Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter and Anzacs


Heaps and heaps of eggs for everyone but only a few fresh laid plus a few golden interlopers found in the garden this weekend.

Mr Ideasman said it was funny, he had always been puzzled about the idea of bunnies and eggs; Ms Glamourpuss piped up that of course they only lay chocolate ones not real ones. Well whoever laid the eggs next door (there were some telltale bunnyprints on the pathway) certainly hadn't banked on the dog eating them all!

Little Fairy 1 and Little Fairy 2 came running around to tell me that although they had searched and found millions their dog had followed the 'bunny' and eaten quite a few around the driveway. In an attempt to recoup losses they came around to our backgarden to see if there were any stray ones. Sadly, Ms Glamourpuss and Ms Runaround have long cottoned on that the large blocks of chocolate are a much better deal and won't buy in to the overpriced eggs and bunnies.

So back to the garden; some bunny had left two tiny golden eggs on the table. How clever!

Garlic being such a staple of many cuisines needs really to be sown in vast quantities to feed all our participants but the few bulbs which were lifted last year seem to have been consumed with only a half a bulb left. Traditional planting I have been told is around Anzac day but with the rain we have had today Ms Tagalong suspects that the little bulbs will still be sitting on the meter box ready for a more clement day.

Non-treated garlic seems to be an endangered species here in Oz as the cheap Chinese imports are flooding the supermarkets. So anyone who has some sprouting organic bulbs and would like to donate a little to the garden for the benefit of all would be very much revered. Hearing about the Anzac tradition of planting garlic today Ms Tagalong's Mama ventured that it was something to do with fields of garlic at one of the battlefields. Ms Tagalong was thinking of poppies but perhaps that was even the wrong war. A quick search has not enlightened Ms Tagalong. Any readers have any more knowledge?


Checking the growth of crops Ms Tagalong was excited to see the lovely horseradish in a pot. Now there will be a recipe for that I am sure.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Someting to tink about


Ms Tagalong has been mournfully wandering the garden rows this week. Ms Mova has gone gadabout and Ms Tagalong is for once not tagging along!

Before she left, however, she told Ms Tagalong a story about a visitor to the garden. It was dark, the candles were lit and the local literati were discussing Roald Dahl's short stories. No, the story did not have a semi-erotic, msyoginist twist for those who were there, but made Ms Tagalong think back to exotic times in far away lands.

Living in Jamaica one heard a lot of 'ting and ting', and here Ms Tagalong was, 16,758 km away, transported back to the land of wood and water just by the mention of Ting.

Explain, please, Ms Tagalong hears. Ms Chicken Expert has a relative living in Chiang Mai in Thailand and on this visit to our lovely city she was accompanied by the lovely Ting. Now Ting was on a whistle stop tour of this country and wanted to cook and demonstrate some of her recipes to her friends and their families. Ms Chicken Expert being justifiably proud of the Community Garden brought Ting along to marvel at the wonderful Autumn show of greenery.


"Did she give us some recipes for the climbing Asian spinach," Ms Tagalong asked breathlessly. Ms Mova said that she didn't think she even saw it but she was very excited about the banana flowers which had recently been cut off and said they were a special ingredient for pad thai. Ms Tagalong was fascinated and more than a little chagrined (is that a word?) to find out that good wholesome food has been discarded by herself for years and could have been used for a variety of exotic dishes. So no, the gardeners did not have a cooking demonstration of using the banana flower but now they have the knowledge not to throw them on the compost pile in the future! Ms T would love to hear about any other recipes using the banana flower that fellow gardeners may have tried.

Ting was happy to be photographed in the garden and promises to come back and cook on another visit.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Piles and piles

Ms Mova was wondering if Ms 'I'm so happy I'm back at work' was going to fall headfirst into the huge pile of mulch delivered today into the garden. This was not the only obstacle to circumnavigate as the mowing men had today brought bags and bags of cuttings for the garden. It was dark when she came to check on the chickens. The time change does that, not her lateness you understand. Ms Tagalong laughed cruelly at the image of pulling her out by her feet and dusting off the very fine mulch, according to Ms Mova.

But no, a knock came at the door, not a speck of mulch in sight, Ms ISHIBAW,(think about it!)stood beaming, glad to find the tea clatch at work whilst others were warbling on Ms Mova's deck.

Ms Tagalong said this would be a short, photoless entry tonight and that she would blame the length of the teatime!

Holiday activities next week should bring some exciting news to this blog.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Sweet potato cheese?


So this is what they mean by completing the cycle, closing the loop, growing, cropping and eating. Just look at what that wonderful Ms Designer (Adoptive mother of Teapenny) has made!

She shyly presented a little treasure, a folded wax packet of what she called sweet potoato jam, to try. Upon opening it reminded me of guava cheese that people used to make when Ms Tagalong lived in Jamaica. It could have been a delicate version of quince paste even, eat your heart out Maggie Beer, but spread generously on an Easter hot cross bun it tickled the taste buds to perfection.

So that was what happened to the monster sweet potato. Ms Tagalong will try to cajole the recipe out of Ms Designer, she will sweet talk her with, well, more sweet potatoes maybe, so that we can all have a go.

This week we have really hit the social media, bigtime. Our most recent young gardener whilst contemplating the growth of plants when doing his homework decided we really needed to go global. So we are now a Facebook entity, become a friend, like us, add comments etc. It can all happen there I am told. But I suppose the most gratifying thing for Ms Tagalong is the link to the blog! He has also made inroads into a website. How much technology can one take?!

This weekend of crisp, marvellous weather saw a few hardened gardeners cutting, pricking out, planting, barrowing and weeding.
Ms Mova arrived on Sunday morning to surprise a Ms Tagalong still in dressing gown attire wandering the beds, admiring all the work and feeling quite relieved that this winter the neighbourhood will have vegetables to eat! Come one, come all. Water and watch them grow!