Gutter'd

It’s been a while since my last post...I hope my reasons are plausible. Actually I have been having a fabulous time and made great progress!  Firstly, my pickles now have a label and they are available in two restaurants! Secondly, a branch of one of the largest supermarkets has bought my herbs and is already asking me for a variety of different veggies.  And one of the largest suppliers of fresh produce in the Eastern Cape and Karoo bought all my coriander and has offered to buy all the vegetables and herbs that I grow!!  (They also supply the supermarket that buys directly from me...ssssssh!) How exciting (and overwhelming!) is that?!  

Instantly I had to make a plan to economise on time and labour in the veggie garden as I do most of the work myself. For some time I have been intrigued with vertical gardens...such an innovative solution to gardening in small spaces though it is not space that I am lacking...I need more hands on deck! 

I just happened to have many long lengths of old gutters stored in the shed - at the time (some 10 odd years ago!) I had no idea why I was keeping them but I knew they would come in handy someday - well, that day finally arrived!  With some help I attached three rows of boards to two sides of the carport, mounted gutters all round and Bob’s your uncle....I had created a vertical garden.  Within the hour the gutters were filled with my “magic mix” growing medium and planted to capacity with lettuce. 

I still had a lot of guttering over so that was attached to the back of each plank and more lettuce is being planted in that.

Still there was left over guttering but the carport ran out of space so now the veggie garden fence has been adorned with gutters soon to be filled with....you guessed....more lettuce!!  

Why so much lettuce you may be wondering? Well, a restaurant bought all my lettuce and then wanted more, which I couldn’t provide. As I didn’t want to be put in that predicament again I bought 600 lettuce seedlings!! Enough to leave one feeling gutted!! 

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it!

Gaining Ground!

This week has been by far the most productive and rewarding week of the year. It all started with the huge TLB machine arriving early Monday morning. The shear power of such a machine is daunting and exhilarating at the same time.  It ripped an old tree stump out of the ground with the same amount of effort one would use to pull a carrot from the soil. Every stroke of the powerful mechanical arm revealed several meters of virgin topsoil. Two hours later I had a new veggie garden larger than a small country in Europe!  The possibilities of such a veggie garden are endless...!

That afternoon I took a basket filled with bottles of my homemade pickles to a local restaurant and gave them some to taste....to my sheer delight the owner told me that I could put up a display in the new shop they are opening in town next month and they would sell my wares!! Yes! Yes! Yes!!  

Needless to say, I have been churning out bottles of pickled cauliflower, Lebanese style pickled turnips, pickled radishes (of course!) and Eugenia berry jam all week!

The past 2 months I have been working away at converting my garage into a farm stall and tea garden to sell my pickles and jams, coffee and cakes etc. Living in tranquil countryside right next door to a game park one able to see the wildlife from the comfort of my house or you could walk to the fence and watch the giraffe tasting the treetops, the springbok, wildebeest, all sorts of antelope and even the rhino fearlessly grazing as no predators roam their territory. I would love to share this experience with people and what better way than to create a little country shop where they are able to sit outside, relax and enjoy the view! It all sounds very romantic and I get caught up in my vision oh so easily, however, it involves lots of work! So this week another step in this direction was also achieved. The side wall of the garage was broken out and the entrance to the shop was made! Yet another reason to celebrate! Keep watching this space...!

Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals.

Cherry Berry Jam-Bo-Ree

Its been a crazy week - not of the celebratory kind as the title suggests - just plain crazy! Even the weather has been crazy - dropping from 29 degrees the one day to 13 degrees four days later! (That’s degrees Celsius by the way). However, all is not lost...I have made 2 very unusual and particularly delicious jams! There are two Eugenia trees in my garden that are laden with berries at the moment. To be honest, the bright pink berries are more appealing to the eye than to the taste buds!  They are slightly sourish (enough to make you screw up your face that your own mother wouldn’t recognise you if you happened to taste the wrong one!) and there is very little flesh - the sort of berry that you eat as you pick so that you can spit the pea-sized pips out on the ground and then skip a few seasons before you venture to taste them again. This year I decided to try turning them into jam....boy, was I in for a pleasant surprise!  

It’s quite a lot of work cleaning the fruit and removing the stalks and then the cooked fruit has to drain overnight (not my favourite as I like “quick and easy” to make jams) but the effort was worth it. A large jug full of fruit yielded 10 small bottles of delicious jam which colour is equally as appealing to the eye. The sweetness of the jam is surprising for the the sourness of the fruit but then I did use a lot of sugar!

My next culinary adventure was the Cherry Guavas! Why an adventure you may ask? I probably chose the windiest day of the year to be picking fruit - with winds gusting up to gale force I was blown into the tree more than once and lost a fair amount of my pickings in doing so! However, the tree is laden with fruit and acts as a large fruit bowl for the birds so I needed to get to the fruit before they tasted each and every guava. So why pick in the wind? The branches are light and very flexible so the birds leave the fruit alone when it is very windy! (Grin) 

Once again it is one of those jams that need to strain overnight in a muslin bag and again it was well worth exercising my patience. Though a kilogram only yielded 3 small bottles of jam it is yummy yummy yummy!!!  Even though cherry guavas can also be on the tart side of sour, this time I used less sugar per cup of cooked fruit and the result is slightly sourish jam with a hint of sweetness that it could easily be eaten with cold meats. I am delighted with the result. 

Cherry Guava Jam and Lebanese style pickled Cauliflower

Essential advice for the gardener :  Grow peas of mind, lettuce be thankful, squash selfishness, turnip to help thy neighbour and always make thyme for loved ones!

Pickings & Pickles!

What an incredible day! An early morning visit to the veggie garden led to me emerging with 3 enormous head of broccoli, turnips, a beautifully white cauliflower and of course more radishes! For what its worth, broccoli and cauliflower are known as cruciferous vegetables.

These vegetables belong to the large Brassicaceae or mustard family and contain sulfur-containing glucosinolates that gives them a distinctive aroma and taste. They contain numerous nutrients including calcium, iron, folate, fiber, vitamin C, beta-carotene, potassium and selenium as well as cancer-fighting agents such as glucosinolates, phytochemicals and antioxidants. These nutritious wonder vegetables come in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes and include leafy, root and big flower-shaped vegetables.

 Now I’m in a bit of a pickle ....what do I do with this lot?! Pickle? Of course!PICKLE!!!

Back in the kitchen I’m frantically sterilising bottles, cutting turnips, slicing radishes and making pickling brine! The results are amazing....!

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides!

Pumpkins, Pepperdews & Donkeys!

I was as excited as a child in a candy store this morning...several weeks ago I planted 30 small Pepperdew plants. I have eagerly watched them grow, develop flowers and finally bear loads of fruit which doesn’t seem to want to ripen! I am a rather impatient gardener and always expect things to happen after a few days so, much to my excitement I found my first red Pepperdew! 

I also found the first teeny weeny pumpkin starting to develop, ladybirds have taken up residence on the eggplants, the cayenne pepper plants are doing well with the coriander and the baby corn are now ready to harvest! 

                                                      

My donkeys, Thelma and Louise, noticed me eating cherry guavas from the tree, which is laden with ripe fruit, and coaxed me with squeaks and grunts to bring them a treat! How could I resist?!  

They already had the broccoli leaves this morning so I gave them a taste of the spinach...

Wow...it’s been a bumper day!!

We come from the earth.

We return to the earth.

And in between we garden!

Companion Planting with the Moon!

So how does one start a veggie garden? Well, firstly you need to decide what veggies you’d like to grow....it’s no good planting 3 of the 4 veggies that you don’t eat! Make a list of those you enjoy the most and then you need to do a little a research....

My dad liked to plant according to the stages of the moon. I have narrowed it down slightly to planting when the moon is waxing (getting fuller) right up to full moon, however, I try not to plant while the moon is waning. The results of an experiment I did proved that seedlings transplanted when the moon was waxing grew much faster and stronger than seedlings, from the same batch, that were planted when the moon was waning (getting smaller).

Have you ever noticed that you get along with some people better than with others? It’s easier to laugh with some while others require you to be more serious. Some leave you feeling exhilarated while others leave you feeling drained? (I haven’t lost the plot...I’m just keeping your attention) Well, the same applies to plants! Some plants grow better and produce more when planted close to certain plants than others. For instance, tomato plants grown next to basil will produce larger and tastier tomatoes and the basil will grow larger leaves. Most plants have companions that benefit them in one way or another. This is the companion plant guide that I use for my veggies....

So, back to the veggie garden! This is what I did..... After clearing the area of all grass and weeds (10m x 3m) I went to the closest riding stables and collected as many bags of horse manure as I could fit into my little van (18 in total). It was mixed with straw and shavings and was still quite fresh (about 2 weeks old). Not having the patience to wait a few months for the manure to decompose I tipped the whole lot onto the newly cleared soil and turned it all in! It was quite a job but boy it was worth it! I was now forced to wait for everything to decompose but after 2 months I was losing patience and the moon was waxing! I had planned the layout of the garden and researched the companion plants....I was ready to plant!

Why a Radish?!

6 months ago my Dad was still alive! He was the most influential person in my life...he knew so much about so many things. His escape from the madding crowd was growing vegetables. The first seeds of the growing season he would sow was always radishes...he loved them!!! Sometimes I wonder if he didn't think that the humble little radish represented his life...seemingly boring on the outside but with a mischievous bite on the inside! After a long illness and several months being bedridden he has passed on and is now sowing seeds in my mind of what to do with my life.

It has been a while since his vegetable garden yielded any crops. Long gone are the carrots and cabbages, the butternuts, pumpkins and gemsquashes. Knee deep in a matted mess of grass and weeds the brittle bean poles and rusting fence are now just ghosts of vegetables past.

Just weeks after his death I realised we were in the middle of the growing season. I felt a sudden sense of urgency....I had to resurrect the vegetable garden! In some twisted way it would keep my father's energy alive....I wasn't ready to let him go.

Frantically I started to clean the vegetable boxes first, ridding them of the weeds and debris that had accumulated. Fresh soil was added and mixed and within a day the first seeds were ready to be sown...RADISHES!

The rewards of a bit of effort and the vivid image of my dad working this soil keeps his energy in this garden!