A tale of four veggie gardens

Just a quick post to share with you some of the photos from the Maribyrnong City Council's first Open Veggie Garden day. We hopped on a free bus at the council and 20 of us did a tour of four veggie gardens in Footscray, Seddon and Yarraville. The gardens were open for 2.5 hours on the day and you didn't have to be on the bus to be able to visit, plenty of others were cycling around to check a few out.

Each of the gardens were so different but all so inspiring. Different situations and budgets and all wonderfully creative. You can see a full slideshow of my pics from the tour here: OPEN VEGGIE GARDEN SLIDESHOW

But here are a few of my favourites.

Above's photo and these two below were from a wonderful place in Seddon that have an eclectic mix of succulents, natives, veggies and herbs. Also a couple of chickens, one named Blossom was freeranging around - she had these awesome feathers on her legs that looked like she was wearing great big pantaloons! I was quite charmed and we were delighted to hear that cats and chickens can exist in harmony. It's more dogs and chickens you have to worry about. But not our Elliott, seeing last time he stayed at a friend's, who raises chickens, he was caught licking a chicken's head and touching nose to beak with it. How sweet.

The Seddon garden also had a wonderful collection of mosaic pots and displays scattered around the garden. We saw plenty of other charming examples of using small sculptures and found objects to brighten up your patch on the tour.

These two photos were from probably my favourite garden of the tour, in Footscray not far from where we used to live. It had a nice mix of structures but also lots of big beds - as you can see here. And is that not the cutest shed you've ever seen in your life there?

I especially liked how they used bluestone to form raised beds like we have, but to also help make the path. There was a nice mix of flowers and veggies together, fruit trees, and a passionfruit vine. I just put a couple of Black Passionfruit seeds into punnets and am going to give growing some a shot too.

I have to say, I was really heartened to hear of other gardeners mistakes too :) It's good to know we're not the only ones to have done things like completely misjudge how much sun we would be able to get in winter and realise we might have to move our patch. Or to hear of someone growing a wonderfully vigorous passionfruit vine... only to realise that it's a decorative variety that won't give any fruit. That's so the type of thing we would do!

I loved this garden below - also in Footscray. From a family with 2 little girls, living in a rental. I thought to myself - these girls must be having THE BEST time growing up at this house. They have chooks and raspberries GALORE. And I really loved how they didn't let the fact they are renting put them off creating a productive veggie garden. Plenty more photos in the slideshow.

I learnt so much and gained plenty of new ideas of things we can try at home and also become more inspired to not be scared of changing things in the garden around a bit if necessary. AND we really really want to get a couple of chooks. Especially after reading all the fun that Gavin at The Greening Of Gavin is having with his. Perhaps in the new year! I got a serious case of garden space envy but I have to remind myself, we do a quite a bit of space... just not quite as much as all these guys! Oh well. One day.

Don't stand so, don't stand so close to me.

Meet Elliott, our 3 year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Oh my dear Elliott. He is so fond of waking me in the morning by leaping onto the bed and sticking nose close to mine, waiting for a cheery chest rub. In fact he paws at me if I stop scratching him and he hasn't had enough. Personal space is not a concept he grasps too well.

So what better way to use up our bountiful harvest of parsley than to make some breathfreshening biscuits! Elliott loves his Greenies but my, they are expensive. Elliott doesn't have that awful strenchlike bad breath some dogs have because of digestive issues. But he definitely could do with some 'sweetening'. Parsley is a known breath freshener so I used this recipe and made some minor adjustments.

SWEET BREATH COOKIES

Ingredients

• 3 cups of unbleached all-purpose white or whole-wheat flour, or a combination of the two.


• 1 tablespoon of baking powder


• 1 teaspoon of baking soda


• 3 tablespoons of olive oil


• 1 cup of low-fat yoghurt


• 2 tablespoons of honey


• 1/4 of a cup of chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley or mint leaves

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200*C. Line a tray with baking paper.

2. Place the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and mix to combine.

3. While the processor is going, add the olive oil a few pieces at a time and process until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

4. Transfer the mixture into a large bowl, add the yoghurt, and mix by hand until combined.

5. Mix in the honey and parsley.

6. Divide the mixture into cookie sizes, flatten them, and place them on the prepared baking sheet. (I made an assortment of bigger sized ones and also smaller 'treat' sized cookies)

7. Place the sheet in the oven and bake until golden brown (approximately 12 - 15 minutes.)

8. Set aside to cool to room temperature

I am storing this batch in airtight containers but you can also freeze them. Elliott just loves them! And they really work. I won't give them to him every day but I'm sure one of the bigger ones once a week should do the trick.

Sweet-Chicka-Dee

Easy Baked Chicken with Orange and mustard sauce, originally uploaded by mooimadeit.

Last night I tried out a fantastically easy recipe I found on the Destitute Gourmet website. I recently bought a couple of the DG books - the recipes are so simple, but really tasty and as the name suggests, shows you can cook gourmet tasting food without spending a fortune. Their first book has some great tips in 'Making Meat Go Further' if you want to reduce the amount of meat you have in your meals without losing flavour.

Anyway I found this recipe in an old September 2007 newsletter they have on their website.

It's especially good if you grow thyme in your garden and have lots to hand. We just grow ours in a self watering pot at our house and it has formed a mini hedge over the past year. The fragrance of chicken, thyme and orange wafting through the house while this was cooking was just divine!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Easy Baked Chicken
with Orange and mustard sauce

by Destitute Gourmet
This is a very forgiving dish, so good for beginners or people in a rush. It’s very tasty with rice, couscous or potato cakes. Use as many drumsticks as you need for the people you are serving.

Costs under $10.00

8 – 10 chicken drumsticks – (I usually allow 2 per person)
1 onion chopped
Handful of fresh thyme sprigs or 2 big pinches of dried thyme
350ml water
2 tsp chicken stock powder
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
2 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
¼ cup lite sour cream

Preheat the oven to 190°C
Sling the chicken drumsticks into a roasting pan and cook for 15 minutes- shake the pan occasionally and when the fat begins to run add the chopped onion.
Cook for 5-10 minutes until onion is soft.
While the chicken is cooking prepare the chicken stock. Place the stock powder in a heatproof jug or bowl and add 350 ml boiling water. Stir in the wholegrain mustard, Thyme, orange juice and zest and add to the pan with the chicken. Return the pan to the oven and cook for approximately 20 minutes. The chicken should be golden on the outside and the chicken juice when you prick the meat with a knife should be clear. There should be lots of orangey, chickeny liquid in the pan. If you have left the chicken a bit long and the liquid has evaporated add some hot water to the pan and swirl it around a bit, this will help make more sauce.
Remove the chicken pieces from the pan and stir in the lite sour cream. Serve the sauce over the chicken.

Variations: Orange and mustard chicken tray bake
Add 1 cup mixed veg to the pan 5 minutes before cooking is complete, cook for a few minutes then stir in 1 – 1 ½ cups couscous instead of the sour cream. Mix it into the pan juices then return the pan to the oven for 5 minutes or until couscous has absorbed all the liquid. Serve in bowls garnished with chopped parsley.

Gluten free: ensure stock powder is gluten free and serve with gluten free accompaniments such as rice or potatoes

Dairy free: Omit sour cream; cook the sauce longer so it evaporates and thickens a little more, its still lovely spooned over chicken and rice or couscous

Know and Grow in the west

maple community gardens, originally uploaded by Flo's Diner.

I love spring and I love living in Melbourne's inner west!

It was much to my delight after moving to next door to Maidstone, after spending three years in Footscray, to discover the Maidstone Community Centre & Garden. I attended 2 free workshops there last Spring, met some friendly locals and learnt in a hands on fashion how to make a no-dig veggie garden and make a wood fire oven and cook pizzas in it, using the produce from the community garden. All this, just a few metres from my home.

And now the sun is back, so are the workshops in both Maidstone & Braybrook, and this time they're even better. Check this out:

Upcoming Activities in Maribyrnong:

The FREE 2008 gardening workshop program will present eight workshops in October and November at Maidstone and Braybrook community gardens. (Click to download for full programme)

Held at both Maidstone Community Centre and Braybrook Community Garden - everything from growing your own veg, growing stuff in containers, mosaic classes, sustainable veggie gardening, water wise gardening and also making a wood fire oven - hands on and MAKING one from mud and straw! and then cooking up pizzas in one.

Fruit, Vegetable and Herb Swap Meets are held on the first Saturday in October, November and December. Come along, meet other local gardeners and swap your home grown produce. (Click to download details)

I know when we manage to get a crop going, we always end up with way too much of it - we're still going through our frozen pots of basil pesto, I have a ridiculous amount of dill and parsley at the moment and last year we had so many cucumbers they gave me a tummy ache! And let's face it - some of us are just better at and have better gardens suited to growing certain produce - so why not swap produce AND advice on how to grow them?

Open Veggie Garden Day. Come and see some fantastic local back yards –organic gardens, water wise gardens, gardens with chooks – all with lots of fruit, herbs and vegetables. Saturday 25 October 2008, 1.00–3.30pm. Registrations are essential. (click here to download details)

I think this is SUCH a brilliant idea - often when we take our dog Elliott for a walk down the street, we'll come across a large fence that we can just barely peep through and spy veggies growing on the other side but can't really see properly. I get so excited when I see my neighbours growing their own veggies too. I can't wait to see them properly!

I suspect all of these programmes are going to book out quickly so if you're in the area be sure to get the details and contact them to put your name down. I can't wait. I love a free workshop! Even if it's going over stuff I basically already know, you can always learn a new tip or two, a different method of doing something, and meet your like minded locals.

A weekend by the sea

We spent a glorious weekend away with friends in a tiny little town called Fairhaven, just past Airey's Inlet on the Great Ocean Road, 2 hours from Melbourne.

If you have never done the Great Ocean Road, you really must. It was a nice time of year to be there - not too crowded with the summer visitors just yet.

We went horse riding which was lots of fun. I think I can pretty much trot now! I'm itching to get back on.

And we walked up to Split Point Lighthouse in Airey's Inlet. It was a beautiful day and you can see a slideshow of photos of the lighthouse, beach and inlet here.

I don't know how wise it was going horse riding 3 days before doing my first yoga session all year, but I'm surviving some how! :)

Yoga Do, Yogi Does

beach-yoga, originally uploaded by strangemagee.

After being slack and not doing yoga all year (I decided to take up dancing classes for excercise in 2008 instead, but my hips have not thanked me for it), I've decided to throw myself back into it this spring. That's right, I've possibly over-enthusiastically booked myself into not one but TWO classes of iyenger yoga at Yarraville Yoga a week, for the next 10 weeks. Folks, I'm basically going to be sore for the next 3 months.

I figured, in an ideal world I would have the motivation, discipline and environment to be able to practise at least every couple of days at home. But it's a bit hard to do a good dog pose when your dog is jumping all over you. Or to concentrate on extending into your warrior pose when your demanding cat is meowing at the door to let him in and give him a good scratch. I guess I could always try to INCORPORATE them into my routine like these guys do but I somehow don't think it would work.

Doing yoga makes me feel like an old woman. Why am I so inflexible and have such bad balance? It's ridiculous! Still I always feel grounded and calm after a yoga session (providing my lack of balance hasn't been too humiliating for the day). My grandma took up yoga at 40 and has done it every day since. I take this as my inspiration. The woman is almost eighty and she can wrap her leg around her neck. I will never forget when she stayed with us on a visit from Malaysia when I was a wee young thing, and I opened the living room door to find my grandma with one leg wrapped around her neck, and her other leg relaxed like she was just sitting cross legged... and then she started ROCKING! I wasn't sure whether to scream and run.

But it's natural right? I mean - look how all these guys make it look so easy:

Yoga Master, originally uploaded by kjdrill.

Biit yoga, originally uploaded by OhChiik.

yoga - dog pose, originally uploaded by vicky__.

YOGA in nature's way, originally uploaded by Tony George.

momento zen, originally uploaded by cakecosas.

Yoga for Beginners II, originally uploaded by thru_myeye.

There's just got to be hope for me yet! Awake the yoga master within!