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.

Pretty lettuces all in a row!

There are many working bees in the garden. They live in the stone wall behind the pizza oven. Ms Tagalong could see them curiously flying around as Mr Ideasman put the finishing touches to the mosaiced (spelling?)oven. Thought you might like a sneak peek!

But of course there are working bees and working bees. This last weekend saw a few intrepid gardeners working up quite a sweat in the unseasonably hot weather. It is supposed to be Spring, Ms Tagalong heard the poor little seedlings say. They really enjoyed the friable soil though and smiled at the water retention. It is a long way from the heavy clay we started with. Loading on the compost, leaf and grass mould and lashings of poultry manure, Ms Tagalong thinks that we have a good season ahead of us.


The row of eggplants looked a little lonely so a row of pretty lettuces are now keeping them company. Ms Mova constructed a tepee of bamboo for the zucchini and cucumber to grow up, and the centre is adorned yet again with some pretty leafed lettuce.


Roofman has been using his skills building a deluxe edition henhouse with windows, skylights and decking. All mod cons don't you know. Four of the ladies couldn't wait for the renovations to be complete and spent the night in there on Saturday.
Not much to perch on. Talking of chickens, which of course we often do, Ms chicken Whisperer down from the wilds of Inverell brought tales of Teapenny and Lucky. Lucky they have quite a few roosters! Not so lucky Teapenny has been unable to turn a blind eye! Creeping up on her blind side one of the roosters has worked out how to have his wicked way by sneaking up.

Not much to do in Inverell, apparantly!

The healing power of green

Many members of the community garden decamped this weekend with nearly disasterous consequences for our feathered friends who fretted and fumed waiting to be let out to forage. In a bid to gain some inner peace and knowledge and vicariously learn some inside tips on tasty vegetarian cooking from Kurma Das the local cohort had wended their way in convey down to Mangrove Mountain.

Growing vegetables, Spring time, blossom and quiet spaces. Impressions of Mangrove Mountain will remain with those of us who spent time observing the gardens. Ms Mova was not content with observation, she strode off in her wellies determined to learn all she could about bush regeneration. Ms Runaround wasn't; running around that is; she was coping with 48hour Facebook withdrawal symptoms!


A guided tour of the vegetable garden culminated in reverent observation of the rhubarb beds. Did you know you can actually sow them from seed? Talking about seeds our imparter of knowledge informed us that we should buy seed in bulk from Royston Petrie and not worry about waiting for plants to go to seed. I'd hate to be the one to break it to Red as she is so good at collecting seeds!


There was quite a parade of fashionable wellies this weekend but Ms Tagalong thinks that the red roses interlaced with skulls probably took the biscuit.

Legs Eleven, who actually looked like Legs Thirteen at the rate she grows, was in fine fettle and crowning her successful completion of the herb spiral she kept us all entertained all weekend. Can't wait for the next working bee to harness all that energy!

We all were there at Mangrove Mountain for different reasons but as a very wise woman said to me at the end of the weekend, "You don't always get what you think you want from an ashram but you always get what you need!"

Om!

It's all afire

Spring may be here but the comfort of a warm brazier at night in the garden is still appreciated. It was not even a balmy night but it was a very pleasant end to the week with hot soup, snacks and drinks to celebrate one of the gardeners turning 29. Well, Ms Tagalong thinks that's what she said! It set everyone to reminiscing about the events the garden has seen in the last couple of years with the film nights taking a favourite poll position. Roll on those warm nights so that we can run some more for friends and families in the neighbourhood to enjoy.

It's always black and white!

Being a person who deals in various shades of grey most of the time, perhaps it was refreshing to see this maxim in evidence in our own community garden.

In vain Ms Tagalong looked for the second plump white hen last week. She sought her here, there and everywhere but was only rewarded with some anxious squawking coming from the compost bin area. As she moved closer a very panicky black, skinny hen ran screeching and flapping over the fence. Must be a bantam Ms Chicken Expert confided. Strange shape, Ms Tagalong thought, but how about that a white swopped for a black. Told you this was easy! Too skinny for the pot, this little wonder had been transplanted into our chicken community.

Ms Mova collared Ms Tagalong over the weekend. You know that hen, she said, it isn't. It started crowing this morning and if you were in any doubt it was starting to try to have its wicked way with our ladies!

Tail feathers? Mmm, maybe the wonderful person who thought fair exchange was no robbery trimmed these so the illustrious gardeners would take a little longer to register the bantie undesirable.

How long before we get some complaints, Ms Tagalong wonders? We also wonder about the fate of our white wonder, we do hope it wasn't for the pot.

Another tale of ruffled feathers this morning when Ms Chicken Expert found that all her hard work yesterday of removing the ground straw from the coop so that the chickens wouldn't lay down there had been undone. Ms Tagalong could envisage another chicken lover saying oh no poor chickens, they have no straw!

Nothing to do with chickens but Ms Mova and helpers manned, ahem, womaned a stall at the local markets and apart from a domestic taking place at the next table threatening to scare away their punters they had a successful time and raised some well-needed funds for the garden. So many people do so many good things, a very heartfelt thank you to all!

Just not to the black and white interchanger. You really have to see the shades of grey!

Ms Hopalong and the Golden Girls

Ms Tagalong became Ms Hopalong this weekend. Lying in the gutter looking up at the stars and possibly thinking of England she clasped her ankle in agony and wondered how she had missed the tow bar of the nearby car. Fraternising and socialising with fellow gardeners she knew undoubtedly that she should never have had that second glass of water.

Ms Hopalong took advantage and had breakfast in bed, cups of tea made and commiserations from various friends, family and neighbours. By evening time she was ready to start hobbling around and to make homemade pasta with the recently unearthed, never-before-used pasta machine. Having carted it around the globe she knew it would come in useful one day!

One takes the the beautiful free range eggs for granted these days but the golden yolks never fail to make an impression. Making the pasta dough Ms Runaround and Ms Hopalong oohed and aahed at the sheer glory of the golden strands.

It was not as hard as expected and the fettucine fell into strips and cooked so fast it was really a miracle. For those who have never tried this, Ms Hopalong wonders whether she can ever go back to the dried variety, it melts in the mouth and the simplest of sauces just tastes divine.

For those readers overseas we just had proof of the wonderful connections forged by community gardeners. Mr America was over researching links and benefits of community gardens. At a convivial supper he met representatives from many of the local community gardens and made plans to visit them before his return.

Giving us a potted history of East Brunswick Community Garden and its connection with Brunswick East Garden in Melbourne opened up the possibilities of global links to gardens around the world. Ms Hopalong's brain started working overtime thinking of twinning and tripleting with gardens she might visit on her extended travels next year.

Working bees

No, Ms Tagalong is not talking about honey. Now there's an idea, perhaps we should have a beehive in the garden? She is not sure she fancies the white overalls, netted hat and smoker but does fancy the lovely organic honey.

So back to working bees. Ms Tagalong seems to be making a habit of not attending these at the moment. However, Mr Ideasman had constructed four pillars for the pizza oven last week, so perhaps she could revel in that achievement.

What news? A new keen gardener turned up, Ms Mova said, desperately wanting to involve himself with some men's work and some men as he said he was always surrounded by women in his work. Unluckily for him no other men turned up in the garden on Saturday. Ms Mova and he worked companionably for an hour or so until he gave up and went home. Ms Mova even said she tried to keep deepening her voice but I am not surprised it didn't fool him. I don't know why male gardeners were so thin on the ground. Ms Tagalong would never dare to make some kind of sexist remark about rugby games or football(soccer) or even a beer drinking contest being in the offing.

So while all the shovelling and wheeling, planting and sowing was going on,
Ms Tagalong was recovering from some super food courtesy of her sister and her food coach. This healthy dahl recipe was served,enjoyed and of course complemented by a dessert. Ms Tagalong innocently asked if the sticky pear pudding was part of the healthy recipes. The sister smirked and said of course if you don't have the cream and ice cream!