This is almost two kilos of ginger. At supermarket prices, that’s nearly $60 worth, and mine is organically grown, fresh and crisp and took really…
Breakfast this morning – homemade Greek yoghurt with the first of the season’s mangoes, the first of the season’s peaches, and the thing I am excited about at the moment, Gudgin, or Ooray, or Davidson’s plum powder sprinkles.
First batch of Ooray jam for the season. I’ve written about Ooray before, but I’ve called it Davidson’s plum. Ooray is the name in some aboriginal languages of Davidsonia pruriens, but the name in Bundjalung language of northern NSW for Davidsonia johnsonii is Gudjin. But so much indigenous knowledge has been lost that if I call it Gudjin jam, almost nobody will know what I mean.
I’ve been bandicooting the yacon for months now, but this morning I harvested the rest – over 10 kg from about 2.5m2 of garden bed. The tubers are sweet and crisp and very good for you. My grandkids love eating fresh yacon just as is, peeled and eaten like an apple straight from the hand. We adults eat it mostly finely sliced in salads, or as batons in stir fries,…
Tamarillos are like a sweet, tart tomato in a tough skin. If you like tart fruit, they are good to eat just out of the hand. To my mind though, the highest use is for tomato sauce. In the tropics and subtropics, fruit fly make bulk organic tomatoes a bit of a challenge. I grow cherry tomatoes for eating and cooking fresh, but I’ve moved to substituting tamarillos for preserving.
I try hard to avoid gluts. It was always a goal even in rural homesteading with lots of room, but I’m even more motivated now in suburbia, where every glut is using space that could have been saving a trip to the supermarket. But I don’t mind full day in the kitchen every so often if the product is worth it.
Too many tomatoes for eating fresh but not enough for passata making yet, so it’s sun drying time. We have a dehydrator but often low tech is easiest. A dark coloured enamel plate with a dark tinted pyrex pie plate in the sun. Halved cherry tomatoes and some sprigs of basil, oregano, thyme. Easy peasy.