Lots and lots of tomatoes

The tomatoes are finally producing faster than we can eat them.

 

 It is time to make some relish. The rest get cooked up and mushed and preserved as passata to be used in future sauces.

Yogurt

We use yogurt in a variety of ways. The obvious is plain served with fresh fruit and or granola.
But we also use it in the fabulous Indian curries that Steve makes and we also make a tasty soft cheese from it.
Yogurt is easy to make. If you don't have some left over from a previous batch you can buy some plain unsweetened yogurt and use this as a starter.
I use powdered milk to make mine, as I usually have a bag of it on hand, but of course fresh milk will work as well.

 

To make the yogurt:

If I am using milk powder, I put 1/2 c milk powder in a jar with 2 c water and 1/4c plain yogurt from a previous batch. Shake it altogether and put in a warm spot for 8 hrs. If you are using fresh milk add the 1/4c yogurt starter to 2 c milk.

For the warm spot I usually use a rice cooker. I place the jar with the milk mixture in it, in the rice cooker that has enough water in it to bring it above the level of the milk mixture in the jar. I set the rice cooker to the warm mode,( leave the rice cooker lid off) and leave it in over night.

A hot water cupboard would work as well. I have even placed the yogurt mix on the dash of a car on a warm day.

 

 

 

For the soft cheese:
We tip the yogurt into a muslin lined strainer that is sitting on a bowl. Gather the muslin at the top and twist lightly, then place a weight on top of the yogurt that is wrapped in the muslin. For the weight I use a jar filled with water. The idea is to drain the whey out of the yogurt and be left with the dryish curds.
This can take an hour or 2.
The clear whey can be used to replace liquids in another recipe.
The curds can have salt and pepper, garlic, herbs, smoked fish or whatever other flavourings you can think to add to it.
This is heavenly on a cracker or slice of bread, either by its self or maybe with a slice of tomato or avocado.

A rose by any other name...

Yesterday in my garden I found a perfect rose.
I have no idea of its name. It has a wonderful perfume, flowers continuously through the summer, and each flower is a blend of pinks and golden yellows.
I'm not a rose person, but this rose came from my mothers garden as a cutting. She is not with us now, but the rose continues to flourish in the garden, and every flower it produces is a poignant reminder of my mum.

 

 

Abundance

There are days that I look at parts of the garden and feel a deep dissatisfaction. The lettuces aren't growing or the squash aren't producing. But in spite of these minor failings there is always an abundance of food to be harvested.
Plant enough variety and no matter what happens with the weather or pests there will always be something doing well.
Now that we have chooks we get our daily eggs. Today we picked up the 3 younger hens, so the 2 elderly chooks have company. I am still amazed to be able to go out every day to collect the eggs.

 

Then there is the surplus of fish we get daily from the river. We eat it sometimes several times a day fresh or smoked. Here are some of the fillets coming out of the smoker.

 

Down the river from us, at the mouth of the harbour, there is an oyster bank that covers several acres. We harvested a few sack loads a couple of days ago. Last night we made a big pot of oyster and fish gumbo to share with friends.

Early January we harvested the garlic. It was planted last April and had nothing much done to it since. It was a little over run with weeds, but still we got a good harvest.

 

 

Then onto the potato harvest. Potatoes that were planted in October when I was last here were ready for harvest. because I wasn't here to hill them up properly there were quite a few with green shoulders. Never mind, they can be seed potatoes for the next round of planting.

 

The tomatoes are producing regularly. Not huge amounts at once, but a constant supply for eating and making the odd batch of tomato sauce for pasta or a batch of tomato relish.

 

 As well as an abundance of veges we are starting to get an abundance of seed and dried beans and peas. Some of the dried beans will get eaten and some will be saved to plant next time.

 

 

And then there is the fruit. We have plum, oranges, apples and lemons being harvested now. And more than we will be able to eat or turn into preserves. No matter, the birds and chooks enjoy the surplus.

Next month the peaches and grapes will be ripening. Then come the figs.

As you can see we are not going to go hungry here. The land is rich with its produce, and we are thankful.

 

 

 

 

Chooks(chickens)

We have chooks (as they are called here in NZ).
Our neighbours down the road are going away for the summer so we have taken their chooks for the next few months. They have 5 shavers. Two are elderly and there was some doubt about their laying abilities. We have taken possession of these 2 elderly ones, with the 3 younger ones following when their owners actually leave on their trip.
The two old girls have been with us for about 5 days now and every day we find 2 eggs. I guess they are earning their keep.

 

They are very easy to have around. Moving around in a dignified undemanding way, softly talking chook talk to each other.

It took them a few days to find the laying boxes and stop laying in the corner of their run. Now they like to share the same laying box.

It is a pleasure to have chooks again. With our moving around life style it is difficult to fit them in. Chook sitting seems to be the answer.

 

Mid summer seedlings

Now that we have the weeding under control and have established what made it and what didn't in our absence, I have the time to plant more seeds, and seedlings that will be ready to harvest in the latter part of the summer here.

 

 

I have started peas and beans, amaranth and pak choi,arugula, lettuce, summer squash and cucumbers.

If we have a nice warm summer with regular rainfall, the new plants should reach harvesting size over the next month or two. If that doesn't happen, we'll still get to harvest some of what I have started. It is always worth the effort.

 

It looks like we'll be harvesting grapes in a few weeks. The vines are laden and taking over their neighbours in the garden.

 

In the mean time we are eating plums, tomatoes, oranges and apples. The lemons are heavy on the tree and are getting great use on the daily harvest of fish we get from the river in front of our house.

 

Usually we don't get this many, but we are getting enough that we eat fish daily and get to smoke the surplus. Smoked fish on pasta-yummmm/

Enjoying the sun

We are back in New Zealand. The weather is warm and my garden seems to have survived.
Lots of weeds, and some of the veges took a beating, but overall it has survived quite well.
The lettuces had almost all gone to seed, though there were a few still good in the shady corners.
The basil and chillies were having a hard time amongst the weeds, but the pak choi and cabbages are doing well.
The scarlet runner beans haven't started producing beans yet, thought they are covered with flowers.

The summer squash has just started to produce, and it looks like I can look forward to a lot more.

 

Lots of flowers around. The hydrangeas are covered with flowers.

 

As are the dahlias

 

I started some fresh perennial chili pepper plants a year ago as my old plants, which are about 8 years old, are starting to give up. These new plants are covered in flowers and have a few dozen green fruit on them as well. We shall make good use of them.

The purple podded bean plants had a few over mature beans on them. I'm hoping that by picking off all the beans they'll produce a fresh batch of flowers, and keep going.

 

The tomatoes are doing well and we are eating the first of them.

 

 

Now that we are back we can keep it all going. Have already started a new round of seeds to fill the gaps. So with regular rain we should be able to keep eating out of the garden for the next few months until we are off again.