This Week in the Vegie Garden
It’s a sure bet that among the resolutions made around the country this New Year’s Eve plenty of gardeners determined to grow their own vegetables during 2010. Nurseries are reporting a marked increase in the sale of vegetable seedlings and fruit trees, and horticultural companies are constantly improving varieties, along with fertilisers and pest prevention measures to allow us all to go organic.
During autumn I have continued to feed and water my citrus, and each fortnight, to spray with PestOil or EcoOil to deter citrus leaf miner, and also to kill any eggs and to break the life cycle of the unpleasant bugs, the Bronze Orange Bug, which often goes by the appropriate name of ‘stink bugs.’ To get ready for winter planting I have added a barrel full of home made compost to my very large, above ground vegetable garden. The winter veggies have now gone in: more beetroot, leeks, more 'perpetual' lettuce, along with broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Carrots have been planted into very friable soil which has not had compost added: too rich soil can cause the carrots to 'fork'. I will pull them when they are young, after about 8 weeks. I've also planted more rhubarb.
Several readers have asked for the recipe for Green Tomato and Chili Jam: I make it in early autumn after it becomes clear that the last of the tomatoes are not going to ripen. How many chillies you add depends upon how hot you like it:
Green Tomato and Chilli
Ingredients:
1-2 kilos tomatoes
quantity of chillies (depending upon how hot you like it and what variety you are growing)
a few tablespoons of brown sugar, according to taste.
A variety of spices, including ground cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon.
3-4 brown onions.
Finely chopped red chilli, seeds discarded (optional)
Several cloves garlic, again, according to taste.
Method:
Finely dice onions, and crush garlic. Fry in 2tbspoons olive oil.
Add and fry for a few minutes chillies.
Add brown sugar and cook for a few minutes.
Add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 20minutes.
Once the ‘jam’ is cooked down to the consistency you prefer, cool and bottle in clean jars. (I freeze several quantities in sturdy plastic containers.)
Serve with a variety of cold meats. It is particularly good, I think, with ham.
Above: Grosse Lisse tomatoes thriving in Above: Lois and Walter McVitty's vegie
a small space! garden
Preserved lemons are a winter must! see Don't waste those kitchen scraps:
'The Constant Gardener' for the recipe feed the worms for a constant supply
of organic matter for the garden
From L to R: my compost tumbler: growing vegies in small spaces: potatoes grow in bags!