June 2014 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

Fruit trees, vines, bushes and canes proliferate here in the Huon Valley and fill much of our year with glorious flavours. Winter is the perfect time to plant (and prune) most of them. There is just one problem; wildlife. In the town area of Cygnet I don’t have any problem. If you have bush near your garden, you no doubt have possums and wallabies decimating new growth, tearing at the bark, breaking branches and eating all the fruit. My suggestion is solar powered, electric netting around the whole zone. It works at my friends’ house in the middle of the bush. Available online in NSW. Search for “electric netting fence”.

An overabundance of fruit and the work required in the orchard stresses many people. I choose to grow only what I cannot otherwise source locally; by swapping with friends, sharing at the community garden, buying at the roadside stalls, direct from orchards or from local shops. This is also part of being a sustainable community and supporting each other, whilst enjoying a relaxed and abundant life. Why grow the same things as your neighbour?

Fruit from outside the square

Irish strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo): drought tolerant, evergreen, pretty, small tree native to Europe and Ireland, with late fruits turning from yellow to orange then red. I walked to a lake in France when these were ripe and gorged on them the whole way. There they were growing in sandy soil but mine here is growing happily in solid clay.

Persimon (Diospyros kaki): Deciduous, small tree with large, red fruits on bare stems in winter. A glorious sight. I love the old fashioned sort, where the fruits have to ripen to very soft, on your window sill. Decadently sweet and flavoursome.

Carob (Ceratonia siliqua): Evergreen, drought tolerant tree / hedge producing very large pods which, when picked and eaten fresh, are heavenly. Don’t be put off by your impression of commercial carob powder! I had a tree in Adelaide and highly recommend its luscious crop.

Quince: the smile on the faces of was enough to reinforce to me the value of growing quinces. The pineapple quince is a variety which is less gritty but still full flavoured and can even be eaten raw when thinly sliced.

Tamarillo (Solanum betaceum): native to sub-tropical parts of Chile it is a frost sensitive, small tree bearing egg-shaped, dark red fruits with a lovely taste and lush texture. I don’t have one yet but if I did, I would wrap it in horticultural fleece for the winter and mulch it heavily.

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) from China and Japan:flowers appear in late autumn and in frosty areas may not set fruit, which would normally be ripe in late winter. The small tree is very drought tolerant and worth growing because of its open habit and fragrant flowers. The fruits are yellow and succulent with several quite big, shiny stones.

White shahtoot mulberry (Morus macroura) from the Middle East: One of my favourite deciduous trees and fruits, the white tassle-like fruit are exquisitely sweet and heavenly. Left to grow to its full height it makes a perfect shade tree but I espaliered one in another life and each stem grew to several metres long, bearing hundreds of sweet tassles, which looked like long ear rings hanging on the wire.

Kiwi fruit and kiwi berries: native to northern China they are very happy in the cold. They are a vine and make wonderful summer shade over a pergola but the pergola must be very strong. They grow well from cutting but you must remember to get cuttings from male and female plants and label them well in case one dies and you need to replace it!

Chilean guava (Ugni molinae): small, tidy, evergreen shrub ideal for edging a path, covered in late autumn with intensely flavoured, bright red berries which the birds don’t seem to know about! The berries hang on for weeks. Eat raw or add to salads or muffins or stew with apples.

Tasmanian Pepperberry (Tasmannia lanceolata):  beautiful, evergreen shrub with red stems and shiny black berries. Suitable for hedges or edges. Not something we would eat as a fruit, but the black berries are fiery hot with tones of the Australian bush. I have been picking them fresh from a friend’s garden and either using fresh or leaving to dry then storing for grinding later. Why buy black pepper when we have our own?

Figs (Ficus carica): My memories are of climbing a fig tree at high school, just before Easter every year, and gorging with my friends on soft, deep red, unbelievably delicious figs. Also, picking green-skinned, strawberry red fleshed figs from my mother’s garden and taking boxes of them to the market to sell as we just had too many from one small tree! I have not eaten a single fig here in Tasmania that would encourage me to grow them here.

If I had a warmer, frost free site or a large glasshouse, I would grow avocadoes, white sapote, oranges, mandarins and figs.

 

Kitchen ideas for June

Winter herbs for health and flavour Do you love pesto and lament the end of fresh basil from your garden? Well I make a wonderful pesto with chervil and almonds / rocket and pistachios / parsley and walnuts. There are so many lovely herbs that either grow and thrive only in winter or continue to hold their colour and flavour even in winter. The former includes the slightly aniseed chervil, with its pretty, soft ferny leaves which I grow as a block and clip by the handful, with scissors. Also in this category is coriander with its robust flavour and growth habit. Parsley is a fabulous winter herb, readily self-sows and is useful all through winter in meals and as a wonderful source of vitamin C, in our climate where oranges are rare.

 

Seeds to sow in June Sow in the garden: Broad beans Salad and spring onions Shallots Chives English spinach Radishes Plant out Garlic Asparagus crowns Divide rhubarb Winter herbs Winter flower annuals Globe artichokes Sunchokes Bulbs

Sow in trays: Brassicas Artichokes Coriander Chervil Lettuce Rocket Asian greens Jobs for June Prune deciduous trees except cherries and apricots Feed and mulch the dripline of fruit trees with anything you have, including seaweed. Collect seaweed (especially kelp) after winter storms and cover your asparagus patch with it. Brassicas also love it. Wonderful added to your compost too.

June 2020 Kitchen Garden Guide

 Many people have become corona gardeners, growing food for the very first time. If that’s you, then welcome to a whole new world of joys, tastes, weeds, disasters and, amongst it all, the glorious feeling of coming home to something deeply satisfying, something deep within the soul of all of us. My tip is to relax; observe the details of what is happening to each leaf that grows, admire closely every insect and bird that visits and follow the path of the sun and wind as they wind their way through your day. There is no rush.

Magnesium

As the sun dips low in the sky and the temperatures drop, plants are relying on their strength to remain healthy, just as we do. Problems become evident quite quickly sometimes, especially in pots. My citrus, in big, concrete pots on my sunny verandah, are laden with fruit. Their leaves have been green and fruits growing well but I can see signs of yellowing of some older leaves, which could be a sign that a dose of magnesium might help. Purple, red or brown may also appear on the leaves of other plants. We all need magnesium and if our plants are short of it then we who eat the plants will be short of it too. It is vital for photosynthesis, which obviously happens less on these short days, which is why it raises its head now.

Add about 3 tablespoons of Epsom salts to a 9 litre watering can, stir well to completely dissolve, then water the root zone. For pots, you can also mix into a spray bottle and spray the leaves. Repeat as required. It is a gentle remedy.

The name comes from its discovery, bubbling up in ponds in the English town of Epsom, in the 1600’s. Farmers noticed that wounds of cows that waded through the bitter tasting water healed quickly. Many people in England began to travel to Epsom to experience the numerous health benefits, particularly the relief from the painful symptoms of gout and for the natural purging effects of the water.

Tasmania is surrounded by sea and we are now learning to forage the shores and shallows for food. As a longer term strategy, magnesium can be added to the soil simply by adding seaweeds to your compost or liquid feed. Magnesium can be added to your diet more directly by eating the seaweed yourself. All of the longest lived peoples of the world eat many different sea plants; think Okinawa (Japan) and Sicily.

A dash of another season

It is the weather for soup and none is more satisfying and cleansing than garlic soup which I make from a recipe a woman in France gave me. Oh lalalala it was one of the best soups I’d ever had and she wrote it out for me in French, which always adds another challenge when I decide to make it! In the freezer I have some stocks made with bones from animals raised locally, ethically and without chemicals. These form the base of all my winter soups. In summer I usually use vegetable stock or bottles of my tomatoes.

As the garlic cloves which have not been planted begin to sprout, I follow a Chinese friend’s lead and stand each clove upright, side by side in rows, and give them a little bit of water from time to time. You can then snip the tops with scissors.

Every meal from my kitchen has a dash of another season, in the form of fermented vegetables which have been brewing for a few weeks or months. I have just started a jar of my brined, lacto fermented green beans, made from my garden back in March, when my beans were prolific. They are crunchy and totally delicious. From the advice of the wonderful owner of Cinnamon and Cherry in Franklin, whose Turkish mother evidently made the best lacto veg ever, I always add to the jar when I am assembling it: 2 dry chickpeas, a pinch of mustard seeds and 1 sultana. As instructed, I top the lot with either a grape leaf or celery leaf, whichever is in season. These tips ensure success and keep vegetables crisp. I have been doing it for about a year now.

The liquid lives on too, once the vegetables are finished, in salad dressings, for months more.

Fruit from outside the square, to plant during winter

Irish strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo): drought tolerant, evergreen, pretty, small tree native to Europe and Ireland, with late fruits turning from yellow to orange then red. I walked to a lake in France when these were ripe and gorged on them the whole way. There they were growing in sandy soil but mine here is growing happily in solid clay. Plant more than one, for pollination.

Persimon (Diospyros kaki): Deciduous, small tree with large, red fruits on bare stems in winter. A glorious sight. I love the old fashioned sort, where the fruits have to ripen to very soft, on your window sill. Decadently sweet and flavoursome.

Carob (Ceratonia siliqua): Evergreen, drought tolerant tree / hedge producing very large pods which, when picked and eaten fresh, are heavenly. Don’t be put off by your impression of commercial carob powder! I had a tree in Adelaide and highly recommend its luscious crop.

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) from China and Japan: flowers appear in late autumn and in frosty areas may not set fruit, which would normally be ripe in late winter. The small tree is very drought tolerant and worth growing because of its open habit and fragrant flowers. The fruits are yellow and succulent with several quite big, shiny stones.

 

Seeds to sow in June Sow in the garden: Broad beans Salad and spring onions Shallots Chives English spinach Radishes Sow in trays to plant out later: Brassicas Globe Artichokes Coriander Chervil Lettuce Rocket Asian greens

Plant out Garlic Asparagus crowns Divide rhubarb Winter herbs Winter flowering annuals Globe artichokes Sunchokes Bulbs Asian greens Lettuce Spinach Reading Fire Country by Victor Steffenson (book) Re-Inventing the Greenhouse (online)