Inspired

Yes, yes I know. I've been a bad girl. But anyone with children can relate, I'm sure. So little Blake Nathaniel arrived just seven days after my last post and this is my first chance to get blogging since then.
He's a champion little felluh - great at feeding, great at sleeping. Just great, in a  nutshell.
And after reading a couple of my favourite blogs, I decided to get my fingers tapping. Hence the "inspired" title of this blog.
Currently it's raining. Yep, it seems the wet season is here. It's funny, after just 13mm of rain a few days ago, the lawn instantly went from crunchy brown to luscious green. Nice.
Another of the big reasons why we live here.
So, to recap the last six months in the garden. For some reason the vege patch didn't do so well. I keep telling Mr TG&C that we need to do a pH test. Anyhoo, hasn't happened yet. Maybe one day.
We had an abundance of silverbeat, almost too much, lotsa lettuce, some cherry toms and lotsa snowpeas.
The capsicums (or bell peppers as he prefers to call them) didn't do so well. Even one plant that ended up under the mynah bird trap and was therefore protected.
Anyway, so 2013 is another year so here's to being inspired ... and doing something about it!
Oh, and if you're looking for a bargain, check this out!

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/earlville/other-garden/yukkas-for-sale/1011076049

Absence makes the heart grow fonder ...

Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Oh, there is another excuse .... here it is!

Yes, we've been growing one of these for the last few months and our due date is almost upon us so as you can imagine, myself and Mr TG&C have been a little preoccupied.
However, in the meantime, here's an update on the garden. It's now winter here in the tropics of Far North Queensland and the weather has been rather magical. While we've had some rain over the past week, today we had a beautiful, sunny, 26 degree day and it was just perfect so the garden is starting to get going again.
Here's a sample of what's growing at the mo....

A few seedlings in pots, growing, growing, growing, getting ready for being planted out into the vege patch proper.

Our one-and-only orange. This tree is probably only about 18 months' old so I don't have great expectations of it just yet ...

This is a certain nawty dawg. Well, we love him, and he did chase some religious types out of the yard the other day (!!) but he's rather naughty too. If it's not picking almost ripe capsicums (now we have to put them in pots on the deck to protect them!), he's digging at the compost bin in a bid to get at something nice and smelly in there, or his latest trick is trying to get underneath Mr TG&C's mynah bird trap. Grrr. Any suggestions?

Rosella, rosella. Now, we've only got about three of these bushes in our yard and I reckon you need twice that many to get a decent crop for jam-making. However, I have found that if you pick as they're ripe, then chuck them in the fridge, they last a good couple of weeks until you're ready to get jamming. The other benefit of this is that the outer red "petals" aren't as tough to peel after they've been refrigerated for a while.

Mandarins. These are about the same vintage as the orange, but there's about half-a-dozen fruit on this one so we have high hopes of seeing some yummy sweet mandarins in the kitchen before too long.

Lime-alicious.This is the same era as the other citrus but seems to have more oomph than the others. He's been fruiting for at least six months straight. And they are BIG and JUICY.

Monstera deliciosa. I posted a pic of this fellow quite a few months ago now and thought I'd show you an update. He hasn't fruited yet but I can't wait for the day he does!

The existing yellow passionfruit vine. Yesterday Mr TG&C planted a purple passionfruit beside it, so hopefully it will look all nice and colourful when both are in fruit at the same time. What do you reckon?

Till next time. I promise I'll try not to leave it so long in future!
x

Wet season, wet season ... where fore art thou?

Well, it's mid January and where oh where is this damn wet season? Bring on the rain, I say. Mind you, we did have 28mm at our place last night.
Despite, or perhaps because of the heat, the garden is going nuts at the moment. Plenty of interesting things fruiting.
Here's a sample...

Limes. Apparently the tree has decided to go nuts this year. So what to do, what to do? One solution was lime cordial. Yum. Find the recipe I used here: http://cocktails.about.com/od/makeyourownmixers/r/lime_cordial.htm. Another solution is my famous lime and coconut cake. This is for the work people tomorrow. Provided they're good!

Lime cordial concoction. The recipe says to let the rind sit in the mixture at least overnight before straining, then allowing to sit for another 24 hours. Anyone who knows me, knows patience is not what I am known for!

A bit off track here, but I just wanted to say it is possible to use everything. We bought a hot chook for lunches the other week and while there wasn't much meat left on it once Mr TG&C was finished with it, boiled down with some veges, it's made a couple of lovely chicken and vege pies and chicken stock. If I can do it, anyone can!

Watermelon. From the garden. Yumbo. Got another 3 or 4 still in the vege patch getting themselves ready for consumption. Also picked a pineapple yesterday but it was only a baby and unfortunately didn't make it to photographic stage. Take my word for it that he was yummy too.



Capsicums. In pots. On the deck. Because a certain grey person keeps EATING them! This is the only way to keep them safe. Nuts.



The lazy blogger

Well, I won't say people have "nagged" me into writing the blog, but life has been a little, shall we say, crazy hectic. Holidays, house plans, etc etc. Life. It seems to happen, doesn't it.
Anyway, here's a little photographic essay of what's been happening of late.

Repotted fig tree. Even though couldn't see roots poking out bottom of previous pot, poor little thing was rather rootbound. So almost as soon as he was re-potted, he sprouted new growth. There's hope yet!

Rosella plants. These are the result of boiled rosella seeds. Anyone who has made rosella jam knows what I'm talking about here. So I thought I'd have a crack at planting the seeds and look what turned up. Fingers crossed I can grow some this time!

An orange. Well, it's a green orange so far. But one day it will be an orange. Hopefully. This is the first fruit produced by this tree. All the rest of the babies dropped off. This one being preciously guarded.

Eggplant. Growing like a weed now. We're not big on the fruit, but isn't it nice to know that we can?

Ahh, this is a bit of a sad story. This is/was a butternut pumpkin. While we were away he rotted. Better luck next time.

Lime. I think it's ripe, do you?

"Normal" pumpkin. Not ready yet, but watched eagerly every day. Great in all manner of dishes but my new fave is pumpkin and fetta quiche. Mmmmmm.

It's not edible, I know. But can you see the little green stick right next to my fingers? That, my friends, is a GrassTree. Planted from seed purchased from Bunnings. Seed packet cost $3.85. Think it contained about 20 seeds. Cheaper than $40 for a big plant....

Do tomatoes grow randomly at your place? I let them go when they come up wild like this. I figure they must like that spot for a home. Am I nuts? Probably.

Laden passionfruit vine. Only problem I have, is once they fall to the ground and I pick them up, they're rotting. Anyone got any tips on what's going wrong?

Another damn zucchini. Don't you know you shouldn't be growing now??

The vege patch currently, with carrots in foreground (they also shouldn't be growing now) and hessian encased capsicum plant. To prevent a certain four-legged person accessing and munching on said capsicums. Naughty puppy.

Rampant watermelon. There's about half a dozen fruit on this, about the size of bowling balls. Fingers crossed.
What's growing at your place at the moment?

And now, here is the news ...

Well, it's hot. That's the news. While we in the tropics had about 15 inches of rain a month ago, followed up by a couple of inches a week ago, the edible part of the garden is rather poorly.
The tomatoes are almost all dead, as is all but the most stubborn of fruit.

However, all the rain has brought the passionfruit back to life. Have you ever smelt a passionfruit flower? If not, do yourself a favour. They have a surprisingly intense, packed-with-punch aroma. Our vine currently has about 20 baby fruit on it, so can't wait for them to drop to the ground and be ready for consumption.

Yesterday I was given some rosellas. About 400g, in fact. This possibly came about because my attempt at rosella growing failed and failed dismally. But a friend "let" me make some jam from hers. Never made rosella jam before, so it was a bit fiddly, but not too bad really, in terms of length of time it took. And it's rather tasty too. Perhaps that's the three tonnes of sugar, but you only live once!

Behold the parched vege patch. With shade cloth over the top. Don't think I've shown you that yet, have I?

Pineapple heaven. Think we have three fruit coming on at various stages of development, but still a couple of months to go. We saw potted pineapples, with fruit on them, at a large nursery the other day for $21. Ow!

Trying to save our precious few mangoes (about half a dozen) from the flying foxes. Cute, huh?

I know, I know. This is not an edible plant. This is a ginger. No idea what sort, but isn't it stunning! For most of the year, this plant does not exist, but come the wet season, and up she pops. And I think it's appeared early because of that 15 inches of rain we received. I don't mind at all!

Limes. Hurry up and ripen!

Baby bush lemons. My precious!

Absent blogger

I've been a bad girl. A really, really bad girl. I haven't blogged in like, almost a month! Unforgiveable.
Anyway, hi there - hope you've been well - how's your garden and cooking going?
Just trying to remember everything that's been happening over the past month. Well, two of the three water tanks were empty. It was dry. Very dry. Dry and hot. Did I mention that it was dry?
Anyway, Mr TG&C got around to building a frame around the vege patch and putting some shade cloth over the top.
And then the rain came down. About 15 inches of it, to be precise. I love the rain, have I ever mentioned that? So incredibly refreshing and invigorating. Love it.
So yesterday Mr TG&C did the mowing, for the first time in months. And mulching. Much excitement.
However, the inevitable is still going to happen and the dry season will return. Sigh. So the tomatoes are practically dead. Everything else is dry and withered. Egg plant still seem to be doing ok and there's about half a dozen on the bush atm. Still got a pumpkin on the vine and another on top of the fridge.
Oh, forgot to tell you, the passionfruit is flowering again. It seemed to have forgotten how for a while. And aren't passionfruit flowers some of the nicest ever?
In the meantime, here's some pics taken over the past few weeks of what's been growing.

Octopus salad. With our tomoatoes and lettuce. Octopus grown elsewhere, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Mint. I'm thinking mint sauce and roast lamb. Need I say anything more?

A selection of recent produce harvested. Yes, the corn are little, but they sure were yummy!

A bloke called Nev

Tonight I'd like to talk to you about our new bestie, Nev.
Nev's a butcher from the Atherton Tableland. Tolga, to be precise.
We found him by word of mouth, as is often the case, when we asked some people on the Tableland if they could recommend a local butcher.
They told us to go find the Bones Knob Butchery at Tolga. Bones Knob? What the?
As you drive into Tolga from the southern end, you will usually see a sign pointing in the general direction of Nev's place.
Now on the day we went there, Nev wasn't officially open. But the door wasn't locked and he was there. So we asked if we could get some meat? After some general discussion, he said we could put in an order and he would deliver it to us. In Cairns. About an hour away.
Nev's butcher shop is out on a farm, with yards right next door. And he told us he only buys his cattle from a few graziers on the Tableland. That was more than good enough for us. This was exactly what we were looking for.
So we put in our order. It was a fairly hefty order, but we do have a big freezer, and we don't like going to the butcher's in town too much if we can avoid it.
Now, Nev got caught up in a few other things, as we all do, and wasn't able to get our order down to us for a week or two. Nev felt terrible about this! And he told us he was throwing in a "small" ham to say sorry for the late delivery.
Like so many men, perhaps he doesn't have a realistic idea of size, because his idea of a small ham, was five kilograms worth. And I had to type that out so you comprehended the sheer size of what he had done. Five kilograms! And it was beautiful. Well, it still is. Being just the two of us, Mr TG&C and I decided there was no way we could eat it all, so husband chopped it up into more manageable segments. We still have one left in the freezer. The best ham ever.
And let me say, all the meat was beautiful. We have and will buy from him again. He delivers, the price is MORE than reasonable and the meat is tasty and it's local.
And Nev's a top bloke. What more could you want?