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Lentil and Vegetable Curry for dinner tonight!
Last night on MasterChef NZ, Sushil created a Fijian curry that made me wish I was able to taste some, and so it was a no-brainer that it would be curry and rice for dinner tonight. It's simmering away...
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Drying Herbs and Herbal Teas
Snipping the parsley headsDecided to make some herb bread, which sent me out to the garden for herbs, which in turn made me decide it's time to dry some parsley! There's too much out there for me to...
View ArticleTidy up time!
Autumn, and the fruit has finished, the grapevine has died off and the rain falls much more frequently than in past months.I have just pruned the blueberries, by taking out the whole of the branches...
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Chicken stock
Roast chicken from the supermarket for a family lunch last weekend, and that always means chicken stock! The used-up carcass goes into the freezer when the meal is being cleared way, and later on is...
View ArticleWashing windows
I'm not a fanatical window-washer, but every now and then I can't live with my dirty windows any longer, so it's out with the hose and long-handled brush and with any luck the streaks won't be worse...
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Rhubarb and Sultana Chutney
During the week at work, it was decided to vary the morning tea biscuits with some cheese on toast, it being winter and all. I volunteered to bring the chutney and fronted up with a jar of my Rhubarb...
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Summer time and the berries are ripening
Blueberries! First pick was on New Year's Day, (but only a spoonful if I am to be honest!)Now I'm picking every second day - about five bushes, some older and some young keen fruiters - and this was...
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Plums!
About 3-4 years ago I planted a Japanese plum tree, and it has slowly been growing and producing a few plums each year. I have to net it to keep the birds away from the fruit, and there is the added...
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Feijoa time!
I only notice it's feijoa season when I see them on the lawn - as the feijoas ripen, they just fall off!This year I'm going to try freezing the pulp, just scooped out with a spoon and sealed in a...
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Cape Gooseberries
An erratic cropper, these plants self seed in different parts of the garden each year and I always hold my breath that the fruit will ripen before the cold weather stops the process! This year the...
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Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...
...wrote John Keats in his poem to Autumn in 1819.We are in autumn here in New Zealand and after some health issues, I have only weeds in the vegetable garden. I am looking forward to this growing...
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Welcome, Cherry Guava!
And here I was, thinking that the fruit production on my little bit of paradise was over until the Mandarines coloured up in a month or two, and that it was probably time to take the pruning saw to the...
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Cherry Guava Jam - Experiment #1
I'd rather eat my fruit raw, but the cherry guava (also known as strawberry guava) is a patchy beast. Some of the fruit is luscious and some similar-looking is not so. For its size, it is blessed...
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Planting the Spring Garden, and hoping for some surprises...
It's been a couple of years since I've filled all the back garden with plants and seeds. I've put in a few things, but health issues have limited my energy.However, I'm back in form! And after...
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Herbs!
Harvested basil today, and dried it. There is plenty more to eat fresh, but this is a good start.I also dried a mix of mint leaves, sage, thyme, rosemary and lemon rind for tea.It smells divine!And...
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Plums!
This season I bought a giant piece of bird netting from Farmlands, sewed it to make a basic tent shape, and with much climbing up and down and repositioning of the ladder, finally got it over the tree,...
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Planting time!
Spring is here, the weather is warmer, I'm on holiday, it's time to finish the digging and soil prep, and get some plants in. I've sprouted pumpkins and beans, with capsicum, onion and spinach still...
View ArticlePlums! For breakfast, dessert, or just to snack on...
My own plums are not quite ready to be picked, so I bought some last week.... and discovered they are no better than the ones on my tree. I've left them to ripen, and some have, but many have not.So...
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Limes! At last!
This post should have been written in June, but I got sidetracked by my mother's failing health and subsequent death. But it was due to her that I had such success with my lime tree for the very first...
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Beans
I love fresh beans! I grow plenty of them in season, eat them lightly cooked - in salads or not - and freeze them for winter. This year I'm planting to have bounty to give away too.I'm recording my...
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October - time to bake the Christmas Cake!
It's a long weekend here in New Zealand, Labour Weekend, commemorating the fight for the right to limit the working day to eight hours - times have changed, and people seem to be limited to 4-5 hours...
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Salad Days!
I've spent the morning in the garden, and just had to pick some of these lovely lettuce leaves for lunch - aren't they superb! A friend dropped around a clump of garlic chives too, which I've divided...
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Icing the Christmas cake!
Twelve days out from Christmas, and time to ice the Christmas cake.I've been feeding it brandy for the last couple of months, and it's getting iced with a lovely Brandy Butter icing.Recipe (from the...
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Netting the Plum Tree - pai te mahi, Kuia!*
*Awesome work, Nana!I have just netted my Satsuma Plum Tree.I can say that pretty quickly, but it was two hours of ladder shifting and climbing, stretching my arms and the netting only to find my arms...
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A retro flan for Christmas lunch
Growing up in New Zealand in the 1950s, a flan wasn't the fluted tart thing that we know now, it had a sort of sponge case, and my Mum regularly made one for Sunday lunch.I've recently pulled out the...
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