Where oh where do the days vanish to? I don’t know, but perhaps it’s just ‘that time of year’! There is so much happening…in the garden, preparing for events, cooking (to name just a few distractions), which is why there’s not been much action here on the blog post front! I’ll try to remedy the situation now if I can….even if it is all in one go!!
First, since my last post, we had the heavenly vision of rampant cucumbers at the same time as the first figs, and the new season’s first flush of roses. The cucumbers have since curled up their toes (how quickly the season alters), but not before I had the opportunity to make a couple of batches of scintillating, zingy cucumber soup.
I couldn’t resist topping each little teacup with a nasturtium petal, as their bright, friendly, blotched faces returned after a brief summer absence. There has also been plenty of Gazpacho & Sicilian Caponata going on here….putting the glut of tomatoes & cucumber to good use, while using the first of the capsicums & aubergines. Oh and the first Baba Ghanoush – absolute heaven! All the above, combined with another batch of Basil Pesto went down well at last Saturday’s Kitchen Gardening, which was totally delightful with such an enthusiastic group for a huge day.
Then, there were so many flowers of elder to gather that I couldn’t even find the handle of the basket to carry them back to the kitchen! The yield was another 6 bottles & I decided to cut the shrub back to waist height for the second time this season, as we just couldn’t reach the flowers & collecting was becoming hazardous (to put it mildly)!
The tomatoes have been simply prolific & there was such a glut of Beam’s Yellow Pear, I thought I’d whip up a tart of golden tomatoes & chèvre which was quite scrumptious!
After being on my feet two days in a row, I could do no more than sit like an idiot last Saturday night with my feet up! But putting my fingers to good use, I shelled our booty of ‘cook’s dried winter beans’, picked the previous week. I hadn’t sown this seed mix for a few years and the Red Kidney beans were certainly more prolific than the Borlotti, Black or French Flageolet, but they make such a pretty combination. Of course I’ll sort & store them all separately. In the meantime, they make such a wonderful swishing sound if you run your fingers through them (I used to give this task to the girls when they were small, as it’s a fun job to do, if time consuming….which is why I was saving it for one of those exhausted though rare, can’t do anything else moments!).
Then the spent bean pods made an excellent ‘dry’ addition to our compost the next day.
The Jerusalem artichoke flowers have burst into flower, a whole month later than usual. They’re reaching for the sky and at 3 metres tall, are up beyond our verandah roof! I’m very tempted this coming weekend, to go foraging to see what’s going on below the surface.
The summer structures are also literally dripping with beans. Our two most prolific varieties this year were the Speckled Cranberry and Australian Butter. They were both utterly delicious and my plan for this weekend (amongst a long list of jobs) is to collect these beauties for their seed, so we’ll have plenty to sow next summer season.
And last, but by no means least….Alex did a little experiment this week to see if we might have some honey ready to harvest. While we got all excited, it was a bit of a false alarm and we’ve elected to wait another couple of months. But in the meantime, just to tease us, he broke off some comb, for a taste of things to come. And my goodness….the taste is exquisite! Deeply rich and floral. But we’ll just have to be patient, after all, the best things in life are worth waiting for!
And so if there aren’t any posts this next week or so, it means I’m working flat out on Open Garden (don’t forget, 2 & 3 May), and preparing newsletters announcing exciting upcoming events: Charlotte Thodey & Stefano Manfredi at Glenmore (no, not on the same day!), our stand at the Collectors’ Plant Fair11 & 12 April, AND, on Saturday next week, the 21st, Richard Unsworth has invited me to have a little stall at the launch of his new & enormous Garden Life store at 158 Princes Highway St. Peter’s. I’d love to see you there!