Donuts

This is post of the blue but I must say these are some of the best donuts I have ever had. 

Made yesterday afternoon and tasted just as good today.

Kudos to the cook/s.

More gardening stuff to follow.

Spring

Is finally here for us.
Not as much got done this weekend as I would have liked but nevertheless progress is being made.

Some potatoes got planted. These are Desiree of which there are two kilos. One kilo of Nicola was also planted out.

I picked a few more carrots. Not much luck with them. I have mentioned in the past that I cannot seem to grow large ones. Maybe my soil needs adjusting.

The second last cauliflower was picked. That will be eaten with tomorrow nights dinner.

And finally. The asparagus is starting to show up. We started eating some last year and I hope the plants produce well this year. There are seven plants in total.

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.

The warm weather has continued all week and I have continued preparing the beds for future planting.
Four more days and winter is over here.

Harvested some endives and a cauliflower for tonights dinner.

Some of my tomato seedlings are starting to emerge.

And here is a picture of my dwarf lemon tree growing in an old dryer stainless steel tub.

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.

Slim pickings

It is the first week of the last month of winter here and i want to clear the patch up and start preparing it for the coming summer.
That means tomatoes. Lots of them hopefully. I am already salivating at the thought of fresh home grown varieties.
I'm starting to clear the patch out and hope to have it cleared and piled up with manure in the next two weekends. What I plan and what actually happens is not always the same, so I'm going to try my hardest.

Here is todays small harvest. Nearly all the broccoli and some snow peas. I pulled one of the carrots to see how they are going and they seem ok. There was a couple of stray potato plants in amongst the snow peas and when I pulled this one there were these two tiny spuds attached to it.

No escape for the baby potatoes. In the pot they go for tonights dinner.

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.

Winter chilli harvest

I cleaned up three more chilli plants today. One goatsweed and two cayenne's.

The goatsweed are supposed to over winter well in our mild winters and I reckon that is true as it still looks very healthy.

It is lovely to get such bright colours in the middle of winter.  And a bonus being able to use them in certain dishes.

The Goatsweed

Sad looking Cayenne. At least the fruit is good.

Goatsweed chillies

Cayenne chillies

Goatsweed on the left and Cayenne on the right. These will warm up a few more of the coming winter nights.

Rainy winter day

We are nearly half way through winter by the calendar and today was 54 seconds plus of daylight according to the time and date website. And tomorrow we get an extra 2 seconds on top of that. Hooray for the coming longer days and tomato season.

I did need to finish mowing the lawns this weekend but by the time I was ready to start in the early afternoon the rain was coming down soaking everything. So I occupied myself with weeding in the main veggie patch. Not my favourite past time but it needs to be done.

Some of the broccoli was ready today. A couple of the cauliflowers are about golf ball size and the Brussels sprouts are tiny.

It was picked for tonight's dinner.

The garlic is coming along ok.

And there is still a few Jimmy Nardello Peppers hanging around.

Winter is moving along and the short days are not so cold at the moment.
It has been a nice and sunny weekend here for us. Most of the winter stuff is growing ok. Apart from the snow peas which are unfortunately trying to grow under a gum tree. There will be a harvest but not as much as previous years.

The broccoli is heading up and I am sure I will get a few cauliflowers but am still not sure about the Brussel sprouts. I have not had success yet with sprouts so I will keep nurturing those plants along in hope of some edible goodness in the near future.

Brassicas 

Brassicas, spinach, silver beet top right and snow peas top left.

And who says you cannot grow chillies in winter.

These ones are still going strong from last summer.

Jalapenos

And probably my favourite chilli. So versatile. Not too hot and great for drying.

Cayenne.

Winter is here

It's nice and cold here at the moment and it can be hard getting motivated sometimes.
The winter produce is coming along pretty good. I'm a bit worried about the horseradish as something keeps eating the tops so I'll have to wait and see how it  goes.
Some more pictures of what is currently growing.

Garlic. Sourced from locally grown product.

The brassicas are growing well. I hope they produce.

Spinach

Silverbeet

 Leeks

 Lettuce and endive

Carrots

And finally for a bit of red a picture of a giant aconcagua taken about two weeks ago.Most of these peppers were picked last week and stuffed. These will definitely be on my growing list next season.