Silverbeet

It's a funny vegetable, silverbeet.
It's full of all the vitamins and minerals you know you need - especially magnesium which is not much in evidence in our NZ soils - but it's not particularly tasty on its own.

I grow - from 6 seedlings - more than I can eat, so this is one of those vegetables I give away in great bundles.


My favourite way of eating it is to boil a potato in its skin, adding a couple of decent sized silverbeet leaves in the last couple of minutes.  I strain it, add a small piece of butter (that's actually butter. Not any sort of margarine or non-dairy spread...) and mash.  It's my new 'must have with dinner' creation! Maybe a bit rustic looking, but tasty. I don't use salt, but if you do, I guess you might add a little of that as well.

Breakfast time

I love breakfast! I make my own muesli and have it with whatever fruit is around at the time, and a generous serving of low fat milk.
The breakfast below has a satsuma plum, half a Bolero apple, and a handful of blueberries, all grown on my section with no chemicals. Yummmmmm!

My muesli recipe:
DE LUXE TOASTED MUESLI
½ cup oil
½ cup honey
7 cups rolled oats
1 cup coconut
1 cup bran flakes
1 cup wheatgerm
½ cup oat bran
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup chopped nuts
¼ cup sesame seeds
1 teaspn cinnamon
½ cup raisins
¼ cup chopped dried apricots
¼ cup chopped dried pineapple

Heat oil and honey together. In a large roasting dish combine the oats, coconut, bran flakes, wheatgerm, oat bran, sunflower seeds, nuts, sesame seeds and cinnamon. Pour over the oil and honey mixture and mix well. Bake at 130°C for one hour, stirring occasionally. When cool, add the apricots, pineapple and raisins. Store in an airtight container. Makes 13 cups of muesli.

I toast mine without the oil and honey, and I don't add dried apricots or pineapple to cut down the sugar intake.

Kia ora!

As a big part of my life is the growing and harvesting of vegetables and fruit from my garden, cooking or preparation of the bounty and eating and/sharing of the results, I thought I'd use this blog to record what's happening at my place.

About five years ago I dug up part of the back lawn and planted a vegetable garden.  A few months later I won seven fruit trees in a competition, and it seemed a confirmation of my plan to more or less feed myself from what grew here.

It was a wonderful decision!
Here in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, we have some of the best soil and climate for growing food in the world.  Our by-line has at various times been 'The Fruit Bowl of New Zealand' and 'Wine Country'  as a mark of the importance to the country of the agricultural/horticultural industries here.  Watties has had its base here since 1934.

And my back garden lived up to my expectations.  Last year I replanted grass on about half of it, as I just couldn't keep up with it, and at the moment I have the following fruit trees, bushes and vines -

Morning tea in the shade of the lemon tree

Meyer lemon - old and gnarled, and most years, a great producer!

Feijoa (2) - 1 Kaiteri, and 1 Gemini.  Had a good crop last year.

My first Satsuma plums!

Mandarin - Silverhill (which probably won't be too prolific this year due to my seriously sweet 3 yr old grand-daughter presenting me with handfuls of little green balls - couldn't work out what they were, but she showed me where she'd got them from - the mandarin tree.  Yes, the beginnings of the fruit....)
Lime - Tahitian (which is yet to fruit)
Plum - Satsuma (fruiting for the first time this year!)
Blueberry - various varieties (I've lost count of the number of bushes, but I think there about five bushes in the cage I made for them from chicken wire.  It sags, but it keeps the birds off.  This is one of my most successful crops)
Red Cherry Guava (fruiting for the first time this year, also in the blueberry cage)
Chilean Guava (Myrtus Ugni) (several of these, also in the blueberry cage) 

The Ballerina Bolero apple tree, 2008

The Waltz apple tree,
with berry cage to the left
and grapes to the right, Jan 2013

Apple trees - I have three columnar trees, developed for small spaces or pot growing.  The Ballerina Bolero was included in the prize pack, but I have since bought a Ballerina Polka and a Ballerina Waltz
Grapes - Kyoho, looking fantastic, full of fruit at the moment
Cherry - Lapins - yes well, it's a lovely tree but the birds get the fruit.  Hasn't produced a lot so far. 
Thornless Blackberry - fantastic fruiter!  
Cape Gooseberries all over the place, they come up in a different garden every year.  Love them!

So there is some sort of fruit at most times of the year.  Currently picking apples, blueberries and plums.  And lemons which fruit all the year.  Cranberries will be next, and grapes!