27 November 2023 Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres. Yes, I know it’s March, four months later, but better late than never!

Bananas:

I was watching my bunch of bananas almost but not quite ripen over several months. Then it got to holiday time, so I harvested and gave them to my neighbour to eat as they ripen. 4kg.

But after I returned from holidays, they had ALL ripened, All at once! My poor neighbour had eaten a few, and frozen a few, but then gave me back the rest of my bananas. So I dehydrated them for later snacks.

Raspberries:

I got two raspberries! I took one photo. 6g.

Blueberries:

6g of blueberries, nellie kelly/sunshine. So sweet. Happy I beat the birds to the fruit.

Broadbean (singular):

My neighbour in a fit of enthusiam planted broad beans for me. In a spot that got no sun. I think I grew mostly aphids, and then just as summer arrived I got one broadbean. The broadbean plants definitely wanted to ensure survival of the species by giving me one bean! 8g, although once podded, I think it was only 4g.

Cherry tomatoes:

75g this harvest. The plant is a compost volunteer.

Harvest Summary for November 2023:

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? Have you had any raging success with compost volunteer plants?

30 October 2023 Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres. Yes, I know it’s February, four months later, but better late than never!

Passionfruit:

Passionfruit, which came from a vine from a home grown seed. Obtained via swap. Not grafted, thankfully! 28g.

Jewel of Opar Leaves:

I don’t normally track when I pick leaves and herbs from the garden, but here we are. Jewel of Opar or Talinum paniculatum is one of those plants that once you get it, you can never get rid of it. The seeds spread everywhere. Luckily the leaves are edible and taste a bit like spinach. 14g

Okinawa Spinach:

I got this plant also as a swap. Tastes like spinach but the underside of the leaves is this lovely purple colour. 8g.

Goji berry:

8g this harvest. Plant obtained via a swap. I have had larger harvests in the past, but it’s a race between ripeness and the ants getting to the fruit before me! There is a plant in this family in which you eat the bitter green leaves “gow gei” in Cantonese; and there is the kind where you eat the fruit – this one. This has a slight bitter savoury flavour, very different to the dried goji berries you see in the health food stores, which I think are soaked in sugar water before drying.

Harvest Summary for October 2023:

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? Have you had any success in foraging in your local neighbourhood?

2022 review thingo part 4

Annual review and reflection time!

This post is going to be published in several parts, this is 2022.4. And considering that 2023 is almost over … this part of the review might be slightly flavoured with 2023.

For earlier “years in review” see here.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Read books. Actual physical books. Most of my books have been read by listening to them.

17. Hang on, what happened to question 17?

Not sure… it disappeared sometime before 2019.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

At an old house/converted shearing shed in the Australian NSW outback. Daily temperatures were mid 30s, which is pretty darn cool for mid-summer. Highlights included families of emus and (probably) brown goshawks visiting the pool of water beside the leaking water tank, the sunsets, the stars, and clouds of damselflies at dusk.

19. Did you fall in love this year?

No.

20. What was your favourite TV program?

I don’t watch too much tv. And abc (australian broadcasting corporation) has annoyed me by requiring a log in to watch their on-demand free-to-air repeated shows online. So the two shows that I wanted to watch – War on Waste and Back in time for the cornershop, I didn’t really get to see because I wasn’t in front of the tv when they were on tv and who can be bothered with another site to log in to. At least the latter show had some interesting shorts on you tube!

21. What was the best book you read?

Hmm, not books, but perhaps a podcast? There were several health/gut/brain axis podcasts by Dr Joanna McMillan which I quite enjoyed, particularly Gutfull: What to eat for a happy gut.

22. What was your favourite film?

I caught Ito or Bread of happiness via the Japanese film festival, online. A very sweet film, how strangers in a small town can become a family through food.

23. What did you do on your birthday

Normally I take the day off from work. This year I took off half a day off, and the second half went for a work related awards ceremony for which our team had been nominated. We didn’t win (dang it), but they couldn’t give an award for a non-serious not-work-related team.

24. What kept you sane?

I can’t remember. Am I sane? or insane? Possibly a combo of exercise (zumba/yoga/cycling) and meditation.

25. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I’m going to re-hash my preference for James Hoffman, and in 2022 the ridiculous video for the best portable method for brewing coffee is probably my favourite. I *ahem* downloaded his audiobooks (read by the author, natch), so I can listen to his soothing voice even when I don’t have mobile phone signal.

26. Who (or what) did you miss? I still miss spontaneity. Being able to go away for a weekend away now has to be negotiated month’s in advance – all down to who is looking after my mum at the time.

2022 review thingo part 3

Annual review and reflection time!

This post is going to be published in several parts, this is 2022.3.

For earlier “years in review” see here.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Osteopath treatments.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Osteopath treatments.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

When the Australian Labour Party and Anthony Albanese were voted in. Oh thank goodness, some sanity in parliament.

14. What song will always remind you of this year?

I can’t really remember. I actually went through a bunch of songs that I had been introduced to via Zumba, and none of them remind me 100% of “this is 2022”. Probably the closest would be Ed Sheeren’s Shivers – I can’t remind the choreo we used, but I’ll pretend it was similar to The Fitness Marshall’s.

16. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
Happier. I made a few friends who have a common interest in food and cooking. We’ve gotten together a few times to learn to cook something new and then share the lunch. It’s been fun.

b) stronger?

Probably not as strong. I haven’t been keeping up with my yoga or my cycling: I’m mainly walking and some zumba dancing. But generally intermittent exercise as the routine and certainity of what is happening each day has gone out the window.

“Hybrid” working has a lot to answer for. People have gone from scheduling online meetings back-to-back to scheduling in-person meetings back-to-back, without any allowance for you to get from one meeting room to another.

c) richer or poorer?

Poorer.

25 September 2023 Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres.

Guavas:

Look I know I got a few guavas, but they were in one’s and two’s; and mostly went into the compost. I was done with guavas for this year. I mean – 18.46kg for the months of winter 2023 is pretty impressive!

Cumquats:

My partner let slip that he had been eating “those little orange things” straight off the tree, and they were delicious. So I harvested the last four, so I could have a taste. I think I had ten in total this year. Granted, my cumquat tree is in a pot, but I have seen some enormous cumquat trees in the past – one was at least 6m tall and provided incredible harvests!

Parsley:

The parsley in the south facing garden bed is getting big and starting to form flowerheads before going to seed. With a run of hot weather upon us (records have been broken), I figured that making tabouli was the answer. Two bunches (48g +170g), and two batches of tabouli made to the recipe from Moroccan Soup Bar cookbook. I couldn’t find my bulghur wheat, so I used quinoa.

Landcress:

42g this harvest. I haven’t weighed it when harvesting in the past but I have an entire 2 x 1m garden bed filled with landcress. Planted once to distract the white cabbage moth from targeting my brassicas, It appears that I will have landcress every winter, whether or not I try and grow broccoli again. It tastes peppery and spicy, much like rocket/arugula.

Asparagus:

14g. I have ignored instructions about not harvesting when thinner than a pencil, I keep forgetting to fertilise. I hardly ever water. So my asparagus bed – which should be in its prime, gives me about 4 spears each season. I am a bad asparagus-bed parent. I think I’ve harvested two fat spears before this, but I didn’t weigh them.

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? Have you had any success in foraging in your local neighbourhood?

28 August 2023 Harvest Monday

Like sands through the hourglass, August just ran away from me.

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres.

Guavas:

This is the last of the guavas, but the photo is not all the guavas harvested in August 2023.

Most have been turned into fruit leather “chips”, and some were frozen in slices with the intention of making a “guava pie”. That bit hasn’t quite happened yet. Also some are slowly desiccating in my fridge because I haven’t gotten to dealing with them yet.

7.025 kg in 5 lots.

Mandarins (foraged):

Near one of the places I visit is a whole block of houses that is slated for demolition so that the developer can build some apartments. One of these houses had a mandarin tree that I have been cooing after, so one day when the top of the tree had been felled, I went and collected all of the mandarins (360 g + 1340g = 1700g). These were terribly sour – probably not yet ripe. So I ate a few and then swapped the rest “to make marmalade” for a loaf of homemade sourdough. I also grabbed a few cuttings of an unknown grapevine that was also destined for landfill – the stump was quite thick, so I think it was quite old.

Passionfruit:

One passionfruit, 62g, sharp and delicious.

Cumquats:

Last year, I decided that I would bite the bullet and buy my own Nagami cumquat tree. Lucky, because this year there doesn’t appear to be that many of them up for swaps in the crop swap group this year. Two cumquats (18g), but I’m pretty sure I ate another two without taking a photo – let’s say 36g.

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? Have you had any success in foraging in your local neighbourhood?

31 July 2023 Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres.

Guavas:

The guava season was slow to start this year, and then it hit with a vengeance. This is the first year I haven’t netted or protected my guavas, because *effort*, and I still have many prior years worth of guava related products which I still haven’t eaten. So of course the lorrikeets have been having daily parties in my tree. The photo above is not all the guavas, only one day’s worth!

Of the guavas that I managed to collect and process (removing seeds, bite marks, bad bits and fruit fly larvae), I weighed a whopping 11 kg worth (taking into account 19 x 20g plastic containers).

The majority were cut and processed into a guava “fruit leather” disc, some was eaten fresh, some was turned into a guava cake, and some cut up and frozen because I didn’t have any other time to do anything else (and food waste annoys me). For my guava fruit leather, 50/50 apple sauce and guava puree appears to be the winning combo, otherwise it is too gritty and the discs crack during the drying process. In terms of eating them fresh, I have actually turned into a bit of a guava fruit snob – I only like to eat the centre seeds, the sweetest part of the guava!!

Pumpkin:

I told you last month I was waiting on a pumpkin to cure. Unfortunately I left it on the vine for too long, and the worms decided to reclaim it as benefits. When I cut it, half was liquid ooze which cascaded out (gross!). I then painstaking cut out the rest of the soft mushy pumpkin into wedges and then put the wedges into the fridge.

The pumpkin was mostly turned into a coconut pumpkin curry, with a few wedges roasted with miso and honey glaze. 1300g, accounting for container weight.

Passionfruit:

One passionfruit, 99g.

Bananas:

Second of three bunches/stalks of bananas. I left this on the tree for too long, and although I cut out the bad/overripe ones whilst the bunch was on the tree, I couldn’t get the whole piece of fruit. So then the vinegar flies and ants started hanging around. 4.6kg of edible fruit, but I had to compost at least another 2kg of rotten fruit. Most of this fruit was dehydrated, eaten fresh, or baked into a cake. I am now watching the third bunch of bananas very closely to ensure that they don’t suffer the same fate.

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? How about foraging in your local neighbourhood?

2022 review thingo part 2

Annual review and reflection time!

This post is going to be published in several parts, this is 2022.2.

For earlier “years in review” see here.

6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked in this one?
Time.

I am unfortunately always on the go, living between two houses, but living three full time lives (work – pays me. my home. looking after my mum). I always feel as though I’m running behind and don’t have enough time.

7. What dates from this year will remain etched upon your memory?

The day I discovered Ambi’s Chai. I had found out that my favourite Zumba instructor was teaching out at a gym at Pennant Hills, so I drove to the gym. Once there, I could smell something spicy, alluring and delicious. No, it wasn’t the smell of the locker room, but the smell of a tiny chai bar, perfuming the entire car park. Now I always make some time in my week for chai, whether it be at the original Pennant Hills location or the new spot in North Sydney.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Next! Can’t remember.

But since I talked about meditation in 2022, I’ll talk about it in 2023.

As of 14 January 2023, I had made it to 700 meditation sessions on the app that I use; compared to 221 out of 365 days in 2022. Some of those meditation sessions may have been multiple times in one day.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Making time for me. I saw this image online “Types of Self Care” from createdbyginny, and it made me realise that while I practice some self-care, I don’t practice across the whole range in this image. I tend to favour the physical self care over the other types.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I had a lower back niggle for a while. Regular massages were treating the symptom but not the cause – and my regular massage therapist threw up her hands. I was referred to an osteopath. We’ve managed to return the lower back niggle that went excruciating back to a low level niggle and a sometimes not-there-niggle. And apparently it started all with my shoulder. Reminds me of that song, which I didn’t even know had a name!

Plastic Free July 2023 and year round

I thought that I would write up my “plastic free July” post with a summary of what I’m doing year-round (not just in the month of July) to try and reduce my use of plastics. Or recycle them. This is Sydney focused, with some mail-in options.

Soft Plastics

While red-cycle soft plastics recycling went on hold and then went bust, I was still gallantly saving my soft plastics in the hopes that a solution would present itself. And it has, sort of.

1. If you are one of the lucky residents in one of the council areas of Burwood, Camden, Campbelltown, City of Canada Bay, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, Penrith, Sutherland Shire, Randwick, Waverley and Willoughby, you can have your scrunchable soft plastics picked up and recycled by recycle smart. Apparently gets turned into feedstock oil, then resin, then plastics again.
2. If you are a resident in Hornsby Council area, then you can drop soft plastics for recycling to Thornleigh Community Recycling Centre, which also handles other types of waste.

According to wikipedia, there are 33 council areas in the Greater Sydney area. According to my list above, that’s 15 of the 33 (so less than 50%…) of the council areas in Sydney have provided their residents with a soft plastics recycling option.

I haven’t actually tested the recycle smart pickup service, however my friend in the inner west council area has reported back that it is a two bag pick up, and it’s only once every three months (once a quarter). The inner west council website isn’t great about promoting this service, and I wish that the pickup was more frequent than once a quarter. Inner West council have told me that the service is limited to 2000 pickups per month, they have twice that number in subscribers, and most households are using it to recycle soft plastics (meaning less of the other items are being recycled). Recycle smart also offers pickup/recycling of clothing, shoes, DVDS, small electronics items etc if you’re in one of the council areas listed above.

Medicine Blister Packets

Medicine blister packs/tablet packets which are a mixture of plastic and foil – did you know that you might be able to drop these off for recycling at a pharmacy near you? They tend to be “blooms the chemist” brand, but some other chemists do accept the blister packs, which is very useful. I have had a friend report back from Perth, that they managed to find a pharmacy that accepted the packets, so I am happy about that.

Oral/Dental hygiene

Things like floss dispensers, plastic toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes. In my travels, I have found that my stepping stones childcare centre in Leichhardt have a 24/7 accessible drop off point for teeth cleaning implements. It’s the driveway between the childcare centre and the park. Win!

For locations near you, have a look at terracycle public recycling locations (dental).

Pet food bags

Totally random, but the childcare centre in Leichhardt also has a collection point for pet food bags.

For locations near you, have a look at terracycle public recycling locations (pet food bags)

Coffee cups and lids

I don’t use disposable coffee cups. However sometimes my partner does, or I’m at an event where someone hands me a cup before I can refuse. And of course during the covid pandemic times, a lot of cafes were not accepting reusable cups. Most 7-11 stores have a coffee cup recycling station, however the dirtiness of the cups (half filled with coffee) makes me wonder how much of these are actually recycled. Do Simply Cups wash the collected cups before doing their recycling magic?

Batteries

This is probably the most mature collection model. It used to be mainly for secure hazardous materials disposal (so the leechate didn’t… leech out from landfill); and now recognising that there are valuable metals and rare earth minerals contained within, there are battery recycling stations at battery retailers, supermarkets (aldi and woolworths), home furnishing lifestyle stores (ikea, officeworks) and hardware stores (bunnings)!

Lightbulbs

I have used City of Sydney Library recycling stations, and ikea. Community recycling centres can also be used, but you may need to show proof of residency like at Thornleigh, above.

Sneakers/sports shoes/shoes/safety boots

Apparently these can be recycled into gym mats, floors, even a kid’s playground (equipment or the soft landing surface? Helllllooo microplastics!). If you’re in Victoria, they’ll even take work boots. Dammit. Why is there only one state or territory out of seven recycling safety boots?!? See Treadlightly for your local collection point, or use recycle smart if you’re in one of the council areas above. I’m a bit torn about this – is the potential generation of microplastics being washed into the water system better than landfill?!

stationary – pens, pencils, highlighters

I use officeworks, where you can also drop of computer hardware and peripherals.

Other recycling options

If you look at terracycle, you may find options for recycling make-up/beauty product containers, cleaning product containers, or food service wrapping (cling film, zip lock bags) near you. I have seen cleaning product and personal beauty recycling stations at Woolworths Crows Nest.

Mail in options

I’ve found these two mail in options.

Biome accepts beauty products, bras, bread tags, contact lenses, corks, dental/toothbrushes/toothpaste tubes, plastic cards, straws, food safe silicone products and stockings! Of course if you are in the Brisbane/Gold Coast or Melbourne areas, you should be able to find a physical store for an in-person drop off.

I have also been pointed towards the banish BRAD program for recycling of makeup items, dental/toothbrushes/toothpaste tubes, personal care items, plastic bottle top lids, writing implements.

Bulk Food Stores/Refill locations

Vale Alfalfa House Enmore, who closed their doors in March 2023. Blue Mountains Food Co-Op, Bathurst Food Co-op and Manly Food Co-op are still going strong.

Generally, I now use The Source bulk foods who have spices, seeds, nuts, flours, pasta, vinegars, oils, epsom salts and laundry powder. If you are a member, 10% of what you bought last time can be used as a credit towards the shop this time. Sometimes there are special event weekends with 20% off your bill.

If there is a Naked Foods near you, the first Monday’s of the month there is a discount off of your bill. Naked Foods Newtown closed in 2022 , so I can’t tell you how much the first Monday’s discount is anymore. There is also a small discount if you bring your own bags and containers.

I have spotted refill locations for ecostore, kin kin and abode type laundry/dishwashing/shampoo products at Supamart Tramsheds (Glebe) and the Well Store Rozelle. Other locations may be available. Unfortunately my partner who is the dishwasher in the house refuses to use anything that I’ve gone and refilled.

Some supermarkets also have a bulk bin for nuts and snacky chocolate based things.

Harris Farm Leichhardt have a peanut butter machine, olive oil dispensary and bulk bins for various kinds of nuts.

So dear reader, how are you going in your plastic reduction journey? Have you found that someone is now able to recycle something that you thought was previously un-recyclable? What is your favourite bulk foods store or are you a member of a buying co-operative?

26 June 2023 Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres.

6/8/23 edit: updated to include the weight of the pumpkin

Chokoes:

I thought I was done with chokoes, that the bounty had ended. Then these two dropped out of the sky like coconuts – bigger than a baseball, you would definitely have suffered denting of the skull had they landed on you. The skin has started to toughen up, but you can just peel them and eat the vegetable inside. 1200g.

Pumpkin:

I was storing some saved seeds from a pumpkin, inappropriately in a plastic zip lock bag on the porch, exposed to all the elements. The wind scattered the seeds (the zip lock bag mysteriously opened), and I had a few volunteers start growing in random locations. So I transplanted a few of the seedlings, one took, and I grew a kent pumpkin! This one got bumped off the vine early by my partner. I have another pumpkin that is still waiting for its vine to die back before I harvest it. 2.7kg.

Dragonfruit:

Envy me my dragon fruit growing prowess. Admire how I pollinated eight flowers (the ninth flowered one day later), and managed a yield of *one* dragonfruit weighing a mere 76g. Once I take the skin off I suspect I’ll have about 50g of actual edible fruit. When my three plants flowered over Christmas I had one flower. Based on that payback, I would not recommend growing dragonfruit in Sydney! A friend has advised that I need to cut the dragonfruit stems back, and have more stems hanging downwards. But, effort.

Tomatoes:

I had three kinds of small bite sized tomatoes growing. A very small red cherry tomato, a larger sized red cherry tomato about 3/4 the size of a ping pong ball, and my favourite: a yellow pear shaped cherry tomato. The frosts have started and the yellows were very slowly ripening on a dead looking vine. I finally gave in about the time of the solstice and ripped out the tomato plants. I plan to put in some compost and turn the bed over. I am not good at crop rotation and I suspect tomato volunteers will grow again in this bed next year.

final harvest: 616g

during June, excluding the final harvest: 170g of the pear shaped (but many more harvested and not weighed); 120g of the larger cherry tomatoes.

Bananas:

Yee hah! The first of my three hands of bananas has matured. 1470g, including infrastructure. The bananas are ripening at different rates; some are splitting (too much water) and rotting on the plant; but it’s not evenly on a per-hand basis. These are really very sweet. My smallest ‘nana was the size of a soft drink bottle cap!

Cucamelons:

218g cucamelons (but more have been eaten throughout the year). Such a fickle crop, they tend not to grow from seed, but from dropped fruit. Last year I carefully planted some hoarded cucamelons – nothing grew. This year, when I wasn’t expecting it, a cucamelon vine suddenly popped up. This is like a bite sized cucumber, much less commitment than an actual cucumber. Great eaten as-is, or thrown into a fresh salsa or a salad.

I also noticed during the month that the Illawarra plum in the local pub had started fruiting, so I collected a bit of the fallen bounty and dehydrated them. Didn’t weigh them. Maybe 50g?

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow?