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A collection of 98 posts

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Grow Vegies in Containers + Make an Instant Vegie Patch

Containers grow amazing vegies! Perfect for small spaces, young children and our elders too. They are quick and cheap to set up, and can pump out a goodly volume of kai. When you are new to land, growing in containers brings a lovely breathing space. Rather than stressfully trying to

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How to Make Elderflower Cordial

Elderflower cordial is an annual make in our house - so delicious! Flowers move fast from bud to bloom to berry so get in quick. I like the flavour of the last flush of flowers that come about now, rather than the first ones in December. Flowers are perfect when

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How To Grow Beetroot

Beetroot is such a sweet crop. Virtues abound for the grower and the cook. They're undemanding on the soil, grow quickly, not bothered by pest or disease, use hardly any space and get on well with everyone - all in all easy peasy ... or is it? Some of

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The Genius of Living Mulch

Soil that's undercover, hums with life, and mineral exchange and immunity are high. Woodchip (for fruit trees), or hay or homemade mulch (for vegies) is fab, but underneath a living mulch of plants, groundcovers and shrubs - now you're talking! Living mulch is trumps as far

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Refried Beans

Refried beans are such a quick nourishing dinner. Dollop on a bowl of rice with greens and a fried egg on top, on toast under scrambled eggs with salad or our favourite - spread inside a warm tortilla with rice and greens and avocado. When everything bar the salt, cumin

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Homemade Chilli Flakes

These are one of the easiest, but most useful preserves ever.   I mean how useful are chilli flakes! For simple electricity + appliance free dried chillis, simply string them up.  Thread a needle and poke it through the meaty bit by the stalk. Hang them away from sunlight. For a jar

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Raspberry Rosemary Chocolate Truffles

Fresh, easy and rustic, just how we like it. Mashed raspberries stirred through melted chocolate and coconut milk with a sprinkle of rosemary ... mmmm Take 50g - 80g of fresh raspberries. Less berries makes a firmer mix. I like the flavour of more. Lightly mash them Break up 200g dark

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Simple tomato passata + my cool machine

This new tool is the love of my life - it's a Rigamonti Passata machine. 100 times faster and easier than my old mouli which though its churned out litres and litres of tomatoes over the years, I wasn't sad to see go. Heartless. Roasted tomato

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A simple test for soil moisture

Testing your soil moisture before you water, is right up there with making your own compost + a daily garden walk = one of my top 3 best garden habits. I cant tell you the number of customers that have come to me downhearted at the state of their gardens and the

Animals

It's red mite season - check your chookhouse!

Summer is red mite season, so today I want to encourage you to check your chook house. Tonight! Without delay! Red mites are nocturnal parasities that live in the walls and come out at night to feed on your chooks. Little devils! Because they aren't about in the

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A Useful, Yet Oh So Beautiful Herbal Border

A food garden is a cooperative happening. The gardener, the soil, the weather (lets not forget the weather!) and the companions. Those companions are the icing on the cake - they bring it altogether. Today is all about them, specifically herbs, and how irreplaceable they are in your food garden

Animals

In The Chookyard - Dustbath, Fresh Ground + A Video

Fresh Ground Where are your chickens hanging out at the mo? I hope they're not on muddy, bare ground... Unless your chooks are free ranging over a large area, it's super important to move them about. Make it a two for one deal and get them

Berries

The Perfect Raspberry Frame

Create two rows, 400mm apart using 1.8 waratah’s on an angle at each end of the row to make a “v” shape. Make it 400mm ish at the base, opening out to 1m ish at the top. Attach a wire (with a turnbuckle for future tensioning) at about

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Video: Sowing Carrots the Edible Backyard Way

In this short and sweet little video learn how to sow carrot seed. People often find growing carrots a bit tricky, so here I am showing you my top tips for getting a great crop of carrots every time! Use this method for all the rootcrops - beetroot, parsnip, florence

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Oh Brave New World - My Copper Free Orchard

The early plums are bursting out! The bees are in! Mid season plums are on the move! If copper is your thing then get it on as the buds move. Which means right at the beginning while they're still a ball - at the very first peep-o (blink

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Tomato Miso Soup

I adore this soup, its one of the highlights of my tomato season. Best of all there's no fiddly peeling or de-seeding to do - you'll be slurping soup 15minutes after you picked the tomatoes. For 1 soup bowl: 4 or 5 homegrown tomatoes, roughly chopped

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How to Save Tomato Seed

Having your own little seed bank is solid. Be fussy about the seed you save, choosing tomatoes that are * pest and disease resilient * vigorous, unfussy growers * delicious! Left to their own device, tomatoes eventually drop to the ground where they rot and ferment, cleaning up seed borne disease in the

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Help my tomato has wilted #2

In an ironic twist of fate I lost three of my outside tomatoes this week. Having just written about Verticulum Wilt in my last newsletter (this about my mums tomato), it seems I now have it myself. Symptoms: sudden wilt when laden with fruit and yellowing on the lower leaves

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Help, My Tomato Has Wilted!

There's nothing sadder than a crop gone awry, all that love and care down the tubes. In this case we have a wilted (past the point of recovery) tomato. When something goes awry in the vegie patch look to the obvious things first (I know how you love

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Fermented Carrots

This title may not grab your taste buds, but it should! I've been scouting around for something to do with all the carrots I've got, and bumped into this gem from the inspiring team at Cornersmith- a cafe and picklery in Sydney who barter fresh produce

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How (and When) to Harvest Garlic

The tips on my garlic leaves are beginning to yellow, this tells me harvest time is near. There is one way to know for sure and that's to dig a bulb. Looks like we're good to go! Once the tops start yellowing off there will be

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Raising Really Good Seedlings

Really good seedlings are an important part of an abundant garden. If your seedlings are strong and healthy, the grown ups will be too. It takes a bit of dedication to pull off, but its so wonderful to watch seeds curl up out of the soil and to grow into

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Simple Summer Plum Cake

Gardeners are so busy at this time of the year. Add a job and a few kids to the mix, and cake baking, which should be near the top of the priority list languishes way below. Here's the world's most simple cake, especially for you my