Winter Solstice

It's just happened here.
So we are on the way to longer days.
There are a few things growing in the yard, namely weeds in the main patch. The weeds will be taken care of soon.

And also a few pretty yumalicious edible greens. (Maybe not the Kale)

Baby lettuce, mustard greens and a few beetroot.

Baby silver beet, endives behind them and pak choy hiding behind them.

The kale which is not very popular here. I had some seeds and threw them in and they germinated well.

A firm favourite here every year.

Snow peas.

And surprisingly, I still have a few small capsicums growing on my plants.

look out for a couple of busy bodies in the picture.

(pic wont behave)

Warm winter day

It has been a busy weekend here. The weather has been marvellous. And a lot got done today.

Before I proceed any further I have to tell you that after looking at today's photos I noticed there was a smudge on the lens. So these pics are a bit blurry in the bottom right hand corner.

I cleaned up a lot of the winter produce today. Once again I have not had any luck with the Brussels sprouts.
They seem to open like a flower instead of staying firm. I ended up pulling them out. One day I hope to grow great Brussels sprouts.

I harvested all of the spinach. Looks like a lot but once it was cleaned up I would estiamte that there was about a 25% loss.

Half of it was blanched and frozen and the other half got used to make spinach and ricotta ravioli, which will be cooked for tomorrow nights dinner.

Which reminds me of the pasta that was made yesterday. Have a look at this. My great grandmother would be proud. Nice thick slices of pasta. when I asked what sort of pasta it is I got told "el thicko". That is good enough for me.

This was eaten with a mushroom sauce and as I have mentioned in a previous post, beware if you can get a steady supply of this stuff. It is addictive.

I should mention here that I am not the cook in the house so I cannot take credit for this. All hail my beautiful pasta making wife.

All of the snow peas were picked and the plants removed. it has not been a good snow pea season. Along with the last broccoli plant some carrots and silver beet. 

Oh. There were also a  few Jimmy Nardello peppers. This plant is still producing. The peppers are very small. But it has been producing all winter. I will probably try and over winter it.

All cooked for tonight's dinner. Vegetarian stir fry. I did want chilli in it and was told no. Oh well.

I should also add that I did start the seed sowing last weekend. Mainly tomatoes, peppers and chillies at this stage. I'll post about my tomato list in the coming weeks.

We are having a bit of a warm spell here at the moment. The weather bureau has warned us that it will not last.
I've been harvesting some winter veggies but have slacked of and not posted pictures of them all.

I got a nice load of chicken manure delivered for the veggie beds. I would prefer sheep manure but I cannot get it and the chicken poo has served me well for the last two years.

This was the first endive harvest a couple of weeks ago. I love these.

The first cauliflower was picked last weekend along with some more broccoli.

And todays lot. Another cauli, broccoli and a few snow peas. Oh look, a stray pepper. Not sure which plant that came from as the Mrs did the harvesting.

I don't think there will be any Brussels sprouts at the moment but time will tell.

Fresh plantings

I planted out some new stuff today. Here's hoping there is a lot of good eating coming up in the next few months.
Not everything was planted but I made a good start.
Cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts that has been started from seed were transplanted into the main bed. I've only tried growing these ones from seed once before and i was not successful so here is hoping they work out. I have had a lot of success with seedlings purchased from the store.

Here are some of the brassicas. Tiny as they are.

Snow peas and silverbeet that were planted about 2 weeks ago.

I also planted some spinach and leek seed today. 

And the egg layers ate lots of goodies again today.

How do i get to the other side of the fence?