Unfurling - Day 88 of 365

Purple Flowering Snow Pea (Fruit) - Day 87 of 365

Oops. Missed One - Day 86 of 365

I was wondering why the crookneck squash seemed to stop setting fruit.  Then poking through the foliage I found this "little" specimen.  

Getting There - Days 82 - 85 of 365

These were not taken on the day's involved.  The thought of lifting the camera until today was just too overwhelmingly complex.  

Precious Harvest

 Silverbeet (Chard) Bolting

 Dill - Seed Head

Silverbeet (Chard) Pre-Flower

On Sickleave

If I could string more than a sentence together I probably would.. but as it is I don't expect to be blogging until Monday.

For Those in Vic it's Petty's Apple festival this week

Perpetual Food - (Welsh) Bunching Onions

When you are growing your own there are certain times of year that simply seem to rush by in a flurry of seed sowing, germination and transplanting.  This perpetual food series is something I am developing to highlight perennial food crops that can reduce the load of annual planting, just a little.

The first year I bought seed for Welsh Bunching Onions I totally missed the point.  In fact at the time I really thought I was simply buying spring onion seed.  There was nothing in the seed description that made me sit up and take notice, it was simply the only non-bulbing onion that Cornucopia seeds, based in Victoria, sold at the time.  Their description now tags them as perennial and I suspect the change is due to the fact that many like me didn't realise that if they put off harvesting that first season they would do something even more exciting than set seed.

It was only due to the fact that one of them got planted in an out of the way area of the ornamental garden that one of the green bunching onions got to show me it's true habit.  If you leave them in the ground long enough they sort of send out side shoots.  I say sort of because it actually starts within the outer layers of the original plant.  In cases where the bunch is left long enough that out layer will often split, under the pressure of the new growth, but they don't actually need to be left that long before they are separated

These can then be divided when each "stem"  has it's own roots.  These divided plants when given their own space will then each form a bunch.

The process of Division

Dig up the clump and lift it out of the hole.  

Remember to give yourself a nice big bunch of soil as you want to avoid severing roots if possible.  

Gently shake as much soil from the roots as you can to allow you to see what you are doing.  

The more soil you are able to remove the easier it is to untangle the roots from each other without breaking them. 

Swishing them in water works well but I didn't have a bucket with me today.

 Once you have cleaned away the soil you will see that each section is connected at a point on the base of the stem, just above the roots.  Use your secateurs or a knife to severe this section and create independent stems.

At this point you're ready to replant any you don't wish to cook with to start the process again.

**Pictured above is a Red Welsh Bunching Onion, they also come in green where the bottom of the stem is the standard white colour common to spring onions.**

Foggy Gifts - Day 81 of 365

Glimpse of Things to Come - Day 80 of 365

Putting My Positive Foot Forward

Well, last week was The Meltdown.

This week is The Refocus, The Restructure and The (Re)-build.  Thus to kick it off I started building things a finishing projects that I had the equipment for.

The highest priority of those right now is the the seasonal row covers.  Needing to plant while the white cabbage butterfly is still extremely active means having the ability to protect our vegetable growing areas is really important.

In the past I have used a few reasonably ineffective and highly temporary solutions that caused more headaches than they solved.  As a result one of my projects this year was to devise a reasonably inexpensive and easy to move structure that would allow the gardens to be easily covered without a whole lot of woo-ha.  The plan, being a semi permanent "hoop system" that will only being moved when absolutely required.

In my case it didn't  need to support heavy loads,  All it is going to be required to hold up is a length of netting, or during cold years possibly some poly tunnel plastic, but being stable to the ground is very important.  We get a lot of wind during Spring and Autumn.  I need to know that the netting, or plastic isn't going to end up wiping out plants on a regular basis.

I have known the generalities of how I wanted to do this for a while.  I wanted, to use an idea I have seen in a much bigger scale on many permie properties, irrigation pipe over stakes.  My main problem was that I didn't want to end up spending a heap of money and large diameter irrigation pipe is an "investment" as well as being totally over the top for my needs.

The stability and support I would get out of 16mm , domestic dripper, pipe would be enough for my engineering needs.  The problem is I couldn't find a supporting stake that would be strong enough not to break, under load, in our wind that was less than 16mm.  The strength of the stake, and my ability to bash it firmly into the ground, was integral to the structural integrity of the end product.  Thus this important project has been sitting on the back burner waiting for me to get back to it for quite a while.

After the fiasco of my first Autumn plantings this year in February I got determined.  Enter a trip to Bunnings where I had no idea what I was going to buy but I did know what I wanted to find, a strong small diameter stakes around a meter high.  So I found myself walking into the garden section a little anxious.  Really apart from what I was planning to use this for, what other function could there be for something that met those criteria.

I did a quick glance around and saw all the usual suspects.   The bamboo was thin enough, and small enough but definitely not strong enough.  The wooden tomato stakes were strong enough, and short enough but way too wide. The metal stakes, too wide, too long, too long, too long, ohhh what's that.  As my eyes fell on a metal "flower stake".

"A what!" An 8mm diameter, 0.9m tall plastic coated metal stake designed to support showy top heavy flowers.  I was in little fits of delight as I scooted to the irrigation department and snagged myself a roll of irrigation pipe.  Hurried back to the stakes and married pipe to stake just to be sure it wasn't a mirage, that it was going to fit closely enough not to slop around all over the place.  It worked.. it really truly worked.  I could feel the harmony of it as I scooped up 20 of them and headed for the register.

By the time A had come home there were all these little hoops standing up all over the garden.    A little later we got out there together with a tape measure and made the span a reasonably consistent 1m, as my original efforts had wandered all over the place.

Last but not least last weekend I broke out the netting that I bought and made the dream a reality.  Now I just have to remember to hand pollinate the round zucchini for a few weeks :-)

Standin' High and Lookin' Long - Day 79 of 365

A view of Melbourne from SkyHigh Lookout Mt Dandenong/Kalorama.

If you have the option go up to Sky High at night the suburban and city lights are spectacular.

Seed to Seed (Cherokee Wax Bean) - Day 78 of 365

Savouring the Blue - Day 77 of 365

Spelt Olive Oil Crackers

You know those those days when you get to lunch time, process the fact you have a "bring a plate" event that night and the housekeeping money is in transit, thus attainable by no one..

My fall back in these situations are crackers.  They're reasonably quick, easy and most important pantry friendly.

The main thing to keep in mind with this recipe is that the quality of your salt and oil will make or break this recipe.  In situations where you feel that the ingredients available are less than great simply ensure that you sprinkle some sesame seeds over the uncooked dough to give things a bit more bounce.

Spelt Olive Oil Crackers
Ingredients
2C white spelt flour
1 3/4 wholegrain spelt flour
1 C water (warm)
1 tsp salt (good quality lake or sea salt preferred)
1/3 C olive oil

Directions
Dissolve your salt in boiling water.  Let sit and allow the temperature to come down to warm.

In your mixing bowl add your flour, warm salted water and olive oil.  Mix with a dough hook for around a minute or combine and manually kneed for around 5 minutes.

Cut the soft pliable dough into around 10 equal sized pieces.  Store either on a plate covered with plastic wrap or in a large flat container for 30-60 minutes.

Heat oven to 250C, a pizza stone is useful but not essential

After the dough has rested either roll out with a pin or a pasta machine until you get a thin sheet (around 4 on pasta machine or 1-2mm). Move the sheet onto a large piece of baking paper.  If you are using seasoning or sesame seed brush the top of the dough with a little water and sprinkle.

With a pizza cutter, knife or biscuit cutter cut the dough into interesting shapes.   Move the baking paper onto the back of a baking tray, this will allow you to just slide the paper onto the stone in a quick easy movement.

Cook for 3-5 minutes, you want the bubbles to lightly brown but pull it out if any of it seems to be looking too dark.

Tomatillo (Fruit) - Day 76 of 365

No matter how hard you pedal..

.. sometimes it just aint enough

--Although it's not the focus of my post today my thoughts have been, and will be with the Japanese people who's fighting spirit has been an honour to behold amidst this life changing tragedy.--

I am trying to break my silence.  I am trying hard to feel like I have something of interest to impart.  In many ways in the past this space has an educational focus.  It's not that I ever felt I had all the answers but I probably did feel that I had a bit of knowledge that might ease the path for others.  Either, I was arrogant or just plain wrong cause as of right now it just aint the case.

This growing season has kicked my tush and left me feeling inadequate, while the chaotic events of the last 6 months have shaken me badly.  Just at the time it would have been advantageous to feel some level of confidence in my skill to provide for our household we had the growing season, that wasn't.  

It's mid march and I haven't even broken 10 ripe tomato's.  The ones I have had have arrived in the last week.  To make it even more discouraging it's not even as if I have a heap of green tomatoes on bushes.  There are a couple of varieties that did more than survive and put out a couple of fruit in self defence but believe me they are few and far between.  We did well on lettuce for the first time ever, and beans weren't too dismal, we at least got a couple of feeds, but honestly it was famine and not feast.

Of course that was after the spring that wasn't where I attempted to start a seedling business, nearly went demented and still fell short.  I was basically erring on the side of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".  So I've said nothing and just peddled as hard as I can and, well, it hasn't worked. 

White cabbage butterfly has decimated my autumn seedlings, both for home and sale, so at this point the best I am going achieve is have a reasonable early spring crop.. if I can find a way to keep the seeds that I have again sown protected.  

My energy is now back home until spring planning where I will again tackle the idea of growing for others.  I am going to admit though that my confidence is close to shattered.

So if I can't teach what have I learned - 

• 3-5C cooler may be great in a hot summer but in a cold one it's the difference between summer cropping or not unless your using a hothouse (even then it's a gamble on the heat lovers)
• In this wildly varying climate having the option of covering rows with plastic, or shadecloth, when required is not a nicety, it's essential
• If you're not tripping over pots in the hot house during the summer growing season something is wrong
• Soil fertility can make up for a whole host of other sins, if your soil fertility is spot on plants are more likely to cope in less than ideal conditions (from what I can tell this is pretty much the difference between the people in Melbourne that have had a great tomato year or a so, so one) it probably wouldn't have saved our, even cooler, season but my guess is at least I would be looking at "green tomato chutney" rather than nothing.
• The ability to get Autumn seedlings in the ground in February when they need to be requires protection from White Cabbage butterfly, no if's but's or "then the zucchini won't get pollinated" maybe's
• Spring garden plan actually needs to cover the entire year.. I need to plant for Autumn cropping during the summer growing season.  If I don't have a succession plan things will not be placed to allow that to happen.
• Be flexible, read the season and trust your instincts.  The gamble I took planting the snow peas early means we are now getting ready to crop from them, which is a definite relief.
• Be willing to move, remove and generally free up space when it becomes obvious Plan A is heading for the S bend. 
• Keep records of the plants that did well and those that didn't.  You can't make an educated decision if you don't have the data
• skimping on compost or other soil amendments that you know you need is just "robbing peter to pay paul" it might work for a season but after that your bill is going to arrive with interest so just budget accordingly

What's this season taught you about the way you garden?

Variety is the Spice of Life - Day 75 of 365

Zucchini 

Romanesco, Black Beauty , Middle East & Round

Red Chard - Day 74 of 365

Seaside Bee - Day 73 of 365

Bees on Seaside Daisy

Solar Porch - Day 72 of 365

Passive solar innovations come in all sorts of forms.

This one out at the Southern Cross Permaculture Institute down in Leongatha, Victoria could work on almost any home.  The porch was a retrofit onto the north side of the house to allow them to keep the much needed warming sun in and light during winter while blocking the oven inducing heat in summer.

The angle and placement of the slats has been set so that when the sun is directly overhead in summer no sun will reach the windows and external walls.  Now, as you can see on the wall, at the beginning of Autumn the sun angle is starting to allow more light through and this will continue to increase until Mid winter's shortest day.

When you're dealing with rooms that reach 50C on a 40C day a passive solar solution, rather than an active solar solution that you need to remember to use, is ideal.

A Jumble of Food - Day 71 of 365

Purple Flowering Snow Pea - Day 70 of 365

Round One! - Day 69 of 365

I am sure there are those out there tougher than me.. but 2 boxes in 2 days requires a day in the garden.

It's Been One Interesting Season! - Day 68 of 365

Vibrant Communities - Day 67 of 365

Create Bright Community Spaces

-Selby Community House-

Sweet Bell Capsicum (Fruit) - Day 66 of 365

Boy, do we need some sunny weather for these guy to pull though.

Balanced Squash - Day 65 of 365

With Love - Day 64 of 365

Spiced Apple Buns - Day 63 of 365

Recipe Pending...

Leaning Towers - Day 62 of 365

A Mess of Peas - Day 61 of 365

Sure I could have given you an artistic close up.. but reality at this time if year is messy, vibrant and just a little wild.

Eternal Hope - Day 60 of 365

Deutcher Fleiss - Potato Leaf Tomato

Cause where there's fruit, there's a chance they can ripen

Wholegrain Oat Pancakes (Spelt) - Day 59 of 365

Night Before
1 C Active Sourdough Starter
1 C Rolled Oats
1 C Whole Grain Spelt Flour

Combine all ingredients and allow to sit in a warm draft free position for at least 8 ours

The Morning
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup/Honey
2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Vanilla essence
1 Egg

Add all the morning ingredients to the overnight ferment.  Mix thoroughly, manual hand or stand mixer, until you get a pour-able mix (add further water if required).

Using your 1/4 C scoop transfer mix into a hot frypan.  Cook until you get some set holes, flip cook for another 30 seconds or so.

Serve Warm