Purple cauliflower...eating it

This is for you, Sue, so that you can check the colour of the caulie when cooked. :)

Purple caulie broken up into florets and stems cut into slices. Yes, I do eat the stems, they are delicious. If they are very thick, they might have a woody outer layer, just cut/peel that off.

Thrown into a frying pan, with just a bit of butter and coconut oil. Salt and pepper. Then fry until some of it has a lovely golden colour.

Fresh eggs from our girls complete the meal. It's very simple, no fuss, but oh! so delicious.

Purple cauliflower

Yes, I know. I have been writing about this a few times before. But it's such a stunning vegetable, I can't help it.

We had a very good season this Winter. The vegetables thrived and we had plenty to eat. We are still harvesting quite a bit, but I am sure this will change soon, once the warmer weather settles in. Everything will very quickly go to seed.

One thing that really worked - netting all brassicas! We did not have any problems with caterpillars on our vegetables, as the white butterfly cannot get through the netting and lay its eggs.

Hope you all had a good season, too!

First day out...

...for our tomato seedlings.

They are now basking in the sun and enjoying this marvellous Spring day. As soon as it gets cooler this afternoon, we will put the lids on the boxes. That should keep them toasty warm until tomorrow morning.

A treat at dinner time

We had this gorgeous organic, free-range chook the other night. Just rub on a mixture of your favourite spices. Stuff it with herbs, spices, lemons, etc...

Have a walk in the garden for some roast vegetables to go with the chook. Here we have carrots and parsnips. Never had a parsnip shaped like this before! We also threw in some pumpkin and young potatoes. All from the garden.

Nearly forgot to take a picture of the end result! It tasted just fantastic. The juices were simply delicious. A treat, indeed! :)

A walk in the garden...

The lemon tree is looking fantastic. This is the first year we actually had a lot of lemons on this tree.

The first plum tree has started to flower. The structure for the netting is looking a bit wonky. Will have to try and straighten that out soon.

The Native Wisteria is flowering madly.

Isn't it a lovely flower?

The Nashi pear has tons of fat buds. Hopefully we'll get to eat a few pears this season.

The apricot tree has just started to flower. We won't have much fruit, though, as we missed the opportunity to prune it back.

The red currants are looking great, too. Another good harvest again, maybe?

The variegated elder tree has tons of flower buds. Can't wait to see it laden with flowers.

We are still harvesting some of the winter vegetables. Here is a purple cauliflower.

Tucking in the babies

Now that we are in the midst of repotting all the germinated tomatoes, the hard bit starts. Where to put them? Especially over night, when the temperature still drops down to 4C? Even though they are on the balcony, under cover, it still gets too chilly there for them.

Well, we have some really good boxes (from the fish shop) with lids.

On with the lids, as soon as it starts to cool down in the afternoon.

Then some blankets over that.

That should keep them out of harm's way. :)

Seedlings...again

They are rapidly growing up. It's always amazing.
Here they are just a few days ago. Various tomato seedlings.

And here they are, already 'promoted' to the windowsill and enjoying the view.

In a day or two we will have to repot them.

Sweet basil has germinated surprisingly quickly.

Rosella seedlings. I have never been successful with germination, and these came up within a few days. It will be interesting to see how they do at our place, as they will need at least 5 frost-free months.

 All very exciting! :)