Runner Bean Chutney

Here in Australia we are on the verge of spring and planting has begun in the Market Garden.

Kirsten has just posted a Blog about the joys of Scarlet Runner Beans which we love to grow at Milkwood, and one of our Canadian followers has asked for ideas for turning Runner Bean Abundance into good things for storing.

Mid Winter memories

Our most lovely and excellent chefesse with one of her magnificent creations – all Milkwood’s own

Being a citizen of both hemispheres this post has two purposes : to inspire my family and friends up there in the world (for whom summer is just beginning … we hope – may you be blessed with a Milkwood Bounty this year); and for my antipodean friends and colleagues, as we venture out into frosty mornings to remind us of warmer days and copious crops.

Week 33 in the OMG

Warfare, Death and Destruction… well the latter anyway.

The First Frost – Wednesday 11 April 2012

Light as a feather and silent as night, the first frost of winter falls and we waken to a white dawn….

Week 32 in the OMG – Easter Weekend 2012

Happy Easter Weekend to all my readers … the theme of this week must be Indian Summer … and what better way to celebrate our late burst of summer-in-autumn than this shot of Michael and Sophie doing a bit of garden yoga over the Brassica beds.

Week 31 in the OMG

A cornucopia of carrots ! We had an Open Day here at Milkwood on Sunday so to cater for 60 visitors + the resident community here Rose asked me to pull all the mature carrots.

Week 30 in the OMG

Friday morning – it felt a little chilly overnight so when I did my pre-breakfast walk through the garden I took this photo of my morning temperature reading… the lowest this year. Winter is coming.

Week 29 in the OMG

Week 29 already, mid-March, 3 days to the Equinox – we had a debate here about the end of summer/start of autumn : is it 1 March or the Equinox ? There are various answers – whatever you decide the summer fruits are ending and winter crops going into the ground now. Above see Michael planting out Red Drumhead Cabbage in their soil blocks.

Week 28 in the OMG

“Rose” I called “More tomatoes”. There followed a muffled scream from inside the kitchen….. well who can blame her ?

In the past 2 months she has chopped, dried, reduced, baked, Vercoled and sliced 536kgs of the red beauties.

OK she has had some help from most of us (see the picture of Tomatoe lovelies above with cheery smiles) but the responsibility has been hers….

and not a bare foot has been used (sadly – oh to be in Italy or Spain …..). She told me the other day that she has now made over 150 Vercola jars = about 150 litres of chopped tomatoes and passata sauce. Not bad – and there are several tens of tomatoes still in the cool room.

Week 27 in the OMG

Has it been a wet week or wot…. 98mm up here in the hills that are home to Milkwood Farm and OMG – that’s 1/6th of the annual average.

So much rain fell on Thursday and Friday we feared a flood on the creek flat and so decided to dig up a lot of potatoes just in case and so they did not get washed away.

And here we are washing and inspecting them before storage in the dark of the Woolshed store room – amused by Baz and serenaded by the ever musical Harris in red gum-boots.