We thought it was going to be one of those super bumper years for mangoes, like 2010, when the trees were flowering, but it’s turned into just an average good season. Mangoes are biennial, and this is the good year, but it has been a bit wet around flowering time to be a huge year. Still though, we have enough that mangoes have to be one of the two fruit.
Strawberries are still the star fruit in my garden, but the tussle for number two is hot. There’s still a paw paw a day most days, and though the fruit fly sting most of our stone fruit, there are enough early peaches and plums on the tree to just share them with the chooks – they like the stung spot with its little grub the best. But I think number…
The easy way, they all say, is two fruit and five veg a day. It fits the Witches Kitchen definition of good food. If you eat mostly fresh, local, in season produce, the rest isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference, to your health, the planet’s health, or your wallet’s health.
Aren’t they gorgeous? These are the strawberries in the new patch. It really does make a huge difference to the yield to replant strawberry runners in a new patch, with fresh compost and lots of mulch.
A neighbour is killing a couple of their free range male ducks today, and putting on a duck stone casserole dinner. Stone casserole is another…
We’re eating broccoli and snow peas at just about every meal now, and just about to start harvesting cauliflowers. We have silver beet and kale coming out our ears and as much cabbage of various kinds as we can eat. 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.…
There are lots and lots of pleasures to gardening – fresh food, creative space, exercise, frugality – but one of the very best of them has to be this.