NO SHOW AND A TALLY CATCH UP

Sorry I have been a no show on here! The last few weeks of pregnancy were an exhausting few, with many chores that needed to be completed before we brought our new little man home. And then when I thought I had at least a week to go, my waters broke 1 week before my due date! I will post our birth story in the coming weeks.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD JIREH SAMUEL BORN 14TH NOVEMBER AT 2:37AM WEIGHING 2980 GRAMS OR 6 POUNDS 9 OUNCES AND MEASURING 49.5CM IN LENGTH

23/9/13 - 1/12/13

64 eggs
347 grams onions
1235 grams leeks
2315 grams silverbeet
344 grams parsley
10506 grams broad beans
113 grams capsicum
11 grams thyme
295 grams loquats
507 grams artichokes
163 grams chili
2082 grams rhubarb
337 grams celery
321 grams carrots
947 grams beetroot
3010 grams garlic

TOTAL 64 EGGS AND 22.533 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY HARVEST 35 & FOOD SWAP

Spring has definitely sprung! The garden has become lovely and productive. I have been able to go out everyday and pick something to include in that night's dinner. I am looking forward to summer so that we can have more variety and more volume of produce! This week I also went down to my local food swap so I could swap some of my excess greens for things that I haven't grown.

16/9/13 - 22/9/13

12 eggs
279 grams onion
1396 grams leek
161 grams sage
319 grams parsley
56 grams thyme
9 grams chili
47 grams broccoli
742 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 12 EGGS AND 3009 GRAMS OF FOOD!

To the food swap I took, parsely, sage, thyme, chili, and

yellow silverbeet.

In return I took home this lovely aloe vera plant.

This huge fig tree.

Some oranges.

A large bunch of lemon myrtle. This is an Australian native - bush tucker food. I searched high and low for some earlier this year and it was only when we were in byron bay on holiday that I found some at a little organic shop. So I am thrilled to have some in it's natural state and not pre ground. The great thing about lemon myrtle is that it has anti microbial benefits. Much like tea trea except this is edible and not just topical. 

While we were in the garden we went on a snail hunt and this is half of our bounty. Squiz had a lot of fun helping collect and squash the offenders. 

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 32 & GARDEN SNAPSHOT

The garden is going wild! A combination of lack of energy and lack of time is really resulting in a jungle! But with the beautiful weather Melbourne has been receiving over the last few days I have started to tame the wild, and hope to head out there after this post and clean up the rest of the beds!

26/8/13 - 1/9/13

10 eggs
14 grams chili
1 gram thyme
187 grams capsicum
1154 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 10 EGGS AND 1356 GRAMS OF FOOD

This is where my purple cauliflowers once grew, I still have some cabbages growing nicely in there, Hopefully they will be ready before the dreaded white moth appears!

I have my tomatoes in as well as some brassica. 

An overgrown bed with a lovely lime green broccoli surrounded by garlic growing nicely

The jungle! A mix of weeds and lettuces that have overgrown and gone to seed!

One of the cleared out beds.

Another overgrown bed full of garlic.

The beautiful lime green broccoli

My herb bed being taken over by parsley.

WEEKLY HARVEST - NUMBER 30

It wasn't super productive in the garden this week but I had a great time supplementing our harvest by swapping my excess greens for citrus of all sorts at my local food swap.

12/8/13 - 18/8/13

14 eggs
255 grams of lettuce
28 grams of thyme
375 grams cauliflower
125 grams parsley
874 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 14 EGGS AND 1657 GRAMS OF FOOD

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST & A FOOD SWAP.

And so another weekend is here, and my hubby is required to work it, so there will be yet another week of no progress *sigh* I think that makes 3 weekends in a row now! The drainage is still half done, but at least the flooding issue has been resolved. And the house is still upside down, when everything is going to get finished I have no idea, lets hope it is presentable in a couple of months time!

But this is not all bad news, it means I get to go to another food swap. It's been hard for me to get to one lately as I have been so wrapped up in house renovations, I just haven't had the time to spare, a couple of hours is a big deal when you are trying to get stuff ready and renovated around the house and only have one or two days to get it done in. I am looking forward to being able to attend in summer when the weather is glorious and the produce is varied. In winter there just isn't the same amount of variety, but it is still lovely to catch up with fellow gardeners who are passionate about growing their own food.

This is the produce I took to swap:

A couple of bunches of Rubin Lettuce.

A couple of bags full of Lollo Bionda Lettuce.

Three bunches of Lemon Thyme

Four Bunches of Flat Leaf Parsley.

Five bunches of yellow silverbeet.

This is what I brought home:

A lemon

Yellow Limes

Some oranges

Some kumquats

A couple of kiwi fruits.

Some grapefruit.

Some kaffir lime leaves.

A couple propagated grape cutting.

Some seedling trays.

And some large trays to house the smaller trays.

All in all I think I did pretty well swapping my excess produce for things I don't grow or have!

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)

JERK CHICKEN

Its been a few days, and they have been cooking free. Monday night my husband celebrated a mates birthday and i stayed home with an unwell little man, so i just ate leftovers. Yesterday Melbourne's annual event Melbourne Cup meant that I spend the day celebrating (sitting outside with the spit going and enjoying great company and food) to later watch 'the race that stops the nation' or at least Melbourne at 3pm. We stayed on and stuffed ourselves some more with leftovers, so that meant another kitchen free day. Today has been pretty busy, and i didn't really feel like cooking. So i opened up Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals and found a quick and easy recipe, that I whipped up quite quickly! Of course I changed the recipe around a little to suit our tastes and what we had in the pantry.

INGREDIENTS

2 chicken breasts
1 tbs honey
a few sprigs fresh rosemary
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 corn cobs
1 cinnamon stick
250g rice (I used red rice)
600ml chicken stock
1 tin red kidney beans
Marinade:
1 small onion
small bunch fresh thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
big pinch ground cloves
big pinch ground nutmeg
big pinch allspice
6 tbs brandy
6 tbs white balsamic vinegar
1 tbs honey
1/2 dried chili
4 cloves garlic

Boil the kettle, set oven to 200 C put a large frying pan on high, put a large saucepan on high.

Cut chicken through the middle but leave it attached at the top. drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper on both side. Place in hot pan.

Put corn in saucepan with 1 tsp salt and cover with boiling water.

Put all marinades ingredients in food processor and whizz up. Pour in bottom of small baking dish and place chicken on top, skin side up. Drizzle honey on top and place fresh rosemary on top put in oven.

Drain corn and put in the frying pan used for chicken and blister all over until slightly charred. Remove when ready.

Put cinnamon, rice, stock and beans in pan used for corn and bring to boil, cover and simmer for 12 minutes turn off and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Serve

If I had more time I would have made more veggies, but I wasn't in the mood for thinking too hard so just followed the recipe, minus the original salad that i couldn't be bothered making. The flavours in the chicken were sensational! The rice was ok but suited the chicken dish well. Plain rice would be just as great.

SPRING GARDEN SNAPSHOT

My spring garden is doing really well! I thought I would share some pictures with you.

red cabbage

yellow silver beet

potato

growing seedlings

carrots

sprouting broccoli green and purple

garlic going to seed, nearly ready to harvest

celery, has been so productive but i think it's life is nearly over looks like it's going to seed.

strawberries coming into flower and some little ones starting to grow!

peas have been so productive!

parsley

Rhubarb

coriander

Thyme

Tomato's already flowering!

blood orange in bloom

bay leaf

broad beans

savoy cabbage

Happy gardening!