Jerusalem artichokes

I have not had much success with the ol' Jerusalem artichokes. I have figured that it is position and amount if water that has mean poor production and small crops.

Well I had this amazing and curious type of sunflower come up this last summer. I left it in while it dried up and looked pretty pathetic. Finally I went out there to pull out this massive plant and it was only then that I realised that I'd shoved a couple of Jerusalem Artichokes in there some time, maybe a year ago.

What a bumper crop of artichokes! These are all from one plant and they look amazing. Time to search the web for some good recipes...

Planting asparagus seeds

I'm pretty excited this year to have a female asparagus plant.

I bought a few plants last year, as I had the year before, and the year before that. The spears are not supposed to be harvested in the year following planting, so we have only tasted a few over the past few years.

Not knowing whether or not I could successfully grow asparagus held me back from buying plants in bulk to start with, but now I am wondering whether I should just go all out and plant a whole lot so I can get a decent harvest.

This is where the excitement of the female plant comes in. I now have a plant with berries and seeds, and if what I know about seeds holds to be true, these seeds should lead to the growing of new asparagus plants.

I have given it a shot and planted out some of the berries into pots. I'll let you know how it goes!

Popcorn

I am loving snacking on popcorn at the moment. Whether it be plain air popped, buttered or caramel, I love it.

My mum borrowed my air-popper a few days ago to make a batch of caramel popcorn to take into work and today here I am with a hankering for popcorn. I could pull out a pan and some oil, but I thought I'd have a go at popping regular popcorn in the microwave. Surely all the microwave popcorn manufactures do is put corn kernels and artificial colours and flavours in a bag a seal it, right?

Well I tried 1/4 cup of corn kernels in a brown paper lunch back with the opening folded over in the microwave for 1 minute 45 seconds (the time a small 'snack' microwave popcorn bag suggests for our 1100 W microwave).

It worked beautifully! This photo was taken after my littles had already started munching away, so the bag doesn't look very full, however the 1/4 cup of kernels filled the sealed bag perfectly.

Jerusalem artichokes

Here is my harvest of Jerusalem artichokes. I have grow a few plants for the past few years. I'm never really sure what to do with them in the kitchen, but I have my opportunity to try out some new recipes. Perhaps if we find one we really like, I'll put more in for next year!

Garlic planting and sowing Winter crops

I have been busy sowing seeds for my perennial flowers and bulbs that I haven't been paying nearly enough attention to the vegie patch. While the Autumn harvest vegetables are coming to their natural end with the fast approaching frosty weather, it is time to Winter plan the garden.

My children, and some kids from over the back fence, have started me out with sowing brassicas. A few weeks ago the kids were all playing together in our back yard when the youngest (almost 4) wanted to go inside and "do craft". Keen to keep them outside in the beautiful weather and away from messing up the house, I managed to sell the idea of doing 'garden craft' with enough enthusiasm that the children were excited about selecting seeds to sow, writing labels for their pots and sowing their seeds. My choices of seeds were somewhat limited in terms of vegetables so they all sowed different brassicas - broccoli, romanesco broccoli, cauliflower or purple cauliflower.

The children were excited to be taking their flower and vegetable seeds pots home and I made a start on sowing my brassicas.

Over the next few days I will be also be planting out the garlic. We use a lot of garlic in our cooking, so it is a must plant in our garden. Planting garlic is quite easy if you haven't done it before. You need some 'seed garlic', which can be bought from your local garden centre or supermarket, but you'll need to look for locally produced, preferably organic garlic.

To plant, break the cloves apart but do not remove the papery covering. Plant in organic rich soil around 5-10 cm apart with the pointy end pointing up and just below the surface. Water in well, adding seaweed solution if desired. I cover the beds with a chopped pea straw or sugar cane mulch for water retention, keeping the weeds at bay and a little extra soil warmth.

I'll be sowing out a few beds of green manure as well. Green manure enriches the soil as it grows as well as when slashed and dug into the soil a few weeks before planting out in Spring. I usually sow a green manure crop after a tomato, capsicum, eggplant or potato crop as they tend to draw out a lot of nutrients from the soil which needs to be replaced before expecting another vegetable crop to grow.

Happy gardening!

Delights in the garden for 4 year old

I love days at home. I commented on this to my husband a few days ago, and his response was "So that's where he gets it from". Our 4 year old is a real home body. He much prefers being at home to going out.

Today I feel a little flu-ish and am pottering at home doing a little weeding, watering and washing - nothing too strenuous. Meanwhile, my boy is climbing trees, playing in the tree house, digging holes to transplant seedlings and now, much to his delight, playing in mud. How he enjoys this freedom to explore nature as he discovers insects and plants, and gets well and truly dirty in the process!

He calls out to me at times and we investigate things together. At other times he studies how things work or plays with fluid dynamics. It is a wonderful thing to watch. This is the pre-schooling education that he enjoys the most!

And the scrap celery is in the garden.

Remember the celery that I was growing from scraps? Well I have planted it out now. It has just gone in today, so we'll see how it continues to grow...