Talk about extremes!

From ‘the frozen South’ a land where minimal herbage grows, we came home to a mini jungle.  

I should have taken a before shot!

Our Apple cucumbers went feral growing up into the tree and one grew through the netting and ended with a pinched end. 

Like many of you, we have been enjoying some garden therapy as well as time in the kitchen - it's quite the latest. We were gearing up to install a raised garden bed but had to wait on a few things to finish ripening. After clearing away the tangles we found lots of green tomatoes hanging on for dear life. They were never going to ripen so in the pot they went together with some onions from the community garden, capsicum from Ron’s wonderful veggie garden plus plus - and voila green tomato chutney!  The herbs from our garden dried beautifully while we were away - thyme, mint, sage. I threw some of them in the mortar with pepper, salt and dried lemon zest to make a tangy seasoning. The crushed thyme reminded me of roadside fuel stops in Iran where they offer little packets of powdered thyme along with salt etc to sprinkle on your hot chips. Simply delish! 

With the glut of garlic after the bushfires, I decided to preserve a pile - some in oil, some in vinegar and also froze some. Turned out perfectly fine.

The last of our silverbeet - with a few sprigs of Vietnamese mint in a glass of water in the background. That is now planted and growing happily. Love that mint - it adds a deeper, tangier more complex taste than 'normal' mint.

We made Spanakopita with the last of our silver beet and rocket and then we started turning the garden over. All in all, many happy hours have been spent in the garden as well as the kitchen - curries, chutneys, and other yummies even tried our hand at cheese making. The recipes are on thepingingchook.blogspot.com (that’s me!).