Africanaussie

Linking to  SLOW LIVING - Month by Month March 2012 NOURISH:   Really work on selecting a few favourite recipes from the piles and piles of recipes I have accumulated . Share favourites on my recipe blog  .  recipe blog  I have perfected an Indian curry recipe base, and this can be used for so many different curries.  We get a seafood mix called marinara and I have never really found any good recipes for it.  Check out seafood parcels at the above site - definitely a keeper. I have also joined -the-urban-farm-handbook-challenge .  Last month was building the soil.  This month has been home dairy.  I already make yoghurt, but this month I made cheese, both ricotta and paneer.  PREPARE :  make my lunches in advance.    Every weekend when I have just done a grocery shop I take out the older vegetables, mix with some lentils and stock and leave it bubbling...

I love to have flowers in the garden, and this little corner was not getting enough light, so I trimmed back some of the overhanging branches and open the gate when I am home to let the sunshine stream in.  We are still in the rainy season so drying out the soil occasionally is important.   At the very least it helps to slow down the mosquito breeding.  These red gingers never stop flowering and provide constant colour.  Right in the back corner is my very favourite flower - the sexy pink lady, and once again I have a bud forming.  Just in time for our house guests - old friends from America.  I hope the weather is kind to them. I am glad the garden is getting ready to show off  its best. Just below the pink lady is a pink ginger - not as prolific as the red, but the same family.

I couldn't figure out what was going wrong with my winged bean and the Rosella right alongside it. I think the fact that we still seem to be in the thick of the wet season might have something to do with it.   I know my pawpaw trees have a fungal infection and they seem to get better when I treat them often to a skim milk and water drink spray.  The brown spots on the bean looks like a fungus to me, I also saw insect damage on the leaves.  I got out my handy little sprayer and mixed up a fungal spray, plus insect repellent.  20% skim milk, then chili and garlic, topped up with water.  The winged bean is using the pigeon pea as a climbing support.  The blue triangle butterflies are back - such pretty butterflies, you would think they would be after sweet nectar, but no! .... they are attracted to the foul smelling chook poo pellets I spread around the garden.  I need both phosphorus and potassium in my garden - I like to add it at the ...

This week there have been a few days of sunshine and I noticed my personal solar panels are charged up and I am ready to go!  I do hope that the wet season is finally over.  I clipped and pruned and yanked and finally got rid of the pink bouganvilla.  The flowers were pretty but it was far too aggressive for that little corner.  I know, I know lots of  people warned me!  there is still one peach colored bouganvilla there, but I don't think it is quite as aggressive.  I will be keeping an eye out.    Slowly the flowers will shed the weight of the water of the wet season  their heads will no longer bow down with the weight of the water on their shoulders I don't believe I have shown you the view out from the big gate - the little garden in the center is filling in nicely.  I wont show you a close photo right now though, as a lot of that filling in is with weeds....  OK reall...

I somehow just slipped into this challenge  Urban Farm challenge  and this is my second month.  The first month was all about soil building, and this month is all about home dairy.  I already make my own yoghurt in my yogi thermos system, but I have always wanted to try to make cheese. Ok so this weekend I did it!  I made cheese!  I read up so much about it and  then in the end just dived right in.  (It was raining and so I couldn't get out into the garden)  I pretty much followed the instructions from Eating rules  but used citric acid in water instead of the lemon juice. I started with three liters of milk. I wanted to make paneer and it seemed that you make whole milk ricotta and paneer the same way.  After it was drained I reserved half for the paneer and the only extra step was to press the liquid out and then cut it into squares. With the Paneer I  made ...

I was being a bit reflective today - (it is my birthday and that tends to happen as I think of myself getting yet another year older). I live in a very remote area, and very few people other than the family actually ever see my garden. The grands love to run around and play and I have to bite my tongue when they pick pretty flowers to bring me.  I do want them to grow up enjoying nature, and knowing where their veggies come from, and enjoy the taste of a sun warmed tomato straight from the bush. I don't want them to think the garden is un-touchable.  I think it is working - my 4yr old grandson loves to garden. Hence the little friends that share my garden with me... With blogging though, I bring hundreds of people into my garden - an open garden every day....  I do think that has made me a better gardener.  I think "oh my angel wing begonias are looking just as pretty as Bernie's" ...

I first heard about moon planting from my 90 year old neighbor when I came to Australia 7 years ago.  He was our landlord and grew the most amazing vegetables.  He also sprayed chemicals to kill the bugs, so I did not agree with everything he was doing.  I put the moon planting in the back of my mind as mumbo jumbo.   Moon planting always seems to be portrayed with illustrations that quite frankly made me feel a bit uncomfortable.  Then I began to research the subject a little more, and it all seems so logical - not mumbo jumbo at all! The moon has tremendous pull on the earth - it is the moons force that pulls the mass of oceans back and forth creating the tides. In order to get to understand the whole subject I had to put it into simple terms, and for some people this might be simplifying it too much, but bear with me.  While the moon is waxing (getting bigger) the force pulls plants that grow ...

Barbie and Christine from  the gardening blog  in South Africa is running a harvest day meme on the 5th of every month, and  I thought I would join in. This is the month when most of the "normal" type of vegetables have not yet been planted, I have some tropical wet season type of vegetables to share.   I wouldn't call them "abnormal" but some of them sure are different! I have been wanting to grow winged beans for the longest time, and  eventually got some seeds from  a Brisbane forum.  They have a faint taste of snow peas, but the main reason I wanted to grow them is that they are so pretty, and the fact that they taste so good is an added bonus.  Here they are growing up a tepee and then over a makeshift support down the center of the veggie patch.  They are just under a pawpaw tree, you can see passionfruit and loofah hanging from the vine in the top lef...

I cant believe that a couple of weeks ago I thought things were drying out and we were going to have an early dry season.  Shows what I know!  For over a week we have had torrential rain, with water over the roads blocking access, and the back yard a total bog.  My little veggie seedlings are slightly protected , but not getting any sunshine other than the liquid variety.  Some wet scenes from around the garden.... The variegated hibiscus goes very white at this time of year, and I love how that contrasts with the flowers that dangle wetly from the ends of the branches.  This bromeliad is quite prolific at this time of year - the colours are quite delicious. Even the Cordelines show off their hot pink leaves.  The weight of too much rainwater has made this tall one collapse.  I will cut the top off and it will re-shoot.  The red ginger flowers out the back that I have been meaning to t...