This Summer has included a new vegetable adventure; growing beans for drying to use in the future. I'm picturing beany soups and stews, maybe some delicious nachos or salads. We will see what we can come up with!
For now I'm just enjoying the colour and shine, they are truly beautiful. There are Red Kidney and Borlotti beans as well as Cherokee Wax and French Flageolet. I've just been waiting until the bean pods go papery and then picking them, drying the beans themselves on a plate for a few days and then into the jar they go. To the bean mix I've also added the chickpeas and some broad beans that missed being picked and dried out.
The chickpeas have been really interesting to grow, with lovely soft feathery leaves and sweet little white pea-flowers. The strange thing about them is the 'wet' feeling that you get if you brush your hand against them. The hairy covering on the leaves and stems seems to trap moisture, which may be a survival mechanism as they originate in the middle east. What a little beauty!
The Gardenias are in flower at our place, and I can't resist floating a handful in a bowl of water to add fragrance to our bathroom. Divine. These are all Gardenia magnifica, but I have a couple of grandiflora star, radicans and augusta Florida as well. Just can't get enough of them in summer, so most are planted under a window to let the scent drift inside.
It's New Year's Eve, and I've been lurking around at the local pigeon club. Not because I'm into pigeons, they're not really my thing. More because they have the biggest Silky Oak in the street, and it's host to a number of big, healthy mistletoes. And I've struck gold...
But I've already missed Christmas, you say. No, I'm not collecting mistletoe in order to get extra kisses, although it might be a tradition worth encouraging in Australia. From what I can tell, the Europeans are winning in the mistletoe respect stakes, but I've become quite intrigued by it in the last few years. My inner ecologist is delighted, my inner horticulturist is horrified. Horticulture training recommends the removal of mistletoe from trees and shrubs as quickly as possible, as they can cause water loss and death in some cases. These clever plants are considered parasites, but I prefer to think of them as piggy-backers. When a seed germinates on a branch, the root grows into the host plant and proceeds to live off its water and nutrient supplies instead of growing its own root system and getting these from the ground the old fashioned way. The downside for the generous host is that in general, mistletoe is greedy and wasteful, allowing water to escape from the leaves that is normally trapped carefully by waxy cuticles and closed pores.
But it's not all bad news... mistletoe berries are an important food source for Mistletoe Birds and the nectar is a nutritious food for Painted Honeyeaters, among others. I wouldn't mind having some of these sweet birds visit my backyard, and so I decided to try and infect (or introduce) some mistletoe into my plants. Until today, that wasn't as easy as it seemed. You can't simply transplant it, as it's anchored into another plant... so the only option is to plant a seed. Again, not so easy, as the berries are eaten by well-meaning birds and spread all over the place. I've been watching the whole process, as the flowers opened a few weeks ago, and the berries have now followed. Imagine my excitement in finding some berries on the ground under a bottlebrush tree in my street! But if I'm realistic, I know the seeds will germinate much better if they have been pre-digested by a helpful feathered friend.
Hence the visit to the large Silky Oak tree. There are so many mistletoes here that the birds hang around for ages, depositing their packages of seedy goodness as they feed and play.
I graduated from my horticulture degree this month, and 6 years ago I'm sure I wasn't imagining collecting bird poo from the ground when I enrolled. But what I also didn't anticipate was how exciting I would find it. I've waited patiently for months for these sticky little deposits, and I'm rapt to be attaching them to my own bottlebrush tree so that I can have the wonderful mistletoe birds to watch on a regular basis. I can't wait to see if they grow!
I'm even planning to try some seeds on my lovely big gardenia, as it's right next to our birdbath and might be extra encouragement for shy birds. Some mistletoe were growing on the Crepe Myrtles in the street, so I know they're not too strict about who they piggyback onto.
If anyone is interested in Australian mistletoe and its importance to the environment, this short radio interview is worth listening to. It was extra inspiration for me to get out there and find some seeds!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-20/native-mistletoe-good-for-the-environment/5170040
Summer has certainly arrived, and we're harvesting yellow squash, mixed zucchini and mini golden nugget pumpkins for our dinners! Yummo!
Ok I'll admit it, I've had to sneak more than one photo in, but that's because I just couldn't choose a favourite! And also I haven't posted a photo EVERY week, so I'm making up for lost time really! Here is a celebration of Banksia flowers and cones, they are looking so stunning at the moment and the textures are just divine. There is a mixture here of Banksia blechnifolia, ericifolia, integrifolia, serrata and spinulosa, as well as a few hybrids/cultivars I wasn't sure of. Go on, choose a favourite, I challenge you!
Yesterday I spent the afternoon taking photos of my weeds. Not because I want to show off my neglected areas, but because I'm making dinner. I've recently been reacquainted with my local library, and on the top of my book pile is The Weed Forager's Handbook by Adam Grubb and Annie Raser-Rowland.
I've been inspired to take a second look at the plants I usually pull up and throw out. There are a few reasons for this.
1. I've just finished my university module on weed science, and the first lesson is that a weed is simply a plant growing where you don't want it; the definition is centred on people and their ideas of plants. When you can use something, it stops being a weed.
2. I'm big on reducing my waste around the house, and recycle as much as possible. Weeds usually shouldn't go in the compost, otherwise you end up spreading their seeds back on the garden, and so they are put in my rubbish bin and carted away for landfill. That seems a bit silly to me.
3. Some of these plants are highly nutritious and even better for you than many of the other greens we pay good dollars for, or make space for in the veggie patch.
4. They grow, well, like weeds! this means food for very little effort.
So I embarked on an adventure yesterday- making my favourite fetta and silverbeet quiche supplemented with as many edible weeds as I could find in my garden. And there were more than I expected! The book outlines top 20 useful weeds, their benefits and any notes of caution. As a trained horticulturist, I sure know my weeds! But if you are unsure of any identification, it's best to leave them. Following the first rule of weed foraging, I picked some greens thinking they were probably Fat Hen, but didn't use them because I just couldn't be sure. If anyone can confirm for me, I will include them next time.
Beside this, I found dandelions, milk thistle, oxalis, purslane, angled onion, and amaranthus.
I cooked these up with a few good handfuls of silverbeet from the garden, mixed them with eggs, fetta and a bit of sour cream, filled a half baked shortcrust pastry shell and popped it all in the oven.
The onion weed was a great onion substitute, and the other greens added a nice depth of flavour to the silverbeet.
If you are interested in eating some of the weeds near your place, I do recommend the book as a great place to start. Nutritional and identification information is very helpful, and handy tips for which parts are the tastiest, and how to best use them. I don't use many chemicals in my garden, but also be aware of any pesticides etc. your weeds may have been exposed to.
I have purposely held off posting for 24 hours to ensure there were no ill effects, and I'm happy to report that I'm still alive and well! Next time I reckon I'll try a weed salad, maybe with some edible flowers for decoration...
Isn't that beautiful? I found this mandarin in my kitchen, mouldering away in the fruit bowl. I can't help but admire the colours, and the soft powdery patterns of the mould growing on the fruit. Not too inspiring for some, but it reminds me of the first penicillin made from mould growing on oranges, and I wonder how many things we overlook (or throw away) that might be useful or world-changing... or at least lovely to look at, if we take the time.
