This Week
- Potatoes
- Some Christmas Recipes
- Feast or Famine
- Unusual Herbs
- Kids Gardening Workshops
On with the show anyway, and its only fitting that we start with a product the Mayans gave us (or the spanish nicked from them)
The humble spud,
Christmas in the northerrn climes generally means turkey and all the trimmings, roast spuds etc, down under there are few extras, prawns, ham a few more salads typically, but one thing is for sure there are usually potatoes in one form or other.
If you have been watching our blog you will notice we planted some spuds a few months ago, 3 different varieties courtesy of The Big Spud at Robertson (one of our favourite local growers), now the tops have died and its is the perfect time to pull some of them up especially the Norland Reds that have matured first, having a large plot of these, we are in the perfect position to supply some great local people who do a fantastic job out in the community, namely Narellan Congregational Community Services, having planted some of these themselves it was only fair that we had the staff pull them up :) as you will see soon in a pic to be loaded, Heather and Mary donned their finest potato digging gear and pulled a few out this last week for their end of year christmas lunch, thanks ladies, this was accompanied by some zucchinis from the same plot. The gardeners have done a brilliant job of keeping water up to these in the lead up to christmas, so thanks to all concerned, especially Simon and Hazel. Looking for a recipe for roast spuds, try this one including Rosemary, perfect roast potatoes with rosemary, looking for a potato salad recipe, here you go with a whole bunch of them, potato salad recipes.Feast or Famine
Succession planting is the key to getting produce all year round and there can be a bit of a knack to it, the general gist of it is that you want to stagger your plantings, you don't want 20 lettuces all maturing together or a crop of leeks all at once, with crops like potatoes you can store then certainly and enough that it wont be such an issue. tomatoes there is always the tomato sauce option or why not make a concentrate and freeze it, or semi dry them in the oven on a low heat and then pack them in oil, perfect for pizza toppings ot antipasto plates. If you want to have a constant supply over the warmer months put another couple of plants in about 8-12 weeks after the first lot went in, i have just put another couple in. With your leafy veggies try and stagger the plantings, a tough one generally as you buy a punnet of 20 lettuces at a time, but why not just plant a few seeds at a time and then grow them on, or share the punnet with your fellow gardeners and then a couple of weeks down the track buy another punnet. If your growing beans and get a glut, freeze the extras after blanching them, these are an easy one to grow from seed, so no excuses for not having enough, just plant 8 or 10 seeds ever 3 or 4 weeks. If your lucky enough to have a local veggie supplier next to your gardens as Camden Community Garden is you can by a few veggies at a time, if you would like a handy link try this one succession planting.
Unusual Herbs
Coming soon, Valerian, Stevia, Angelica, Lovage, Lemon Balm, Mushroom Plant, Brahimi.
Kids Gardening Workshops
This week saw Camden Council put on 2 workshops for under 6yr olds, saying the course was successful is probably a bit of an understatement, almost 40 young kids registered for the free workshops which touched on the affordability of gardening, re-using things around the house, just how easy and accessible gardening is, and some aspects of companion planting. With near 20 kids each day the community garden was a buzz, parents helped their kids plant seeds of all types as well as some plants donated by the Community Gardens Committee who had grown them in the lead up to the course. These included Basil and Tomatoes as well as some pumpkin seeds that have been grown in the area for many many years and some magic beans supplied by myself, these will prove very interesting and i am looking forward to some feedback.
We have to thank Camden Council for this great initiative and look forward to more in the future. In saying that the next course is Monday 21st of January for 6-12yrs, register interest by contacting us through the email on the home page, this will be followed by a 2 Day Mosaics Workshop on the 23rd and 25th of January, this will be facilitated by Freya Jobbins, local artist and the lady responsible for our Scarecrow Workshops, (you would have seen our crew on page 4 of The Advertiser this week).
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