Hey presto pesto!

It just takes a few willing workers, bunches of basil and a working extension cord to provide the best food we have had yet in the garden.

Our monthly cocktails in the garden has seen the advent of homemade dips, bread, snacks and cakes but to be able to snip off the basil, add the other ingredients according to whim and produce a sensational pasta pesto taste-off was wonderful.


The working bee was in full swing, tea break had been called, (actually within the first few minutes by a few shovel manning participants who shall remain nameless) but it was soon time for lunch for the ravishing oh sorry ravished, no that's not right either, workers. Ms Tagalong, nursing sore ribs from a fall on the way to bookclub the other night, stoically manned the whizzy blender, choosing this over the old mortar and pestle, and produced alternate types of pesto. We had rocket and pine nut, basil with and without garlic, chunky basil with macadamia and the very popular extra, extra garlic also with macadamia.

Apart from a few cheeky comments about meatless lunches the crew tucked in and helped by the fantastic weather the day was declared a wonderful success.


Little Miss Pretty sat recording all the events and smashing macadamias, Red and her husband fell to with gusto and enthusiasm (or was that after the red wine totty?) despite the distinct lack of bacon, Ms Nimble Fingers worked like a trooper as did Ms Magic Fingers, despatching the rather large pile of lawn clippings onto the last bed. They were ably assisted by Mr Ukelele and Mr Ideasman


Ms Ishabaw, Red and Paint Pot Pat diligently weeded, planted out and chatted amongst the beds. And Ms Mova? She was moving of course. Forking, digging and moving piles of grass, earth and mulch along the outside fence to the garden. Ms Tagalong did say that it might be easier to just lay paper down and pile manure and cuttings on top but Ms Mova likes digging and that's all there is to it!


And as if the day could not have been more perfect for Little Miss Pretty a saddle necked russet and white guinea pig was perambulating along the gutter by the community garden. Cajoling and sheer ingenuity coaxed it from under a parked car and the guinea pig, already named Jiggles, had an instant new home. Anyone missing pets should contact Pets R Us. Whatever will it be next?

Ms Tagalong crowned the day by using up the last of the tamarillos and making a savoury roast tamarillo tart served with spinach, avocado and chick pea salad. Just had to include the photo for your delectation!

Autumnal fruits 2 and Mothering Sunday

So here we are in Autumn and another week closer to the shortest day! The mists are still not upon us but the dew is thicker each morning and cooler on the feet. These beautiful tiny flowers on the casuarinas caught Ms Tagalong's eye in the morning sun.

Ms Tagalong walked into the garden yesterday and found a mother's meeting gathered companionably around the table talking over the wonderful Mother's Day events. It seems a lot of eating transpired but sadly not too much home cooking. But all was not lost, Ms Ishabaw walked down the road in search of some wonderful herbs for her feast. We knew she was coming; we could see her trousers stalking along viewed under the casuarinas; the chickens knew too and raced from one end of their pen to the other absolutely certain she would be bringing them treats. They were right.

Ms Tagalong planted garlic yesterday - long after Anzac day - dear readers, but what can you do? She took the remains of the last home grown bulb and painstakingly divided the cloves and placed them carefully in the ground. They are now planted behind the herb sign. We really must rotate the bed signs and refresh the soil.


Ms Mova was chinwagging and looked up to say, "Well you do really plant when you say you are going to. It takes me hours to think about it let alone do it! " Ms Tagalong smiled and left them to it. Mother's Day takes a lot out of you.

Later in the evening Ms Mova came knocking at the door. She had been busy; she brought around an eye-catching gift of tamarillos. Not strictly community garden produce but her garden produce. Besides being delightful to look at, these beauties are very versatile as was found out by searching for recipes and uses. Mr Ideasman said he hadn't had one since he lived in New Zealand as an
exchange student - so that was some time ago then. We cut one in half and scooped out its innards, a la kiwi, tangy and different. Ms Tagalong then decided to throw some into a chickpea tagine, perfect flavouring for a warming dish on this cold, wet, windy evening.

Just a reminder for Ms Designer that our readership are still agog waiting for the recipe for the Peruvian speciality of sweet potato jam. No pressure!

An Autumn Morning in the Garden

Ms Tagalong wandered into the garden early this morning expecting mists and mellow fruitfulness but the sky was cloudy and the early morning chill had all but gone.

The chickens were arguing in the pens, jostling for first off the post position as the doors were opened but Ms Tagalong had photography on her mind, not the stomachs of chickens.

She saw the sculptured pathway of the soon to be mosaic pathed road into the chicken enclosure. Little elves have worked hard manoeuvring the mulch into hills somewhat resembling the eagerly awaited swales which Ms Mova has so long craved.

She spotted a table full of healthy pawpaw plants ready to be planted and the fruit to be savoured next year with some of the limes we are attempting to grow.
On second thoughts the limes are kaffir limes and the fruit is not quite the same! Ms Tagalong might have to donate some of her limes off her prolific lime tree. Well, prolific might be an exaggeration, but at least she can count the limes this year.

Next through the camera lens was the neat rows of onion seedlings planted behind this year's exuberant garlic chives.


Sweet potatoes continue to burgeon and Ms Tagalong was rather upset to realise that the ends of the plants which she had gaily thrown to the chickens last week, once dug up can be replanted to form next year's tubers. Ah, well, live and learn.

Easter and Anzacs

Heaps and heaps of eggs for everyone but only a few fresh laid plus a few golden interlopers found in the garden this weekend.

Mr Ideasman said it was funny, he had always been puzzled about the idea of bunnies and eggs; Ms Glamourpuss piped up that of course they only lay chocolate ones not real ones. Well whoever laid the eggs next door (there were some telltale bunnyprints on the pathway) certainly hadn't banked on the dog eating them all!

Little Fairy 1 and Little Fairy 2 came running around to tell me that although they had searched and found millions their dog had followed the 'bunny' and eaten quite a few around the driveway. In an attempt to recoup losses they came around to our backgarden to see if there were any stray ones. Sadly, Ms Glamourpuss and Ms Runaround have long cottoned on that the large blocks of chocolate are a much better deal and won't buy in to the overpriced eggs and bunnies.

So back to the garden; some bunny had left two tiny golden eggs on the table. How clever!

Garlic being such a staple of many cuisines needs really to be sown in vast quantities to feed all our participants but the few bulbs which were lifted last year seem to have been consumed with only a half a bulb left. Traditional planting I have been told is around Anzac day but with the rain we have had today Ms Tagalong suspects that the little bulbs will still be sitting on the meter box ready for a more clement day.

Non-treated garlic seems to be an endangered species here in Oz as the cheap Chinese imports are flooding the supermarkets. So anyone who has some sprouting organic bulbs and would like to donate a little to the garden for the benefit of all would be very much revered. Hearing about the Anzac tradition of planting garlic today Ms Tagalong's Mama ventured that it was something to do with fields of garlic at one of the battlefields. Ms Tagalong was thinking of poppies but perhaps that was even the wrong war. A quick search has not enlightened Ms Tagalong. Any readers have any more knowledge?


Checking the growth of crops Ms Tagalong was excited to see the lovely horseradish in a pot. Now there will be a recipe for that I am sure.

Someting to tink about

Ms Tagalong has been mournfully wandering the garden rows this week. Ms Mova has gone gadabout and Ms Tagalong is for once not tagging along!

Before she left, however, she told Ms Tagalong a story about a visitor to the garden. It was dark, the candles were lit and the local literati were discussing Roald Dahl's short stories. No, the story did not have a semi-erotic, msyoginist twist for those who were there, but made Ms Tagalong think back to exotic times in far away lands.

Living in Jamaica one heard a lot of 'ting and ting', and here Ms Tagalong was, 16,758 km away, transported back to the land of wood and water just by the mention of Ting.

Explain, please, Ms Tagalong hears. Ms Chicken Expert has a relative living in Chiang Mai in Thailand and on this visit to our lovely city she was accompanied by the lovely Ting. Now Ting was on a whistle stop tour of this country and wanted to cook and demonstrate some of her recipes to her friends and their families. Ms Chicken Expert being justifiably proud of the Community Garden brought Ting along to marvel at the wonderful Autumn show of greenery.


"Did she give us some recipes for the climbing Asian spinach," Ms Tagalong asked breathlessly. Ms Mova said that she didn't think she even saw it but she was very excited about the banana flowers which had recently been cut off and said they were a special ingredient for pad thai. Ms Tagalong was fascinated and more than a little chagrined (is that a word?) to find out that good wholesome food has been discarded by herself for years and could have been used for a variety of exotic dishes. So no, the gardeners did not have a cooking demonstration of using the banana flower but now they have the knowledge not to throw them on the compost pile in the future! Ms T would love to hear about any other recipes using the banana flower that fellow gardeners may have tried.

Ting was happy to be photographed in the garden and promises to come back and cook on another visit.

Piles and piles

Ms Mova was wondering if Ms 'I'm so happy I'm back at work' was going to fall headfirst into the huge pile of mulch delivered today into the garden. This was not the only obstacle to circumnavigate as the mowing men had today brought bags and bags of cuttings for the garden. It was dark when she came to check on the chickens. The time change does that, not her lateness you understand. Ms Tagalong laughed cruelly at the image of pulling her out by her feet and dusting off the very fine mulch, according to Ms Mova.

But no, a knock came at the door, not a speck of mulch in sight, Ms ISHIBAW,(think about it!)stood beaming, glad to find the tea clatch at work whilst others were warbling on Ms Mova's deck.

Ms Tagalong said this would be a short, photoless entry tonight and that she would blame the length of the teatime!

Holiday activities next week should bring some exciting news to this blog.

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!