New Potatoes

We planted lots of potatoes this season, with having a new garden and a lot more room we decided to put in potatoes.
Tim can only eat potatoes that are boiled or baked whole, as they don't get absorbed as quickly as mashed or sliced, so he doesn't suffer from dumping syndrome if they are whole when cooked. Hence what nicer way to eat potatoes.... than new.

We planted two varieties Swift  1 Kg and Jersey Benne. 2 Kg in early Sept.

Swift* Oval, Smooth & White skin, Creamy yellow flesh, Waxy, Fast growing with exceptional taste. Great
for growing in containers.
Will not discolour or disintegrate on steaming.
Very early variety, approx 90 days

Jersey Benne* Oval, White skin,White flesh,Waxy. A medium cropper that can be grown in most soils. Great for growing in containers.
One of the most popular
varieties for mashing or boiling.
Early variety, approx 100 days

Over all I think the Jersey Benne have performed the best and taste the best too.

We planted a second crop of Jersey Benne another 2 Kg in October to extend the season.

We have been bandicooting the plants up until now, so we could have a few meals without digging up the whole plant. Including Christmas day. This is the dig of the first row, which I shared with my sister and her family.

Strawberries for dessert. Yum!

Well the pallet has been producing lots of yummy strawberries for the family to devour.

We had a taste test on Christmas morning to decide which variety was the best. I have 4 Albion strawberries on the top row and the rest are Camarosa.  It was 100% vote that Albion was the better of the two.
The one variety that I didn't plant as many..... Always the way.I'll have to plant more of them next year.

Albion has the added benefit of being day length neutral, which is helpful when you gets periods of grey and wet weather... like we have at the moment. We also decided that the flavour was more like strawberries of old.

We have had a lot of success with the berries all round. Lots of raspberries,boysenberries, and black currants have been amazing in their first season. We had 1 cherry.  1 apple.

A very good crop of potatoes, corn coming on well too. Tomatoes are green waiting to ripen.
Lots of lettuce, salad greens and kale.

Overall I'm very happy with my new garden.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Pasta Making with Kids

In the last school holidays I looked after my niece and nephew for my sister. We decided to make fresh pasta for dinner, a great fun thing to entertain kids in the holidays and you have the bonus of eating it for dinner too.

I use 100g flour per person and 1 egg per 2 people, a little salt. I mix it on the bench, by making a well in the middle of the flour and then add the eggs into the middle, and stir with your fingers until mixed then knead until smooth. The kids love the notion of a mess and getting your hands sticky.

Let the ball of pasta rest for the gluten to work, then with the application of lots of flour, put the pasta through a pasta machine to roll it out. This gets fun as it gets longer and longer as it gets thinner and thinner. The kids become great sets of hands keeping the pasta off the floor....

We sliced it into fettuccine then hung it up to dry on the pasta tree

Lastly sweep and mop the floor to remove excess flour, as it tends to go all over the place.
I made a mince and tomato sauce for my sisters' family for their dinner. A nice surprise to come home from work to dinner made.

I've Been Busy.....

I know it's been awhile since I wrote but I have been busy with both my parents in and out of hospital,
I've been looking after my niece and nephew for my sister during a career change she has been undertaking and still is. It's amazing just how busy I have suddenly become looking after and caring for people.

My garden is taking off with the spring season, I will post photos soon. I have been very busy cooking and making food for us as well as others, more details will follow.

We have had a change of sport season with our son as well, Rugby gone and the cricket season has started with gusto. Harry has been playing Saturday and Sunday for the last 2 weeks and will play 2 days every weekend for the next 4. This requires a chilly bin full of delicious and healthy food to last the 8 hour day. Both Tim and I love spending the days sitting in the sun watching our boy play, but as you can imagine not a lot else gets done, so I end up playing catch up for the rest of the week.

Will post more details of some of the fun I have been up to soon.

Strawberry Pallet Garden

I made a pallet garden for my strawberries, I wasn't going to plant strawberries in this garden because they take up so much room for little reward......until I saw this idea on the web.
It took 2 and a half pallets to make it, after deconstructing 2 pallets and then remaking up the other.
I should have filled it when it was lying down in hind sight, but as per decided to bolt on and managed to make it harder than it needed to be.
Needless to say I will not be making another anytime soon.
Mission accomplished!

The end result hopefully will be nice juicy strawberries that haven't taken up half the garden. Hopefully my Labrador will not eat too many either... As they are at the perfect height for her to scoff.

I've Been In The Garden.

My time lately has been in the garden, and looking after Tim, he has had a rough time of it of late. So sorry for lack of posts.
I have been flat out clearing and making space for the fruit trees, in my new garden. I had for make the most of the planting season, so that meant pruning and digging out 30 roses, which I donated to my parents church. Removing alot of over grown conifers and scruffy plants.
I have just completed planting all the fruit trees and bushes. Of course there has been the un ending trips to garden centres and growers, and the head hurt of choosing what to grow.

I have settled on

Double grafted Apple
Flatto Nectarine
Flatto Peach
Apricot
Greengage
Cherry
Blueberries
Black Currants
Red Currants
Raspberries
Blackberry
Loganberries
Boysenberry
Asparagus

I have planted a full compliment of herbs, and the vege garden is starting to feed us. I have put in plenty of greens of all varieties.
So I will be supper busy in the coming summer seasons when all these start producing.
Roll on summer!

Tamarillo Chutney

Tamarillos are in season, and given how short the season is I always make some Tamarillo chutney. I use it in sandwiches, with cheese platters, on ploughman lunch plates and with scrambled eggs, (my favourite way of using any chutney or relish or sauce).

I added some chilli this year to the chutney just to change it up alittle. I made 4 jars of this, and probably will make some more with a different recipe. Small batches are good, that way you don't get sick of the same flavour all the time.

My Tamarillo Chutney.

1 Kg tamarillos (approx 12)
1 large apple chopped
2 onions chopped
1 1/2 C malt vinegar
1 C low GI sugar
1/4 t chilli
1 t dry mustard powder
1 glove garlic crushed
1 Ancho chilli
1 sm chiptole chilli
2 t allspice

Combine all ingredients in a large pot, stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, simmer until it thickens, stirring occasionally. Pour into sterilised jars and seal. Date and store in a dark place.