14/06/2023
It was a harvest moon.
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Adventures in a paddock of about 300 lovely young olive trees and a vege patch in rural New Zealand. What more could a girl ask for :-).
14/06/2023
Over the long weekend at the start of June, we picked olives for three days straight, day and night. Grateful for the help of Ross and Kati, who came over on short notice to help pick on the last day.
We had 180kg, ending up with 24 litres of oil. Since we planted table olives, our oil is very smooth and mild - not even a one cough. βΊοΈ
Looking forward to the sediment settling (in a month or so) so we can start using it.
13/06/2023
It was a good year for feijoas. We got heaps of decent sized ones, including a 'double yolker'. π
27/11/2022
I don't mind the rain so much, but the wind is really getting to me. Stormy weather this past week (month ... months!) and more gale force winds, brought down yet another half a tree.
Precisely because of the wind, the growing tips of most of our pine trees snapped off when they were still young. This resulted in the trees forming a cluster of new upward branches resembling 'growth tips' Forward twelve years, and the bushy tops of our pine trees start to split in the wind, with some huge branches blowing over.
Plans always get derailed by things like this. π€¬
09/10/2022
In a hurry to whip up some cream for our freshly baked blueberry friands, I accidentally added black colouring instead of vanilla essence to the Chantilly cream. ππ€£
Maybe it can be a thing. π€
Still searching for a friand pan, instead of using my round muffin pan.
27/08/2022
My forte ... producing miniature fully grown veges. π
25/08/2022
Too wet and too windy for olive trees in our neck of the woods. This one was in a particularly bad spot, but there are others in a similar situation. The poor things are suffering. We will have to thin then out considerably.
18/06/2022
Flop crop (and flop photo π). Perhaps if I gave the earth gems a bit of attention during the growing season, it might have been a different story. Still a good handful to chuck in the vegetable curry tonight.
05/06/2022
We've had a fair bit of rain this past month or so, but it is not reflected by our water tank. 166mm for the month of May.
Need to investigate the tank situation.
28/05/2022
Towards the end of 2020 we grew quite a bit of indigenous NZ oyster mushrooms. I also inoculated a couple of grow bags with the native NZ shiitake (Lentinula novae-zelandiae). However, I didn't have much luck and it proved to be a bit trickier to grow than the oyster varieties. The grow bags were just hanging under a tree since, all dried up, when earlier this year I decided to chuck out the content to at least decompose and become one with nature again.
But when I walk past the 'logs' yesterday (they didn't break down as I thought they would, mainly due to being dry and solid, instead of a fluffy heap of straw (now I also understand straw houses better)), I noticed a flush of mushrooms! Me thinks I should leave the logs in a bucket of water for a few hours and maybe they will produce some more.
19/05/2022
Finally planted our first batch of brassica last weekend. Just in time to settle in with all the rain this week. Hope they're not drowning!
Broccoli: green dragon and broccolini.
Cauliflower: white cloud and twister.
14/05/2022
The cherry guava again producing enough for every man and his bird this year. Just have to be earlier than the bird. πͺπ
We eat heaps fresh from the tree but I can see a jelly or two coming up.
09/05/2022
Long after everyone else is sick of feijoas, ours finally come to the party. Amazing what a difference less than 10 kilometres and a mountain make to the climate.
30/04/2022
I was gifted a couple of bags of Granny Smith apples recently. I love these juicy crispy apples, but we might not be able to eat them all before they go off. Apple crumble and apple jelly only gets one so far, so i decided to attempt drying it in the oven. And I'm glad to say it worked a charm. Have already done a few batches, and this way not a single apple should go to waste.
26/04/2022
Found some Pekepeke-kiore, native NZ fungi today while working in the bush up on a ridge. It is also known as Coral Tooth or NZ Lions Mane.
To quote Mycologic: "Its flavour is like no other mushroom. Some people describe it as being similar to crab meat, and there is no doubt that it has a very unique yet delicate savoury / umami flavour." [https://www.mycologic.nz/product-page/pekepeke-kiore-coral-tooth]
Can't wait to try it!
25/04/2022
Jellies for a good cause. Mandarin (our tree has a good amount and they are super juicy), and plum & apple, thanks to Kel and Katy for gifting us the fruit.
24/04/2022
It pains me to let the asparagus seed go to waste. The female plants carry the red berries (seed pods), each containing three or four seeds. The first year I tried to grow asparagus from seed, all 42 germinated! They are super willing, and every spring and summer we have an abundant supply.
24/04/2022
The rainbow mix I sowed yielded mainly white carrots. It is probably my imagination, but I think they taste like nothing. π
10/04/2022
This rock melon - a perfect cannonball size - was a bit slow out the starting blocks, but the vine has died a week or so ago when it suddenly turned cold the one night. This one smells ripe, but the only other one seems to be green still. Can't wait to dig in!
08/04/2022
The not so humble Carolina Reaper - officially the hottest chilli in the world. They are rated at between 1.6 million and 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units. By comparison, habanero scores between 100,000β350,000 SHU, and jalapeΓ±o between 2,500β8,000 SHU.
These chillies are not to be toyed with. The first time we grew it, I broke one open in the hothouse (where there was no draft or breeze) and nearly went into shock just from the whiff.
I've quickly learned how to work with these, and have since started using it liberally, but with a disclaimer: never fresh (the heat is too much for me, even as a chilli lover), and when using it in curries or trinchados and the like, I cut open a couple, and leave it in the simmering pot for only about 2 to 5 minutes (or longer if one wants more heat) before taking it out again. It has the most beautiful, smoky flavour, without the ridicilously hot, overpowering burn.
Try it - you might like it.
04/04/2022
First two passionfruit from a self-seeded plant. We have quite a few vines in random places doing their thing at the moment. Hopefully we'll have a good few more fruit to enjoy.
02/04/2022
'Hubbard and the butternuts'. πΈπΉπͺ
From the whole vine with lots of flowers, we got only one Hubbard squash. The two butternut plants didn't fare much better. But, anything is better than nothing!
26/03/2022
We did it again - growing a miniature version of a full size fruit (previously it was veges). This is a mystery apple, of which the growth was stunted due to lack of water during the fruiting stage.
25/03/2022
Nap time for my big girl - in front of the stove no less. π
Our only heavy breed Orpington is bullied relentlessly by the bantams, so I spoil het a little, feeding her spinach by hand and cat food. π
heavybreedorpington
23/03/2022
Oh, baby, marrow. This one nearly got away from me. Not that I mind though. I quite like zucchini rings filled with a meatball in the place of the pips. Or just steamed and eaten with salt and butter.
06/03/2022
Plum and apple jelly. Thanks and Katy for the fruit!
26/02/2022
Last year we had the sum total of two blueberries. This year we got a couple of handfuls, which promptly went half-half into yogurt and ice cream.
07/02/2022
Kawakawa balm. This batch was made from kawakawa leaves, beeswax (thanks π), grapeseed oil (and a bit of olive oil). Cold extraction for a week, then gently heated to get the last bit of goodness.
Excellent for all sorts of skin conditions, from rashes, to stings, to psoriasis.
05/02/2022
Watermelon rind preserve. Haven't made this in years, mainly because the rind of NZ watermelons are very thin. When we recently found one that has a reasonably thick rind, we jumped at the opportunity. Second challenge was finding food grade slaked lime (aka calcium hydroxide, or hydrated lime). One of Gerry's FB friends suggested we try the Indian shop as it is also used to make poppadums. Never too old to learn something new.
The preserve is great with cheese platters, or just on a slice of buttered bread.
π· .leroux.images
05/02/2022
At last some tomato action in the hothouse (apart from the smaller varieties which has been producing for a month or so). Nothing like a homegrown, vine-ripened tomato.
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