A social day at Anne’s home (Saturday January 17, 2015)

Today was a relaxing gathering which turned out to be as much about food as it was about seeds.

We essentially nibbled our way through from morning tea to mid afternoon. Our nibbles included home made scrumptious rice paper rolls (recipe definitely needed for this one Sarhn) with a bean and herb filling; Summer salad with carrot, beetroot and mint; fresh grape tomatoes and basil parmesan pesto with crackers; freshly made guacamole; a lush green salad picked from the garden that morning and two delicious gluten free cakes. One was an orange cake and the other was an almond cake. Needless to say, we comfortably chatted while grazing!

When it came around to sharing our produce, Janine brought out an esky load of fresh produce. Filled with zucchini, chard (spinach), little sweet banana capsicums, rhubarb, lettuce, Chinese greens (sorry forgot their name Janine) … there was sooooo much! Thanks Janine!

Paul brought along a bounty of seedlings to share as well as seeds. Capsicums and tomatoes being the main theme here. There were at least 3 trays of seedlings to choose from. It was excellent.

Fiona brought along one of her seed drawers, with different corns and beans being the main focus. She also brought along some of her garlic braids which she has been selling through her farm store. They were impressive indeed. One of the braids held 24 very large garlic bulbs.

Sahrn brought along a huge bag of coffee grinds to share around. Coffee grinds are an excellent addition to any compost due to their high carbon content and their ability to be used by microbes as a host.

Paul later showed everyone how to collect tomato seeds by fermenting them. He brought in a jar of seeds that had been fermenting for a few days and showed how easy it is to wash the seeds and dry them.

Anne then showed us through her garden and we all raided her pepino and her lemon scented verbena.

Here are a few photos from the day ….

Some of the veggies from Janine’s garden. Those that were not immediately whisked away that is! There are also some of Paul’s seeds too.

Fiona stores all her seeds in a tallboy (and yes its full). This time she brought her beans and corn collection along with some veggies that were good to plant now ready for winter.

The children discovered that rhubarb makes an excellent substitute sword. They hadn’t seen rhubarb before and had called it “massive celery sticks” … quite observant actually.

Anne’s white peaches are maturing nicely. Some are in large exclusion bags to stop fruit fly attack. These “little” guys were nearly the size of tennis balls!

We surprised Paul and Anne with a photo of them discussing the tomato trellis.

Anne has managed to grow a huge pepito plant. It was so large, we all thought it was a weed that had taken over her front garden! When she showed us the fruit and let us taste it, we were very surprised. The fruit was flavoured between a rockmelon and a cucumber with nice firm flesh. Several of us took cuttings for our own gardens.

Next month, we will be doing some fermenting at Fiona’s place. We will be shown how to make Elderflower wine, how to make cider from apples and also how to bottle it.

Hope to see you in February!