Our little patch of Earth

This time of the year is such an in between time where we have vegetables finishing off their turn in the beds and new ones starting out. There are beds that appear empty but under the soil little seeds are casting off their jackets and sending out their roots and radicles. Other beds are full of growth, rich and green. Here is a quick overview of what is growing on our little patch of Earth.

Left hand side, coriander. Front lettuce and courgette underground

Tiny corn plants under the "cat traps" to stop them digging up the seedlings.

My youngest's magical square foot garden, it is plentiful and pretty with all the different leaves

Potatoes in the foreground, broad beans behind

Gorgeous broad beans, loved by adults, hated by kids!

Spinach bed - all the bright lights!

What is growing in your "in-between" garden?

Chicken meatballs on zucchini "pasta"

I bought myself a new kitchen toy...a vegetable "spiralizer". After a bit of frustration learning to work it, I got the hang of the technique and it churned out some great "pasta" from a medium sized marrow or two.

The big ones that I was hoping to use up don't seem to be "grabbed" by the teeth of the tool if they are sliced length ways.

So no more big marrows - I will harvest the last of the crop medium sized for pasta! We are tired of marrow meals so we are glad it is nearly time to pull the crop up and prepare the beds for a late summer crop.

On to the recipe...this was quick to make and yummy to eat. You can serve the meatballs over normal pasta and it will be just as delicious.

While my zucchini pasta was draining in a colander in the sink I did the following:

2 packets of Funky Chickens chicken mince

1 big bunch of basil chopped

2 cloves of garlic pressed

1 big handful of Parmesan grated

2 eggs

Salt and black pepper

Mixed together in a bowl, shaped into bite sized meatballs and fried until nice and brown. 

I then added the last bottle of the roast tomato sauce, but you can use shop bought Passata or just two cans of chopped peeled tomatoes. 

While these were cooking I flash fried the zucchini pasta in some olive oil and garlic unit just cooked.

Serve with meatballs on top and a sprinkling of Parmesan...Enjoy with a good red wine.

Around ~ About ~ Inside ~ Out

Well that describes our December holiday so far. Starting off with a list a mile long of what has to happen and what we want to happen made me feel tired before I even started! With my elder son now training in all earnestness for the Argus has seen 5.30am starts to every day getting him to his cycling friends for early morning cycles.

We have been able to fit in some fishing a swimming times at my favourite spot - Silvermine Dam - lots of walks in the forest and some gardening. But with 2 weeks left to get through my list...mmmh...well, time is running out.

Speaking about gardening...here's what has been happening on our little patch of the planet:

Bean coming hard and fast

Tomatoes hit with blight - green ones rescued for relish

Final butternut harvest

Coriander in a trough - splendid idea!

Corn nearly ready

Cucumbers - daily for a salad

 Green tomatoes to be made into relish

Early morning harvest

Gorgeous lemon cucumbers

Pumpkin 1 of 5

And his sister

 

3.5kgs of marrow went into this delicious relish

After a day of very unseasonal rain, wind and low temperatures in Cape Town, my garden has soaked up the unexpected showers. I think with the first hot day the mildew on the squash leaves will explode and our very bountiful squash and marrow harvests will come to an end. It has been great!

Just when you thought it was safe!

To go back into the garden, that is!

My last marrow post I ended with this note: "Only two more to go!" Well that was before I went to pick more that were growing.

We have loads more and while we have given many away, we were left with a huge amount which is exciting because even though we may be tired of having marrows with almost every meal, we can now start the grating and freezing process with clear conscience that we are not wasting fresh veggies.

I freeze them in portions and use them in veggie bread, fritters, pasta sauces, stews and soups in winter and gauging by the new flowers on the plants we have a while to go with harvesting and collecting this worthwhile vegetable.

I am also keenly aware that very soon the summer plague of mildew will hit my squash leaves which is always a sad event and even though I have tried numerous cures over the last 5 years we tend to let it take its course and then pull the plants up around the beginning of January.  If there were no mildew on the leaves we would have wonderful composting material but these leaves are thrown into the bin instead.

I do want to share this simple easy oven ratatouille recipe with you as it was simply delicious. Traditionally you use good layer veggies like egg plant and marrow but I only used marrow and sweet peppers.

I made a rich herby fresh tomato sauce by frying up about 4 crushed garlic cloves and one finely chopped onion then adding about 10 chopped tomatoes. A whole handful of fresh herbs - basil, thyme, oregano - went in along with 4 bay leaves and bubbled gently away.

Then I sliced up 4 large marrows and 6 peppers of different colours. I placed them in an oven dish, topped with a drizzle of olive oil and the tomato sauce and a good grating of Parmesan and then baked it for about 50 minutes. It was so delicious and the left overs were even better the next morning with fried eggs :)

What to do with giant marrows

Or...the little marrows that grew!

It's squash season...I need to cut twice a week to keep the plants flowering and to harvest the courgettes at the "right" size. The last week has had me running around tidying up end of year details and the garden to do list is a little neglected at the moment.

On Friday evening I popped out to the garden to take a look around and found MONSTER MARROWS which have been diligently doing their thing and growing-and-growing-and-growing-and-growing-and-growing. This basket below was so heavy that if I picked it up by the handle I am sure it would have snapped.

So carrying my treasures I headed indoors and my children each gave a huge distressed sigh when they saw what they would be eating for the next while :) I promised them I would make the meals special..here what I did with the ones I didn't give away...

The two largest ones were sliced and used as "lasagne" sheets. This was so delicious and filling that I fed 9 people on one medium dish of lasagne - 5 of them older teen boys with big appetites. I love cooking for people who enjoy food and it was great to watch them munch it down.

The mince should be really rich in flavours and filled with herbs and tomatoes. You layer it just the same as you would lasagne but do not put cheese in the dish only a good lot of Parmesan on the top. I didn't make a cheese sauce but poured 250ml of cream around the outside. The other hint is to do this early in the morning and then let the flavours soak through the marrow. I baked it for about 1 hour to make sure the marrow was cooked. It was superb and got the thumbs up from the kids.

The next dish I made was not my own recipe but this sage, sausage and walnut stuffed squash. It was surprisingly quick and easy to make and was really delicious too!

The next big squash went into "spaghetti" tonight. Once you have sliced the marrow in "sheets", julienne them as fine as you can. Fry them in some olive oil or butter and add your favorite sauce. I made a fresh basil pesto and stirred that in with some cream, topped with Parmesan and black pepper it was another scrumptious meal.

Now I just have two more to go....hang in there kids!

Linking up at Simple Lives Thursday and Raising Arrows and A Wise Woman Builds

For the love of marrows

Courgettes...marrows...zucchini...whatever you call them...but they are a summer staple in our home cooked meals.

I let most of the grow big so we can use them to bulk up stews, pies and pasta sauces or bake them into a vegetable cake. Excess are grated and frozen in portions.

 Tonight I made this galette...sooooooo yummy.

I didn't have ricotta so used feta and used phylo instead of homemade pastry.

And yesterday we had mini courgette omelettes with a spicy home cured bacon and tomato sauce for breakfast.

Let's get planting!

Yesterday the weather was very obliging and we got a lot of planting done. We planted about 50 corn plants, 15 courgette plants, 6 butternut plants, one bed of potatoes and we repotted strawberry plants and transplanted the tomato seedlings into their new temporary homes. Our chillies, like all chillies, are taking the long slow lazy route to growing and will sit tight for a few more weeks until they are big enough to be planted out.

So here's the low down on planting out your seedlings...

If you started them indoors like we did you need to acclimatise them to the outdoor life for a week or so before settling them into the ground. We did this by putting our trays outside during fine weather and bringing them indoors overnight.

While you were waiting for the seeds to grow, you should have prepared your garden beds with compost, bone meal and volcanic rock dust or something similar. Remove any weeds and dig them over well. I know there are those out there that use a no dig method - I don't.

Seedlings should never dry out so even once you have planted them, do not let them go thirsty but don't  overwater either. I like to give them a good drink of worm tea just before I plant them and then water every second day.

The experts say that seedlings should be planted out in the evening when it is cool, but this does not work for me as my energy levels are too low at that time so it is early morning and a good watering to get them through the day.

New seedlings need protection too. In our home its from cutworm, slugs, snails and cats! If you are still concerned about frost you can collect up 2 litre plastic cool drink bottles and cut the bottoms off. Place the top portion over the plant. This is good for most smaller plants.

Our courgettes were too big for this treatment so I used small metal climbing frames that I had lying around which will stop the cats digging them up.

The corn we planted just had old trellises put over the beds which is sufficient protection for them. Every morning and evening I go snail collecting in the garden and feed them to the chickens so that is how we handle those critters [evil grin]!

Planting out tomatoes are an exception to the rule. Once you have a "true" leaf on each of your seedlings, which can take about 1 month, you need to repot them into a slightly larger pot slightly deeper than before. This causes the stem to be thicker and stronger and a bigger root system to develop. You should do this 3 or 4 times before their final planting out.

Potatoes are sown in the valleys of ridged ground and as the green shoots rise above ground level you "bank" up the potatoes which simply means cover the shoots  until just the top two leaves are showing. This causes tubers to form as the potatoes are banked up every few weeks.



So that's it...the biggest thing I appreciate on planting day is helping hands so I like to warn the family a couple of days ahead so that every one is in the right frame of mind. :)

In a couple of weeks time I will post some things that I have learnt about organic pest control and how to give ongoing care to your babies so that when they are big and grown they will give you some delightful harvests.

How are your spring gardens coming?

Surprise harvests

Despite feeling quite overwhelmed with the amount of weeds that have come up with the last batch of manure added to the compost we have been enjoying some harvests from our garden.

The garden itself is quite overgrown and I haven't had a chace to stake the tomatoes and train creeping cucumbers and squash so we have to look hard to find the fruits of the plants.

Here are some things we are enjoying from the garden now...

Roast vegetables appear often with our courgettes

Berry and wheatgrass smoothies. Raspberries not ours.

Lemon Cucumbers - delicious

Courgettes

 

Aubergine in flower

Corn on the menu

Green beans by the ton!

So many cherry tomatoes

Not on the menu - Tiffany - the garden cat

Still to come, colorful trailing squash