Thursday, January 22, 2009

Our first butternut

Aint she a beaut?

Lots of plans for this butternut - butternut ravioli...roast butternut...butternut soup....and lots more on the plant even though we are still battling with mildew!

Home grown corn

Our corn is giving us something to eat everyday....fresh off the stalk, into the pot and eaten within 20 minutes is to die for :-))

Monday, January 12, 2009

Another baby step to a greener home

Switching over from using normal products to clean our home (handy andy, sunlight, pledge etc) has been a process over the last 6 months. We have switched to the environmentally friendly "Golden Products" but the cost of the washing powder was too high.

You see we wash alot! With 6 people, biking, riding, swimming etc we were doing the equivalent of 3 loads a day!

So this is my new investment in the environment...the Biowash Ball.



Read about it at http://www.biowashball.ch/presentationEN.html

Sunday, January 11, 2009

David's sunflowers

A few months ago David sowed some sunflower seeds on the sly. I informed him he had not chosen a good spot - it is shady and not fertile soil.

This little guy has spent the better part of 2 months watering and adding compost to this miniscule bed...and too his delight he now has some giant sunflowers.



Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Chilli

My husband loves chilli and I am beginning to handle some of the milder ones. Just in time too as our chillies are started to arrive. I got three lovely ones off the first plant and it ended up in our favourite supper - Speedy Gonzales Mexican Meal.






What you need for this meal:

2 pkts cheese dorritos
1 tub cream cheese (I make my own)
2 avos cubed
3 tomatoes cubed
1 cup grated cheese
Your favorite chilli mince
Shredded lettuce
Chopped chillies

Make a bed of chips, add the mince, lettuce, tomato, avo, cream cheese, grated cheese and chilli...eat with your hands - YUMMY!

The good...the bad...and the ugly

We have been away over the festive season and came home to some good and some bad surprises!

The good...our seedlings shot up and are ready for planting out. We have melons, spinach, beet and chilli ready to go out.



Our potatoes are about 10cm high and ready to be banked up.




The bad...my squashes have got powdery mildew on the leaves and stems. The organic cure is to spray it with full cream milk in a 50/50 dilution with water.




But the squashs are still growing...hopefully we can save most.



The ugly...rats!!!! We saw them sneaking into the coup the night we got back...I think they are after the left over corn from the chickens. So I got two horrendous traps (didn't want to use poison) and all three were caught...horrible-horrible-horrible. It has taken me a week to get over my guilt, but after all its the survival of the fitest! They had eaten my brocoli and were starting in on my corn.