In the garden

Yes, in the garden. Although it is in the title of my blog, I haven't been out there much at all lately and not for lack of desire. But tonight after dinner I ripped out all the tomato plants (still producing but wouldn't be for much longer and I didn't much adore the green tomato chutney anyway) and then poured two bags of mushroom compost on some of the vacant area and planted them with red silverbeet and perpetual spinach. Maybe it is too late but I picked up the punnets for a song yesterday and they will definitely not produce if I didn't plant them out.

I plonked the sage in the herb garden. It had been sitting in it's garden centre pot for several weeks on the outside table. I only have the leeks waiting for planting out now.

The yams in the punga raised bed are looking good on top. They do use up a lot of time though - I planted them last August and apparently best harvest time is July.

This year has been lacking in zucchini sparkle. Last year wasn't just sparkle; it was flood. But this summer both myself and other gardening friends have found the plants haven't grown at all or haven't performed well. I had one survivor - a costata romanesco. The seed catalogue warned that production rate would be half that of the popular hybrids but the taste was really superb. That turned out to be an accurate verdict but I didn't think the taste was twice as good and we've probably only had a dozen zucchinis this summer.

The pest man came and we should have no fleas for at least three months. Hopefully for as long as I walk this earth.

We are off to Fox Glacier for the weekend with friends. Better go put some bread on. I think the use of a recipe is in order given other people will be eating the bread. We have self catering accomodation and I'm aiming to cook up a storm early tomorrow morning so the food is easy to sort once we are there. As well as the bread, I am planning on making South Beach Black Bean Soup (a Nigella Lawson recipe which I adore), more banana muffins and either a quiche, an eggy bake thing or (a small but fancier step) spanish omelette. Then, this done, I should be able to sit back on holiday and let the non-cookers do the dishes. The other motivation is to avoid paying a fortune for fish and chips or mediocre restaurant food which takes ages to arrive while tired hungry children express their dissatisfaction. I recall exactly this experience last time we went to Fox three years ago.