Markets and websites

I'm sad to admit I have been neglecting my poor blog, but in my defence, it's only because I have been dedicating myself to the garden, selling produce and making a new website! Here's a little pic of me at the Maldon Market this week end, as well as a link to the new Malmsbury Kitchen Garden website.

As soon as I can work out how, I will redirect this page to the new website (which also has a blog (which has also been neglected...))

www.malmsburykitchengarden.com

Another year, another season

Well, a whole year has passed since I started my little garden. It's been so exciting to see my dream slowly unfolding, and it's still only partially open at this stage. But look, I practically have a house now!

ooo, it's so cute

The House Building Begins

After a long wait for the planning permit, building has finally started. It seems like the builders were really eager to get started because as soon as all the permits were in place, they jumped right into it.

They started on Tuesday, four days ago, and this is what it looks like now.

In the Winter Garden...

I haven't written much about the garden lately. Partly because it's been such a busy time in the garden that I haven't been taking many photos and also because the garden isn't at it's most beautiful at this time of the year, so the few photos I have taken are a little uninspiring.

But the last few months (April - June) are some of the most important in the garden, preparing for the cold winter and early spring months ahead. 

Savoy cabbages

Pickled Jalapeno Chillies

I absolutely love pickled Jalapeno Chillies, I think I could eat a whole jar in one go... 

I've been harvesting the last of the chillies this week, and am very pleased with the Jalapeno harvest. I actually planted extra jalapeno chilli plants with pickled chillies in mind. So, finally, after the first seed was sown back in September last year I've made my pickles.

The Pumpkin Harvest and The First Frost

The pumpkin harvest is finally complete. It has been a gradual process over the last two months, as the different varieties have matured at different times.

Here is a lovely little selection of the pumpkins grown this year.

Making basic white bread rolls

With the newly cool weather around here, it's been a perfect time to get back into bread baking. Baking bread is such a satisfying and rewarding thing to do. It's very easy to do and requires a minimal amount of work. While it does require some time and organisation, the rewards are delicious.

The end of the summer crops...

It has been a very busy month at Malmsbury Kitchen Garden. In the garden, early autumn is the time for changing over from summer crops to winter and spring crops, and in the kitchen it's the time to finish preserving the end of the summer crops harvests.

Styrian Hulless Pumpkins

Green Tomato Chutney

As the weather cools and the tomato plants start to die off, some tomatoes never get a chance to ripen on the vine. I'm always secretly pleased when this happens because I love all kinds of tomato preserves, especially green tomato chutney.

I really do...

Red Tomato Relish

With the fantastic abundance of tomatoes at the moment, I can't just make pickles with yellow tomatoes, there are red tomatoes to deal with too! So I've been making this sweet, aromatic tomato relish.

Yellow Tomato Pickles

There are many different tomato varieties in various different colors. Lately I have been harvesting lots of yellow varieties, Waspinsicon Peach, Yellow Taxi, Beams Yellow Pear and Yellow Tommy Toe. They are so lovely, I decided to invent a yellow pickle recipe just for the yellow tomatoes.

Saving Tomato Seeds

I've written before about seed saving. It's something that I think is really important for gardeners to know about. It's often very simple and can be done without a great deal of information. It also allows you to capture and develop great varieties that work really well in your garden.

In this case, I'm saving the seed of some self sown cherry tomatoes that came up in the garden where I work (not Malmsbury). They were really productive, delicious, beautiful and interesting, all good reasons to save the seed.

Sparkling apple wine

To finish off my three posts about making celebration drinks, let me tell you about my sparkling apple wine.

there are lots of apples around at this time of the year

Rhubarb champagne

Lately, a few different people have offered me a sip of their home made rhubarb champagne and I've found it really delicious and unusual. So for my month of making celebration drinks I decided I'd have a go at making rhubarb champagne too.

Ginger Beer

It's been an interesting month for me. Very full and very busy, it's been a time of harvest and change in the garden, so there has been a lot of work to do (there is still). It has also been a month of celebration for me, celebrating the success of my little garden and also my birthday!

So I've been making celebration drinks, starting with ginger beer.

Evaluating the season gone by

With the end of summer, there are some significant changes underway in the garden.

We had our first rain in over 8 weeks, a long heavy rain accompanied by strong winds, making the garden suddenly vibrant. The soil is now soft and friable, worms have begun to appear everywhere, little weed seedlings are popping up and many tomatoes have literally burst!

Not this Black Russian though

Vegetable stall at Clay Fine Food and Health

Over the last four weeks, I have been selling my fabulous produce to Tom over at Clay Fine Food and Health. I spend Friday afternoons out in the garden harvesting and then deliver the produce to the shop on Saturday morning. These last two weeks we've set up a little stall in front of the shop especially to display Malmsbury Kitchen Garden produce and I've spent a few hours in the morning meeting some of the people who buy and eat my produce! 

Clay Fine Food & Health
719 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North

Saving Dill Seed

One of the first crops I planted in the garden was dill. Due to the heat and poor soil, many of the plants went to seed pretty quickly. This was disappointing as it reduced the crop yield, but it does have a positive side too. After all, dill seeds are a yield as well. I have used dill seeds in cucumber pickles and some chutneys but the bulk of the seeds produced will be used to propagate future dill crops.

Dill seeds ready to be collected

Melon Sorbet

So many fragrant melons... the obvious thing to do is make melon sorbet.

All about Melons

The melons have been coming along beautifully. It has been wonderful to watch the plants getting bigger and creeping out over the grass, while their little fruits also get bigger and more fragrant. Finally, the time has come to start harvesting them!

Melons in a Row