Oh summer garden

After four days away from our farm, we jumped out of the car eager to explore the kitchen garden and the changes we had missed in our absence.

In winter, four days' growth might not be so obvious; plants generally sit still in the cool soil like they do in the fridge. But in hot, bright sunshine-filled days, things move quickly. Plants blossom and grow tall and fill out and make fruit overnight. Blink, or go away for a few days, and you'll miss it.

We returned to our garden yesterday afternoon. We dug deep and felt the moisture in the soil, we tied up droopy limbs, pinched out excess foliage, commented on amounts of growth and harvested some greens. 

The rocket we had planted a few days before we left has burst forth from the soil to create a vibrant green spiral. The tomato plants have grown tall and filled out and are flowering madly. There are green bulbs of fruit on some of the earlier varieties, but bruschetta time still feels a while away.

The onions, possibly the only veg that me and my farmer boy disagree on, are finally bulbing right up and looking ready to harvest. All spring long he complains that they are taking up valuable garden space and should be planted down in the farm's market garden where the longer term plants grow. 

But to me onions are worth their weight in gold. An onion is the starting point of every hearty meal. If we can grow good onions then we have taken care of one of the most important staples. I am happy to patiently wait for the onions. I am pleased to give them space and time to grow. I adore watching their bulbs form and fatten up. 

The second succession of carrots is coming along nicely after the first didn't have such a great strike rate. We laugh that I planted this lot so terribly thick, but I know that thinning them out will be a delicious job we'll all enjoy in a few weeks' time.

The basil in the ground, and the basil that has yet to go into the ground is growing huge and bushy and calling for the first pesto of the season. Can you smell it? Mmmmmmm summer...

And the peas and beans are still fruiting madly, rewarding us with their crunchy fresh burst of flavour whenever we pass by.

Miss Pepper's sunflowers are still squished up closed but look just about to burst into bloom above our heads at any moment. Just as the potatoes nearby are doing their thing under our feet. 

And the lettuces...oh how I adore the summer lettuces. Salads for two out of three meals a day, green leaves poking out of sandwiches and leaves cut off and gobbled up right there on the spot.

Oh summer garden, I feel like I've been waiting for you all year.

Deeeeeeeeelicious!!

How does your garden grow at the mo?
What are you planting, harvesting, noticing, eating?

Wishing you the most scrumptious weekend.

Bye!

Kitchen garden - tick✓

A few nights ago, on the one year anniversary of our great caravan adventure departure, I sat down with my farmer boy and we went through our checklist.


We wrote that checklist on the South coast of WA late last year when we were starting to think about returning home. The checklist is a list of questions about the way we are living our life.

I've never published this list because my farmer boy prefers to keep it private, but its all about the type of decisions we are making. The ways we spend and manage our time. The life we are making for our family. And how well we are sticking to the resolutions we made about life at home.

And honestly I think we are doing really well. We are mostly living a conscious, creative, environmental, country, sustainable, slow, love filled life. 

I added in the mostly because there is always room for improvement and because there are times where we are exhausted and it all falls in a heap.

And I think the point on the checklist that has made me the happiest, that has made me feel like the best mama, that has kept us healthy, that has saved us money and has kept me the sanest, is the kitchen garden.

The depths of winter is probably a funny time to be writing this post considering the lack of variety in the garden right now. But never-the-less, having a range of herbs, salad greens and leaves, broccoli, silver beet, carrots and spinach growing a few steps from the front door is brilliant.

Growing our own means:

• We know exactly what went into growing the vegies we feed our family. What they were grown in, sprayed with and how they were looked after.
• We know that our vegies haven't sat for hours and days in a refrigerated truck or for months in a cool room somewhere. 
• We know that having been picked and travelled the few steps into the kitchen our vegies are still filled with nutrients and as fresh, as fresh can be.
• Our kids are more likely to eat something they have been involved in growing. 
• I can escape, deep breathe and pull weeds when necessary.
• We have pride in our food.
• We are all more aware of what foods are planted, grow and are harvested when.
• Our meals are full of taste and love.
• We save money by planning meals around the foods we are growing.
• We have a gorgeous looking, vibrant kitchen garden in the front of our house.
• When we are sitting down to lunch and the four year old demands purple carrots, getting her what she wants is a pleasure.

A kitchen garden doesn't happen overnight and I am totally grateful to our farmer boys for building our raised beds and trusting me with the mandala layout. I am grateful to Mother Nature for the sunshine and rain and warmth and frosts that make our garden grow. And I am grateful that sitting in the caravan park thousands of kilometers away, we saw the importance of prioritising the kitchen garden, it has changed our lives.

So how about you?

How and what does your garden grow at the mo?

Do your green leaves please?

Do you love to weed and seed?

Happy weekend you guys. xx

I ❤ broccoli!!

Oh my goodness, I am obsessed with broccoli at the moment. Obsessed!! I can't stop thinking about it, photographing it and reading up about it.

I love how healthy and lush the broccoli bed looks in the kitchen garden at the moment with it's forest of big, dark green leaves.

I love how the water beads on the leaves of the broccoli plants and sits there for most of the day. I'm sure this is some extra clever way of retaining fluid. Farmer Bren worries that the water is not getting under all those leaves and into the soil, but I think with all that luscious foliage they must be doing OK.

I love how those gorgeous broccoli flowers start off so small nestled right inside the plant and then rise up and out of them as they blossom and grow. I think they look like ballerinas on their tippie toes dancing above all the other vegetables.

I love that the broccoli plant is not terribly frost sensitive. That it can tolerate such extreme cold and look so gorgeous coated in a film of white ice. We have had a little bit of frost damage, but after several days of hard frosts in a row we really cannot complain.

And of course I love eating those flowers. They are so full of Vitamin C and dietary fiber and so delicious too. I feel like such a great Mum when my kids eat it.

I remember when Miss Pepper was put on an eczema friendly diet a few years ago that excluded broccoli. Oh how she cried. And oh how hard it was to imagine that something like broccoli could cause her pain. I'm super glad she outgrew that one.

Our family favourite ways to eat broccoli are steamed, stir fried, in salads, in lasagnas and in omelettes. I like the idea of making tempura broccoli and adding them to rice paper rolls and soups, but haven't yet. I also hear that the stems are at their tastiest when peeled but keep forgetting to do so. Also I know people eat the florets raw and even the leaves, but I'm not crazy about that.

I keep dreaming of other broccoli concoctions every time I walk past their garden bed.

Are you loving the old broc at the moment too?
What's your favourite way to enjoy the flowery green?
How about a bridal broccoli bouquet?
What does your kitchen garden grow at the mo?
Are you having a lovely week so far?
I hope so.

See ya later, hot potata.
I'm going to have a cup of tea, broccoli!

xx