Treasure Hunting

 My mental health is recovering slowly than my impatient side would like too. But it is a positive thing and something I should be grateful that I did not seem at the moment succumbing to postnatal depression while I am having mental depression and trying to overcome it.  Some days are good that I wake up and feel motivated instead of lying on the bed and not looking forward to anything. Its still a fragile thing and could be a false feeling so I am taking tentative baby steps not to be overdoing myself with too much planning or multitasking. There is still many unsettled things which worries me so I need to remind myself to not set unrealistic goal or dealing with high expectation. Sigh, one step at a time. I need to learn how to enjoy doing one thing at a time instead of doing so many things at once. For example, on my good days I can cook while washing dishes, clean the counter top, laundry and I can also do some weeding or sowing seeds in between waiting for the dish to cook or stirring. But my husband he does one task at a time even though he have some breaks in between. It is no wonder I make myself crazy while doing tasks at hand my brain also seems to be planning what to do ahead running into different direction planning non-stop, can't control and it goes chaotic. It made me think that I have some kind of mental disorder. I struggle to focus on one thing at a time. Physically I feel much better and more energetic after postnatal birth from last week. I am urged and advise to go out and socialise a bit to prevent me being isolated and fall to depression by professional help. Yet, I don't feel like going out at all. The only place I will go out to is the garden. Since I feel physically better now, we have been clearing up the garden bits by bits and found lots of treasures or basically free food last week. 

 A small spot in the garden was sprawled with autumn self-seeded tomato plants overlapping each other. These tomato plants flower during winter but I don't think with the cold temperature it will set fruit. However, after I made an effort to stake these tomato plant last weekend and gave some pruning found some ripened tomatoes and there are already producing fruits. I guess the warming temperature has able those flowers to set fruit. One of the plants has actually grown more than 5 feet tall when I pull it upright and tied it on the emergency support. I was not sure how many tomato plants before and now it is 3 tomato plants on that spot. Some of the cape gooseberries fruits has also matured and drop to the weeds underneath hiding these golden fruits. If my boys are here with me, I don't think mama and papa will have their fair share of these delicious golden fruits. I think they would certainly enjoy these golden 'berries' very much. I did not realised how many self-seeded tall red celery have grown among our backyard container gardens in between other plants and they sure have grown. The celery stalk surprisingly juicy when relying on rain water only. We also harvested some peas and broccoli shoots last week. We harvested all of our Early Horn carrots last week grown in container.

 Here is half of the patch in front of the kitchen window that I have cleared on the weekend. Everything on this patch are self-seeded plants except for 2 foxglove plant which has been completely   hidden. Most of these volunteers are celery and chervil.

Celery from the patch above.

I remembered we had several self-sprouted potato plant on the front yard in different places. However with weed competition and pest attacking the plant many plants got lost while they were growing around 20cm tall. Last weekend while my husband cleared up the front yard and pulling out all the weeds he found several small sizes of potatoes from the potatoes that perished early and lost in sight. Surprisingly, one self-sprouted Royal Blue potato that got lost under sunflower and rose geranium plant has produced decent harvest. The Royal Blue potato plant was not there anymore but somehow I remembered there was a potato plant growing on that spot. So lucky we blindly dug around that area an hit a jackpot.

We are blessed with many volunteer rainbow chards plants  last autumn and this spring I found several new seedlings as well while clearing up and left them undisturbed. Hopefully these seedlings will provide us harvest during summer. Summer month is actually the season which we don't really have much to harvest compared to other season. Lettuce are also plenty still to pick around the garden. But it will be time to say goodbye to lettuce by next month if I don't sow a new batch of lettuce this week.

We also harvested some florence fennels, beetroots, top purple turnips and kohlrabi this week.

There are still many spots to clear up.

Join in Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandellion.

Rainbow Chard Life-Cycle

We sowed our first batch of Rainbow Chard seeds last year autumn and we have never need to sow any rainbow chard seeds ever again that was the first and last sowing we needed in our garden. Since then there are continues supply of rainbow chard up until now available for us growing without care and thriving in our garden. This is because we let several rainbow chard go to seeds last spring and we often found volunteer seedlings in the garden ready for transplanting if we wish so. Several of our rainbow chard plants are showing the sign to flower now that we officially entered spring this month.

Rainbow Chard can grow up to 50cm tall but it is a plant that also can be grown in container if you have a small or balcony garden. For example the depth of soil in the container on the photo above is about 25cm. Rainbow Chard plant can look ornamental as well.

Rainbow chard needs full sun or more than 6 hours direct sunlight to grow well. Two to Four plants will be sufficient for a small family. Rainbow chard is a cut and come again plant. I  observed that rainbow chard is heat and drought plant once established last summer. Rainbow chard does not grow much in partial shade or growth is very slow.

A healthy flowering rainbow chard plant can grow up to 7~8 feet tall.

I was surprise to see the bottom of the flowering rainbow chard plant forms beetroot. Rainbow Chard and beet root are cousins, they belong to the same family.

Rainbow chard pollinator agent is wind.

Rainbow chard seeds drying on the plant.

How do you like to enjoy your rainbow chard?

First Fall Harvest 2012

Pak choi helps to fill in the gap at the moment while waiting for the warm loving vegetables to bounce back after the summer heat. Some chillies were available to pick frequently came fall. Surprisingly cabbage verona purple savoy has been doing amazingly well through out summer as we have been able to pick it fortnightly from late spring. Those cabbages were planted in winter. Hubby also cheated sometime not watering them frequently. Once established, this variety is a very heat tolerant plant. The ones we planted in fall, many of them bolted in winter.

Pull out some carrots (Topweight/New Kuroda?) as the mice has their eye on them. Nibbling on it sometime. Some ripe peppers were also harvested.

Second batch of kangkung/water spinach for 2012 made its way to the kitchen. First fall cucumber. I think we used up many fresh onions this month, mama using them a lot. Probably she like the fresh onion sweet flavour. Some beans and cherry tomatoes.

Cut some rainbow chard/swiss chard from a flowering plant. It is a part that grows from the bottom of the plants that look like a separate plant. I was curious whether it will taste bitter or it usual taste. It tasted ok not bitter.

Visit Daphne's Dandelions to share or see all around the world gardeners harvest.

Major Saving This Week

Starting from this week, instead of cutting big stems from our rainbow chards for the kitchen, we harvested the whole plant. We are coming closer to spring and many of our vegetables are showing the sign of entering the next phase to reproduce which is flower and later on producing seeds. Italian sprouting broccoli plants are producing many side-shoots and enough for at least 2 meal portions weekly. A few precious tomatoes ripening in this end winter season to harvest. Cut some herbs such as dill and Chinese celery for cooking. We also harvested the last potato plants (sebago, pink-fir eye) that were planted last fall. Lettuces are also available to pick any time from the garden.

We pull out the last Afghanistan carrots that were growing on the veggie patch. Leaving a few big carrots to flower to collect seeds later. One of the carrots have already starting to bloom and I am excited because this will be the first time I am collecting carrot seeds. I have already direct-sowed beetroot seeds on that spot that were growing that carrots last weekend. Next carrot harvest, we have to rely with the ones growing in containers. Carrots and potatoes seems to be never enough for us. So this month we prioritise empty veggie patch corner or containers for sowing carrot seeds and potatoes. Our komatsuna and tatsoi greens are producing flower buds so we had a rush harvest. Other vegetables that were harvested last week was snow peas, yellow cherry tomatoes and spring onions.

Our major saving for this week for our kitchen cost is actually blue-swimmer crab.

I had a break from the garden last weekend.

We all went for a long weekend fishing trip.

Fishing trip but we caught no fish.

However, we were pretty happy with the numbers of crabs that were caught.

We caught more than 30 crabs.

In summer when crab is in season it cost AUD13.00perkilogram (cheapest).

It is winter and crabs are not in season.

Usually 2 big crabs are almost a kilogram.

We saved at least total AUD200 this week for the kitchen cost, thanks to gardening and crabbing.

My favourite to prepare crab is Chilli crab.

Any other suggestion will be most appreciated (you can even paste the recipe link).

My family also caught a few squids.

The gardener got to rest this week.

When the others went fishing out in the cold winter night at the jetty, I snuggled with my boys in the cabin. 

Visit Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.

End Winter Month Harvest Monday

We entered end winter season here in Adelaide already. We have to quickly harvest some vegetables now to prevent it from flower as spring comes and the weather warms. Biennial plants like carrots or onions from last warm season will start to produce flowers. We harvested Afghanistan carrots last week and select a few big plants to produce flower and seeds. Italian sprouting broccoli plants produces many side-shoots to harvest. Our first batch snow peas plants look sickly but still managed to produce some for the kitchen. Pak choi were also harvested before it starts to bolt.

We sowed too many rainbow chard seeds last fall. Maybe because it was our first time at growing them and got too excited. Well I think 4 plants of rainbow chards should be enough for us but someone planted at least 10 plants. Shared those rainbow chard stems with my neighbour and friends. Some chillies and capsicum were harvested. Komatsuna were about to bolt so we had to harvest them. 

We had several days of 20 degree Celsius last week which made some tomatoes from self-sowed tomato plants to turn red. Some of our green tatsoi were badly munched by pest and beginning to show the sign to bolt.

We harvested our first home-grown Florence fennel last weekend. Beetroots were harvested for Rayyan since he likes the sweetness of beetroot.

Usually, we harvested our first cauliflower every year in the early month of August. But this year, I transplanted cauliflower seedlings late. So we have not harvested any cauliflower yet. Hopefully not too late for the plants to mature before the weather becomes too warm for it to produce curd.

Visit Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.

Rainbow Chard~My First Gratin

This is the first time we tried to grow rainbow chard and we have never eaten it before. I don't think this vegetable is something you often see at the market vegetable rack either. I have seen silverbeet at our local market but not rainbow chard. I got rainbow chard seeds from one of our local seed-saver group meetings. I am not sure whether this plant can grow in our cold season so it was a gamble which this gardener has to make. Fortunately we got lucky. 

Rainbow chards seedlings.

Some of our rainbow chards which are growing at the front of potato plants. Plant too many rainbow chard last fall, I guess I got too excited on planting it for the first time. The plants are scattered in different places. I was surprise that the chards were relatively almost pest-free. I don't need to look after them like the brassicas. But what I did noticed about rainbow chard that it does not grow well in partial shade compared to brassicas which is more tolerant. 

I did not have the time to learn other way to cook rainbow chards, other than chopping them for fried rice or stir-fry. But I decided to become more adventurous and try using our oven more often this month. I am more comfortable using a wok rather than the oven. So I found this gratin recipe that look simple enough for a beginner like me in the world of gratin to prepare. Moreover, this is the first time I use heavy cream for cooking and making a gratin dish. Many first time experience for me in this winter season. Its already middle of the year and I am hoping many of my like-to-do list in 2011 will be tick off.

This recipe is from Nigel Slater the author of Tender (A cook and his vegetable patch) cookbook.

Rainbow Chard Gratin (enough for 4) 

Rainbow Chard stems and leaves (450gram)

Whole-grain mustard (a tablespoon)

Heavy Cream (400ml)

Grated Parmesan ( a good handul)

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
Cut the chard leaves from the stems. Chop the stem into shorter lengths, then cook briefly in boiling, lightly salted water until crisply tender.
Dip the leaves in the water briefly, until they relax.
Drain and put them in a buttered shallow ovenproof dish.
Put the mustard in a bowl and stir in the cream and a grinding of salt and black pepper.
Pour the seasoned cream over the stem and leaves, cover with grated Parmesan, and bake until the top has a light crust the colour of honey.

Ready to put in the oven.

I was so worried how this gratin will cook that I kept on peering into the oven.

Then I had to worry about whether all the members on the dining table will enjoy this dish or not.

It was a hit, everyone enjoys it.

What surprised me the most is to watch my husband having third servings!

Because he usually does not eat a lot of vegetables compared to other family members.

Sometime I purposely serve him a lot of vegetables because I know he won't have seconds.

So gratin will make more appearance in our kitchen now.

Any share ideas on how to prepare rainbow chard?