Time for some compost love

Yesterday a friend asked me about worms..... compost worms that is. Which promptly reminded me I was due to give my compost some love and I just so happened to have lots of goodies to add into this beautiful food for my garden. Plus the worms will be pleased with some fresh food.
So into the drum went:
Lots of banana peels - normally I cut these up into little pieces, but there were just too many and I was lazy. Banana peels add calcium, magnesium, sulphur, phosphates, potassium and sodium to the mix.
Shredded paper, as it was a bit wet with all the rain we'd had and I dont want my compost to be a rotting soggy mess. Plus its a nice way to reduce waste around here a little more - I shred any old plain paper bills and scrap paper and keep in a bucket to use later. I then use it either in my compost or in the chicken coup for the egg bucket and roosting area Which then gets cleaned out and added to the compost too when it goes yucky.
I mucked out where the neighbours frangipani leaves had all fallen around my fig and paw paw trees, leaving some there for mulch on its own. Careful when touching fresh frangipani leaves as the sap can be an irritant. Old leaves dont pose any bother.
Lastly adding a bucket of fresh pigeon pea leaves. These leaves are a great source of nitrogen. Actually the whole plant is amazing which I will talk more about another time.
I gave the barrel a good tumble and will leave the worms and the goodness to do their thing ready to be added to the garden early spring for some much needed nutrients.
Do you have compost? Have you given it some love recently?

Fruitarian for the week

An 'issue' I came home to after a week away camping was an overload of fruit ready to eat.

So this week I think I will become a fruitarian!

When I waked in the door after arriving home from camp I could smell the banana's and they were all ready to eat instantly. 

A few lucky regular kombucha friends that visited me yesterday helped with the offload of some banana's and the rest are being either eaten by my monkeys or going into the freeze for future baking's.

I also had some yummy giant paw paw's and several dragon fruit ready to go.

This morning for breaky I made everyone banana pancakes topped with a big dollop of yoghurt and diced paw paw, dragon fruit and a sprinkle of fresh thyme.

How do you make these you ask..... mash a banana and whisk in an egg or two and pop in a pan to fry like you would a pancake and that's it.

Have you made banana pancakes before? 

Do you have a special fruit recipe you could share?

From the garden to the plate

After a week of camping and a busy day today of unpacking and kombucha brewing/dealing, I ran out of time to go and do the groceries.

Thankfully I have my plentiful garden to fall back on.

Today my glorious garden provided us with a spaghetti squash, a few sweet potatoes, shallots, cherry tomatoes, spinach, beans, parsley and chilli to make a kind of bubble and squeak dish.

Just a stir stir-fry of the veggies and garlic (with a bit of left over bacon from the camping trip) salt, pepper and olive oil served on top of some pasta (I'm a total pasta-holic) to fill up. Garnished with fresh parsley and chilli.

I'm full, satisfied and ever so grateful.

The fridge might be bare, but the garden was full for us today.

Bee's by the Beach

So in other exciting news this week.....I became a beekeeper!

My beauties were delivered on Sunday from Erik at King Creek Farm.

Erik has been amazing in his support for teaching, offering advice anytime and delivering quality bees.

He also won first place for his honey at the Wauchope Show.

These little power workers have settled in wonderfully with zero stings, phew!

Already we are finding ourselves mesmerised by them as they buzz around in the figure 8's before zipping off to duty.

I'm yet to make up a stencil to paint my beekeeper ID on the hives and am waiting for more beekeeping goodies to arrive in the mail.

These guys - or should I say girls as most of them are just that, wont be bothered much over the coming months of cool weather with only the occasional hive inspection. 

The hive is full of brood, bee's and honey, which we can smell when the breeze pops up.

Who else has bee's?

Balinese delights

Yesterday I had a catchup with my mothers group (8 years now) at our gorgeous friend Ika's house. 

She has an amazing garden growing all her kind of foods - coming to Oz from Bali. 

She cheerfully showed me around and we picked and pulled up lots of goodies including cassava stock and leaves, sugar cane, 2 types of chilli, kaffir lime leaves and kaffir limes, a couple of choko's, normal limes, and macadamia nuts (and she kindly lent me the cracker to enjoy them).

She then shared one of her traditional recipes with me called Daun Ubi which is Stewed Pounded Cassava Leaves cooked in coconut milk and so we had that for dinner.

I added a few ingredients from my garden (lemon grass, turmeric, bay leaf, shallots and garlic) and we had a side of crispy coconut chicken to go with it.

It was deliciously eaten up by everyone so now I cant wait for my own cassava to grow so we can make it again.

Have you tried making anything new and different lately?

Going banana's again

What do ya'll reckon these mean......

The banana tree carrying this baby, could not support it any longer and buckled in half yesterday, so the cluster of glorious banana's were cut off to ripen further inside.

Needless to say we will be eating banana's like crazy very soon and making other glorious creations too.

In particular the good ol' favourite Banana and Ginger loaf. 

My ginger harvest was not as abundant this year but there is enough for this delight. 

Do you have a bumper crop of anything at the moment?

Here & Now

Its been a long time since my last Here & Now, but I will hopefully be more consistent now with my new 'goals' in mind. I am always making myself busy, sometimes too much so, but at the moment I am.....

Loving // Our new deck that is almost finished being built, photos to come when completed.

Eating // Fresh salad (from my garden of course) and chicken 'green' wraps for lunch everyday this week.

Drinking // Leftover fruit smoothies...The kids can be so wasteful and I cant handle it, so the bruised and uneaten bits go into my after gym smoothies.

Feeling // Tired and sore from my favourite gym class that I started about a month ago and have been sore ever since.

Making // Kombucha every Friday which I sell to my local followers. Trying out new flavours now the popularity is increasing.

Thinking // I have been super slack with my blog contributions, so have updated and backdated a lot of the goings on around here.

Dreaming // Of a holiday! I cant wait for hubby and I to go on a holiday together just the two of us.

If you would like to share your little thoughts too, pop on over the Sarah's page Say Little Hen :) You will also see some other lovely blogs shared there as well x

Garden stocktake

Just did a little stock take of whats going on in my Garden today....

Veggies:
Beetroot (3 varieties), red and yellow cherry tomatoes, asparagus, lettuce (4 varieties), leek (2 varieties), capsicum (4 varieties), rainbow chard, fennel, butternut and jap pumpkin, wild rocket, white/orange/purple sweet potato, green snake beans and dwarf french beans, spaghetti squash, carrot (heirloom mix) radish (2 varieties), kohlrabi, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, purple and sugarloaf cabbage, eggplant, spring onion.

Fruit:
Mulberry, fig (2 varieties), raspberry, boysenberry, strawberry, cape gooseberry, strawberry guava, passionfruit (3 varieties), honeydew, pineapple, cavendish banana, dragonfruit, paw paw, papaya, bababco.

Herbs and other goodies:
Oregano, chive/garlic chive, coriander, lemon balm, mint, vietnamese mint, bay leaf, rosemary, curly and flat leaf parsley, basil (3 varieties), sage, comfrey, curry leaf tree, garlic (3 varieties), turmeric, heirloom chilies (5 varieties), horseradish, ginger, nasturtium, lemongrass, barley, pigeon pea, calendula

And a whole heap of other flowering bug attracting plants mixed in.

Is there anything in this list that you haven't heard of before?

Seeds and Seedlings

Some seedlings are in the garden already and some are newly sprouted. 
I plant some seeds every few weeks to hopefully grow enough of what we like to carry us through the season. 
I am still yet to master a constant supply, but we do eat pretty much daily from the garden, whether that be herbs, vegetables or fruit even.
I buy my seeds from a few different places, like Greenpatch Organic Seeds & Plants, Eden Seeds (through local retailer Oxley Rural Supplies & Produce), Boondie Seeds and also my local Library.
I also manage to save a lot of my own seeds as the original seeds that I do buy are heirloom and non GMO.
I just let most of the plants flower and go to seed and gather once they have dried out or they fall on their own and just start growing again when they are ready.
Do you save your own seeds too?

Garden to the Plate

Tonight I made some yummy pesto from my ever abundant supply of basil and roasted some pumpkin and eggplant I gathered from the garden over the last couple of days. 
I tossed some pasta with the pesto and topped with the roasted veggies and a sprinkle of feta.
Delicious and nourishing dinner to cap off a great Easter long weekend with perhaps a little too much indulging!
Did you over indulge too?