In Spring and Summer, it’s the fruiting annuals that dominate the planting calendar. In Autumn and Winter, it’s the leafies. This is a big and interesting planting break, the first one for the season in this part of the world when I plant brassicas – kale, cauliflowers, broccoli, cabbages and chinese cabbages.
It hasn’t been a great year for zucchinis. This La Ninã year has been so wet here, that they are only having a short life before succumbing to fungal diseases. The trombochino though is loving it. Because it climbs, the vines and fruit are up off the ground and get better air flow. It’s the difference between growing commercially and home gardening, and one of the reasons why I think…
Since I’ve been making sourdough, over a year now, I haven’t bought bread but I also haven’t bought crispbread. Crisp, seedy biscuit topped with cottage cheese and salad used to be a really regular lunch for me. So I’ve been playing with a homemade sourdough based version, and it’s joined the list of things I like homemade best.
It’s not as photogenic as it was delicious. Green beans in a creamy, nut based mild curry sauce.
I only half believe that plants pay any attention at all to a lunar planting calendar. But humans are another matter.
Rice has long been one of those foods I’m conflicted about. Mainly because of the environmental ethics. I’ve always thought I didn’t have the right conditions for growing it, I didn’t want to contribute to the degradation of the Murray Darling basin by buying Australian rice, and imported rice really isn’t in any version of a 100 mile diet.
We’re picking the very first of the limes, which opens up a whole batch of central American recipes. They’re still a bit green but juicy enough. And the third round of beans for the season are now bearing, so I also now have so many green beans of various kinds that even my favourites – the snake beans – are being allowed to grow out to mature for shelling. So…