Chili Time

Just as the last of the peppers and other chilies are being reeled in over at Michelle's garden (I have been in awe of her harvests of the hotter stuff for months) mine are beginning to hit spring bloom. The thai red chili, which produces tiny but quite hot little numbers is back for its third year and there I thought it would only ever be an annual. It actually fruited up to about September so it really hasn't had a huge break in between. Now it is laden with green leaves, flowers, and a few new green chilies just waiting to colour up.

New this year was a habanero, first posted about here and a slow starter. Now it really has taken off and is a similar mass of green leaves, flowers and tiny, tiny, tiny green habaneros.

Can't wait to cook with the first ones, the habaneros, well, I'll need a bit more time and bravado for that!

Truffle Cheese and Garden Greens

Decadent dinner alert, turn away now for those who do not wish to read about slightly luxurious market purchases in this fiscally difficult time (I'm a student so it really won't be that decadent) It was Friday, I had the whole day and night to myself and my uni work, so what did I do ... got out of the house!!! I wandered down to the Vic markets, persing the organic mushroom shop in the vague hope that the $160 a kilo chanterelles had miraculously become 1/64th of the price and I could afford a few for my meal. No surprises that the price reduction wasn't on offer, moreover there were no chanterelles to be had at all. Missed them by that much.

Undetered I ventured into the cheese section and headed straight to the french cheese shop which had, on earlier occasions, stocked truffle cheese. It seemed that the truffle cheese had gone the way of the chanterelles and the shop looked bare. Luckily it turned out that the family of 8 million standing in front of me nattering away to the shop lady was just in the way of the cheese and it was, in fact, there. $92 a kilo is cost prohibitive at the best of times but unable to fork out for a real truffle I decided this was my best option to get a bare glimpse of that yummy earthy taste. Most of the cheese stalls at the market have a minimum size to buy and I was prepared for a reasonable outlay having saved so much on the chanterelle n0n-purchase. However, happy chatty lady was content to cut any size I wanted, so I settled for a 50gram piece, which was more than enough for 3 serves of risotto!

Armed with the brown rippled cheesy goodness I toddled home to toil in the kichen. The risotto had to be a simple base, to showcase the truffle cheese. So I picked a few welsh sprouting onions and some silverbeet to use from the balcony garden.

I chopped the onions with some garlic and cooked them up in some oil.

Then made the plain risotto with little more than a vegetable chicken stock base.

Then added grated truffle cheese and some soft gouda for texture.

Served it up with a lovely side salad mostly procured from the balcony garden.

Et voila, one slightly decadent dinner but when you factor in that the cheese covered 3 meals, and was only $5.50 this really wasn't the bank breaker it could have been.

Garden Bloggers Blooms Day December

Wow the 15th of the month rolls around quickly. For me it means rent day, but for most of you garden bloggers, myself included, it means something far more fun, Garden bloggers blooms day. Well it is December, and according to the weatherman we are set for a scorcher tomorrow; up to 40 degrees or so and windy as hell. Last time it was windy the sunflowers took a real beating. Ultimately they ended up looking like this specimen below, just exquisite for garden bloggers blooms day (note the sarcasm.)

Luckily the multiheaded sunflower still had a few more buds and was able to redeem itself. The balcony is quite green at the moment (except for the wilting tomatoes) although that is probalby set to change once the heat sets in to stay. Still if you know where to look there are blooms. Snap dragons secretly hide, blooming only for those who know where to look (blurry camera problems means you only get pictures of three but there are six seperate small pots dotted around the place.)

The cornflower is a beautiful bolt of blue in the back of the balcony garden. Oh and although it is slightly/very/extremely late in the season I planted some black cornflower seeds (that one's for you Fern!!!) and some pink cornflower seeds (inspired by Grace's uber pink garden) and some white ones (for all you northern hemisphere folks stuck in the snow) just to see if they can add some amazing colour to the balcony.

As for veggies, the zucchini is constantly flowering, again still only girl flowers, but by the looks of it some boys are soon to arrive.

Alas I cannot say the same for the cucumbers which are girl flowers and girl flowers only. I'm waiting for them to put up a 'keep out boys' sign on their potted clubhouse.

The beans are finally flowering after surviving snail attacks and an early spell of hot weather. I have both purple bush beans and regular bush beans, though the white ones are definitely far more compact.

Of course the tomatoes continue to flower, but I am having real problems getting them to set fruit due to their wilt. Some do well, others, less well but at least they keep flowering so it means I can keep trying with my pollinating electric toothbrush and sheer determination.

Lastly I turn to the basil. All of the basils have gone to flower, early, so grrrrr. But this is normal and I keep putting more seeds in as we go and pulling off the flowers when I see them to give the growing basil a little more time. Except for the spicy basil, which I don't mind flowering because I rarely use it in large quantities and the purple/white flowers on the green plant are just too pretty.

Harvest Monday Tomatorama

Apologies for the poor photography, my camera is being most unhelpful of late and is probably adding to the slight lag in blogging, but even fault euipment wont stop me today. Here is this week's harvest post and again it only means one thing - tomatoes!

Tigerellas, tumbler red and yellow cherries and one lone black russian that is cracked and ripening off the wilted vine.

Actually I have noticed a real problem with the blakc russians cracking this year, as I pulled another two from the vine with similar large cracks. Probably due to the large but intermittent rainfalls we have had this year. Last year they didn't crack because we didn't get any rain (if that was the only other choice I'd prefer cracked tomatoes and rain thank you very much) I gave a handful to my neighbours last night in an act of mildly inebriated kindness. They loved them!

If only the zucchini and cucumbers would co ordinate their flowering a little better, the boys and girls are still too shy to be seen on the bush at the same time. I certainly can't wait to harvest more yummy full-sized yellow zukes and to harvest my first cucumber. For more fun harvests head on over to Daphne's Dandelions.

Rambling about Roses

Signs seem to be pointing towards the purchase/acquiring of a rose. I spotted the most amazing tea rose at the markets the other day. It was a mottled purple and white and smelled quite lovely. There was also this rose collection as the centre piece for my cousin/friend's wedding (it is rather odd when you know the bride and groom from two very separate areas of your life, one a relative, one from university work.)

So pretty, such a beautiful aroma, but pot friendly? How have people gone with roses in pots before and any tips?

Black Pansy in the mist

Way back in Autumn I planted some seeds from a 'bolt of blue' collection. The cornflower and random purple thingo came up quite quickly and have been flowering since late-mid Winter. Packed into a rather small pot I thought it was a miracle that these two competitors managed to eke out an existance. There were a few smaller seedlings below these taller flowers but I thought they would wither and die due to the lack of space. Boy was I wrong. Not only have small forget-me-nots sprung up but a tiny love-in-the-mist also featured briefly (though each time it flowered the blue petals disappeared by the end of the day.) Then the jewel of the mix and a complete surprise took centre stage, this black pansy! Camera issues do not to this beauty justice, it is really quite stunning.

I love these surprises, they make gardening even more interesting.

Zema Estate and the Parsnip Gnocchi Adventure

Hurricane J said it couldn't be done, or perhaps shouldn't, I can't recall the nuances but suffice it to say Parsnip Gnocchi was not to be made or consumed. Never, never ever ever ever, not now, not then, not ever. Never one to listen to anyone telling me what to do (ask my Mum, she'll agree) this negativity meant one thing - that the challenge was ON! I have, in the past, perfected the sweet potato gnocchi and adapted the recipe in various ways, jerusalem artichoke gnocchi, pumpkin gnocchi, gluten free gnocchi ... next stop was parsnip gnocchi.

Miss J and fellow academic Mr E were the guinea pigs in this culinary experiment. It started with ... the making of bolognaise!!! This for me is an all afternoon adventure. I start by peeling a motherload of tomatoes (alas not grown on the balcony garden.) Miss J is the best at this job but when the cat's busy getting ready for a trip to Paris, I, the mouse, have to peel.

2kgs of beef in the pot, along with browned onions and garlic. I collected some herbs from the garden including oregano, basil, sage, rosemary and lemon thyme to add to the mix.

Can't forget the vino, I used this one, a Zema Estate Cab Sav because no other cheaper wine was available! Don't tell Dad!!! Although good cooks only cook with wine they would drink, and boy was this drop drinkable (and kinda pricey, but again don't tell Dad, because he bought it when he visited last!) Half for the pot, save the other half for me.

The gnocchi was easy to make, well relatively, although I took no photos of the process. AND I took no photos of the finished product, at least the parsnip ghocchi with bolognaise. I do have this shot of the entree, parsnip gnocchi with a nut brown butter and sage sauce!

And before you ask, yes the entree was parsnip gonocchi, so was the main, but the dessert had nothing to do with parsnips or gnocchi at all, it was homemade coconut cream and raspberry ripple icecream. Overall I have to say the flavour of parsnip gnocchi was very mild and was clouded by both sauces but the texture was definitely divine. I even made a second batch later in the week in which I incorporated goats cheese in the mix for extra fluffiness (Hurricane J tried that batch, and it was not spat out which is a promising sign.) Next gnocchi challenge has also been set ... beetroot gnocchi - at least this time I can use home grown produce!

Harvest Monday

Forgive the lack of posting lately. Not only is it manic thesis writing time, I decided to ease the stress by spending a weekend away in Venus Bay. Oh what fun it was to pretend the Phd was not the devil on my shoulder, even if only for two days. It was a lovely group of people, a lovely beach house and a truly beautiful area. Unfortunately I didn't take a single photo!!! Might just have to go back. Luckily for the balcony garden the brilliant Miss C watered it in my absence. She did a splendid job, despite her fears she overwatered it, the plants seemed most impressed. Now onto the crux of this post, the harvest. I am so excited I finally get to join in on Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions. I originally wanted to title this post - 'and so it begins' - and I think the picture below might be a clue as to why.

Yes the inklings of a tomato harvest are starting up here on the balcony garden. It is slow but enough to keep my salad happy each day (or in today's case a BLT). The tigerella has produced about 8 medium sized tomatoes (though they don't seem to have a lot of taste) which have been shared with friends who have dined here recently. Lovely Miss J thinks the lighter flavour is wonderful. Hurricane J declined to comment on the tigerella, although he did channel Escher or possibly Gaudi in his demolition and reconstruction of the lego house, but more on that later. The cherry tomatoes from the red and yellow tumblers are also starting to ripen. Ahhh the beginning of the season. Given the state of the tomatoes, which all appear to have the wierd wilt again and were menaced by thrip early in the season I don't think the harvests will be huge this summer. Still I am grateful for even one little tomato on the balcony!

Yellow Petals in Peril

Yellow seems to be the in colour in my garden at the moment (and I don't just mean the dying leaves on the tomato plants!!!) There are vegetable flowers and normal flowers alike sharing this vibrant colour. Cucumber flowers are starting to appear, though like the zucchini there is absolutely no gesture towards co ordi nating the sex of the flowers. Male flowers only open when the female flowers are still forming or have died while waiting for the men to show up. I would make some sort of social comment on this, perhaps refering to high school dances, or other such occasions but ...

The sunflowers in particular have been looking radiant of late. There are the two single headed giant ones (which are still smaller than last year's mammoth one that got to over 2 metres in height) and a yellow mutiheaded one.

It is lucky I photographed these guys over the weeks, because NONE of them have any petals left. In the last five minutes, literally while I have been penning this post, gusts of wind took off EVERY single petal from the sunflowers. They also managed to blow over several of the tomato pots! Grrrrrr not happy jan.

Gone Strawberry Gone

The strawberries, alas, are no longer. They seemed to be rotting before they were ripening and were one of the most thrip affected plants so the other day I ripped them out. In their place will be some lettuce and silverbeet. But before the greenery takes hold I thought I might take a trip down strawberry memory lane. These, as blog followers might know, were originally an indoor plant. It faced early eviction due to a spider mite problem, but seemed to survive just fine in this post.

They even enjoyed the inhabitation of the original lego house in this post.

They did seem to flower quite consistently, and their pink petals were a real treat.

But all good things must come to an end, and I had some tasty plans for the last ripe strawberries that weren't rotton.

They went into my morning fruit salad! YUM.