Showing posts with label artichokes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artichokes. Show all posts

Friday, 21 October 2011

Have not posted for a few weeks.
Some picture might say a lot more than I can right now.

Tomato seedlings about 3 weeks ago.


Nearly all of the remaining tomato seedlings as of today. A lot will get given away.




The last of the carrots got picked about a week ago. The season was not too bad.


The asparagus has been steady but unfortunately there is not enough of it.


Got an artichoke harvest.



Roasted in the oven and served with a shoulder of lamb.


I have not had much success with capsicum germination this year, just a few so far and very late. So I had to use store purchased peppers and capsicums.


The main vege patch. Potatoes on the left and plenty of tomatoes on the right. I have planted 20 plants and will be planting a few more. Leeks can be seen as well.


Some non related yard shots. 
Home made dumplings for home-made wonton soup. 


Then someone had the bight idea of frying them. It was all over at that stage.
I ate about 3 times what is seen in the below picture.


And finally. Taking a walk on a windy plain.



Sunday, 25 September 2011

First planting

Planted the first of my seedlings today in the vege patch. Eighteen corns. Stupidly enough I didn't take a picture of these babies in the patch. But I do have one of them in the punnet before planting out.
They are Golden Bantam variety and it is the first year I am trying this variety out. I've heard it is not so sweet but that is ok as I usually slather my corn with salt and butter so there is no room for sugar.



I think next weekend I will remove my artichokes to make room for more productive plants in the front yard. Whilst I love artichokes  there is not enough plants to get a good harvest all at once. Having one artichoke at a time is a tease I cannot live with. Sort of like what is happening with the asparagus. I did get a couple of scraps after the kids got stuck into it.



 I suppose I can dig up the dreadful lawn at the front and fill the area up with artichokes. hmmmm, maybe one day...
So I picked the largest artichoke before it flowered up.



Then I promptly peeled it back to get to it's heart.


And I scoffed it down raw. Uncooked. Yes I know that is ruthless but sometimes you have to be.  Wasn't too bad either. Not the way I would usually eat artichokes but there was not much of this one after it got peeled.

I also have a couple of the purple ones growing. They seem to be smaller that the standard green ones. Maybe it is because the plants are still smaller.



My tomato seedlings are coming along quite well. Depending on the weather this week I may start planting them out next weekend.



Cucumbers are coming along as well joined by the zucchinis. None of the zucs are in the pic below but there are a few about.



Run to the hills...........


Sunday, 28 August 2011

Another lovely day here and a lot of work got done again.
I really should have taken the before shot of the patch out the front but I was focused on weeding it in good time. This is where some artichokes, rhubarb, African basil, sage, nasturtiums, bamboo, hops and some barley alive passion fruit  are growing. I think that is all.

The weeds were out of control. About eleven  twenty litre buckets and three hours later there was some semblance of a veggie patch.


If you look closely you can see blue snail pellets. Shock , horror...yes I do use stuff like that when I have to.
Now may be a good time to mention that in the last two to three weeks I have personally crushed about 2-300 hundred snails.
It seems I have had an infestation of sorts and I really need to eliminate them as much as possible. Since I cannot use snail pellets in the back yard due to our animals I have to seek them out and squash them.
Clearing out the front patch today I squashed another fifty or sixty of them.
The only animal that is smart enough to not eat the pellets is the cat. Cat is also an excellent mouser.
The dog (story for another day) and the chickens are gutses and will eat a lot of things they should not.


Early in the morning my wonderful wife used up the remainder of spinach from last weekend.
Some spinach and ricotta rolls with home made flaky pastry were prepared.
They made a great lunch.

Here they are before they were cooked.



Cooked and nearly ready to eat.


The main patch has two cauliflowers, carrots, leeks, lettuce and silver beet left in it.



The garlic is still going ok. I hope to harvest a few bulbs in the next couple of months.


And the two types of parsley that are always growing next to the oregano and mint are still providing us with this much loved herb.


Finally..after all that green is a picture of a chilli plant that has been alive over winter. As you can see there are  still a few fruit on it. Not sure of it's name but there is a medium heat to the fruit.