Growing patience

On her return from overseas Ms Tagalong was very excited about reacquainting herself with Warners Bay Community Garden and viewing their new abode.

Alack and alas, her recent queries discovered that nary a sod has yet been turned. They have a banner. They have volunteers. They have the know-how. What they don't have yet is a garden.

'We do have approval from the council,' said Ian cheerfully, as Ms Tagalong purchased coriander and mizuma seedlings happily wrapped in newspaper pots. The prominent stall at the recent Farmer's Market at Speers Point was bulging with seedlings, worm wee and volunteers.

How active, how busy and devoted the group are. Four and a half years in the making and still counting until they sow their first seed in the selected Cherry Road spot.

How smug did Ms Tagalong feel? Thankfully she decided not to gloat about how guerilla gardens are the way to go. 

No approval needed, just find an unused plot, gather a few extremely keen gardeners, appropriate the land and start growing!

Of course you may come up with a little resistance. Grow Food, Not Lawns has many photos of upturned guerilla plots! (So glad we have a new fence!) But so many more of wonderful green growing spaces.

Which is your favourite photo or idea that could be incorporated into a local community garden?

It's great to have some feedback, so please leave me some comments.

Smashing beans!

Ms Tagalong has never had a penchant for broad beans, their floury texture and rather bland flavour has not inspired her to incorporate them into her diet. But maybe Neil Perry can convert her?

His springtime appetizer, featured in the weekend edition of the Sydney Herald, of buffalo mozzarella, smashed broad beans and ricotta salata on bruschetta sounds very appetising indeed.

He also mentions how good they are over freshly made egg noodles. For those of you who know that Ms Tagalong has recently made fresh pasta perhaps she will be even more adventurous and try the egg noodles sometime. Sometime soon, she thinks, as the broad bean season doesn't last forever. So take Neil's advice, after podding the beans blanch them in boiling salted water then refresh in iced water and drain. Then here comes the tricky part, peel the beans and just use the innards to mash with a clove of garlic, a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper. The addition of 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and parsley finishes of the smashed mix nicely.


Spread on toasted bruschetta, top with buffalo mozzarella and some ricotta salata. Now if you don't know what that is, join the club. Ms Tagalong had to look it up. It seems you can make your own but maybe that is a stretch too far for most of us.

So now the broad bean glut has been taken care of, Ms Tagalong must comment how good it is to see no black flies/aphids on the beans. It has been her earlier experience that broad beans and black flies were like the proverbial horse and carriage.

Talking about smashing; the rain at the weekend, whilst thoroughly watering all the garden, did knock a lot of the new seedlings about. Ms Waatif (What-are-all-the-initials-for?) arrived with replacement seedlings this evening and was happily planting while Mr Ideasman was putting a few minor design faults to right with the pizza oven.

And finally, what you are all waiting for, the latest news from Ms Mova at her permaculture course -sorry to disappoint, no news as of yet, but do look at where she is and what wonderful things she is going to learn.

Sweet potato cheese?

So this is what they mean by completing the cycle, closing the loop, growing, cropping and eating. Just look at what that wonderful Ms Designer (Adoptive mother of Teapenny) has made!

She shyly presented a little treasure, a folded wax packet of what she called sweet potoato jam, to try. Upon opening it reminded me of guava cheese that people used to make when Ms Tagalong lived in Jamaica. It could have been a delicate version of quince paste even, eat your heart out Maggie Beer, but spread generously on an Easter hot cross bun it tickled the taste buds to perfection.

So that was what happened to the monster sweet potato. Ms Tagalong will try to cajole the recipe out of Ms Designer, she will sweet talk her with, well, more sweet potatoes maybe, so that we can all have a go.

This week we have really hit the social media, bigtime. Our most recent young gardener whilst contemplating the growth of plants when doing his homework decided we really needed to go global. So we are now a Facebook entity, become a friend, like us, add comments etc. It can all happen there I am told. But I suppose the most gratifying thing for Ms Tagalong is the link to the blog! He has also made inroads into a website. How much technology can one take?!

This weekend of crisp, marvellous weather saw a few hardened gardeners cutting, pricking out, planting, barrowing and weeding.
Ms Mova arrived on Sunday morning to surprise a Ms Tagalong still in dressing gown attire wandering the beds, admiring all the work and feeling quite relieved that this winter the neighbourhood will have vegetables to eat! Come one, come all. Water and watch them grow!