Garden & Kitchen

Thyme

I started off this morning (lets call it morning, shall we? Because technically it was) popping down to the markets to deliver Maureen her calendar and collect some $$ from another friend for purchasing three more!! I managed to find Jeff the perfect Christmas Present, but I can’t tell you because he wanders through my blog every now and again!
I also bought these lovely little thyme plants from Maureen’s stall – fifty cents each!!!! She sells lots of seedlings at crazy prices – pretty much because she wants people to get into growing their own food and as she says, 50 cents isn’t much of a risk if it doesn’t work! How fantastic is that?

(Talking of $$ I have now tipped over into the $800 area for my savings to get to Texas next year!!!)

Liliums have started blooming!

It was a lovely day today – as equally nice as it was terribly yesterday! Even though I had indoor tasks to do, I figured I could get onto those when the sun went down (which may explain why I am baking a banana raspberry loaf at 11pm)

Aaaanyway.
Got onto my kelp-juice project.  I collected a feed bag of kelp the other day. Today I washed off a bit of the sand, then dumped it all in one of the big garbage bins and topped it up with water

Slimy job!

Once topped up with water, I put the lid on – job done.
Now I have to wait for a couple of weeks for it to break down into the water a bit, then will decanter into bottles to be then used on the garden.

The hothouse is going really well. The tomatoes are not turning red as yet, but I would be surprised if they did before Christmas. The heirloom capsicums and the chillies that I grew from seed are growing steadily and happily.

The self seeded beetroot is a monster!

Russian Black tomato – thriving in its corner!
Last seasons chillies coming back to life
Fantastic basil with a bunch of self seeding tomatoes!!
Fabulous sized leaves! These were chopped up and added to the salad tonight at dinner
Cucumbers making progress

I went back into the raspberry patch to finish laying the last of the seaweed down that I had.  I think I over estimated the size of the bowl I needed to harvest my 20 raspberries!! 😀

Not many but I was so happy to eat these!

I have also decided that to save on multiple swear words I need to take my pants off to go picking raspberries!!! How many times did I have to stop to unhook my backside from the netting?????
OK – to be fair to passing traffic it makes sense to take a pair of scissors to every button on my gardening pants rather than prancing about in my undies!

Beautiful sweet crunchy snow peas
Unplanned garlic – took them out of the herb garden – at least one is a decent size but they all will taste fine!

We have visitors coming for the day tomorrow, so I pre made up some rissoles (hamburger patties) I am pleased to have some things from the garden to put into the mince… like the beautiful fresh garlic –

Fresh herbs too –

Parsley & oregano

Home made bread, breadcrumbs, home made plum worstershire sauce and a lovely fresh laid egg!

The colour a yolk should be!

It will be easy tomorrow to cook up the patties since the mix is all ready to go. Just add some buns, home made sauces, fresh lettuce, mayo (and of course pineapple!!) and people can make their own.
I’ll even share my home made strawberry ice cream!

Anyway – bedtime for me! Hope your weekends are going along splendidly!

Cheers!

I think the escaping chook broke the stem of this one… so it gets to live inside.

Author: Lisa

A happy traveller through life! Right now living in NW Tasmania with a gorgeous Nurse-Husband, a fool of a Siamese Cat and several chickens. We love our fairly simple lifestyle of growing a lot of what we eat and enjoying the stunning surrounds of our little patch.

6 thoughts on “Garden & Kitchen”

  1. 1. Lisa, where in Texas are you wanting to go? We lived in Texas most of our lives but currently live 35 miles across the border in Louisiana.
    2. It is winter here and I have two tomato plants in my greenhouse. With no bees in there I have a little paint brush to brush all the flowers to get tomatoes. Is this what you do?

    1. Hi Beth! I think I will be going to Corpus Christi which is where my friends live… but I am going for a wedding and the date or specific location is not set as yet! Depending on $$ is how far and long I can range while in the US. Looking forward to it though!!
      I have never had to try the paintbrush thing but I have heard lots of people do that! Insects will also pollinate the plants… doesn’t nec. need to be bees. how lovely to keep tomatoes going over winter! I hope you get some fruit!!

  2. Do you have thornless raspberries? Otherwise, I think you might want to keep your pants on ? I really like seeing your greenhouse in action, I hope to have one in the next couple of years. And kudos to your friend Maureen for sharing the gardening love!! I wonder how many people come back and tell her how she got them into growing some of their own food ☺️

    1. Haha!! There are thorns on the raspberries but they aren’t too bad really – nothing like blackberries, which are diabolical!
      I hope you get a hothouse! Its a fantastic addition to the garden!
      I’ll have to ask Maureen if she gets customer feedback! 🙂

  3. Beautiful as always!!! Um… homemade plum Worcestershire?! Would love to know how you make that! Love making homemade things for the pantry. Hope your guests show up shortly…. the food looks delicious!

    1. Thanks! 🙂
      I will def. share the recipe at some point – just waiting for Ruby’s plums to appear! Its a fantastic sauce. I use it quite a lot in cooking!

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