This festive season, why not roast a crown of thorns as part of your Christmas dinner? Or hunt down Red October to use as a table decoration? It’s not as strange as it sounds – they are both varieties of pumpkin. Pumpkins – what lovable plants! With an incredible array of fruit shapes, textures and […]
Posted in Kitchen | Tags: vegetables | 2 Comments
It’s a very satisfying sight –you’ve just planted out a bed full of healthy, vital seedlings, beautiful and full of potential. You can already taste the delicious, crunchy salad greens! Then, after one hot and sunny day, you discover your young plants sick, wilted, dehydrated or just plain dead. I don’t think I’m alone in […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: seed propagation, transplanting, vegetables | 2 Comments
Yacon – otherwise known as the Peruvian ground apple, strawberry jicama, Bolivian sunroot, llacon, sweet-root and ground pear – is ready to harvest now. We eat its sweet, juicy tubers raw, cooked or added to juices. I love this winter sweet treat with its great crunchy crispness; it tastes to me like nashi pear and […]
Posted in Kitchen | Tags: animal care, cooking, drinks, fruit, livestock, roots, vegetables | 13 Comments
When is a mummy not a mummy? When it’s a daddy or a dried up piece of fruit! In this case it’s mummified fruit on a very sick nectarine tree somewhere in a backyard in Sydney. Oriental Fruit Moth, rust. Brown Rot causes the mummified fruit to stay on the tree rather than dropping. fungal. […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: fruit, fungi, organic, pest control | 1 Comment
Sweet Peas really are to me one of the sweetest to look at and deliciously fragrant annuals you can grow in the garden. And it’s getting close to planting time! In Australia, the traditional day for sowing Sweet Peas is on St Patrick’s Day, March 17th , but of course in our dramatically different climate […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: flowers | No Comments
The extremes of weather are being felt all over Australia at present – bushfires and relentless high temperatures, floods and torrential rain. And it’s not just us humans being affected. Animals are having a hard time of it with their habitats destroyed and native animals dying in their thousands. You may find in the garden […]
Posted in Sustainability | Tags: bats, wildlife | No Comments
We have just had our first delivery of lovely organic garlic at Green Harvest this afternoon and we haven’t stopped talking about how to grow it! How to eat it! Best way to peel it! Garlic in olive oil, garlic in baked camembert! How to plant it! Is it really an allium or really a […]
Posted in Kitchen, Organic Gardening | Tags: garlic, roots, vegetables, vegetarian | 11 Comments
I was fortunate to get a good harvest from my citrus this year. I had so many lemons I was able to preserve them, add them to barley water to make refreshing drinks and of course, the odd slice or two added to a Bombay Sapphire never went astray. So to ensure the same success […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: fruit, lemons, maintenance | 2 Comments
It’s very rewarding keeping chickens – they help recycle nutrients, keep pests down and provide us with food and amusement. We, in turn have a responsibility to keep them healthy, safe and happy. In a warm climate, making sure your flock doesn’t get heat-stressed is crucial. I don’t think many creatures would survive summer days […]
Posted in Sustainability | Tags: animal care, chickens, livestock, poultry | 2 Comments
One of my colleagues brought into the office the other day the pumpkin ‘Galeux D’Eysines’. Bringing in veges to the office is something we often do – sharing in the bounty – but this pumpkin, instead of being shared to eat has now been adopted and adored by all! It is considered way too beautiful […]
Posted in Organic Gardening | Tags: vegetables | 7 Comments