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Post by bixaorellana on May 20, 2016 18:29:27 GMT
*envy* I'll take two butternuts and a pumpkin, please.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 16:52:34 GMT
Today is the "festival of neighbours" ("fête des voisins") in France. It would have been an excellent day for distribution of excess items.
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Post by tod2 on May 28, 2016 13:55:13 GMT
Here the churches are gearing up for the Harvest festival....is that the same as Festival of neighbours I wonder....
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Post by rikita on May 30, 2016 7:35:14 GMT
there are tiny tomatoes on one of my tomato plants and agnes ate the first forest strawberry yesterday (the next one is still a few days away from being ready to eat).
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Post by amboseli on May 30, 2016 12:52:58 GMT
It looks as if we will have our own olives later this year ...
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Post by tod2 on May 31, 2016 16:34:01 GMT
Oh how exciting!!
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Post by amboseli on May 31, 2016 21:15:53 GMT
Yes, isn't it? We've had this olive tree (it's small, I'd rather call it a branch) for five years. My husband's colleague brought it back from his olive grove in Morocco. We never thought we would be able to keep it in our cold and wet climate. We keep it indoors in the winter and put it back outside two weeks ago. Yesterday all of a sudden I saw these tiny balls. There are hundreds of them.
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Post by htmb on May 31, 2016 21:20:29 GMT
Marvelous!
I'd wondered how you had protected it in winter.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 1, 2016 0:12:14 GMT
That really is exciting, Amboseli! Did you see any flowers on it before the baby olives showed up?
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Post by amboseli on Jun 1, 2016 10:27:58 GMT
The flowering still has to begin. The 'tiny balls' seem to be opening up.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 1, 2016 15:22:02 GMT
Ohhhhh! I didn't realize those were the flower buds, not teeny olives. That's even better -- now we can watch it in sequence!
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Post by amboseli on Jul 14, 2016 12:23:22 GMT
Growing olives in a cold climate is a slow process.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 16, 2016 7:11:30 GMT
I have a mental image of you standing out in the garden with a bowl of salad, eagerly awaiting your olive crop.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 27, 2016 11:36:20 GMT
I don't think I've shown any of my garden vegetable patch this year. A few pumpkins or squash growing madly in the succulants section of the garden maybe, but Cylvias garden man has done me proud with a variety of ready to pick home grown vegetables! I have cabbages just forming interspersed with carrots and cauliflower looking almost ready to pick. Then there is beetroot with spinach, and a whole bed of turnips popping their heads up ready for pulling. Also my tomatoes have once again not disappointed and are hanging in heavy bunches. In a bed of spinach there is also some seedlings poking their heads above ground.....mystery veg! It might be a month away from spring but these vegetables prefer cold weather....and it's blooming freezing with snow just up the road!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 27, 2016 12:45:37 GMT
Oh Tod ~ your gardener is a wizard! I love seeing pictures of your vegetable patch as everything is always so healthily perfect.
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Post by htmb on Jul 27, 2016 13:53:29 GMT
Beautiful, Tod! You should be very proud.
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Post by amboseli on Jul 27, 2016 16:29:36 GMT
What beautiful veggies. I'm jealous of your cauliflowers. We've tried to grow them a few times, but they always turned black before they were ready to pick. We did cover the 'flower' with its leaves, though.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 27, 2016 16:50:44 GMT
amboseli you are so right about covering the cauliflower with its leaves. I can only think that the rain caused the leaves to flop outwards so today when I noticed they were even worse, called Cylvias and explained to him that he must gather them up together and some how tie them closed.
Thank you everyone for the kind comments. My garden does look good at the moment.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 27, 2016 17:55:18 GMT
I thought the reason the leaves were drawn up over the cauliflower was to blanch it. No?
Do the leaves peel themselves back when the cauliflower is ready to be picked?
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Post by tod2 on Jul 31, 2016 9:25:05 GMT
Bixa, I have noticed that even on cauliflowers sold at the supermarket, they still have young leaves trying to curl over the white 'flower'. The large outer leaves do seem to fall away but enough are left to cover the white cauliflower partially at least. The rain must have had something to do with them exposing the white part (Or an over enthusiastic person with a hosepipe....).
A few days ago I ventured up to the little town of Howick - about 20 minutes by car away from Pietermaritzburg. I called in at several 'Organic' shops and bought a large bunch of kale. Lately, with watching The Kitchen (2014 series is on our screens ) Katey-Lee is always going on about the wonderful properties of kale. I had to google the cooking method and it turned out OK. Sort of cabbage crossed with spinach in taste.
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Post by amboseli on Jul 31, 2016 10:24:31 GMT
I had to look up the translation of 'kale'. It's called 'boerenkool' and it's a typical Dutch veggie. I don't think I've ever seen it in Belgium. Two neighbouring countries that are so different ... in one than more aspect.
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Post by mossie on Aug 2, 2016 16:19:07 GMT
I understand kale is a bit of a fad health food. In my day it was grown to feed the cattle.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2016 16:41:26 GMT
Kale is touted as some kind of super food. Tastewise, I much prefer Swiss chard in that family of greens. Still, I've been curious about kale's new glamor reputation, so I looked up how it compares to other brassicas. Believe me, I didn't read this whole article, but did look at that first table comparing kale to broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and collards. Kale wins in the vitamins A and K categories, but is outclassed in some other vitamin and fiber categories. www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=btnews&dbid=126
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Post by tod2 on Aug 3, 2016 16:04:18 GMT
I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy another bunch just yet. I have plenty Swiss chard and other leafy green which require gentler handling. I can believe you Mossie. The heavy flat green leaves ( I didn't have the curly type)are pretty tough and you have to cut the ribs out. Cattle would really make short work of kale.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 28, 2016 12:14:58 GMT
Today with temperatures reaching 32C I told my OH too please pick some of the cabbages because I suspected they would bolt in this hot weather. I was I so right! When I cut the one in half the little flowers ( looking all the more like bean sprouts) had developed inside. I cut the nice green leaves off and the interior will be stewed with other vegetables to make our famous "Rasta Stew". Here they are minus the little baby snail who I noticed trying to find mommy.....
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2016 18:45:43 GMT
The cabbage looks delicious and the snail is very cute. It's a shame there's no way to reconcile the two.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 28, 2016 19:49:24 GMT
I can think of one way that goes with both + Gorgeous cabbages, Tod, & your new pet is darling.
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Post by amboseli on Aug 29, 2016 7:23:45 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Aug 29, 2016 13:12:24 GMT
WoW! What a crop. Parsnips lend themselves to being roasted with honey and roasted pumpkins need cinnamon and sugar. Not so long ago I made pumpkin fritters which were very yummy indeed.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 10, 2017 6:10:36 GMT
Tod, I can't believe that your gorgeous vegetable group portrait has gone unnoticed and unremarked all this time! Oh well, you had the pleasure of eating that perfect produce, whilst we churls had none. I hope it's okay if I use your thread to show my work in progress. Also, I hope that I'll show some nice updates in the next couple of months & don't have to slink away from the thread in vegetal disgrace. Anyway, I've long wanted to grow some vegetables in my patio, but am hampered by lack of space and the severe north/south orientation of my narrow, rectangular patio. I've been eyeing the middle section, though, with the idea of clumping some containers there. This is the result. I'm growing some things that are exotica here, but that I love: cucuzza, okra, and Italian long purple eggplant. I've also got some herbs and habaneros going. I realize growing cucuzza is slightly insane in the space I have. However I'm emboldened by learning that the vine can be controlled to @6 or 7' by pruning and the growing tips can be eaten. This isn't surprising, as the tender parts of the squash plant are eaten here as well. In Spanish they are guias ("guides") and in Italian (or maybe Sicilian) the are tenerumi. Recent guests might recognize the object that the giant spider has spun a web on. This was the scene this morning, with the plants in the round pots having been put in the evening before. By the end of today, things were further along & I'll post more pictures soon. Before anyone asks: yes, I did put holes in the bottoms of all the containers.
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