Grapefruit tree

Let's hope the Grapefruit aren't frozen solid after this

A blanket of Snow

My garden is now under the softest, whitest blanket.  It's cold, been snowing all day, and a lovely snowy coverlet lies over everything.

Garlic, better late than never, I hope

I am not on the ball..I went to the garden centre to buy garlic for planting only to discover that they have run out. The kind lady told me I could try and grow the stuff from the vege man next door, but it may be sprayed with a growth inhibitor?  I bought three cloves to try, and have put them outside for the frost tonight.   I guess I could try sprouting some of my own bulbs, its just that they are not as fat an juicy as the ones in the shops and I don't know if I would get much of a yield off them.

Who knows, we will wait and see...

I planted in some cauliflower and protected them from the chooks with cut off milk and fizz bottles.  I had some lovely big broccoli plants but last time I let the chooks out they headed straight for them and ate all their fresh green leaves, dammit.

Everything else is pretty much dormant, tho we still have plenty of silverbeet, celery and potatoes.

Potatoes

I love potatoes.

I reckon the Irish were onto a good thing, basing their life around such a staple, sustaining food.

Here is my favourite Potato dish, its an easy potato gratin.  Not a can of anything in sight, not a Maggi Mix, just pure, good ingredients.

POTATO GRATIN

Peel and thinly slice about 10 potatoes.

In a big pot put a 300ml thing of cream.  Rinse the container out with milk and add that to the pot too.  Stir in 1 clove of garlic, crushed, and some salt and pepper.

Add the potatoes and cook about 10 mins till it all goes thick.  Pile into a  baking dish and bake on 160C for about an hour, till golden ontop and all the cream etc is gooey.

EAT :-)

Still some Harvesting

Harvested from our garden and taken in our camper to Lynne and Simons:

3kg or so of beautiful purple potatoes
Some big sticks of celery
Rainbow silverbeet
A lettuce

These are really the last of the edibles before the big cold comes!

Campervan fun

Another nasty weather weekend, drizzle, rain and cold.  After spending the day cleaning out our chooks and putting clean straw in their nests, and giving them dry clean sawdust etc, I packed the campervan.  Off to Ashburton in our 6 wheeled wonder.  After stopping for dinner, the kids were tired, so we put them in their sleeping bags at the back of the camper where we could keep an eye on them, and did the second leg with them fast asleep!

Ranunculus from my Mother

When I was a little girl I was given a small piece of garden, it was sunny, but against a hedge and overshadowed by boundary trees.  I only ever grew two things, voilets and ranunculus.   The voilets were given to me as a cutting, by someone, I think my Nana- but I am not sure.  They flowered and flourished and filled up the whole garden bed and I loved the smell of them.  I used to pick bunches and put them in a glass in my room.

The ranunculus are so blousey, and overthetop, and out there, and they came up and flowered with abandon once a year.

My Mother recently gave me some while we were in Cromwell and I planted them but nothing came up, whether the chooks scratched them up, or it was too cold, I don't know.

Well, she gave me another lot, and by golly, I have them coming up!  I counted 7.  But....shouldn't they come up in Spring not Winter?

I hope to have a lovely display of them in the spring and can't wait to see what colours I have got.