As the words of the song suggest, when I moved to the Country, eating a lot of peaches was on my to-do list. Peaches are one of those things that you have to enjoy while you can as the window can be small. Three weeks ago, I was picking the first early fruit and now […]
Tags: cooking, fruit, preserves, recipe
Posted in Kitchen, Organic Gardening | 3 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 […]
Tags: animal care, cooking, drinks, fruit, livestock, roots, vegetables
Posted in Kitchen | 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. […]
Tags: fruit, fungi, organic, pest control
Posted in Organic Gardening | 1 Comment »
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 […]
Tags: fruit, lemons, maintenance
Posted in Organic Gardening | 2 Comments »
Having followed a simple care routine for your citrus trees, you should be reaping citrus in abundance now. But what to do with them all? Harvesting and storage is easy. I make sure that I harvest any fruit when it’s dry – hard when it seems like it rains most of the time. Lemons and […]
Tags: cooking, fruit, lemons, preserves, recipe
Posted in Kitchen | No Comments »
It is very early spring here, not by the calendar but instead by the blossoming of the stone fruit. I know there is a risk of a late frost, so it is still too early to plant out tomato seedlings into the garden. Instead I’m starting them from seed, using my reliable old bottom-heat propagator. […]
Tags: fruit, seed propagation, tomatoes, vegetables
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Until recently I thought all rhubarb was crimson red. I once grew some rhubarb with green stems but I was too nervous to eat it. I thought it was unripe and maybe even toxic, so I bought some from the shop instead. I know better now. It turns out rhubarb can grow crimson red, or […]
Tags: fruit, health, livestock, recipe, vegetables
Posted in Kitchen, Organic Gardening | 2 Comments »
Every now and then I give a talk on organic gardening at a club or show. Afterwards I’m often approached with the question “do flowers have a place in the vegetable garden?” This is usually posed in an innocent fashion by one half of a couple, but with an obvious agenda of ‘let’s settle this […]
Tags: bees, flowers, fruit, insects, pest control, vegetables
Posted in Organic Gardening | 2 Comments »
Lovely lemons I love the flavour of lemons – lemon tart, lemon butter, gin and tonic with a twist of lemon… The humble lemon is also heralded as a cure of many maladies, from coughs and colds to halitosis and rheumatism. My fondness for the not-so-humble lemon probably comes from happy memories of being in […]
Tags: barley, drinks, fruit, health, lemons, recipe
Posted in Kitchen | 3 Comments »