2013 PRODUCE TALLY

Well I finally have put my butt into gear and getting back onto the blogging horse after having my second son! I thought I would start off with a tally of 2013's produce. I will also be updating on my birth story, renovation goals and our upcoming 3.5 week holiday!

Artichoke 507 grams
Bay Leaf 79 grams
Beetroot 3361 grams
Bok Choy 54 grams
Broad Beans 10506 grams
Broccoli 714 grams
Cabbage 5161 grams
Capsicum 2964 grams
Carrot 383 grams
Cauliflower 4008 grams
Celery 654 grams
Chili 735 grams
Corn 201 grams
Eggs 653
Garlic 3010 grams
Kale 879 grams
Kumquat 15 grams
Leek 2631 grams
Lemon 846 grams
Lettuce 771 grams
Loquat 295 grams
Marjoram 237 grams
Marrow 30853 grams
Onion 676 grams
Parsley 3125 grams
Peas 171 grams
Pumpkin 37902 grams
Rhubarb 2052 grams
Rosemary 4 grams
Sage 502 grams
Silver Beet 11843 grams
Tarragon 443 grams
Thyme 131 grams
Tomato 60732 grams
Zucchini 25671 grams

TOTAL 653 EGGS AND 212.116 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD

one of my favorite harvests, These guys lasted for 9 months throughout winter and were super easy to grow!

WEEKLY HARVEST - NUMBER 29

This week was quite a successful one, I had a bit of a clear out of some of my greens, as they were  getting overgrown. Hopefully they can get some more light and produce bigger leaves. I picked nearly a kilo of leaves from one silverbeet bush and it didn't even look like it had been touched! 

5/8/13 - 11/8/13

11 eggs

2616 grams silverbeet

431 grams parsley

155 grams capsicum

68 grams peas

19 grams chili

1 grams bay leaf

TOTAL 11 EGGS AND 3290 GRAMS OF FOOD!

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 28

I am a bit behind posting this week, as we started off with some computer issues. But things are picking up in the garden and this week marks the start of tomato sowing season. I think I will start to sow some on the weekend and pop them in the green house, so we can get ready for the bumper summer season, and the arrival of new life. This summer is set to be a busy one. The renovations will hopefully be over by the time bubba Will arrives, but the veggie patch is a daily task with the warmer weather, encouraging things to flourish! Hopefully I can garden when bubba sleeps, and lets hope he sleeps like his brother did (sleeping was NEVER an issue for us!)! And Israel will as always love any excuse to get outside and get his hand dirty. We are thinking about our summer vacation, keeping in mind we will have a one month old. I don't want to go somewhere too hot, but the reality is that it will be an Aussie summer, and it's always hot. So I was think Tasmania as the averages there are always 10-15 degrees lower than mainland Australia. But by then we would have spent all our saving on renovations so it may be unrealistic in us getting there. So I think the verdict is somewhere closer, and possibly in the hills where it is a bit cooler. But I digress and onto the tally we go!

29/7/13 - 4/8/13

7 eggs
684 grams cauliflower
20 grams parsley
2 grams bayleaf

TOTAL 7 EGGS AND 706 GRAMS OF FOOD

Israel loves to collect snails when we go out into the garden! There was no shortage on this day! 

GARDEN SNAPSHOT

The garden is growing well, but as it is the middle of winter things tend to grow a lot slower. We were lucky enough to receive a load of beautiful mulch from a friend who is an arborist, so this was spread over last years load which was looking quite sad.

Our truckload of mulch

This is what the paths looked like before

And after

I love the look of fresh mulch!

Now for what's growing, the leeks are doing great!

And so is the garlic

And the herbs, and rhubarb

Hopefully the broad beans will flower soon

The celery is starting to take off and the silverbeet continues to produce well

The chili bush is still looking healthy and some chilis still on it and they are slowly turning red

The cauliflowers look like they will all be ready at the same time!

The purple sicilian variety really is so pretty!

More mulchy goodness! This took me forever to move! I did about 2/3rds by myself and then hubby helped with the last bit. I was unable to move the wheelbarrow so I loaded it up and he tipped it out for me!

The peas are doing well, but not as well as last year!

More garlic

And more silverbeet

The lettuce is still doing well

I don't think I will get sick and tired of looking at fresh mulch. 

WEEKLY TALLY - 23 & 24

The garden is growing nicely and has welcomed the winter rains over the last couple of days. Life is still hectic renovating our tushies off, and unfortunately the garden has been put on the back burner. Luckily it's not growing great guns like it would if we were in summer so it can go days and days without me popping my head in. This week I will be harvesting my first purple cauliflower of the season, so I am very excited about that!

24/6/13 - 7/7/13

26 eggs
31 grams lettuce
441 grams silverbeet
96 grams celery
2 grams bay leaf
114 grams parsley

TOTAL 26 eggs AND 684 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 19 & 20

I haven't meant to be slack - really!!!! Life has been full and busy. We are preparing for the arrival of our little one in 23 or so weeks and have half a house to renovating so we are getting busy preparing and finishing off a few little jobs before the big stuff happens. So all that has taken away from my free time to blog, even though I have wanted to keep you all updated on my garden's progress. I haven't been able to spend much time out there, just every now and again having a wander through seeing if anything is ready to harvest and pulling out the odd weed. So this harvest is a couple of weeks worth of harvesting...

27/5/13 - 9/6/13

30 eggs
148 grams lettuce
222 grams parsley
2 grams bay leaf
4 grams rosemary
2 grams marjoram

TOTAL 30 EGGS AND 178 GRAMS OF FOOD

CROYDON FOOD SWAP

I headed down to my second food swap. I have found 5 in my area and I am heading to them all to see which ones I like the best and when I am in peak production I will try and head to one every weekend to swap some of my goodies. Hopefully I will still be able to do this with a newborn, that is both garden to the extent that I do and head out to swap my goodies and chat!

The one I visited this weekend is Croydon Food Swap which is held at a local primary school amongst their kitchen garden. I forgot to take a photo of this beautiful location but hopefully I will remember next month! It was a lot smaller than the first one but this one hasn't been running as long. Given it is winter as well, a lot of people feel they don't have excess to swap. I found it quite difficult to find out about swaps in the first place and really think the local council should get on board and really help promote these great community groups and events. I met some lovely fellow gardeners and swapped some equally lovely produce!

This is what I took along ~

Zucchini, Maltese long marrow and some pumpkin.

Parsley and some dried chili

bay leaves, green feast peas and broad bean seeds

This is what I got in return ~

Coriander seedlings

Celery seedlings

Finger eggplant

Tiny hot chilis

Kumquat marmalade

Chili

Oranges

Squash

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 18

There has been a little more variety this week, but still a small harvest compared to what I was getting in summer. At least the chickens are laying again, not as much as they were in summer but at least I am getting a couple of eggs a day. The winter veggies are coming along nicely which you can see here. Hopefully the beautiful sunshine today gives them a nice little boost before the rainy week to come.

20/5/13 - 26/5/13
12 eggs
239 grams lettuce
464 grams parsley
54 grams bok choy
7 grams bay leaf
421 grams capsicum
3 grams chili

TOTAL 12 EGGS AND 1188 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 17

The garden is picking up slowly, with hopefully a few more thing starting to ripen and grow in the next few weeks. The chooks are still on strike with one dedicated hen laying an egg for me every other day. I went to go get some lemons and found an abandoned bush of kumquats that is growing very poorly. It was planted too close to our lemon tree and receives no direct sunlight. I didn't even know it existed until I saw some little orange fruit on it. It seems to have a lot of buds on it so hopefully we will get some more, but the tree is very scraggly... My 2.5 year old son loves them even though they are incredibly sour.

13/5/12 - 19/5/13

4 eggs
7 grams bay leaf
846 grams lemons
15 grams kumquat
174 grams beetroot
161 grams baby zucchini
78 grams capsicum
43 grams chili

TOTAL 4 EGGS 1.324 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD

NOVEMBER HARVEST 2012

I had tallied up all my harvests for November but I misplaced my book. I recently found it so I thought I would share what I gathered from my garden 6 months ago :D

67 eggs
1492 grams celery
1229 grams carrots
5 grams bay leaf
4 sprigs rosemary
117 grams strawberries
462 grams cauliflower
1284 grams loquat
504 grams broccoli
1386 grams leek
567 grams potato
1215 grams silverbeet
199 grams lemon
1026 grams broad beans
handful thyme
2 handfuls coriander
90 grams beetroot
25 grams turnip
64 grams snow peas
47 grams parsley
16 small heads, 18 medium heads, 48 large heads and 1 extra large heads of garlic

TOTAL 9.712 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD IN NOVEMBER NOT INCLUDING THE 67 EGGS, 83 HEADS OF GARLIC AND HERBS!

WHITEHORSE URBAN HARVEST

I have been looking for a local food swap for some time now and have finally found a couple in my area. I am hoping to frequent these and share my excess produce and gain some variety and knowledge while I do so! The Whitehorse urban harvest is held on the third Saturday of the month from 10 am - 12 pm, and despite the rain and cold there was a great turnout with sensational variety and lovely welcoming people who were willing to share their gardening wisdom! All produce that is brought is weighed in to record how much has been swapped and to prove to local council that this is a worthwhile event as the event is held at a local councils property. I cannot wait for next month's swap!

The goodies I took along.  A few chunks of cinderella pumpkin, some pieces of a maltese long marrow, bay leaves, dried chili and broad bean seeds 

Produce is first weighed and then laid out on a table and you are free to take what you like. 

I got some beautiful honey from a home apiary.

Some lovely limes

And some kaffir lime leaves

Persimmons (I have only tried these one and they were under ripe therefore they left a terrible furry sensation in my mouth. I have never been game to try them again. This time I will wait until they are fully ripe to indulge!)

And some plants for my garden. The far left is chilean guava the other potted one is cape gooseberry and the last is a flowering plant.

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 15

Everything is on strike. The chooks barley laid an egg and the garden is busy producing plant and not fruit. You may have noticed that I have been a little slack and that is because of the bun in the oven. The garden has really been neglected over the past few months and yesterday I was able to go out pull out some weeds and sprinkle some seeds around.

TALLY 29/4/13 - 5/5/13

4 eggs
11 grams parsley
4 grams bay leaves

TOTAL 4 EGGS AND 14 GRAMS OF FOOD!

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 13

It's still very slow in the garden. The chickens are slowing down egg production due to the colder weather, and the garden is slowly plodding along. This week it had a top up of compost and old chicken hay for mulch. Hopefully keeping some heat in and revitalising the soil. 

15/4/13 - 21/4/13

15 eggs

5 grams bay leaves

12 grams thyme

TOTAL 15 EGGS AND 17 GRAMS OF FOOD (HAHA)

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 7

This weeks harvest was pretty good. We had a lot of warm weather - a record breaker, so I am grateful for that, so my summer garden can survive and continue to produce. My tomatoes are nearly all gone, with the last handful ripening in this glorious weather. The zucchinis are still looking very healthy, but I am running out of freezer space to preserve them! The marrows have also picked up again and not sure what I am going to do with so many! Looks like we will be eating vegetarian for the next few weeks!

4/3/13 - 10/3/13

31 Eggs
11418 g Marrow
5848 g Tomato
69 g Chili
779 g Silverbeet
727 g Zucchini
238 g Beetroot
2 g Bayleaf
167 g Capsicum

TOTAL = 19.248 kilos of food and 31 eggs!

Homemade Homegrown Yellow Tomato Sauce

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 6

This week hasn't been as successful as other weeks, as summer came to a close. My tomato plants are at there ends, with only a few tomatoes left on each bush. I'm hoping that at the end of this week, which the forecast said that it will be in the 30's, that the last remaining tomatoes will start to turn a shade of crimson. I purchased (naughty I know) some seedlings to plant and then will start with seeds again in winter. I find unless they are the large seeds I don't have much luck in summer. The intense heat kills the very delicate and fragile seedlings.

24/2/13 - 3/3/13

27 eggs
89 g chili
3 g bay leaves
12154 g tomato
58 g capsicum
2402 g zucchini
379 g beetroot
1046 g cabbage

TOTAL 16.131 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD AND 27 EGGS

Fresh eggs are the best! The chooks can't lay enough at the moment!

My favorite chook! She lays severy day without fail. She is a Sussex chook and usually they only lay 3-4 times a week, but they lay over a much longer period, 6+ years compared with only a couple for Isa Browns! She also get very clucky and has sat quite a few times!

I had so many tomatoes the past few weeks, I thought I would preserve them so I could use them through winter. The mincer made light work and I had a puree instead of chunks which I really liked.

I also made a fresh tomato sauce later in the weeks with more tomatoes. I thought I would used the blender instead of setting up the mincer. Look at the color difference to that of store bought. If you were to buy a passata it is much darker and thicker. I love the intense flavor of my homegrown tomatoes and it kicks butt over store bought. commercially farmed tomatoes!

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 3

This week has been a very productive week in the garden, with a lot of the vegetables retiring to the freezer so I can use them in winter. Zucchinis and tomato have been most productive, so those are what I have preserved.

4/2/13-10/2/12

14 eggs
6 g Bay leaves
4559 g Tomato
5597 g Zucchini
639 g Kale
1540 g Cabbage
634 g Beetroot
627 g Silver beet/Swiss chard
3074 g Trombonico marrow

TOTAL 16.676 Kilos of food and 14 eggs!

Black Russian and Big Yellow Tomato

Trombonico Marrow

Beetroot

Silver beet/Swiss Chard

Red Cabbage

Tri coloured Zucchini White (pale green), green and yellow.

Very bountiful crop of tomatoes