Mainly photos—easy post when you don’t have to write much.
The redcurrants are ripening. I haven’t protected them and I can’t believe the birds are ignoring them. Same thing happened last year:
These ones made it inside. I’ve probably nibbled this many straight from the bushes:
OK, so potatoes are relatively cheap. I still like growing them. These are Sebagos:
The rhubarb in the hugelkultur bed has taken off:
Here’s what it was like when planted a few weeks ago:
Burdock leaves. Huge. Better dig up the root and see what I should do with it:
Corn getting going:
Oca leaves. The tubers won’t be ready till winter:
Picked my garlic. Could be bigger, but better than last year. Will be useful:
Small tree. Its first year. Only two apples. Cox’s Orange Pippin. Supposed to have the best flavour. Better put a net over these:
Threw some old parsley seed amongst the zucchini on the hugelkultur mound. Who says parsley seed has to be fresh?:
Borlotti beans. My first attempt at growing beans for drying:
Pumpkins on the hugelkultur mound:
Self-sown tomatoes on the hugelkultur mound. Really should pull them out, but will leave them to see what Mother Nature decides:
Foodnstuff 
December 9, 2013 at 3:20 am |
I bit the bullet and started sorting out the mass of vetch filled tangled weed infested potted plants that we moved from our last home (where they were much adored and cared for…) to here (where they languish in decline as our principals have completely changed now). As I was tossing poor dead specimens into a pile I found a stack of red currants that I had sourced from our local TAFE when they were throwing them out. They had been tiny seedlings growing alongside their parent plant and they are all doing well so they will be planted out into my large enclosed garden ASAP along with the rhubarb plant, the hop vine, the strawberries and all of the other edibles I managed to feret out of my aging pile of mouldering greenery.
Had a great idea about what to do with the trees and shrubs that we don’t want. I am going to take them in the trailer up to our local Deviot hall market and put a sign on the trailer saying “Free Plants”. Let karma flow before Christmas methinks :).
Spuds are dirt (pun intended 😉 ) cheap here. You can get a 10kg sack of them for $6 but the flavour of spuds straight from the earth is magnificent. I will be attempting to grow some using the hay heaping method as our soil is too rocky for them to grow below ground well. Your hugelkultur bed is amazing! Look at that rhubarb! Steve would have to spend a lot of time peeing on it to try to kill it (he HATES rhubarb 😉 ). He probably doesn’t even know that he would be fertilising it in the process…don’t tell him because I am SURE he is going to pee on my poor little rescued rhubarb specimen in the night when I plant it…
SO excited about your burdock! Was it hard to grow? I have so many Japanese recipes that use burdock and am going to have to attempt to grow it here if it wasn’t all that hard to grow. I let the garlic in the ground go to seed this year and will see if I can’t grow some from seed.
Gotta say I think I need a “love” button to click at the bottom of this post Bev, you just re-ignited my excitement and can’t wait to see what nature does with all of those tomatoes. I love experimenting and you are a girl after my own heart 🙂
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December 9, 2013 at 11:15 am |
Redcurrants grow easily from seed. I was given a few seeds by a friend years ago and every one germinated! At the moment, every time I nibble one, I push one seed into a cell tray filled with sieved potting mix. I want to plant more in the food forest. They can be kept small by pruning and will be a great understorey species, I reckon.
The burdock was easy to grow (I mean, just look at the leaf growth!). I have no idea how to use it, so must get Googling.
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December 9, 2013 at 2:17 pm |
Apparently burdock is delicious. Check out how the Japanese use it. Have you ever heard of mugwort? I am trying to find it. The Koreans use it powdered to add colour and flavour to a lot of their recipes. The most exciting thing about the currents is that they are so incredibly hardy. I figure they would grow on the roof in the middle of summer with no water in the baking sun they are that hardy.
My girls pulled all of the blackcurrants and Jostaberries that I planted when I lived with them out. The blackcurrants didn’t grow back but you just cant stop the Jostaberries…they are like everready bunnies and just keep on…and on…and on! The girls don’t like them and call them “meat berries” as they have a weird raw meat tang behind their flavour. Can’t say I ever ate raw meat but hey, they are the one’s telling the story ;). I loved this post. Would you mind if I linked to this post in my next post? I got completely inspired by it and went nuts today and did all kinds of things that I probably wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t read your wonderful post :). Cheers for motivating and inspiring me 🙂
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December 10, 2013 at 9:39 pm |
I tried growing mugwort a couple of years ago but the seeds didn’t germinate.
Link away 😉 and thanks!
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December 11, 2013 at 3:38 am |
No thanks needed Bev, you are one of my true inspirations. I learn so much from your blog and enjoy every post 🙂
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December 9, 2013 at 3:21 am |
Apparently our 2 primary headmasters have changed…sorry “principles” 😉
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December 11, 2013 at 4:33 pm |
[…] from the wonderfully inventive and sustainable blog “Foodnstuff” posted a post this week that was completely invigorating and got me out and about collecting […]
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