I think I'm beginning to grow webs between my toes! Reminds me of a song from childhood: "And the rain came tumbling down.... the rains came down and the floods came up....." - I think it's a song about Noah's Ark! Perhaps we should have been working on an Ark project! It has rained continuously for more than a week! We have had one or two gorgeous days but generally, there has been enough H2O to hydrate even the driest of African countries! Land of the Long White Cloud indeed! Where are the blue skies of Summer?? Where is that prophesy of a long, dry and hot summer?? Same place as the Mayan Calendar prophecy - down the gurgler!
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| Child's toy butterfly ever poised for flight |
Well, I guess the joy of being on holiday, is that any weather will do! I have managed to fit in an endless number of indoor chores in this inclement weather. I have also managed to throw in some bouts of reading! I picked up a boxful of novels from the Bowling Club garage sale a few weeks back, for a grand total of about $4. Should keep me in printed word for the next 5 years, considering my average is 2 books per annum! Mind you, with this current weather pattern, I could get through them in half that time! And while I read indoors, the garden it doth grow! And grow! In fact, last lull, I walked into the garden and couldn't believe what a jungle it had become! Too much rain! So much water, that everything has full turgidity! Love that word! Simply means lots of water i.e swollen. So I have gotten 3 barrow-loads of overgrown, turgid wildflowers all weeded out yesterday, safely tucked into the compost bin for a long snooze, and that sorted only a small 2m2 area - the other 10m2 still needs a similar treatment! This was on the one of only 2 of our dry days! I'll have to wait patiently for more such gems! Dry, sunny days.............. the things summer dreams are made of!
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| Fruit impaled in the feeder to attract Silver Eye birds |
I have noticed that on those dry spells, the bees seem to emerge from nowhere, in droves, buzzing hungrily at our lavender bushes! Voraciously gathering nectar and pollen to tide them over the wet days. Poor little guys! Must be doubly frustrating for them as for us two-legs. They can't read to kill the time when it rains!
I have been harvesting zucchini, lemons, artichokes, strawberries, our first figs (the only fruits who TRULY love this wet,wet,wet weather), salad greens, radishes and leeks. The tomatoes seem to have developed a blight from all the rain, as well as the garlic and nectarines.
Sadly, walking around the garden and assessing what grows well and what does not, we have decided to cull a few trees. First casualty will be the nectarine - it has been surviving from year to year by the grace of goodwill only, as nectarines need a long hot and DRY summer, which the Bay does not assure us! Each year we watch the tree load up with fruit, which quickly turns red and then rots. Picking them early does not ensure success either, as they simply rot in the kitchen, a few hours later!! The only good I have ever been able to make of them is to cut out the offending rotting bits and making nectarine jam, which is delish, but more is wasted than can be saved, so NO MORE!! Too disheartening to witness.
The next tree to get the Big Chop is the nursery-bought yellow Queen Peach. It always gets leaf curl, fruit harvests are mingey and also prone to brown rot. This is an easier decision to make, as we have another seed-grown tree which far outstrips it in harvest and health! One of our experiments which was MOST successful. The last of the trees to get the big chop is an old-fashioned mandarin tree at the end of the garden, which is riddled with lemon borer. I tried to save it last year by pruning it ruthlessly but it has not sprung back with much vigour, and although the small fruit are sweet and juicy, they are really hard to peel, have several pips in and not an easy eating option. It too, has been granted longevity by the grace of goodwill and has outlived it's hospitality and lifespan methinks. So we will remove these trees, as our garden is small and space is of a premium, and we will probably replace them with a greengage plum (plums do very well here in the Bay) and something else............... shall do some research.
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| Artichokes and lemons |
The kitchen has been a hub of activity, seeing as outdoor pursuits have been put on hold. I made a really huge batch of hummus, some of which are stored in pottles and frozen for later consumption. Cheap to make, with dry chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked for 20mins in a pressure cooker. And definitely gives store-bought ones a run for flavour! I like to add more lemon juice and garlic!
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| Big pot of hummus to keep us stocked for holiday snacking |
Of a huge basketful of the aforementioned small mandarins, I decided to make some mandarin jelly. I think it might be nice on toast, or as an accompaniment to a baked kumara or pumpkin meal. Chopped them up, along with a couple of lemons and soaked them overnight. I made a little bag which keeps all the pips in to extrude all the pectin for setting the jelly. I'll add the recipe, as it was so easy and good to use up citrus that would normally be excess to needs.
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| Citrus stew with pips in bag |
MANDARIN JELLY RECIPE
1.5kg mandarins, cubed and seeds and juice reserved
2 lemons, cubed, same as above
15g citric acid
11 cups water
7 cups sugar
Bag pips and allow fruit, juice, citric acid and water to sit overnight, covered, for 12 hours. Next day, boil for 1 - 1.5 hours till rind is soft. Remove muslin bag and pour mixture into a jelly bag and leave to drip overnight or for 12 hours. Discard pulp and boil juice and sugar, stirring till dissolved, till setting point is reached, about 30 minutes. Ladle jelly into warm, sterilized jars and seal when cold. Jelly is ready to use in 2 weeks.
(Footnote: My jelly required a second boil to set, and I will post details of jelly bag in next blog. Took a little backyard ingenuity to achieve!)
All of my outdoor potplants have been growing beards! Lots of weeds sprouting and competing for nutrients! How annoying! Well, I put paid to that, by cutting out great big circles of newspaper (several layers together) to cover the soil, cutting up to the centre and making a hole to go around the central stem. I then placed river stones all over, so that none of the newspaper shows through. End to problematic weeds! I love anything that cuts down on work!!
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| New Look pot plants! Good bye weeds! |
My old-sock-ties work a dream with tying up endless summer veggies around the garden! Worked my way through several socks-worth of ties, so made some more, making use of my indoor-time. Somebody could become an overnight millionaire, by collecting old socks, cutting them up and bagging them for sale as plant ties! Save the environment from dead socks and do something good for busy garden folks out there!
I have also taken to hubbies old underwear - make longer ties for bigger jobs - does the job well indeed, as they were previously used to hold up heavy artillery, so I figured they would do fine for bigger garden jobs. Nothing is wasted here in underwear, it seems!
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| Anyone for an entrepreneurial idea?? |
Check out the lavender in our garden - it has gone bush with all the rain!! Imagine all the lavender sachets I can make this year?? I have a 90yr old friend who complained she could not sleep, so I made her a lavender sachet and she reported great success in the sleep stakes. She said she would clutch the sachet, inhaling deeply until she fell asleep. She worried she may lose the sachet and then not be able to fall asleep again, so I made her a bigger sachet to appease her! The fact that she was breathing deeply is probably much the contributor to falling asleep successfully!
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| Lavender Cottage! |
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| New ribbed courgettes make great frilly rounds when sliced |
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| Old-sock ties make a nice splash of colour in a very green garden. |
One of my first holiday projects was to make a bed. My son said he was coming home, and bringing his girlfriend. I have a casual arrangement for couples - 2 single mattresses placed side by side on the floor in the little romantic garden cottage. Time to upgrade those arrangements. My husband had been collecting wooden pallets for me (I think they were for Christmas chocolate collections) from supermarkets. We finally had 12, so I set about making a bed out of them. I told my son I would make a bed for them, to which he replied, not to worry, they could make the bed when they arrived. I said no, son, I said I'll make a bed for you! He was most surprised to see I did actually make the bed! Not just put sheets and bedding on!
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| Chocolate gift box pallets |
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| Firstly, I screwed cedar bits on to join the pallets in what appears to be train tracks! |
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| 3 sets of "train tracks" placed together make a sturdy base. |
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| Who could tell? From waste product to useful finished end product? |
They report that the bed is most comfortable. And because the 3 "tracks" are separate, I can take up one set to make a single bed, if a single person wishes to stay!
A good friend of mine gifted us a huge bowl of ripe strawberries grown in her abundant garden. As we have our fill of fresh strawberries (a huge bowl full every second or third day), I decided to make a decadent strawberry jam. I have never done that before, as our strawberries were to precious a commodity - i.e - we eat whatever we can collect. I was able to return the favour and gift her a bottle of jam in return! The result is a super-sweet strawberry jam, probably needing to be used very sparingly! I can feel a batch of scones coming on..............
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| Strawberries for jam |
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| Into the pot they go, with a tonne of organic sugar! |
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| End result - 5 red bottles sitting on the shelf! |
My new pita bread fetish is taking hold and is becoming a regular at our house. I recently taught my son and husband how to make them. Easy as! And of course, the holiday special - fresh organic bread made the cheats way - in the bread machine! Even easier peasier! I picked up a loaf in the supermarket the other day and read the ingredients list - emulsifiers and improvers and a few numbers just to throw us off the scent! Nah! Home-made is tastier and better for you, even if it is made in a bread maker. By the way, I tried and tried to see if we could buy a breadmaker that did not have a teflon coated pan - no such thing! A stainless steel pan - doesn't exist! Couldn't someone out there start to make them?? Please?!
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| Pita dough on the rise |
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| First batch of pita breads hot out of the oven. |
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| Bread made with organic ingredients - all the way! |
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| Home harvests..... |
And on the Christmas-Past front, my two good work friends know me too well! Without consultation, each independently bought me solar powered lights!! How cool is that?? The ones in the box are fairy lights (see pic below) and the other is a lantern. I LOVE the power of the sun!!
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| Solar lights |
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| Fairy lights at night - like glow worms! |
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| Impenetrable wildflowers - now 2 stories higher with recent wet weather!! |
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| A veritable jungle of wildflowers and weeds! |
We are headed for the end of the year and I have received good news - apparently the weather man is bringing us good tidings of warm weather over the next few days - lookout garden, here I come!!
Oh, and a happy sunny New Year to all..........
