Black radish seeds seemed like an interesting option from the seed merchant, so in my spirit of adventure and finding what grows best for us here, I bought a packet. They were something different from the usual, and worth a try. When I started pulling them, I was wondering if they would be consigned to the experience bin, but with a few tasty crops and recipes tried, I’m a convert.
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It’s peak season for burrs here. We get them all year, and many different sorts, but Midwinter seems to be the time. They are just everywhere; on the dog, on shirts and pants, but specially on socks and bootlaces. Here’s a photo of my socks after a bit of digging this morning Cobblers pegs come up everywhere here. The local name is ‘farmers friends’ and the Latin name is Bidens pills. It’s not a particularly troublesome weed, being easy to pull, but it’s easy to see how it spreads to every part of…
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Jicama first came to my attention through Jeremy Coleby Williams‘ excellent blog on subtropical gardening, and segment on Gardening Australia. I had also been intrigued by Matthew Kenney‘s raw food recipes, where he uses thinly sliced jicama as a layer in nori rolls. Jicama is another food that is not widely used or available in Australia, so I was keen to try it myself. In early Winter my jicama plants were looking a bit end-of-season, with some purplish leaves, so I had a go at digging one. I had thought I could…
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At last we have some colour in our cleomes! I first sowed the seed from a seed company pack back in Summer, and all the surviving plants were white flowered. They were an elegant foil for the colourful zinnias planted alongside, but they were supposed to be a colour mix. Growing cleomes It turned out to be a timing thing. The February blooms provided ample seed for an Autumn planting, which grew much better than the Summer sowing, but of course they were all white too so I risked my last…
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The celery of the lettuce family is called celtuce. It’s been selected for its stems, rather than the leaves, but the young leaves are also good for salads. Sowing seeds too thickly is a common error, especially for me, but fortunately with lettuce you can salvage the situation by thinning them out and using the thinnings for salad. We have been having celtuce as a salad lately, and also for cooking, as I thin out my lettuce bed in favour of standard lettuce.
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