Autumn is passing and the first frosts have started to settle at the bottom of the property where the creek is. The late rising sun sends a precursor of warmth creeping over the hill to tease the low hanging mist and bring it rising into the first rays of light. There is a beautiful gum tree at the bottom of the hill that fairly glows at this time of the morning.
Today, a flock of Galahs used our little valley as an early morning arena to warm up before settling down to feed on the late Autumn grass seeds. Screeching and cackling they dodged and wheeled, zooming low over the house in a flash of pink, grey and white.
This is my favourite time of year, knowing the cool morning will slowly warm, and the north side of the house where the garden is will soon be drenched in sun.
Since deciding to move the garden closer to the house last November, we've built seven new garden beds, plus one temporary potato bed. Although, in our cooler climate (at around 900m above sea level) this was late to start tomatoes, we managed to harvest a significant crop and even freeze the surplus for use during winter.
We salvaged some small (struggling) chilli plants from the old garden, along with several celery plants that had sprung up "free form" from last years fallen seed. The celery has thrived and grown into tall, crisp plants. During the Summer and through Autumn we've just picked the stalks as needed for salads or to eat straight from the garden. I still can't get over the amazing intense celery smell when picked straight from the garden. Coming into winter, both the stalks and leaves will be used in rich stocks, soups and other slow cooked meals.
The chillis were our biggest surprise with three small Jalapeno plants yielding around 2kg of crisp spicy fruit. Another bright orange (and very hot) siam chilli also produced a fair crop, which we added to the Jalapenos and pickled to preserve for use over winter. These are great on pizza and in other dishes.
Beans, both dwarf and climbing also provided an important part of our Summer & Autumn diet. Cooked and cold we ate them just about every day, and still had surplus to freeze. During this short time we also grew spring onions, English spinach, potatoes, big red beetroot, a few carrots, radishes and loads of lettuce. The half wooden wine barrel we purchased locally is still overflowing with herbs.
As the summer moved on we planted succession crops such as broccoli, which we are now harvesting. Big, firm, dark green heads on thick pale green stems.
For the first time as the weather has cooled we've been able to carry out our plans to have the garden continue through winter and have planted cauliflower, kale, brussel sprouts (much to Jeff's despair!) more lettuce, spinach, snow peas, broad beans and cabbage.
The most satisfying event here is to deliver a meal entirely of our own produce. This week it was crusted rack of lamb, with roast potatos, broccoli & beans. We had a poor year for pumpkin and so made a point of purchasing some locally grown pumpkin from someone else's surplus. I know that I have never sat down to any meal, purchased or home prepared, with as much satisfaction or pleasure as this.
In the meantime, we discovered a local provider selling chemical free duck. Now duck is not a meat that was a part of my family meals as a child. My experience eating these was minimal and preparing them - even less. Our first experiment cooking duck fillets was a quick and easy Peking Duck recipe, complete with Mandrin Pancakes. After this we made the instant decision to include ducks on the farm. Moving the vegetable garden near to the house gave us an opportunity to use the old, large and well fenced, garden area to bring some ducks into our production system as well. As usual, once you decide on something it seems the universe conspires to bring it about, and Jeff stumbled upon some young muscovy ducks for sale at the local markets. We bought seven ducks on the spot! Five one week old ducklings and two three month old girls (Miss Marple and Jemima).
We fell in love with these beautiful animals right away, when the two older girls instantly bonded with and cared for the much smaller ducklings. In just four short months the ducklings have grown huge - two of them being drakes are much larger than the others already. Pound for pound, they seem to be much more impressive weight gainers than the chickens. We've yet to taste the produce, eggs or meat, but we're certainly enjoying them as part of our lives. The breed is very quiet, sometimes being called 'quackless ducks'. The most we hear from them are quiet trills. They seem to make more noise out the rear end than out the front! They do have very sharp claws that need consideration when handling them. Certainly, they are wonderful creatures to spend time with.
All-in-all, the few months since last November has certainly been our most productive. The simple act of bringing the vegetable garden close to the house has more than doubled our productivity. There is an added benefit, the garden, now situated right outside the north side of the house, makes a beautiful setting to socialise in. It has become an important part of our outdoor living area and is the perfect setting for the BBQ and pizza oven, wooden bench, table and chairs. What can be more natural than to sit among your flowering beans, ruby veined beetroot leaves, and shiny green lettuce leaves when enjoying your meal?
We're looking forward to our winter produce, yes - even the brussels sprouts! More to come as we move the now sleeping rhubarb and asparagus plants to the new garden beds ready for Spring, plant out more lettuce and cabbages, freshen up the herb garden...and so much more!
