Welcome Suzie

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

It's usually the kids that get the toys at Christmas time, but this year it was Desley! And she was willing to go to great lengths to get it! We have been looking to replace our daggy old Hiace van for some time, with something both larger and "cooler"! The object of desire was a refrigerated truck or van, but our long wish-list of features has meant it took a long time for the right one to come along. And when it did, she pounced - all the way to Cairns! Well, she actually s...

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Aubergine

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

Solanum melongena (or what we, the Kiwi's and the Yanks call eggplant) is an interesting species of nightshade, thus related to the tomato and the potato. It is a yum addition to the summer menu, and though we have lost many of our plants to fusarium this year, the long asian variety is doing very well! Plant historians tell us eggplant has been grown in southern and eastern Asia since prehistory, with the first known written record o...

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Brandywine

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

Over the next few weeks we anticipate starting to harvest these lovely looking open pollinated Brandywine tomatoes. One of the best-tasting tomatoes, it's luscious, heirloom flavor was described as "very rich, loud, and distinctively spicy", and "beautifully sweet that is offset by a wonderful acidity". The large fruits have a deep pink skin and smooth pink to red flesh with a beefsteak shape. Even when fully ripe, the tomato can have gr...

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A good time was had by all...

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

Amazing. Our inaugural Cultivate Conference. 153 registered attendees. 41 seminars. 17 fantastic presenters (6 from the US). 4 forums. Beautiful weather. A happy relaxed setting. Seminars catering for every interest - home gardening to chainsaws, soil science to avocado's, preserving to market gardening, welding to natural family health care, and everywhere in between.  Monday and Tuesday this week saw a few of the attendees (families from...

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Sukuma Wiki

7 years ago by Desley Bailey

When in Kenya in 2016, I found Sukuma Wiki (Kale) growing along the sides of the roads. In Swahili, 'sukuma' means push, and 'wiki' means week - when food is scarce (as it often is in a Kenyan village) kale 'pushes you through the week'.  In our garden other vegetables come and go with the seasons, but kale lives on, and on, and on. So what do you do with an abundance of kale in the garden? You eat kale, kale, and more kale! ...

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Storms of Life 2

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

We had another experience this week that has helped us to put the struggles we have in context of the bigger picture of what is happening around us. This spring has been terrible for our tomato's. We were late getting them started, and then we didn't have all the beds ready when they were ready to go out. But finally over 600 plants were tucked in by Hannah and Ella, and given every chance of a nice productive life. And they grew. But then they started dying. One by one.&...

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Storms of Life

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

We, like many others in our area, had a hailstorm on Saturday afternoon. Strong winds, pelting small hail, then a torrential downpour of rain that cause mini flash flooding and left everything sodden afterwards. I love a good storm as much as anyone, the louder and heavier the better - and heavy rain on a corrugated iron roof has to be some of the alltime best music ever made. But on this occassion I wasn't enjoying it too much, as visciously spectacular as it may have been. Bec...

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Colour

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

Sometimes you see something that makes you take a second look. Yesterday it was these beautiful clouds that swept across our northern horizon, with an occassional electrical explosion punctuating their inkiness. Magnificent! And the contrast of the sun on the kale, broccoli and silverbeet - ahh, beautiful! Have you ever been consciously thankful for the cone photoreceptors in your eyes that allow you to see colour? A normal eye has around 6 million of these champions, mostly located...

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Rain

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

As I write this, the sky is clouding over as it broods with some approaching rain. Belying the sunny morning we have enjoyed, the radar tells me there is a band of heavy rain stretching from Lightning Ridge down to the coast and into the sea in a south easterly direction. There is tonic in the air today. Though our dams are full, soil moisture has been very low. Showers over the last few weeks have been great, and after visiting my parents in south NSW for 4 days over last weekend, we we...

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"All good things must come to an end." Do they?

7 years ago by Rod Bailey

Last week we picked our last peas for the year. Weren't they fantastic? I have really enjoyed munching on them - though maybe not as much as Indy Mae our little gardening princess has enjoyed them! Sorry I don't have a photo of her to show you the enjoyment in her eyes as she munches on Sugar Snap peas! She will miss them when she comes to the garden each Thurday with her mum and brothers... So the peas have ended. That's bad, right? Yes! But all good things must co...

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