Why we should all grow our own veg

Chatting to Indira Naidoo (author of The Edible Balcony) about urban farming at the Australian Garden Show was inspiring.  You can catch our interview here but thought I would summarise the points that have really got me thinking.

We all have the space
We really do all have enough space for one or two pots, or even a vertical garden, even on the smallest balcony.  In that space we should all be growing most of the herbs and salad plants we need to eat.

With changing climate and increasing population, there is a decrease in available farming land.  Imagine if we free up the land currently used for common herbs and salads for more important foods.

Think of the savings - $500 a year sound good?
I estimate that we personally save $5-$10 a week growing our own herbs and salad, we just don't need to buy them anymore.  This is an annual saving of at least $260 a year on herbs alone, around $500 if you include salads which are our most reliable and rewarding crop.

Last summer we never had to buy tomatoes or watermelon either.  Even with the cost of planting we probably saved around $700 over the year.   Makes good sense and good cents too. 

Pick only what you need - less waste

Nothing tastes as good as fresh picked, we all know that.  But another bonus is that you only ever pick what you need.  When you buy you often buy more than you need and then end up throwing away what you didn't use.  Grow your own and there is far less waste.

Enjoy seeing children eating fresh out the garden

We joke that we let Miss J out to graze.  She eats handfuls of sugar snap peas fresh off the vine, tomatoes still warm from the sun, strawberries (usually before they are properly ripe), even sticks of celery snapped off the plant.  

Could anything be better than growing your own?   I have just planted these small sweet watermelon's - Sugar Baby.  They are an heirloom variety and you can get them at The Little Veggie Patch Co or Gurneys.  Last year we loved the watermelon crop and would have had more if our irrigation had been working better.  Every time it rained they doubled in size over night!  This year I am trying to grow them from seed rather than seedlings, lets hope it works!

Please share your success stories, I would love some sure fire winners for this season.

a handful of sunshine

Sometimes you just need a little bit of sunshine to brighten up your day.  This gorgeous capsicum was hiding in the veggie patch.  Amazingly Miss J found it before the caterpillars.  

We then spent a happy 15 minutes looking for caterpillars and telling them "night night".  No more caterpillars... but hopefully lots more capsicum's.

little letters...to the veggie garden

Growing and eating our own produce has been incredibly satisfying.  It's pleasure to think 'I'll just go and get the herbs/spinach/tomato' take a few steps outside and pick what you need. 

Dear tomatoes you were fab.  We loved you all, every shape and colour.  Next year I will learn to trellis better and plant more of you.  I had no idea your fruit were so heavy.
Dear watermelon, you love I love watermelon (lalala)...you were a delight.
Dear passion fruit, you have put out lots of shoots but you were supposed to be bigger by now, grow faster!
Dear spinach you are a star.  You grow and grow and we can never eat you all.
Dear zucchini you were a flop.  You got mouldy and your fruit fell off, you are not invited back next season.
Dear strawberries thanks for trying.  Next year we will try let your fruit ripen before Miss J eats it.
Dear rainbow chard you win the prize for prettiness and hardiness, tasty too.  Welcome to the all star list.

We are still getting a few last tomatoes and watermelon but its time to plan the winter veggies.
Miss J visits the watermelon plant several times a day to point out "tiny" and "fatty", her names not mine.  I think she is going to enjoy seeing pumpkins growing.

Let me know if you have any recommendations, and please feel free to add little letters of your own.

Tomato passata...summer garden harvest

We arrived home to a glut of tomatoes.  Amazingly they had survive extreme heat and a cyclone of rain and were hanging plumply off the vines, splitting with ripeness.  The Voice of Reason and I stepped into Martha Stewart mode, picked a bucket (and I mean bucket) of the ripest ones and started cooking.  My contribution was a passata to use with mince for lasagna or bolagnese, Miss J's was eating tomatoes like apples straight out the bucket, the VoR experimented with a secret recipe tomato sauce (delicious).  
Both turned out really well but I can only share the passata with you, the sauce is as I said before, secret.  Hopefully you are enjoying the tomato harvest bounty too.

Ingredients:
As many ripe tomatoes as you want to make into passata.
1kg of tomatoes made 1 litre of passata.
A combined handful of rosemary, oreganum, thyme.
10 - 12 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup of olive oil

To make:
Cut tomatoes in half and place in roasting pan with unpeeled garlic cloves and fresh herbs.
Add the remaining ingredients and place pan in a slow oven (160) for an hour, or until tomatoes have softened.
Remove from oven and cool.
Once cool remove garlic skins, they should pop off easily. 
Place tomato mixture in a blender and blend until smooth.  You can pass the passata through a sieve if you want a really fine sauce but I can't be bothered.
Store your delicious passata in sterilised jars or bottles, or freeze, and end enjoy long after summer harvest is over.

We ate the left overs as a thick fragrant tomato soup.
Totally delicious & totally simple, especially when the tomatoes are out of your own garden.

Instagram almanac at my place

I have had a busy week in the garden, taking out the old rocket and spinach, and making way for zucchini, squashes and tomatoes.  The sugar snap peas are almost finished.  Little Miss J has loved them, gobbling pea after pea straight from the plant.  

We are trying strawberries, just hope Miss J leaves them on the plant until they are ripe.  

It is so satisfying eating from the garden.  Last night we roasted beetroot straight from the soil, sweet and nutty, and almost every day we have a mixed salad of rainbow chard, spinach and lettuce leaves. 

I love walking straight through the greens section of the supermarket because we simply don't need any.

We are finally enjoying some flowers.  The California Poppies are flowering, the salvia is in spike, and the sedum is growing in.  I love deep pink and burned orange of this California Poppy variety - called Jelly Beans.  I hope it self seeds and comes back on its own next year.

The crazy pear trees have finally decided to blossom.  I have been worried because all the neighbours trees flowered weeks ago.  Hopefully some regular nitrogen will stimulate some good leaf growth for summer.

I picked these succulent clippings from a neighbouring garden on a walk with Little Miss J.  They are hardening off for a few days and then I am going to plant them in the tough hot spots on the sides of the house.  The weeds seem to have been thriving in these spots so hopefully there is enough soil for these lovely succulents to get a hold onto.

The hooks are up on the wall as planned.  Just as well as summer seems to be here at a last and the towels and swimming costumes always seem to be wet.  Much tidier with this system. No more towels draped on the pool fence or puddling soggily on the deck.

What's is happening in the garden at your place?