It’s the southern hemisphere equinox at 3.30 pm today, the moment when the earth is exactly half way on its journey round the sun between the short shadow full face to the sun days of midsummer, and the long shadow late mornings and early evenings of midwinter. In gardening terms, it’s time to start planting things that need the threat of winter to persuade them to store food- garlic and…
Cucamelons (or mouse melons – Melothria scabra) were all the rage there for a year or two. For those who missed it, they’re little, melon shaped cucumbers. Very cute. And very, very prolific.
I think most rural areas in Australia at least would benefit hugely from a big population influx of people intent on creating a simple green frugal lifestyle. But in reality, the majority of the population lives in cities, and it is there that the real work of creating change needs to be done, and will have the biggest effects, for all of us.
This is straight hot sauce – just chilies, vinegar and salt. Depending how hot your chillies are, it can be anything from magma to mildly spicy. Its simplicity is its strength – you can add it to anything without muddying flavours.
I cleaned my bathroom for this photo. I weeded the fig in the pot. I hung the maroon towels because they look much prettier against the dark aqua wall than the torn barbie doll beach towel. I threw out the old luffa. Cleaning done.
It’s a bunya year, and easy to see why they are a feasting food for multitudes. We’ve been eating them just sauteed in butter and garlic, or made into pesto, or used as a dipping stick, or stirred into stir-fries or curries, just about every day. Bunya batter is a nice find though, worth sharing. Recipe:
Olives are easy to process. You just have to allow them time. I pick them over to remove any damaged ones, then put them in big glass jars and cover with water and drain and change the water every day for a fortnight. This is the work part. The rest is mostly just waiting.
Peeled, the red eggplants work in just about any eggplant recipe. They are a bit more bitter and I tend to pick them green, just as the colour turns for most recipes. Unpeeled and fully ripe, they work brilliantly in an Indian style eggplant pickle.
The figbird is not the only one nesting in our pecan tree, just off the verandah. The wagtail makes such a classic, neat nest. Come on baby wagtails. Hatch in time to knock out the cabbage moths.
There is a Marge Piercy poem that I think perfectly sums up zucchini called Attack of the Squash People. I think of it every year around this time. I learned some time ago to plant just a couple of zucchini seeds at a time, but then I discovered tromboncino.