Update for the end of November

Well time is marching on and it's nearly the end of November already. So what's been happening here? G has been out mowing the grass, weed eating around the young trees and mulching hedges and trees, so that all looks a lot tidier. He's been planting some more trees (including pohutukawa along our roadside fence) that we've had sitting around the place too.

I've been having a bit of down time, with one thing or another but I have been gradually repotting quite a few pot plants, a job I'd put off for far too long. A few more to go and they should all be a bit happier (and nicer to look at!). Photos to come.

The tomatoes ('Brandywine Pink') are coming along well, as are the potatoes, and we even have some fruit on our little currant bushes (although the white currant has turned out to be red!)

And we're munching our way through strawberries, artichokes and broccoli. YUM!

Strawberries

We've been doing well with our strawberry harvest so far, getting about 2 punnets a day. The birds are a slight problem since we haven't put netting over the berry patches, mainly because they are planted along banks etc. However we have plenty so the loss is minimal! Some nice big ones too as per the photo.

Flowers from the garden

Put together some flowers from out of the garden today - Chives, Borage, yellow/red ?cinneraria, Blue Nigella (Love in a Mist), and from a friends garden a lovely pink/white geranium. She gave me some cuttings which I hope will take. Also some of a scented pelargonium, looked similar to the lemon one I have but different leaves and not such a strong citrus scent so I'm not sure what this one is. Also some cuttings of a very small geranium, again we were unable to pinpoint the scent.

Cherimoyas

One of our neighbours brought round a big bag of cherimoyas for us. These huge subtropical fruit are delicious. Not usually seen for sale except up here in Northland and then only in a very few green grocers.
I took the opportunity to make some ice cream (recipe no. 2) and also some sherbet from this site. Delicious.

Kumara and date loaf

This recipe was for kumara and apricot loaf but I used dates instead. Sliced and buttered, it was nice and moist, and went down well with the rest of the crew here at CTF.

1 cup mashed cooked kumara
2 cups SR flour
1 cup chopped dates
grated rind of 1 orange
1/2 cup wheat bran
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 Tbs golden syrup
1 cup warm orange juice

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Butter a 22 x 12 cm loaf tin.
Combine all dry ingredients in bowl, add golden syrup and orange juice. Stir to combine. Pour/spoon into loaf tin. Bake for around 45 mins.

Progress in the veg garden Oct 09

We've made a little progress in the veg garden. The weather has been a bit off putting for outside chores. Now have about half the potatoes planted. Varieties are Cliffs Kidney (earlies), Urenika (Maori purple skin/flesh, yam shaped) these can be either earlies, are waxy when young, or maincrop when they turn floury. I prefer them waxy. Kowiniwini, which are another Maori potato purple blotches on white skin, quite a 'knobbly' type of potato. We also have Red Rascal, Rua and Desiree to go in.

Also have planted 2 eggplants 'Long Purple' and 'Black Beauty', chillies 'Rocoto' and 'Asian Fire', some basil and mesclun, and 2 passionfruit. We're going to try red, white and black currants and see how they go for us.

G has finished planting the feijoa hedge by the citrus orchard. Most of the citrus trees are looking a bit sad as they are too exposed to the elements. Also have taken a bit of a hammering from slugs and snails.
We've been eating lots of fresh sprouting broccoli, globe artichokes and strawberries. Also some freshly dug potatoes last night for dinner, very nice.

Wet weather again

It's been pouring with rain for most of the day. Which reminded me of the few days we took up in Hokianga to get away after the loss of Lawrence.
Here are a few photos of that trip:

Our accommodation

Just kidding! This was it, a lovely old farmhouse.


And some views of the Hokianga harbour (a short way from the house):