemons and limes coming on that I don’t even resent the cockatoos getting into them.  This time of year is the one time I get into making a few different preserves.  The wood fire [...]

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Happy Equinox – Celebrating the Autumn Harvest Season

March 21, 2011

Today is the Autumn Equinox.  We are passing one of  the two points in the wheel of the year when the the day and the night are of equal length.  It’s an important marker for gardeners, because from now on the days will be shorter than the nights and shortening fast as we head towards [...]

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In Season in February in Northern NSW

February 9, 2011

This is last year’s “In Season” post for February. It is interesting how different the years are.  This year I will have pomegranates in February, but the wetter year has slowed them down, both in timing and quantity.  Mangoes are bi-ennial and this is their “off” year.  Not a one this year.  And it has [...]

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In Season in November

November 11, 2010

It’s a season of the first of things and the last of things in my garden, as the winter plantings finally end and the first of the spring plantings start to bear. Today I stripped out all the remaining broad beans.  I’ll get a good couple of kilos of shelled beans that we’ll have to [...]

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In Season in October in Northern NSW

October 3, 2010

One of my best childhood memories is stripping down to knickers (so we didn’t get into trouble for staining our clothes) and climbing the mulberry tree, and my kids did the same.  Mulberries are so soft that they are the classic non-marketable fruit.  I have picked a bowl for baking, but really, the only way [...]

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In Season in August in Northern NSW

August 5, 2010

So much is just on the cusp of changing at the moment.  My strawberries are all flowering and before the end of the month I am likely to have berries.  The pawpaws are full size and the first of them just starting to get some colour but realistically it will be next month before they [...]

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In Season in July in Northern NSW

July 1, 2010

I went out to pick some greens for lunch this morning, thinking there’s not so much in the garden this time of year.  Before I knew it though, my basket was full and I was using my shirt to carry the extras.  Winter is a surprisingly good growing season in most of Australia.  Most gardens [...]

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In Season in June in Northern NSW

June 5, 2010

It’s not fair that the bumper season for leafy greens coincides with right when we start lighting the slow combustion stove every night!  I have all the ingredients for wonderful salads going off in my garden. I take a salad for lunch every day, but of an evening these days we are more inspired by [...]

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