Veggies Update!

Its been about 6 weeks since we finished planting our veggie patch. All the veggies have survived the record breaking temperatures we experienced in January (I think I faired far worse than the plants did). And with the help of a little chill garlic spray we seem to be beating the grubs and bugs who try to devour our plants. A friend with a bumper veggie patch had mentioned using the chilli garlic spray for her tomatoes, and when my aunt mentioned her huge tomato crop was ruined by caterpillars inside the fruit, I decided this was something we needed to investigate further for our one little tomato.

The Ingredients:
12 large cloves of garlic (about 1 whole bulb)
6 hot chilies (dried or fresh - I used fresh as we had a surplus from the Margarita & Taco Fiesta)
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon liquid soap (I used dishwashing detergent - just ensure it doesn't contain de-greaser and isn't anti-bacterial)

The Recipe:
Combine the garlic, chillies, and water in a blender and puree until it forms a frothy-orangey-pinkey concoction.
Let the blender ingredients stand overnight to gain potency and so that the solids settle to the bottom of container.
Pour the mixture through a strainer lined with cheesecloth to get rid of all the particles, as these will clog up your garden sprayer.
Pour this concentrate into a jar with a plastic lid (a metal lid will react with the liquid).
Stir in the liquid soap.
Label the jar (your don't want to add this to a recipe by mistake!)
When ready to use, mix 1 tablespoon of concentrate with 470mL of water in a garden sprayer.
Spray plants during the afternoon so that the hot sun mixed with the spray does not burn your plants.
You can respray every second or third day if needed.

So far so good for our little tomato, who is growing fast and looking healthy. And we are the proud parents of 3 more little tomatoes growing alongside it.

I have been using the spray close to every other day, on not only the tomatoes but on all the veggies and herbs. My basil was getting destroyed by a little green grub, but with a healthy spray of the chilli garlic spray every couple of days it is once again flourishing and it is definately time for some pesto making.

During my chilli garlic spray research there were a few other tips I came across which would have been helpful to have known before we chose our vegetables and planted them.
1. Apparently, corn and tomatoes are not good companion plants as the corn attracts the pests which destroy the tomatoes. Whoops! We have rows of corn surrounding both our tomatoes plants!
2. Marigolds are great companion plants for tomatoes as they deter these same pests. So I bought a couple of punnets of marigolds which are currently sitting between our tomato plants waiting to be planted.

We also have corn heads and jalapeños growing which the boys and my hubby are very excited about.

And just today I have spotted some delicious looking beans hanging from a couple of our bean plants - I am surprised that the beans are almost as tall as the tiny little plants they are growing from. Clearly the wet weather of the last 2 weeks has spurred everything in the veggie patch to grow at a rapid rate!

We have bought a passionfruit vine to plant down the back as at our last house there was a terribly neglected passionfruit vine that produced amazing quantities of delicious passionfruit. We figure a plant that thrives on neglect is a good bet! We are still harvesting a few blackberries every couple of days from our little bush and besides the possums pulling out the dill plant all the herbs are doing well. We are also watching impatiently as our avocado tree comes into fruit and hope the fruit grows faster than the possums can eat it!

All up we are loving our little garden down the side! And the boys love picking and eating the produce from it!

Monday Suppers

Now whether it was because he was feeling the pressure to create another great meal following from last weeks Monday Suppers or whether he was just feeling inspired on a Monday after going to the growers market on Sunday, my hubby cooked up another delicious meal when he got home last night.

We have been loving the tomatoes at the moment, so sweet and juicy and relatively cheap. We have been making relish almost weekly - both with red and green tomatoes. Yum! And our families have been the happy and eager recipients of these little jars of tomato deliciousness.

In the grocery bag this week were once again lots of tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, and bok choy. On the menu was tomato gazpacho and bok choy salad. 

Tomato Gazpacho
The ingredients:
500 g tomatoes
1/2 cucumber, halved & deseeded
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 red chilli
1 red capsicum, halved & deseeded
1/2 spanish onion
30 mL sherry or red wine vinegar
50 mL extra virgin olive oil
15 basil leaves
Salt & pepper

The recipe:
Roughly chop all the vegetables and hers.
Place in a blender with the oil and puree.
Pass through a sieve for a refined soup or else leave it a bit chunky if you prefer.
Add in the vinegar and S&P to taste.
Refridgerate until ready to serve, drizzle with a touch of olive oil and thinly slices basil leaves when serving.
(We also added a dollop of sour cream to our bowls - creamy and delicious!)

Bok Choy Salad - a recipe handed down to me from my mum and always a favourite.
The Ingredients:
3 raw bok choy, washed & chopped
3 shallots, sliced
Bean sprouts
Snow Peas or green beans
Roasted pine nuts or almonds

For the Dressing:
1/2 cup Castor Sugar
1/4 cup White vinegar
1/2 cup Soy sauce
1/2 cup Light olive oil

The recipe:
Heat the sugar and vinegar until just dissolved.
Mix soy and oil, then add to the vinegar.
Cool in the fridge until ready to serve salad.
Combine all ingredients in a large salad bowl, top with dressing (you will not need all of it, but keep the rest in the fridge to use on other salads)
(This salad also works great with raw cabbage).

The result:
It was a perfect meal for another warm summers night, especially after a large and delicious lunch at the CBD Hotel together on a rare day when my sister-in-law was minding the kids for a few hours. Lunch date with my hubby, followed by this delicious meal - a perfect Monday!

And after all that cooking for dinner, my hubby turned around and made some more green tomato relish! Yum!

So what did you eat for dinner on Monday?

Veggies! Veggies! Veggies!

I think the first thing Nathan said to me when we bought our house was, "I want to plant a vegetable garden." Noah didn't let him forget that statement either, constantly reminding him, "Dadda, we still need to plan and plant our vegetable garden, don't we?!" And since we have 2 little boys who love being in the garden and "helping out" it was a goal we wanted to realise sooner rather than later.

So with the some inspiration from this pin on Pinterest, we decided we should utilise the "garden bed" on the eastern side of the house, outside the laundry. It has the benefits of being just outside the laundry so its convenient to maintain, but its a bit of a dead area in the backyard. It also gets a good amount of sun, but not too much. This was the drab looking site we picked for our veggie patch.

Over the course of a few weekends, even a little planting on Christmas Day, Nathan and the boys built a garden bed and planted our veggies. It took a lot of reminding to get Beau to keep the dirt in the garden bed but all-in-all the boys were great little Bob-the-Builders/Don Burkes.

So far the veggie patch has two types of beans, two types of tomatoes, corn, carrots, blueberries, basil, jalapeno chillies and shallots planted. We have already been able to pick and eat some of the blueberries! Delicious! And we have our first tomato growing! The carrots are constantly being "checked" by Beau, so lets hope they survive and we are so thankful the veggies all faired very well during Tuesday scorching 42C day!

The boys seem to be enthusiastic about watering the veggies, and especially about eating the blueberries! We can't wait to be harvesting more veggies from our patch soon! Maybe our next batch of tomato relish will be from our garden!

Next stop collecting our own eggs...maybe next year.