Eating this week –22 August

We are beginning to feel the shortage of home grown veges that happens in late winter early spring.

As I stood in the garden working out what we would eat this week I realised that it was leeks or leeks,and maybe silverbeet.

So we will eat one leek, still worth a $1.00, the last of our butternut pumpkins $2.50 and spring onions, $1.50 a bunch. I saved $5.00!!

I bought a cauli, which are really cheep at the moment, $1.50, a lettuce $1.50, 500g of brussel sprouts also $1.50 and a small chinese cabbage $1.00 and mushrooms which were not cheep 400g cost $4.00. That’s a total of $9.50 which is about what I spent on fruit -$9.60.

I think that I will spend more than I save over the next few weeks.

I leave with a cheerful photo. Thanks to my wonderful heat mat I am able to raise seedlings of heat loving plants easily. This is a zucchini Zephyr. It took 5 days to germinate, roll on warm weather!

zuchinni seedlings

A home grown zucchini sounds like a marvellous thing at the moment, will it still be in February?

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First planting

Spring is very close

plum blossom 17.8.10

Plum blossom

I’ve observed some other signs that spring is close. My last cabbage cracked. This is the beginning of it flowering. The cabbage must have sensed the sun and thought it was a good time to send out seed. The oldest of the spring onions are starting to flower and the centre of my leeks are starting to get hard, a sign that they too are thinking about flowering.

It’s a good time to think about planting and I have been!

First of all what I planted outside.

Planting Spuds 17.8.10

Swift Potatoes. Potatoes are a good first crop in a bed that has not been cultivated before. This bed was once strawberries and some herbs. It has never been dug over properly. You may notice the soil is heavy. I hope the potatoes will break it up.

peas under net 17.8.210

Peas Wando Select and Snow peas Goliath  both from Kings Seeds. I planted a double row of Snow peas, one for each side of the frame. I planted four rows of Wando Select. In past years I have staggered my planting to prolong the harvest. The last two years we have had cold Octobers, which has stop the peas growing. So I have decided to try and get some good growth before October this year. I also put netting over them to bet the birds.

I also planted some seedlings I brought from the local garden centre. In the punnet were two each of broccoli, cabbage and cauli. It cost 3.29, I guess I should count these as a cost. In the same bed I sowed seeds of Chinese cabbage, radish pak choi and daikon radish.

Lastly I planted another square of mesclun under the plastic. Even though I want to plant peppers under the plastic at the end of October, mesclun can be ready in six weeks we can eat it as baby leaves which will help in the lean late September early October. I just need to be tough and take it out at labour weekend.

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Eating this week – 15 August

Did you see this article?  I haven’t brought a lettuce for such a long time, but they are out of season, so of course they are going to be expensive.

This week at the market I bought 3kg bag of carrots, $2.80 and large, beautiful, cauliflower for $1.50 and that’s all the veges I bought, a total of $4.30. I did also spend $10.80 on fruit.

Does this small amount spent on vegetables mean there is a lot to eat out of the homely wife garden?

The short answer is no. I had to pick the last cabbage. I didn’t take a photo because it has split and it is not a pretty sight. But even an ugly cabbage is worth $1.50. We still have broccoli to eat. We have some left from last week, so even thought I plan to serve broccoli twice, I will only need one, about $1.00. There still the garlic,saving $1.00 and spring onions. A bunch is worth $1.50, we’ll be using them in salads as we ate the last of the red onions last week.

So I saved $5.00! at least I saved more than I spent.

The lack of money spent on veges this week has left me wondering if we are not going to eat many vegetables this week. I think the difference is I plan to use some frozen vegetables.

I’m not sure how to price these. I brought a large bag of ‘second’ red peppers in March which I froze.I plan to use at least 3 halves of these. I also want to use up last years frozen broad beans before this years plants start producing. No one wants to eat the frozen version when the fresh is available. So I guess I have saved money but I’m just not sure how much.

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Good ideas

Since becoming a mother I have discovered a hitherto unknown talent for good ideas.

I thought I might share my latest one.

The family is preparing to leave the house and G2 calls out ‘Mum I can’t carry all my stuff out to the car.’

I, as the critical mother, took one look at what she was trying carry and said ‘Don’t carry your shoes, put them on your feet’shoes

‘Good idea’ she replied.

So there you have it. It is a good idea to wear your shoes on your feet instead of carrying them. 

I told you I had good ideas.

While I was looking for a picture of shoes for this post I came across an advert for a Vegan Shoe sale. I know it means shoes made with no animal products but the mental picture I had was of was vege eating shoes!

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Potential

If you are trying to feed your family from your garden you need to plan. At the moment I’m starting to think about planting seeds for summer crops. But I do have veges growing that will feed us between now and November when the abundance of summer usually starts.

broadbeans 1.8.10

Broad bean flowers.

sb cabbage 1.8.10

The (in)famous silverbeet and red cabbages,which are just starting to heart.

potato shoots 11.8.10

Potatoes sprouting

These are ‘Swift’ they are supposed to take 90 days.If I plant them on Saturday, then they will be ready on 12 November

garlic shoot 2010

And there are the crops that take a while, like garlic.

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Eating this week – 8 August

So how much have we saved this week?

I bought 1/2 a celery, which cost $1.00, a small bag of brussel sprouts, $1.50, a bag of yams $1.50, a large grey pumpkin to make soup, $2.50 and the killer, a 10kg bag of spuds, $7.98. A total of $14.48. I spent $14 on fruit.

On the positive side I saved by eating out of the garden. My mesclun is still going strong, although this will be the last week I can cut it for awhile. So I saved $3.00 on a bag of salad greens. This week we will eat 3 leeks, that’s $3.00 and 2 broccoli worth $1.50 each. There is still the garlic and red onions, saving about $1.50.

butternut pumpkin

We will also eat one of our butternut pumpkins.These are my favourite type of pumpkin and they are more expensive to buy than grey pumpkins. I think it is worth about $2.50.

So I saved $13.00!

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Pests

possum

Homely wife one, possum nil,

I’ve won this battle, but the war continues.

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Stock Take

Before I begin seriously documenting what we grow in our garden I thought might clarify some things.

As well as being big people we do have a big section – an acre and a half. This makes things slightly easier when it comes to growing food because we have more space. But when we moved to our garden 5 1/2 years ago it was almost entirely planted as an ornamental garden, including a large, lush lawn. I have reclaimed some parts to plant fruit trees, but the lawn remains, despite my rational presentation of arguments about the uselessness of lawn, otherwise known as nagging.

I set the slaves children to work to measure the actual area that I have to grow veges. Since we home school I set it as a maths assignment.  The total area under cultivation is about 60m2, not including the paths between beds.

I didn’t think 60m2 was that big, but when I went into town I started looking at peoples front lawns. I know I should look at the road, but this was important research! Anyways the conclusion I drew was that maybe 60m2 is large, maybe the size of a city backyard?

vege garden 1.8.10

Here’s a current photo. The mess in the right is more empire building. There was a bank of agapanthus along the far right edge of the photo, which I’m digging out to make another bed. I think I will plant berries as we have some more frames,which DA MAN has promised to put up.

So not a typical suburban plot, but not a self-sufficient heaven. Now if I could just get rid of that lawn…

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Eating this week

Yesterday I went shopping for our weeks worth of fresh fruit and vegetables at a local market. I always try and buy from the market because it is cheaper than the supermarket.

I brought a cauliflower at $1.80 (it’s on the small side), 3kg of onions at $2.80, a 400g bag of mushrooms which was $3.95,  red kumara $3.13, and orange kumara, $2.60. So I spent a total of  $14.28 on veges. I also spent $17 on fruit. At the moment we don’t have any fruit in our garden apart from 6 mandarins, which are on a tree I planted last year.

So this week will eat cabbage. I planted 6 savoys in February and this number 5. Cabbages were about $1.80 at the market.

cabbage 31.7.10These beauties are my leeks,  I usually add at least one leek when I’m cooking cabbage, at $1.00 each this could be my retirement fund. I use garlic liberally in cooking, about a head a week. As mine is NZ grown it is worth more, but still each head is about $1.00.leeks 1.8.10

We will also eat lettuce.  I know this iceberg looks OK on the outside but I suspect that it is harbouring slugs. I think it is worth about $1.80, lettuces are expensive at this time of the year. lettuce 1.8.10

But the best salad potential is under that plastic.  This is Kings Seeds original mesclun mix. I love it and as you can see I have a great crop, and I have already  cut it once, so this is re-growth. I think that two salads worth, which is what we will eat, is worth about $3.00. covered vege 1.8.10

salad greens 1.8.10Mild onions maketh the salad. I have a lot of spring onions, as a side thought these are a seriously missed named vegetable. But we are also eating red onions I grew over summer, and they need eating, as they are sprouting.Two this week, worth about 50 cents.

So this week our garden saved us $8.30 or about 2 coffees.

On the down side while gardening yesterday I ripped a large whole in the seat of my pants, so I’m $40.00 in debt because I’ll have to buy a new pair. DA MAN did take a photo, but my children thought the sight of my knickers, viewed through the hole was pornography. Further more since a child was standing next me, it was child pornography. How can I argue with logic like that.

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A New Adventure

There has been a lot of press lately about how the price of food has increased. All this discussion has got me thinking.

A few years ago the then editor of New Zealand Gardener, Lynda Hallinan, tried to live off her land. But there was only one of her to feed. No offence Lynda, but it’s a bit harder to feed four.

So I’ve been thinking about a new adventure. From August I’m going to try and see how much we can grow, on our section, for our family of four. My plan is to document what we grow, what succeeds, what doesn’t and how much we save (or don’t!).

I know that those of us with families are stretched for time and the family will go and get fish and chips if you serve them cream of silverbeet soup for the third day in a row. With that in mind I don’t expect that we will be able to grow all that we eat. The idea is to see how much we can grow and inspire others to do the same.

I guess there is no such thing as a typical family so I’ll re-introduce the tribe so you can get an ideReb and Hana of who I’m feeding.

G1 is 11 1/2, and growing like a pumpkin on compost. She eats as much as me, but since she is now size 10 in women’s clothing, and still growing, she is allowed to.

G2 is 9, never short for her age, she is the height of an average 11 year old, fortunately she doesn’t esad rat like one yet.

DA MAN is still 6’2, he is supposed to be eating less, but he still has to fill that lanky frame. I took this picture of him after I explained that the vege options will have to alternate between broad beans and silverbeet in October.

Then there is me. As an active women of generous height, 178cm last time my children measured me, (that’s just shy of 6’ in old currency), I eat like a man. I tell myself that is OK, since I can eyeball most men I meet.

Along with the gardening there will be other tips to help families shave their food bills and recipes for using all that food I’m going to grow. I don’t know it all and if you have any good ideas let me know.

So are you ready to join me on my new adventure?

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