Winter

Roots and Perennials Planting Days after Imbolc

by Linda on August 5, 2012

Today in my community we are getting together for a little bit of visioning and stone soup lunch to celebrate the point in the calendar when the lenthening days turn the corner and all of a sudden Spring is on its way.  If you graph the change in length of day, for the last three months it’s been barely changing, slowly slowly falling towards the winter solstice, then slowly slowly rising. Round about now though, it goes over the flattish hump on the top and start to dive steeply towards the equinox then on towards the long days of summer.  If you are in the northern hemisphere, all that is reversed.

The Celts called it Imbolc, which literally means “in the belly”.  Spring, though it may not show yet, is already here with its promise of new life, of sun and warm and dreams and ambitions and new projects. My chooks know it – they’ve started laying again.  The geese know it – the two adult males scrap without really hurting each other, then run around with their wings out like soccer players with their shirt over their head, loudly proclaiming victory.  The ducks know it – they’re investigating all sorts of weird places for nest suitability, even though both drakes were got by foxes this winter so sadly there will be no ducklings.

I’m hoping the asparagus hasn’t quite caught on yet, because the alternative explanation is that the wallabies are still getting in somewhere and having asparagus feasts every night. I’m still really cross about the way they completely decimated my nasturtiums and mint and lemon grass and vietnamese mint, all in one night, after finding a tiny little hole forced through by a bandicoot.

And it’s time for me to get back into my garden properly again, after several months of really neglecting it.  I find that, if I manage just a few hours every week, it just keeps producing. But if I miss just a few weeks, the jobs that need to be done before the next job start to pile up and it all falls in a heap and my blithe “so easy to grow at least the basics of food” starts to sound really hollow!

Roots and perennials planting days today and tomorrow, and I’m going to get these seed potatoes in the bed that I’ve just moved the chooks off, and plant a new round of carrots, spring onions, beetroot, Jerusalem and globe artichokes in the shadehouse.  I shall use my usual method for the spuds, planting them straight out into the bed, my usual method for the carrots and spring onions, planting them in individual little biodegradable pots, and my usual method for the beets, planting the seed in a seed box.  And, with any luck I’ll get some time to look at all my perennial herbs and see what needs dividing, transplanting, or replacing at this still secret very start of the growing season.

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In Season in Late Winter

by Linda on August 1, 2012

I have been soooo busy lately, my garden and in season pages are way out of date!! An end to the crazy busy is in sight, and I’m dreaming of a time when I can get a bit more inspired and creative with my blog.  But meanwhile, just so’s the last In Season post is a late winter one, I thought I’d recycle last year’s, with some updates.

We’re eating broccoli and snow peas at just about every meal now, and started harvesting cauliflowers.  We have silver beet and kale coming out our ears. I didn’t plant cabbage this year, as I had so much self-seeded chinese cabbage.  This is the time of year to appreciate all the brassica family.  Not too much longer now and keeping the cabbage moths off them will be too much of an effort. It’s also the time of year to make the most of spinach and silver beet.  Those big green leaves need a lot of water!

The raddicchio are hearting. I realise I haven’t posted any recipes for them – something I’ll have to rectify! The peas and the broad beans are flowering and it won’t be long before I can start picking brussels sprouts.  This is the peak of the season for leafy greens here, so there’s lettuces of several kinds, beautiful crisp green celery,  lots of rocket, and as much of the leafy annual herbs - parsley, coriander, dill as we like. Asparagus is just about to start.

Parsnips are fantastic this time of year, and carrots and leeks and spring onions and beets are all still in season.

The citrus season is getting near the end, and the berry season not too far off.  But we still have lots of lemons, the last of the mandarins, navel oranges,tangelos, grapefruit and the very last of the limes.  Avocados are at the peak of their season round here, with several varieties all harvesting at once. Custard apples are in season, and the strawberries are flowering. We managed to salvage some bananas from the bush turkeys, but it’s probably just cruel to mention them!

Our macadamia nuts have finished but they are still picking them locally so I’m making the most of the last of the season.

So that’s the ingredients I’m basing my cooking around at the moment, and it’s giving me lots of options!

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Cauliflower Cheese Soup

by Linda on July 26, 2012

Second of the cauliflower season Tuesday Night Vego Challenge recipes. It’s an oldie but a goodie.  This is a fairly low fat, low GI version of the ultimate cold winter night comfort food. I like cauliflower cheese soup kept very simple, and I find adding potato tends to make it gluggy, so this version has no potato and low fat cottage cheese.

The Recipe:

For two adult dinner serves.

Gently sauté an onion in a little olive oil in a large, heavy pot with a tight fitting lid, or a pressure cooker.

As it softens, add

  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped,
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ½ teaspoon dill seeds
  • grating of black pepper

As soon as the seeds start popping, add ½ cauliflower, stems and all, chopped into flowerettes, along with 2 cups of vegetable stock. If your stock is homemade, you may like to add a pinch of salt too, depending on how salty you make your stock.

Simmer for around 15 minutes or pressure cook for 5, until the cauliflower is quite soft, then add

  •  ½ cup of low fat milk.
  •  ½ cup of low fat cottage cheese
  •  ½ cup of grated tasty cheese 

Blend until it is very smooth.  I find my stick blender the best tool for this, but you could use a food processor or even pass it through a mouli or sieve.  I like cauliflower soup very smooth.

Put it back on the heat and bring it back up to temperature, stirring all the time and not boiling. If you boil it at this stage it will curdle, and if you don’t stir, it will stick.  It just needs to be brought back up to eating temperature. Taste and add salt if needed.

Serve with a sprinkle of chopped dill as garnish and some good wholegrain toast for dipping.

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Greek Crumbed Cauli

July 18, 2012

Does it seem odd eating just one vegetable for dinner?  We do it quite often. Variety is the key in nutrition, but it doesn’t all have to be in the one meal.  I also love platter meals, where dinner is served on one platter for everyone to help themselves from, rather than individual plates. It’s [...]

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Saag with Cottage Cheese

July 10, 2012

Saag just isn’t photogenic. Unfortunately, because it is very delicious, and I have bucketloads of silverbeet (chard if you are not in Australia)  in the garden at the moment and saag is one of the very best recipes I know to use bucketloads of it (and still want to come back for more tomorrow). Saag [...]

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Silver Beet Sourdough Gozlemes

October 26, 2011

I saw outside the local fruit and veg shop yesterday buckets of fresh, local, organic silverbeet at $1.50 a bunch.  (Chard if you are not in Australia). Someone else obviously has silverbeet going nuts – hardly surprising.  It is the time of year for it.  My Italian silverbeet has all gone to seed now, but [...]

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The Breakfast Challenge – Cheesy Broccoli Omelette

October 6, 2011

This recipe is a riff on Mollie Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest, or at least it owes some heritage to that inspired combination of broccoli, lemon, eggs and cheese – which you wouldn’t think would work but it so does. I’m still picking lots of broccoli side shoots every day and using every broccoli recipe in [...]

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The Breakfast Challenge – Oat Risotto

September 2, 2011

It’s not fair. My partner went to the doctor for a minor thing, and because he is a male of a certain age who almost never goes to the doctor, and because she is good and thorough, he came away with a blood test. Which gave him a clean bill of health and very good [...]

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Some for Us and Some for the Chooks

August 31, 2011

I’m loving the selection of greens in my garden this time of year.  There’s such an abundance, I pick some for us and some for the chook bucket every day.  It gives us eggs with glorious deep yellow yolks and lots of Vitamin A. The lengthening days are starting to show in all the early [...]

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