Three Things from My Garden

A delicate spray of sweetly scented blossoms, a bunch of fragrant homegrown herbs and a simple bouquet of little flowers are the joy I brought inside from our lush and green garden this morning...

Homegrown flowers and herbs.

That single spray of white star-shaped flowers came from my climbing Stephanotis vine. (Madagascan Jasmine).  Its sweetly perfumed blossoms are also known as wedding flowers because they are often used in wedding bouquets. I placed my single spray in a little vintage milk bottle, along with some of my favourite blue and white treasures, atop the old hoop pine table near our front door. Its heady perfume will offer a long-lasting and sweetly-scented welcome home. 

A spray of sweetly-scented Stephanotis in an old milk bottle.

While the Stephanotis is covered in sweetly-scented stars, the herbs in our garden are covered in lush new growth. The bunch of pungent basil and savoury rosemary I picked are now sitting in a blue jug of water on my kitchen bench ready to add flavour and freshness to our meals. The basil is destined for a pasta sauce while the rosemary for a focaccia and some herb-y roasted potatoes. Homegrown herbs have such vibrant flavour!

A bunch of fresh, homegrown herbs.

Into another old jug, I placed a happy little bouquet of small Zinnia flowers. With their creamy petals and centres of golden yellow, these Summer flowers always make me smile. I love them so for their simplicity. They seem to match perfectly the crocheted 'lace' of a favourite vintage doily.

A bunch of happy little Zinnias.

This is the joy of the garden for me; the food and the flowers that we grow. Whether it's a bunch of herbs or a bunch of flowers or both, I am beyond content when there's abundance in our garden to pick and enjoy.

Meg

p.s. If you would like to learn more about growing the beautiful Stephanotis vine, here is a Gardening Australia video and factsheet.

Meat-Free Shepherd's Pie

Although balmy Springtime days are here, our evenings are still quite chilly so the wonderful warmth of a delicious Shepherd's Pie, topped with buttery mashed potatoes, is still most welcome on a colder night. 

Delicious and nourishing Cottage Pie.

Unlike a traditional Irish Shepherd's Pie, made with a lamb, this delicious pie filling is made with lentils and vegetables and herbs. Of course, it's topped with creamy, buttery mashed potatoes. It's a meat-free meal that is so tasty and nourishing and filling. 

I came across the recipe in the book, Grown & Gathered, by Matt & Lentil which I borrowed from my local library. It's also available here. I tweaked it a little to match what I had to use. I used a tin of organic puy lentils I had in the pantry instead of preparing and soaking lentils overnight. (Lazy??) Also, as suggested in the recipe, I used vegetable stock rather than making the filling with a lamb or beef bone and water. This makes the filling a vegetarian version. I also chose not to make the pastry and so topped it with just simple mashed potatoes rather than the mash, made with potatoes, sweet potato, carrots and turnips, suggested in the original recipe. It's a lovely recipe however you make it!

 Lentil & vegetable filling full of goodness.

Creamy mashed potato topping. 

Ready for the oven.  

Piping-hot pie!

This version of shepherd's pie is a 'keeper' that I know I'll make many times over because it's so versatile. You can soak those lentils or use tinned lentils. You can throw in whatever herbs you've got growing in the garden. You can make your mash however you like! It's great when you find a recipe you can put on repeat!

What's your favourite recipe-on-repeat at your place?

Meg

p.s. Did you know that a meat-less Shepherd's Pie is sometimes called a "Shepherdless Pie". I found that out, among other things, at this link to Jamie Oliver's 10 Things You Didn't Know About Shepherd's Pie. 

February Flowers & an Embroidery Book

My love of flowers knows no bounds! I grow them in my garden for the sheer delight of them.  Their colourful forms, their sublime fragrances, their botanic beauty. I wait as buds form, marvel at them as they open fully under the sun and watch as they slowly fade and their petals fall. Bees plunder them, butterflies drink their nectar and I save their seeds so I can enjoy them again when next their season comes around.

At the beginning of this February, here are four lovely flowers that are lending their beauty to our garden:

Yarrow ... tiny & sweet.

Penstemon ... tubular & delicate.

 Salvia ...  vibrant & tall.

Queen Anne's Lace ... intricate & so fine!

As much as I love real flowers, like those that bloom in our garden, I am equally enchanted by the embroidery that is inspired by them. Melissa Wastney's beautiful botanical stitching has long been a favourite and I recently discovered the stitching of Kazuko Aoki. She grows the most gorgeous flower gardens with her needle and threads! One of her books, The Embroidered Garden arrived in my letterbox recently and I can't stop looking at it! There are so many beautiful flowers, tiny garden creatures and pretty projects. (The link to this book takes you to a review over at Feeling Stitchy. (Please note the giveaway at this link is no longer current.)

A beautiful embroidery book.

I would love to be able to embroider just a little of the beauty of the flowers in our garden with such detail. Perhaps I'll play with my own needle and threads this coming weekend. If the weather clears, I think I will spread out a little blanket on the grass near the yarrow and its tiny, sweet blooms. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Meg

Sweetly-Scented Rose Geranium

One of my favourite plants in the garden is coming in to bloom now that Spring is here. 





 

 A little cluster of Rose Geranium flowers.

 

While its little pink flower clusters are very pretty, they are not the reason I love this beautiful plant. Rather, it is the strong musky-rose scent, released by this geranium's leaves, that make it a favourite. Whenever I brush past it, or gently rub a leaf between my fingers, I catch a drift of its rosy perfume and breathe that in deeply. So beautiful!



Little buds forming on my Rose Geranium.

 

My Rose Geranium grows really well in a position where it receives lots of morning sun but is somewhat sheltered in the afternoon. The soil where it grows is free draining and so I just give my Rose Geranium a deep watering whenever I feel the soil is a touch dry. Definitely, a low maintenance plant in my garden!



Lots of fragrant leaves on my Rose Geranium.

 



There are many different kinds of scented geraniums, from those whose leaves smell like roses to those that are lemony or minty. I hope to add some different scents to my garden by swapping cuttings of my Rose Geranium for cuttings of some of the other-scented types.

 

Do you grow scented geraniums? If so, what's your favourite?

 

Meg

 

 



 

 

This Gardener's Greatest Thrill

There is so much about our garden that brings me joy but the thrill I get, when I take an empty basket out into the backyard and fill it with a variety of fresh, nutritious food that we can then eat is just beyond compare for this here gardener. 

There's a lot in the fresh food we grow. There's the warmth and light of the sun, the water that falls from the sky, the goodness in the soil and in the compost we make, the work of the bees and worms and other little critters too. Our work (though I have to admit that much of the time it doesn't feel like work to me) is in this fresh food too and baskets full of our own just-picked, homegrown goodness make that effort feel so worthwhile.

Picked fresh today from just outside our back door.

I love growing some of our own food. We are nowhere near self-sufficient in fruits and vegetables but we can often include something from our garden in every main meal during the milder months of the year. Today, there were the shredded leaves of silverbeet in our morning omelettes, mixed lettuce leaves in our lunchtime wraps, juicy mandarins plucked from our tree for afternoon tea and lettuce (again), spring onion and herbs in our evening salad. 

Growing food in our garden provides not only delicious nourishment but great joy as well, not least of which is in the eating!

Meg

A Peek into Permaculture: Producing Food at Home

There is something quite wonderful about a garden that grows food. For me, it is a joy that is made tangible in the:

*   "tucking in" of seeds full of potential;
*   tiny seedlings that emerge in nourishing soils;
*   edible greens, fattening pods, ripening fruits and expanding tubers;
*   baskets laden with food harvested not far from our very own back door; 
*   making of meals using some of our very own produce ...
&  it's in the sharing of excess with family, friends, neighbours and strangers.

Ripening mandarins on our tree beginning to blush orange.

But growing food in our own garden is so much more than that. It is about:

*   locally grown goodness (as local as it gets);
*   healthy food produced without chemicals;
*   fresh food tasted and cooked and appreciated just minutes after it's been harvested;
*   precious seeds saved and shared ...
&  it's about a measure of self-reliance.

Fresh, young silverbeet growing happily among the flowers.

I have not read much of the work of Bill Mollison, co-originator of Permaculture along with David Holmgren, but these wise words of his were echoing in my mind as I planted the first of this Autumn's seedlings:

"The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production,

even if on a small scale in our own gardens ..."

Just planted ... Perpetual Spinach, Tuscan Kale and Silverbeet seedlings in my garden.

The planting out of seedlings, a seemingly simple act of gardening, is so much more than that.  Perhaps, that is why growing some of our own food fills me with such happiness.

Do you grow some of your own food at home too? 

Meg

Marinated Feta

Feta cheese, marinated with lemon and herbs in olive oil, a little rock salt and some black peppercorns...soft, creamy and delicious!

 A jar of delicious marinated feta.

I adore marinated feta. I love the beautiful array of flavours ~ herbs, chilli, lemon, garlic, sun-dried tomato, capers, olive ~ that surround the cheese and infuse into the oil. I love its versatility; crumbled in a salad, melted within a breakfast omelette, topping a slice of fresh bread spread with chunky avocado (Aren't avocado and feta a match made in heaven?) or a piece just popped into one's mouth on the way past the fridge. Sigh!

Marinated feta can be expensive to buy but it's so easy and quick to make at home. There are so many different combinations for delicious marinades but I made mine, for the feta I bought at a deli, with fresh herbs from my garden and the zest of an organic lemon.

Feta with the lemon, rosemary, thyme, salt & peppercorns that will flavour the olive oil.

Layer cubes of the feta with herbs, lemon zest, salt & pepper in a clean glass jar.

(I put a glug of olive oil in the bottom before I put the first layer of feta in.)

Continue making layers of feta, herbs, lemon & seasoning then cover completely with oil.

(I used extra virgin olive oil.)

Seal jars and place them in the fridge. Leave overnight for the flavours to develop.

(Eat within use by date of your feta...but mine never lasts that long!)

If you'd like to make your own marinades for feta cheese, here are some flavourful links:

Marinated Feta with Chilli, Olives and Sun-dried Tomato

Herb mix for marinated feta that features dried herbs

Garlicky Marinated Soft Feta with Herbs & Chilli

When every last cube of feta has been enjoyed, you can use the fragrant oil to make a salad dressing.  Just whisk some of the fragrant oil with a little lemon juice, a touch of mustard, a little honey or sugar and maybe an extra twist of salt and pepper. 

If you love feta and you haven't made your own marinade for it before, I hope you'll try it. The flavours are simply divine!

Meg

p.s.  A jar of marinated feta makes a very delicious gift too!