The Greening of Gavin

Ben Bakes Bread

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With my dinner tonight (homemade Minestrone Soup), I had a couple of slices of bread.  Bread made by my son Ben.

Ben Bakes Bread

Ben with his bread

It was absolutely delicious.  There is nothing quite as nice as a fresh loaf spread with real butter.  You can see that the lad is very pleased with himself.  His old Dad is also as proud as punch as is Mum.

Kim taught him how to make the dough using the bread maker, which I don’t think is cheating at all, especially if it is powered by electricity that we have generated with our very own solar PV system!

He said the making bread was easy once he knew how, and loved the taste of the herbs.

So for those who are after the recipe, here it is.

Ben’s Bread

Ingredients

  • 330ml Skimmed Milk
  • 1 Egg yolk
  • 1½ Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1½ Tablespoons Sugar
  • 3½ cups Bread Flour
  • 1 teaspoon Bread Improver
  • 2 Tablespoons dried Italian herbs (less if you like)
  • 2¼ teaspoons Dried Yeast

Method

  1. Add into bread maker in order of listing and set on the Dough setting.
  2. Once kneaded in the machine, shape dough into a loaf shape and make about 6 diagonal shallow cuts in the dough.
  3. Place on well-greased baking tray and bake at 180°C for 20 to 25 minutes.  You will know it’s cooked when it sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom of the loaf, and it is brown on top.
  4. Cool on a baking rack, serve sliced with butter!

Kim and I are so proud!  His first loaf of yummy bread and we know exactly what is in it.

We won’t be able to keep him out of the kitchen now.

TGoG Podcast 081 – How Much Food Can A Suburban Yard Produce?

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This week I answer a listener question about growing food.

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Lex says;

Do you find that you need to buy much in the way of food, with this much garden produce? What kind of things do you find yourself still purchasing?

How Much Food Can a Suburban Backyard Produce? Great question!

The answer is quite a bit. I talk you through how much I can grow here during which times of the year, and how successful have we have been by quoting a yearly percentage of the amount of herbs, fruit, and vegetables that I can grow in our suburban backyard.

I hope you gain some insight on how much I can grow in a small space.  You will be pleasantly surprised!

How much food can you grow?

On that note, it would be very interesting to find out how much food that you grow yourselves.  Please feel free to partake in the poll.  The results are provided after you answer the question.

 

If you enjoyed the podcast, please visit iTunes and rate the show and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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 Until next show, stay green and keep keen!

 

Veggie Patch Maintenance

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Garden maintenance is essential at this or any time of the year.  Weeds to be pulled.  Vegetables to be fertilized.  Weeds to be pulled!  Yes I said weeding twice.  There was so much of it.

Well of course this weekend was no exception.  I had been neglecting the front yard until I discovered that we have a cabbage thief in the area.  It gave me the wake up call that I needed.

I spent the weekend weeding the front yard, cleaning out the chook house, top-dressing garlic and leeks, and watering.  I have even started to prep one of the veg trugs in the greenhouse for planting some tomatoes during the week.

As I was the only one out in the garden, there are no actual pictures of me working, but I did take some of my handy work.

Front Garden Bed

Front Garden Bed

It took me about an hour or so, but I weeded around the outside of the entire veggie bed area.  Golden oxalis had taken hold however it is easy to remove quickly by hand.

There are also quite a few potatoes in this bed that have been killed off by the recent frost.  I am leaving them there until we need them.  With the stems and the few remaining leaves intact, the tubers won’t sprout for ages.

Rear Garden Bed

Rear Garden Bed

It’s all looking pretty nice.  I harvested all the remaining volunteer potatoes from this bed yesterday which I wrote about in the post titled Spuds. Why Not!  Free spuds, my friends.  Who could not love gardening when you don’t have to do anything except dig up your food?

I was also very surprised that the leeks have grown as well as they have.  I buried them very deep by drilling the holes down about 30 cm (1 ft).  There is a fair bit of white stem under the ground, so all you can see is the leaves above.

Leek

Leek

They have a while to run yet, so we should be able to cook up some of Kim’s delicious Anglesey Eggs in about another month.  I better get cracking and make some Caerphilly cheese to go in it!

Garlic

Garlic

The garlic is looking magnificent.  All growing strong with not a black aphid in site.  I took a leaf out of a Gardening Australia episode I watched the other day and top dressed the garlic and the leeks with a mixture of cow and sheep manure mixed into a slurry, then place around each plant.  I then watered it in well.

Garlic Close up

Garlic Close up

Stinky work, but if it means extra-large bulbs, then I don’t mind the smell.

As for the colourful kale, I gave them a spray of chilli and garlic spray to deter any caterpillars.  Kim harvested some yesterday and made more kale chips with liberal sprinkling of chilli powder.  Spicy or what!

Colourful Kale

Colourful Kale

That brings me to the sprouting broccoli.  It has now officially gone to seed, which I am hoping to collect for next season.

There are still side shoots growing, so I will keep picking until it no longer sprouts.   Delicious as a snack as you weed the garden.

Sprouting Broccoli

Sprouting Broccoli

Finally, the cabbages.  You will notice the very obvious hole in the front right.  It used to be the biggest cabbage.  Alas, it did a runner.  The others should be ready to pick in a couple of weeks.  I mixed up some weed tea to feed them.  About 1 litre of weed tea to 9 litres of water in a watering can then water liberally.

Sugar Loaf Cabbage

Sugar Loaf Cabbage

The heads are getting tighter, which is a very good sign that they are nearly ready.

Red Cabbage

Red Cabbage

The red cabbage is a bit slower, which is usual.  Once you have had enough of the green, the red is ready to eat in coleslaw.

Well dear reader, besides cleaning out the chook house, which I am sure you didn’t want to see (or did you?), there was not much more to do.  I ran out of steam at about 3 pm this afternoon so relaxed for the rest of the day.

By the way, all the weeds went into the chicken run.  Even though the girls are not particularly fussed about golden oxalis, they do take a fancy to all the other weeds mixed in.  When I checked on them as the sun was setting, only the oxalis was left.  Without the bulbs, it turns into pretty good compost once the girls have scratched it to death.

So there you have it.  With a little bit of maintenance at the right time, your veggie patch will not only look good, but will thrive with all the special love and attention.  I think my veggies also liked the music I was playing whilst I was weeding.  Look very closely, because I think that purple cabbage in the photo is smiling at me!  Bohemian Rhapsody anyone?

Veggie patch maintenance doesn’t have to be boring now, does it?