Worms and Wasabi

There are a number of milestones that our 15month old daughter has achieved recently, such as the ability to eat an entire apple down to it's core with only 4 teeth; say the words "happy" and "thank you", hide dads wallet in obscure locations and scream at a decibel that Joe believes has caused him permanent loss of hearing.  Apart from her ability to dump any valuable item into the toilet without making a splash sound, her other incredible skill which makes us incredibly proud revolves around the simple broad bean. I challenge you to find another 15 month old on this planet who can stealthily slip out the front door, crawl down the front stairs and into the broad bean patch, then pick, shell and devour our beloved broad beans at a disturbingly ravenous rate. We are so proud! If only she could learn to walk....

But I guess, on a more serious note, it is something that we really are proud of, that to our kids, eating from the garden is a normal thing to do. We can send our 3 year old to fetch any number of herbs, as she already knows her basil from her rosemary, and sage from parsley. Our 5 year old gets excited at the prospect of pollinating pumpkins, and understands which broad beans to leave for seed saving on account of their healthy growth and high yields. Kids learn at an incredible rate.

Speaking of children, thank goodness the school holidays are over! Joe has a theory that the wild September breezes have nothing to do with global warming and are in fact caused by the universal sigh of relief from parents all around the world, when their children finally go back to school. Despite the relentless rain during the school holidays we did manage a little fun with a backyard camping session complete with tent, camp-fire with scary storey, marshmallows and two-minute noodles. It was quote - unquote "the best time of my life" , according to our 5 year old son who stoically stayed solo in the tent until brought in by Dad at 9 pm.

A few days later, Joe and N set off on N's first real hike and camp through the Megalong Valley and camping at the Cox's river overnight. It was an initiation. As a 5 and 1/2 year old N had to carry his own backpack, water and distress beacon (which Mum insisted be collected from the local police station). Before arriving at the camp site N had to cross the suspension bridge that spanned the river, if he made it to the other side alive, he was allowed to light the camp-fire.

Casting all rational expectations of a 5 and 1/2 year old aside Dad gave him a manly slap on the back and said "I'll see you on the other side". That night after N had lit his very first camp fire, and had talked in depth about his new found fear of heights to Dad,  he exclaimed in a moment of campfire serenity, quote, unquote "this is the best time of my life"! Only at the age of 5 can you have the 'best time of your life' twice in one week.

happy camper

Egg Eaters Anonymous:

Each morning Henrietta, Billy Holiday, Thelma, Louise, Noella and Georgie (our chickens) enjoy a very balanced breakfast of porridge, silverbeet, left-overs, nasturtiums, pellets and fresh water. In addition we dig up the soil in their coup to expose the hundreds of worms (great for protein) which happily take residence in the now very rich soil. We also let them out most afternoons for an hour or so to scratch around the garden, eat grass seed, bugs and small pebbles (to help with digestion).

chooky breakfast

Despite this wonderful life style and gourmet meals, there seems to be something missing in their lives. Lately, we were shocked to realise that one (or maybe more) of our hens has taken to the shameful and disturbing vice of egg eating.

It seems, from all accounts, egg eating is a heinous disorder from which no hen in living history has ever been corrected, and the only cure for such a fowl act is...the guillotine! the prospect of chopping a chook was daunting, and after some research, we stumbled on an old and less fatal way to correct this behaviour. Step one was to blow out the yolk and white, leaving the shell intact, then refill the egg with ... wasabi. The egg would then be left for the hen to eat it and learn a very nasty lesson indeed! It seemed like a  devilishly good idea, so we put it to the test.

Slinking into the pen with our wasabi laden egg and casually placing it in the middle of the pen, we stood back and watched with giddy anticipation. This will show them, we thought, those deborturous chickens. A little fire and brimstone to set them on the clucky path of righteous non-egg eating. Beedy eyed, they flocked in a sudden frenzy and descended on the egg, tearing it to bits in an instant... then.... nothing.... absolutely nothing... anyone would have thought they liked it! I was devastated.

Later that night, jo and I discussed the options. It was agreed that one of our ladies must learn the way of the Samurai, and get the chop! If anyone has any other alternative, we would be happy to hear it, time is ticking.

'Crap' soil
On a more positive chicken note, we have been using the chickens to help out with reconditioning the soil in our front yard one square metre at a time, by swapping the soil from their chook pen for the clay in our front yard. The chooks make light work of digging around the new clay and mixing it with the rich soil in their pen. As they have been in the same spot for a couple of years, the soil is super rich and packed with worms, which also do their bit to improve the soil.

diggin up some worms for the ladies

Speaking of worms, our worm farm has been great for our spring garden. We use the worm wee as a natural fertilizer on many of our plants, and the worm castings (mixed with sand) make a rich soil for seedlings. All they need in return is some damp newspaper, vegetable scraps and the occasional heap of weeds.

Apart from our bumper crop of broad beans our two potato beds are raging and our tomatoes, crooked neck zucchinis and pumpkins are all off to a flying start. We are also enjoying the first strawberries and mulberries of the season, with a promising amount of blackberries and loganberries on the way too. We have been eating loads of silverbeet, parsley, rocket, rosemary and good ol nasturtiums in salads too.

first strawberries of the season

Our quality control team leap into action

our first crop of Romanesco Broccoli

With only 28 days to go before our first Crop & Swap we are beginning to see more realistically what we will have for the first swap; plenty of eggs, parsley, broad beans, silverbeet, mulberries, macadamia nuts, nasturtiums, chamomile and some home-baked breads. We have had more neighbours and potential crop & swappers stop for chats and email us, everyone sounds as though they are bringing along some great produce.

painting our Crop & Swap sign

Chapter 34:Tick. Tick. Tick....KA-BLOOOM!!!

Garden Make-over

Recently we had two large trees cut down from our front yard. Whilst it is always sad to see a tree go, it has let in a lot more light, which is always a gardening bonus. It's taken some time to get used to not having the trees there anymore. It has been funny watching our neighbours stroll by then looking around in earnest trying to work out whats different. It's like when a friend has waxed their own eyebrows (somewhat frivolously)...you can't quite put your finger on it..."have you had a hair cut? you look different...what is about you today?...ohhh...did you do your own eyebrows?...(awkward silence) they look greeeat."

But unlike spent eyebrows, we put both our trees to good use. We chopped one for firewood and the other was chipped and used for mulch in the garden and community orchard.With loads more sunlight on our frontyard, we expanded the veggie patch. Instead of raised beds, this year we are growing straight into the ground. In preparing the new bed we began by laying down a carpet of old newspapers, then barrowed in a layer of woodchips. Bags of $1 horse manure was spread on the woodchips and then we splurged on some topsoil and sugar cane mulch to finish it off...The patch is now 2mtrs wide by 8 mtrs long, and is set for planting as soon as our seedlings have grown.

Our new extended patch

 Slow Seedlings

 Eons ago, in the depressing dead of winter, we ordered some seems from Diggers, in the anticipation of Spring...we were getting in early...a head start, or so we thought.

Our local Thai is ready in 15 mins, hats off, very impressive. You can order a case of wine online and have it delivered within 3 days...if you cared to you could fly to 'Puke' in Albania in under 24hours...or canoe to New Zealand in...I don't know...2 weeks...or 4 weeks with one paddle....or even six weeks with your bare hands. Receiving our seeds from Diggers....wait for it...took 7 flippin weeks, or for you winos out there 16.3 cases of wine later our seeds had FINALLY arrived. You can imagine our dismay when we realised we had forgotten to order the crookneck zucchinis we desperately wanted. Suuurely there was another option... we purchased our crookneck zucchinis from Eden seeds instead and they arrived 3 days later. Diggers have a great variety but they are notoriously slow. Eden seeds in Brisbane also supply a good range of heirloom and non-hybrid seeds and are speedy with their deliveries.

Found this little hot house in a local council throw out. Score!

Toilet roll seedlings - super easy

 With all our seeds finally ready to go we chopped our toilet rolls, packed them with damp seedling mix and planted a range of heirloom tomatoes including Black Russian, Tommy Toe, Tigerella, Black Cherry, Lemon Drop, Green Zebra, Black Crim, Pink Brandy Wine and Orange Jaune Flamme...they will be a hit at the 'Crop and Swap'. We also planted Golden Midget Watermelon, Queensland Blue Pumpkins, Lebanese cucumbers, beetroot, silverbeet, Purple Dragon carrots and Lantern chillies. We have also planted German Chamomile, Peppermint, Giant Sunflowers, Basil, Coriander, Thyme, Rocket, Fat Bastard asparagus, sweet purple asparagus, sweet potato, kipfler potatoes, royal blues, Desiree's, dutch cream and other varieties. But it doesn't end there, we have planted chokos, passionfruit, kiwi-fruit (which has bloomed), a Cab. Sav. and a Merlot grape vine and three strawberry guavas.



fancy meeting you here

G and her magic home grown asparagus wand

Jane and the Gooseberries

Lately we’ve been spreading the word about the ‘Crop & Swap’, our local fruit and veggie swap starting in Nov has generated a load of local interest. We were chuffed to receive our first piece of mail from a lovely neighbour in our street who also grows her own fruit and veg and is embarking upon an aquaponics venture in the next few weeks. Jane’s lovely letter explained that as a local grower and resident of many years, she has been dying to be part of something like the ‘Crop & Swap’ simply, to be more involved with the community and like-minded gardeners. We visited Jane and her husband, they are delightful and have now invited us to visit their garden and make use of whatever they grow including kiwi-fruit, cape gooseberries (which we have since planted ourselves), calendula, oregano, paw paw, beetroot and parsley. We were equally as excited to find people as enthusiastic about growing food as we are and are thrilled about the possibilities of learning from Jane and her husband in the weeks, months and years to come. So what about the gooseberries...well we tricked you, they’re not gooseberries at all, they are best known as Cape Gooseberries, or Chinese Lantern. They are a distant relative of the tomato and belong to the Nightshade family (potatoes and tomatoes). The fruit grows inside a papery, lantern-like pod (much like a Chinese lantern). Other than the berries, all other parts of the plant are poisonous...whilst we are talking about poison, the red berries on asparagus plants are also poisonous fyi. But back to the gooseberries, they fruit in late winter and apparently are fantastic in fruit salads, adding to jams, dried for meat dishes or just popped into the mouth fresh...we are excited.

a cheeky cockatoo staking out the patch

Community Orchard Part 2:

Speaking of our wonderful local community and neighbours, another 7 trees have been added to our community orchard. Thanks to our wonderful neighbours on Chaseling we planted an apricot, the most exquisite nectarine and a very cool peacharine. We have also planted a Maqui Berry tree, 2 Fig and a Pomegranite tree. The community orchard is now well and truly full. It is great to see neighbours walking through it and checking out the plants. It has become quite the local thoroughfare.

Next post we will tell you more about the adventures of the 'Crop & Swap', hitting the Glenbrook markets, giving away free seeds and heirloom seedlings, planting our seedlings and some of our latest renos.

our nectarine tree in bloom