Bottling Autumn Goodies

 

Making the most of the last of the peppers. Jalapeno peppers – pretty hot!!

 

Garlic Harvest

Andrew digging up the first bed of garlic. Four more beds to dig! We sold some this morning at the Whangarei Growers’ Market, exciting to sell our first garlic! We put them in lots of 200g in brown paper bags, displayed in wooden trugs. We’ll probably switch to those plastic string bags though, for better visibility and rainproofing.

Digging Garlic

A late harvest so we have to lift the garlic with a fork instead of just pulling it up as the stems are already dying down. We’ll sort through and keep the best as seed garlic for next year, and the rest we can sell at the market and use in the kitchen.

December 2013 – Garlic Harvest

Well the year is winding up. We are late harvesting our garlic and some of it is splitting. I hope nobody is expecting expert advice here – it’s a record of trial and error! Anyway, all the dandelions are testimony to the lack of weedkillers…

Whangarei Grower’s Market, September 2013

My first visit to the market since we arrived back in New Zealand.  Somehow I didn’t get there in August!   Beautiful rich kale on display, dark red tamarillos, all the usual winter produce.  Lots of eggs for sale, the local chickens are producing the usual spring abundance. 

 

Spring Plum Trees

The plum orchard was just starting to burst into blossom when we returned from the UK mid August. Duff’s Early Jewel, Billington and Red Beut were early to flower. Now just about everything is white 🙂 Need a bit of pink in there really! I have a couple of apricots to fill gaps …

Planting Apple Trees

Now that we are expanding into apples (yum) we have decided to turn our vege garden into an orchard.  Planting lovely trees from Thunder Mountain, a local organic orchard and nursery.  I highly recommend their trees for their quality and excellent root systems.  We had a ceremonial planting of the first Vaile Early on Saturday – now I think my husband expects me to plant the remaining 35 trees!

 

Truro Market Again

We went for a look at the Truro Cathedral, and found this wonderful sight when we returned to the market.

Truro Market, Cornwall

The UK Farmers’ markets we saw we much smaller than our massive Whangarei Growers’ Market. They were a delight, nevertheless! This stall was selling strawberries (you can’t beat English strawberries!) and new potatoes. I bought a bag of tiny new locally grown potatoes and they were absolutely delicious.

Preparing Garlic Beds

Ouch, a hardworking day!  I did at least two hours of strimming (weed eating) – my arms are really sore now!  I was cutting the tall weeds down in the area where we grew potatoes, getting it ready for garlic planting.  It was a totally new garden this last summer.  It had been pasture before that, and the potatoes did really well.   Next task is rotary hoeing (a man job) then raking up the beds and planting!  We have been building up our seed garlic for three years now.  The crop this summer should produce enough for next year’s seed and some to sell at the market.  Yay, finally!