Limes! At last!

This post should have been written in June, but I got sidetracked by my mother's failing health and subsequent death. But it was due to her that I had such success with my lime tree for the very first time.  Seriously, I'd despaired of ever getting limes from my tree, but when we cleared out her house and shed, I came across a bag of citrus food, which I promptly claimed ahead of my siblings, and spread generously around my lemon, lime and mandarin trees.

The result?

Aren't they gorgeous?  I ended up making the most delicious lime chutney, which is amazing with cheese and a good cracker.

Recipe :

LIME CHUTNEY 

10 ripe yellowed limes            2 tbspns cooking salt         200g raisins 

50g sultanas                3 tbspns peanut oil           2 tspns ground cumin 

 teas ground coriander              teas black mustard seeds 

½ teas chilli powder           ½ teas ground black pepper 

5 finely chopped garlic cloves            ¼ cup malt vinegar 

5cm piece finely chopped ginger             1kg soft brown sugar 

Cut limes into 8 pieces each.  Place In large glass bowl, sprinkle with the salt 

and stir well, cover and leave for 48 hours in cool dark place, stirring 

occasionally. 

Drain, rinse well and mix with raisins and sultanas.  Process in batches in 

food processor until coarsely chopped. 

Heat oil in large heavy based pan, add cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, chili 

powder, black pepper, garlic and ginger.  (Don’t overcook ginger or it will 

become bitter.) 

Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until very aromatic. 

Add the lime mixture, vinegar and brown sugar.  Bring to the boil, stirring until 

the sugar dissolves. 

Reduce the heat and simmer for ½ hours, stirring occasionally.  Pour into 

warm sterilized jars and seal. 

Makes about 8-9 small jars.    

Plums! For breakfast, dessert, or just to snack on...

My own plums are not quite ready to be picked, so I bought some last week.... and discovered they are no better than the ones on my tree.  I've left them to ripen, and some have, but many have not.

So I've treated them thus:
Turn oven griller on.
Cut plums in half, remove stones, place in shallow ovenproof dish cut side up, spoon brandy over, and sprinkle generously with raw sugar.
Place under grill for about 5 minutes, or until sugar is colouring and they feel tender when poked in the side with your finger.  Turn oven off and allow plums to cool in the oven for half an hour or so.

Delicious with cream, or yoghurt, or breakfast cereal!

Planting time!

Spring is here, the weather is warmer, I'm on holiday, it's time to finish the digging and soil prep, and get some plants in.  I've sprouted pumpkins and beans, with capsicum, onion and spinach still on their way, and today updated the herb bed with different varieties of thyme, marjoram and oregano.

At back: Golden variegated Thyme
Right: Pot Marjoram
Front: Common Oreganum 

Tomorrow it'll be seeds of mesclun, cucumber in pots and who knows hat else!  Love very time of year!

Plums!

This season I bought a giant piece of bird netting from Farmlands, sewed it to make a basic tent shape, and with much climbing up and down and repositioning of the ladder, finally got it over the tree, and gathered up the bottom edge and tied it around the trunk of the tree.  Part of the opening was clipped together with little plastic bread bag clips.

And the plums ripened safely.

There was a day when I heard an awful commotion of birds and looked out the window to see a collection of mynah birds under the tree squawking and complaining to each other, and I'm quite sure they were saying, "Look at the bloody net!  All those ripe plums, I can smell them, and look what she's bloody gone and done!"  There may well have been a bit of a turning on an elder too, maybe a proud elder who'd said "Follow me! I know where there are plums!" because I'm sure there were birds squawking "You told us there were plums!  Oh yes, you said, 'Follow me!' you said!  And look!"

And then they were ripe.  I undid a clip to eat one, mmmm.  But what a hassle I thought to actually crop them!  I thought I'd wait a day or so...  It was too hard....
And then a friend said that her husband had shaken their plum tree and now she had plums to deal with....   So I shook my tree... And all the ripe plums landed safely in the net!  A short trip down to the waiting bucket, an unclipping of a couple of bread clips, and I had plums!  Enough to give away, to eat and to make sauce and jam.  There are more - more eating, giving away, more jam, and hopefully some plum and apple relish!

Awesome!  Sorry birds, this was MY year of the plum!

Herbs!

Harvested basil today, and dried it.  There is plenty more to eat fresh, but this is a good start.

I also dried a mix of mint leaves, sage, thyme, rosemary and lemon rind for tea.
It smells divine!

And I've had two picks of blueberries.  The plum tree is looking laden, the pumpkin plants are vigorous, the cauliflower look healthy - am hoping for some lovely fresh produce!

Meanwhile I'm enjoying the summer break, and family!  Life is good.

Planting the Spring Garden, and hoping for some surprises...

It's been a couple of years since I've filled all the back garden with plants and seeds.  I've put in a few things, but health issues have limited my energy.

However, I'm back in form!  And after arriving home from my wonderful holiday to find it all completely overgrown, I've taken a deep breath, dug it over, and planted beans, silver beet, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, tomato, courgette, cauliflower, capsicum and basil plants.  And sown radish, cauliflower, celery, carrot, pea, bean, pumpkin and parsnip seeds. 

My seeds were bought in a flurry of enthusiasm several years ago, which means they are - well - several years out of date.  (Umm, best before January 2011?!)  But they are Kings' Seeds, and I'm getting a surprisingly good germination rate!  My goal was actually to use them up this year, and quite a few empty packets have met the weeds in the bin, but now I'm wondering if I'm going to have plenty of veg to give away!  Hope so!

There is one row that makes me laugh - have just sown it.


Random seeds!

At the bottom of my plastic seed box was a medley of seeds - who would know which packet they were from?! - and the choice was either to toss them out, or sow them!  So they are in a nice row, and I wait to see if they sprout, if they grow, and what they are!  They should be all herbs and/or veg, but there could be the odd flower in there!

Cherry Guava Jam - Experiment #1

I'd rather eat my fruit raw, but the cherry guava (also known as strawberry guava) is a patchy beast.  Some of the fruit is luscious and some similar-looking is not so.  For its size, it is blessed with an abundance of tough pips which can make eating a bit chewy.

So today I experimented with this fruit, and discovered that they are happy to be frozen until there are enough of them,  or I've got time, to do something with them.  There are quite a few recipes around for making a clear jelly with them, but phah, too much phaffing around for me at the moment.

So here's my first jam recipe.  Quantities are small, I imagine the principle is the same however many berries you've got, and multiplying quantities will produce a similar result, although I'd be a bit cautious with the chilli powder.  (As I was testing it for setness, I thought it was a bit bland, so zhooshed it up with a pinch of chilli powder.  Was a good thought!)

CHERRY GUAVA JAM (#1)
450g cherry guava
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Pinch chilli powder

Top and tail guava, cut roughly.  This amount of fruit yielded 2 cups of pan-ready fruit.
Add water and bring to boil.  Boil about 20 minutes, partially covered, then use a stick blender to smash up the fruit.
The seeds are impervious to the blender, so I used a sieve to transfer the pulp from one pot to another, minus the seeds.  Press the pulp through with the back of a spoon.  Discard seeds.
Add the sugar and lemon juice and boil rapidly uncovered for about 20 minutes or until setting point is reached.  During this time, taste, and add chilli powder if you want to.
Pour into heated jars.  This small test batch made almost two small jars.