"Balmoral Park" farm garden

Its hard to believe that just a week ago I was congratulating myself that I had all the lawns mowed to the same level. No mean feat in this garden and I think the first time it had ever happened. I was very excited about this and my intention was to keep it that way. Well the best laid plans and all of that! Firstly I had to get the first Eugowra News out for the year so that cut into my gardening time considerably but still Peter was away for the weekend and i planned to do it all then. Instead it rained and rained, we have had 50 ml in the past few days, not much to you Northerners I know but for here it is heaps and it has been very Humid. consequently my Park is a jungle again. I hope it will be dry enough to mow before we go away on Saturday. While I was taking these photos couldn't resist some snaps of the little guinea Fowl, aren't they too cute And the ring in.

Despite some sever losses in the fruit department,  thanks to fruit fly and coddling moth, we still have not purchased any meaningful amount of fruit for over twelve months. We don't have any late stone fruit or early pome fruit but we have a mattering of early passionfruits. The Strawberries are bearing well thanks to the mild and wet conditions. And there are enough delicious raspberries to have a pick each day. I must admit to eating them in situ don't usually make it inside. What a treat to have succulent Raspberries in Eugowra. The Rhubarb is always abundant for stewed fruit and we still have quite a lot preserved in the freezer and in the cupboards. Not a bad result for a less than good season. I think having such a large variety is the key.

I've been playing around with my bread making a bit this week. I read a thing about maintaining the starter and it made sense to me so I've done that. Basically you just grow a very small starter and then keep it in the fridge and build it up when you need it. Already my starter is much more active. Last weekend I tried to make some pide, it didn't turn out so well, just like white bread really. I love pide and want to be able to make if for Katie when she is here as its one of the things she misses in the UK. I couldn't find a recipe for a sourdough pide so i adapted the recipe I had, pretty much just letting every step take longer. i took half a cup of nice fresh starter and added a cup of water and a cup of bread flour, plus half a teaspoon of sugar. I stirred this until it was smooth, covered it with glad wrap and left it on the bench for a few hours and then put it in the fridge overnight. this morning I added 270 mls of warm water, 31/2 cups of flour and 1/4 cu...

In my meat and three veg upbringing it would have been unheard of to eat Zucchini flowers, or any flowers for that matter. I remember when my mother started to grow Zucchini, they were like the new wonder vegetable and she took pride in growing them as big as she could! We then ate these monsters. Soon enough I learned to eat them when they were small but it was quite some time before I discovered the joys of eating Zucchini flowers. They are now one of my favourite things about summer. This year I am growing the Costa Romenesca variety and although they promised a good supply of flowers that has not really been the case. The past few mornings however I have seen some beauties so this morning decided to pick these two for our dinner tonight. Look at the size in comparison to an every day tea cup. You would never see flowers like this at a market. They are not very sturdy and I have already managed to tear one but it doesn't matter, I am just going to dip these in egg, breadcrum...

I've had quite a few incompatible aims in my life, family and career, garden and travel etc, usually its a juggling act and part of the richness of life. At the moment the biggest challenge is to grow a productive and attractive garden and raise a Border Collie pup. We've had Border Collies for many years, Angus is over thirteen now and I don't remember his puppy years but Zoe was home to play with him as well. Last year we got Elle Macpherson and she is just beautiful. It has been a joy to have her and also time of great anxiety as we have almost lost her twice! She is just a bit over one now and coming along nicely, a lovely nature and great fun. I thought that the worst of her puppy behaviour was behind us and then I discovered her new game! Our pome trees have been struck by coddling moth again and in an effort to save at least some of the fruit, especially the quinces, I put little sokcettes on the fruit. All was going well until I began to find the fruit in the socke...

I have been making sourdough bread for quite a few years now. Initially it was a struggle but then I seemed to have a good method and it all went well. I bake a delicous loaf every week or so and that is pretty much enough bread for us. When I returned from England at the beginning of December my starter had been quite neglected and I have been unhappy with my bread making results ever since. Yesterday I decided that I really needed to remedy this. There are no artisan bakeries near us and I do not like the commercial breads available at the supermarket. Initially I was blaming the flour as I have run out of the nice fresh Furney's flour and am not prepared to drive all the way to Dubbo just to get it. On reflection though I used the Wallaby flour from the supermarket for years and was happy with the results. So I think the starter and my method are the problems. I started to refresh the starter every day and i made a bigger sponge when I was ready to bake. Straight away I could s...

Sometimes, well really a lot of the time, I garden more with hope than with science. I have a vision that I can keep us supplied pretty much with all the fruit and vegetables that we need. I think i probably can, the problem is I don't really want to be limited by what will grow well here. So i keep trying things, putting them in different places, creating little micro climates and so on. I've had some successes, cant believe how well the asparagus and raspberries have done. And lots of failures. Last year I tried in vain to grow ginger and turmeric, the ginger grew but produced nothing! However I thought I would give the turmeric another shot as I really want to have this fresh. The ones I planted before I bought from an Asian green grocers so this time I ordered some from Greenharvest. I have also been trying to grow sweet potatoes with a similar result so also ordered a purple sweet potato. I figure if I get these things going I will have them for ever. Well i planted th...