The joys of gardening

We spent a relaxing day in the backyard yesterday. I did some gardening while Hanno continued on his nest building project in the shed. It's a pleasure to spend these gentle days of Autumn in the vegetable garden. I hear the chooks clucking and the weather is perfect, with a coolness not quite enough to add a jumper. Bare arms gardening - I should write a book about it.

Everything is growing well. The first potatoes have shown their green heads and the tomatoes are fruiting and backing up with a lot of their pretty yellow flowers. The tomatoes below are Amish Paste, a great tomato for sauce. They're a medium sized bush but need a lot of tying back.

The Lebanese cucumbers have started to climb their trellis and have a lot of flowers so it looks like I'll be making bread and butter cucumbers in a few weeks time. They're planted with French radishes at the front which we pick every day and often crunch on while we're in the garden.

The tomatoes below are pink Brandywines - a potato leaf variety. They grow big and juicy and one slice is enough for a slice of bread. The little bright green cabbage is bok choi, which we grow for the chickens. They love any strong tasting leaf and fight for the bok choi leaves when we throw them in morning and afternoon.

Here is Hanno's kale - this is a Siberian kale, which is commonly known as grunkhol in Germany. Every winter he looks forward to this big cookup. He cooks smoked pork, German sausages and kale together in a big pot and reheats it for about three or four meals. He says it tastes better each time it's reheated. I'll take his word for that because when he eats it, I have eggs on toast or soup. ;- )

Of all the things we grow in our backyard, the fruit would have to be my favourite. These bananas are ready to cut down and we'll probably do that tomorrow. We'll hang them in the shed and take a few from them as we need them. I'll also freeze a few batches of them for making cakes later in the year.

This is the orange I ate late yesterday afternoon. I can tell you with no word of a lie that it was the most perfect orange I've ever eaten. I remember eating delicious oranges from Greece when we lived in Germany, and I've had some had some excellent Californian oranges, as well as a lot of very good Australian oranges, but these ... these, my friends, outdid all others. And to know that my orange is perfect AND organic is the just the best thing. Could it get any better? Well yes, I ate this orange about three minutes after it was picked.

If you're not growing fruit but are in an area where you can grow oranges, I encourage you to try them. You'll buy a grafted tree - mine is a Washington Navel - for around the $15 mark and you'll get your first fruit about three years after planting. It really is the best investment.

And finally, the chooks. Here are Heather, our Faverolles with feather boots, and Martha, a buff Orpington. Below are black-eyed Mary, an Australorp, and Jewels our little golden Hamburg.

Today we are adding to our flock. We are driving over to our chook lady to buy ten more chickens. This time we're not buying anymore babies or smaller chickens, this time we're going for the big point-of-lay girls. We've decided to stay with the heavier breeds as we have too many snakes around here. The little chooks are sitting ducks, so to speak.

I have my bread on the rise, it's 5.30 am now, so I'll finish this, make the bread rolls, bake them and boil some eggs. When it's light I'll go out and pick some frilly lettuce and radishes. I'll pack a picnic lunch of fresh rolls with egg and lettuce, a little salad of tomato and radish, date loaf, a fresh orange each and a flask of tea. We'll stop off at Wivenhoe Dam and have lunch there and look for another spot for afternoon tea. It should be a nice day out.

I hope you enjoy your day too. Thank you for stopping by and for all the wonderful comments this week. If you're looking for something to read over the weekend, it doesn't get much better than life with this fine family over at Little Homestead in the City.