Berries....

My new garden at Lorea House has provided a few lovely little surprises.  Berries being an especially delicious one!

One of the first jobs I completed when I started tidying the garden was to remove an awful weed mat type product from around the strawberry patch. Underneath I found hundreds of snails. Oh yuk!!

A big tidy up and a big dose of sugar cane mulch and a drink of liquid thrive and my strawberries took off. Big lush healthy plants.  Flowers followed and then of course the best part. Strawberries!  So many strawberries. At the moment there's a big bag full waiting in the freezer that I will make jam with soon.

The other berries have been a little bit of a mystery to me. I really haven't had a clue!  But I'm told they are Boysonberries. Whatever they are, they are certainly delicious. 

How delicious they have been.  On pancakes with the strawberries with maple syrup. With yoghurt and a little granola sprinkled on top but my favourite, on a little pavlova nest with some beautiful fresh cream!  Heaven!

Berries are something I've never experimented with before in the garden but I must say it's been worth dealing the the spiky canes to enjoy the delicious fruit. 

What a lovely thing it is to enjoy fresh berries right from my own sweet garden.  

Egg and Lettuce...

The girls from the bottom of the garden and certainly doing their thing at the moment.  After weeks of no eggs they are giving us plenty of eggy goodness.

 

Lettuce from the Potager....

Eggs from the girls at the bottom of the garden.....

Curry and mayo......

 

 



 

Curried Egg and Lettuce sandwiches for lunch - yum!

Citrus Fruit Harvest....... Making Marmalade

 

 

My house currently smells all citrusy!  Delightful.....

 

This morning in the rain I went out and picked some of the fruit that was ready.  Since it was a rainy day I couldn't really paint and certainly not garden.

 

 

 

I don't think it really gets much better than fresh fruit covered in raindrops.

 

 

 

My tiny cumquats weighed in at 200 grams! Not much to work with at all.

 

 

 

The limes weighed in at 1.2kg - so that was a little better going.

 

 

 

 

This is the most limes I have ever harvested - two is the biggest crop before this year!

 

 

 

I've finished up with six bottles of lime marmalade and 1 1/2 bottles of cumquat marmalade.

 

I also made two bottles of lemon butter and used one whole lemon!  I've got a bag full of them still to go - so had better come up with some ideas so they don't go to waste - like last years harvest did!  Maybe some lemon delicious pudding will be the order of the day.

 

 

Still to pick is the orange tree - yum - I love making orange marmalade. I think there might even be a orange and almond cake in there somewhere too.   Hopefully now to just get the time to enjoy some more kitchen fun.

 

I love getting to fiddle with baking and cooking when I get the time.  I loved today being able to use my lovely big boiler that belonged to Nana - beautiful Bakelite handles and knob - and of course the juicing with a lovely old depression glass juicer.  I will admit though that the cutting of the fruit was much more up to date - my wonderful new food processor!!

Carrots...

 

Oh how wonderful and delightful to harvest carrots from the garden.

 

 

 

My only other attempts at growing carrots have not been at all successful.

Usually, I end up with bitter, twisted abnormal looking things by planting seedlings.

 

 

 

But, this time lovely straight carrots in all different sizes.  They are beautiful.

 

 

 

A whole box full

 

11.5 kilograms of them!

 

The secret seems to be planting seed.  This time we used Yates seed tape - it was fantastic.

 

I would say almost 100% success in the seed coming up.  So easy to use, just tear off at the length you want the rows to be and presto, carrots are planted!  There is six metres of tape in a packet.

 

I only thinned them a little. Next time I would probably take a few more out, but overall, I am very happy with how my carrot growing went!

 

 

 

I have peeled and prepared 2.5 kilograms for the freezer so far.  Better get a few more done.

 

We enjoyed some smaller ones with our roast dinner a few nights ago - delicious!

Oranges and Lemons

I harvested our citrus crop on Saturday. Seven oranges and five lemons!

 

The oranges yielded a similar amount to last year - the lemons were just disappointing - about fifty lemons short on last years total!

 

I thought I should put them to use.

 

 

 

A batch of Marmalade.

 

And

 

A batch of lemon butter.

 

 

 

I used the recipe from A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise for the Marmalade.

 

And

 

The Lemon Butter was made using our tried and tested family recipe.

 

 

 

 The eggs for this beautiful Lemon Butter also came from the girls who live at the bottom of the garden.

 

I used the larger grater attachment in the food processor to chop the oranges - it's not terribly neat or even, but it certainly does the job in no time flat!

 

 

 

I made some little pastry shells to have with the Lemon Butter - I really shouldn't have - it is just too wonderful to leave at one.

End of Year Harvest.........

Where to begin with the happenings of the past weeks.  I haven't updated here for weeks - school finished, dance concert over for another (the 10th) year and Christmas has been and gone.

I am now on a 10 day break from work - less than a week left now unfortunately. 

 Christmas was a lovely time shared with family.  It went on for a week!  Busy but lovely - tired now!  I am so enjoying my time at home.  Not achieving anything really - but lovely nonetheless. 

Today I felt as though I am starting to surface - but not enough to have achieved any more than the drudgery of catching up and doing housework - I long for some time for me.

Today I spent a little time picking some lovely veges from my Potager - I then prepared them for the freezer.  So lovely to have some home grown back in the freezer.  My lovely trug was a gift from my Mum & Dad - I don't think anyone "got" it at all - too bad - I love it!

I cut our Christmas cake for morning tea- it was very enjoyable!

The year is almost at an end - I almost feel as though I need to do a catch up post to document some very important family occasions this year - maybe I will get that done in the next few days.

I hope my friends have all enjoyed a lovely Christmas time. 

I'm hoping for a much more enjoyable 2012 - but I somehow don't see it happening!

Lemon Meringue Pie...........

Life is just so busy right now and has been for a long time.  I guess we all are.  The weekends are mostly a blur of cleaning and washing and food for me and I guess most families.  I just want some time to be me.

So today after all the beds had been stripped and all the towels changed and the clothes line full to the brim with probably another full line tomorrow and the bathrooms were cleaned and the house vacumed.........

I made a pie.  A lemon meringue pie with eggs and lemons from my garden.  It was delicious.

This followed some beautiful steak which Mitchell had marinated this afternoon and then cooked on the barbeque.  What a delicious meal to end the day with.



This week Masterchef winner Julie Goodwin came to our town.  Cameron was there to film the story for the news and got to meet her.  Cameron bought her newest cookbook and had it signed for me.  It is a really lovely book.  Cameron was very impressed with what a lovely lady Julie is. 

Thank you to my two lovely boys for a couple of bright spots this week.

Spring Garden

Spring is finally here.  Well it was last weekend, but it has disappeared to somewhere else this weekend.  Our garden is coming to life.  I just love this time of year.  Buds bursting to life and colour running riot in my garden.



We have entered into the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers garden competition again this year.  Madness I say.  But lots of fun.  We love our garden and being in the competition certainly helps us to bring out the best in our garden.  We love sharing our garden with any who wish to venture this way to visit.



This year we have entered into three different categories.  Our whole garden is entered into the Cottage Garden section.  The ABC Radio also has sections and for this we are entered into the Outdoor Living section and also the Family Garden section.

Last Sunday we were judged in the Cottage Garden section, then on Monday the ABC Radio judges came to see our garden for the other sections.  Thankfully, they all liked what they saw.



The potager is looking wonderful.  I love how it has all come together.  I just have to wait patiently for the wisteria along the fence to flower - it looks like it will be another year until I have beautiful wisteria to enjoy. 

When the judge came around the corner and saw the setting above, he thought we could have a wedding here - what a lovely compliment!  I can't wait to have our meals here on some lovely summer evenings.  

The sherbet coloured chairs is another project I have been working on during the winter.

We have to wait until Wednesday evening to know if we have won any prizes - fingers crossed.  Then, hopefully, we will get to share our garden with all who choose to visit during Carnival Week.  It's always such fun chatting with others who enjoy gardens as much as we do. 

Today I worked on another little project that I will hopefully show soon - blackboard paint and chalk paint pens - what fun!

I hope you enjoyed a little wander through my spring time garden - please come and visit if you are nearby - we would love to see you from next weekend onwards during Carnival Week.