t’s a nice planting day today and I’m sort of ready – which is just as well because I have to go out and I’ll only get an hour or so in the garden today. I have advanced seedlings of carrots ready to go out, and places to put them, and seed raising mix for another batch of seed using my standard method for carrots. And the same for beetroot…
I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about gazpacho, until I realised it was the look of it, not the taste, that was uninspiring. The problem with gazpacho is always the colour. If you use red tomatoes and capsicums, but then mix them with green cucumbers and capsicums, you end up with a kind of khaki that doesn’t look very appetising. But its the season of red and gold, and in…
I have Principe Borghese and yellow cherry tomatoes. Both varieties are chosen for their fruit fly resistance and mildew resistance (autumn is often wet here), and they will cope with cold, so I expect them to keep bearing well into winter now. I have one Blackjack zucchini. There are several bearing now, and the tromboncino. I’m learning not to overdo it on zucchinis! I have a couple of Rod’s Lebanese…
I spent a couple of hours making corn vadai and azuki vadai and eggplant and beetroot pakora and zucchini muthia, and I really needn’t have bothered cos there were two clear favourites on the platter, and they were the quickest and easiest ones – the muthia and the pakoras.
The thing I love about snake beans is that you pick all these today, and tomorrow there’s the same amount again. And the other thing I love about snake beans is cutting them into finger lengths, lightly blanching, and dressing with a garlic-olive oil-balsamic-soy-honey dressing while they are hot.
Over 40ºC (104ºF) again yesterday, and it looks like it will get up there again today. But meanwhile, if life gives you lemons a good permaculturist makes lemonade. So if life gives you a heat wave, a good permaculturist forgets making tomato passata and puts all that lovely solar energy to work making sun dried tomatoes instead.
Over 40ºC (104ºF) again yesterday, and it looks like it will get up there again today. But meanwhile, if life gives you lemons a good permaculturist makes lemonade. So if life gives you a heat wave, a good permaculturist forgets making tomato passata and puts all that lovely solar energy to work making sun dried tomatoes instead.
It’s still a bit early for brassicas. The cabbage moths will still be active for another four months or so here. Except for brussels sprouts. Shall I bother with brussels sprouts this year? I am in a very marginal climate for them at the best of times and it’s not the best of times. If I’m going to plant them at all, I have to plant now and nurse them…
The Recipe: Chargrilled Summer Vegetables with Grilled Garlic and Yoghurt Sauce
This recipe is frugal on the work and energy, but really it’s not for the sake of keeping mangoes I make pickles. It’s for the sake of a condiment, a little bit of flavour sparkle to go with curries or dhal, or on crackers with cheese. Just a little spoonful of a really good Indian pickle can make a very plain lentils and rice dish seem like a feast.