Elderflower Champagne and Rhubarb Champagne

About a month ago after a day's hard work in the vege patch, I found a leftover bottle of last year's batch of Elderflower bubbly.  After a suitable chilling time it was opened and found to be very delicious. There was a bit of a fight over who was going to have the last little drop. My friend Jim who is a cider maker said it was surprising that it was still nice - he would have expected it to be off by then.  Anyway - it was delicious. Elderflower is such a refreshing, light and summery drink and now is the time to get some made in time for Christmas. I posted this recipe last year it's worth a re-post 

For people who don't have access to elderflowers we can certainly try sending you some - email me if you want a package. 

Elderflower Champagne

For this recipe you will need 7 large Elderflower heads –about the size of a lunch plate or saucer, a clean plastic bucket and some bottles. Start with recycled small sized fizzy drink bottles and lids.  (750ml or less) 

Dissolve 500g sugar in 2 litres of hot water in your clean plastic bucket.

Add 2 and a half litres of cold water.

Add 2 tablespoons of white or cider vinegar plus the juice of 2 lemons.

Add flowers

Leave in a covered container for 24 hours. The timing is important – try to be exact.

After the 24 hours is up, strain and bottle.  

Put into plastic or glass drink bottles that you have saved.  750mls or less preferable.

Leave in a cool dark place for 6 weeks.

Chill before serving. Enjoy.

Rhubarb Champagne

In a bucket dissolve 1 kg of sugar in 2 litres boiling water.

Add 1 kg finely chopped rhubarb, 2 roughly chopped lemons (peels, pips and all)

Add 175 mls apple cider vinegar.

Top up with 4 litres cold water.

Cover bucket with a clean tea towel or lid and stand for 3 days stirring from time to time.

Strain through muslin cloth.

You can add colour if you want but I found the soft pink colour rather nice. Beetroot would be the most natural colour to add.   

Pour into clean plastic bottles  and seal. Chill before opening.

This recipe smells gorgeous with the lemons added. 

Garden Notes for the Family Vegetable Garden in November.

November

Get planting!

November is a great month in the backyard vege patch. The soil will be warming nicely and all the work you put into your beds over winter and spring will be well much appreciated by your seedling plants. Just about everything can go in now that it has warmed up.

Beans can go in this month. If you are a new gardener, then dwarf beans are a good option. Get a packet of dwarf butter beans and dwarf green beens and sow a couple of rows. They are easy to harvest with a long picking season if you keep picking them. And the mix of yellow and green on the plate is very pretty. If you sow a row every couple of weeks then you can extend the season out.

Tomatoes, courgettes, capsicums, pumpkins, - all the heat loving veges can go out this month. Here in the south it is always a good idea to make sure they go in the warmest spot in the garden or even in a plastic house if you have one.  For the children especially, plant a patch of sweetcorn and a patch of sunflowers. Sweetcorn does best in groups rather than rows as this helps with wind pollination. Sunflowers – aside from looking stunning in the garden and all the seed they provide – are a valuable carbon building crop.  In autumn chop the stalks up and dig into the garden.

The hedgerows are starting to flower now with elderflower – the perfect summer drink. It’s easy to make a batch of elderflower champagne for Christmas and I have the recipe on my blog for those who don’t have it. Rhubarb is also coming into its own. Keep any seed heads pulled off and keep picking. You can make a nice drink from rhubarb too!

Jobs for this Month

Sow:  All leafy green salad veges such as lettuces plus winter veges such as cabbage, cauli, broccoli etc. Beans can be sown direct 15 cm apart and 5 cm deep. Sow beetroot seed about 1 cm deep. Carrots. Sweet corn 15cm apart groups to aid wind pollination. Main crop potatoes.

Plant: Plant out seedlings you have been growing indoors in pots as weather warms and days get longer. Onions, pumpkins, tomatoes, capsicums, courgettes, celery.

Cultivate: Keep weeds at bay by hoeing or hand weeding. Mulch. If your early potatoes are up you can mound up now and mulch with straw.

Harvest: Broad beans, asparagus, lettuces, silverbeet and lots more.

Fertilise: Keep the liquid fertilizer up to your garlic bulbs as they will be putting on some size underground now.

October in the backyard vegetable garden.

Thank goodness for Silverbeet - it kept us going through the cool spring gap between winter and summer veges!  And this rainbow chard provided delicious colour as well. 

October is probably one of the busiest months of the year for the garden especially towards the end of the month with Labour weekend being the great traditional NZ planting weekend. If you are into sowing seeds then most things can be sown this month provided you have a warm place to start off the more tender ones such as tomatoes etc.  As you sow your first lot of seeds, kick off your succession planting cycle by purchasing some punnets of well grown plants from your local garden centre or store and get them into the ground.   

Succession planting is the practice of staggering your sowing or planting over the growing season. We do this for a number of reasons, but mainly so that you don’t have your crops all ripening at once. You want to avoid that in the family vegetable garden especially with crops you can’t store or preserve.  A good rule of thumb is to sow or plant every 4-5 weeks or so.  If you have raised plants in trays, sow the next lot of seed the same day you plant out your seedlings.

My garden is now well into it’s Year 2 on the crop rotation plan. For me this means I have broad beans sown last season in Bed 1 and broad beans sown this season in Bed 2 – so there is a little bit of a cross over going on!  Not for long though as I have planted green leafy veges in gaps in Bed 1 and will be planting as soon as the beans have finished harvesting. The silverbeet, lettuces and brassicas will all be very happy with the nitrogen fixed by all those legumes.  Keep sowing peas and you can now get in your French beans and runner beans. Look out for last year’s perennial runner beans coming up in their permanent spot. A sure sign of time to plant. Scarlett runners do best when sown in double rows 20cm apart with 15 cm between plants. They will grow very tall 2-3m.  Get dwarf and main crop beans in now too.  If you have not already limed the beds then add a bit of lime now. 

Pototoes – just keep planting if you have the room. A row of early potatoes for summer is better than none!  Seed potatoes are still available in the shops.  Sow carrots, beetroot and parsnip in friable soil.  Liquid feed garlic, onions, leeks etc. 

Labour Weekend is the traditional time for planting out tomatoes and its friends, capsicum, basil, chillies, auburgine, courgettes etc.  Very exciting. There have been plants in the shops since mid September though which seems early, particularly for the south. So if warm enough, get these plants in and keep up the water and liquid feed.

Jobs for this Month

Sow: Peas, beetroot, swedes, turnips,  lettuce, carrots, parsnips, parsley, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauli, leeks, silverbeet.

Sow under cover in a warm space: tomatoes, capsicum, pumpkin, courgettes, cucumber, celery, sweet corn, beans

Plant: Punnets of brassicas, celery, peas, leeks, silverbeet, lettuce, potatoes, asparagus.

Cultivate: Keep any weeds at bay with regular hoeing and mulching. Liquid feed growing plants at least fortnightly especially your garlic crop.

Harvest: Broad beans, silverbeet, asparagus, lettuce etc

September in the Family Vegetable Garden

September.

September can actually be a bit of a hard month for those wanting to eat all year round from the garden. You are coming to the end of the winter stores of root crops and about to sow and plant the new season’s crops.  Mind you I still have plenty of preserved blackboy peaches and jams etc, but the promise of spring makes us think of delicious tender new season produce – and we have had enough of those hearty soups, baked or mashed potatoes and casseroles that got us through winter. We want something a little lighter (including our hips) and fresher but perhaps are not quite ready for full on salads.  Risottos and pastas sound good. Asparagus if you are growing it or lucky enough to have a grower nearby is the star and we look forward to our first taste. Young broad beans and peas also go well in risottos.

Hopefully you will have got a head start on the sowing in August but you can start or keep sowing many veges from now. This does not include beans though – still too cold. Same with curcubits  such ascourgette/zucchini, pumpkins and cucumbers at least in the south.  If  it is warm or you have a hothouse then by all means start sowing seed. Planting in pots or trays gives you a bit more control over direct sowing but some seeds are better sown direct. Carrots, parsnips, beetroot can all go in direct. Remember to harden off your indoor sown plants well though before putting them out into the garden.  Start by putting outside during the day in a sheltered spot and bringing back inside at night.

Now that you are feeling more like being out in the garden – so will the weeds. If you can keep on top of them now, they won’t get on top of you later.  Old sayings like “prevention is better than a cure” or “a stitch in time save nine” have real meaning in the garden.  A weekly going over the beds with a hoe or by hand will not take long and will also be very satisfying.  If you leave the weeds however, and they take hold then the fun goes out if of it all and growing becomes a chore.  This applies especially if you are a young gardener – keep the joy going by keeping up the weeding and hoeing!  I just made that up but I think it works!

Garden Notes for the Family Vegetable Garden - AUGUST

It’s still winter with the promise of more cold conditions to come so don’t be fooled by the occasional warm springlike days we will get this month. They do get the sap rising in both gardener and garden alike though so it is okay to get excited about the new season.  The more you can tend your soil at this end of the season the more successful your vegetable beds will be.   Get in and dig over your beds, removing any perennial weeds such as dock and couch, add plenty of manure and compost, dig in green crops, turn over winter mulches, add blood and bone and depending on what you plan to grow, some lime.  Leave the beds to settle and for the earthworms and all the microorganisms in a healthy soil to do their work.  Check the Crop Rotation plan for specific treatment of each bed for the season. 

In the meantime get yourself prepared for when spring fever hits in force. Clean and tidy your potting shed. Recycle your old seed trays by washing in a 1/10 bleach solution. Clean and sharpen tools, buy some seed raising mix and get your seeds ready for planting. You still have time to order online from Kings Seeds or just purchase from your local nursery. Get the whole family to work out the plan of what to eat and when and make your plan.  My useful backyard vege garden poster will be very helpful with this.

Potatoes are the veges I start thinking about this month and you can now set out seed for chitting.  That’s just an old fashioned way of saying “sprouting” and in effect you are pre-sprouting the tuber to get a jump on the season.  Warm up the ground from now on with frost cloth or black polythene or whatever you have available while you wait until the weather warms up a bit. Potatoes are subtropical so don’t like frost at all which is why they are not usually planted until threat of frost has passed.   I use old egg cartons and put the end with the “eye” looking up at the top then pop in a warm light place to get them started.

The other stars of the month will be broad beans and peas.  Broad beans, unlike the French or bush varieties, prefer cool soil and will germinate at low temperatures so you can put them in now.  As I am moving into Year 2 of the crop rotation cycle this new planting will be going into Bed 2 into the bed where I last had my root crops. This means that you will still have beans in Bed 1 that you sowed in autumn. They will still be working their nitrogen magic so leave them unless you grew them for a green crop, in which case now’s the time to chop them off and dig into the top layer of soil.  If you are planning on eating them then keep up the feeding.  Pinch out the tops to encourage bushing.  Add the tips to winter salads. 

Jobs for this Month

Sow. Globe artichoke, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauli, silverbeet, spinach, turnip – all can be sown in trays in a warm sheltered position. Sow broad beans, peas, coriander direct into ground. Sow indoors; artichoke, celery, lettuce, leeks. Sow herbs like coriander, parsley and thyme.

Plant: Garlic can still go in.  

Cultivate: Weed and fertilise around growing plants.

Harvest: Silverbeet, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, parsnips, winter lettuce and mizuna.

Prepare: Beds for asparagus plants, rhubarb and your potting bench for spring sowing.

Flowers; I like to mix up flowers with veges particularly the cheerful ones that attract beneficial insects. That way you get a gorgeous looking garden and make the lives of the little creatures so necessary to good natural gardening so important.   This time of the year you can sow Zinnia, marigolds, calendula, pansies, poppies, cosmos.

Herbs; Parsley, coriander, tansey,

Pruning: time to prune roses and hydrangeas.

Chitting Potatoes

Now is the time of year out thoughts turn towards potatoes - that marvellous crop so beloved of our culture.  There are so many varieties, so many delicious ways of eating and they are easy to grow.  I know they can take up a lot of space but there's room in most gardens for a row of delicious gourmet new potatoes and you can always create a bed somewhere else for others. I know some people think that potatoes are cheap and plentiful but its not always easy to get a well flavoured disease free spud when you want one. It's sometimes a lottery opening a sack purchased from the supermarket and hoping you get a good one.  As usual - if you grow them yourself then you will know what has gone in them and on them.  

If you only have room for some "earlies" and want them for Christmas then you will need to get them into the ground by the beginning of September. Which means preparing the seed now.  For early crops I love Cliffs Kidney and Jersey Benne but there are many to choose from. I've got some weird looking knobbly Pink Firs on the go. Make sure you label them though so you know what you are planting!

Chitting. 

The word "chitting" comes from the early English word that means children - the words "kitten" and "cub" have the same root.  You may have had some potatoes at the bottom of the pantry put out long shoots - it is just showing that they are getting ready to produce new plants.  It really means to sprout, and its about preparing your seed potatoes for planting. 

Its a good idea to purchase your seed from the store as they are guaranteed disease free but plenty of people choose clean disease free seed from their own crop.  This is how old varieties have survived over the years.  Put the seed potatoes into egg trays with the eyes looking up  and then pop in a warm dry light place (but not direct sunlight)for them to start sprouting. I also use wooden trays lined with straw for bigger crops.  If lots of 'eyes' have sprouted rub some off leaving 2-3 strong ones.  Get them in the ground before they get too lanky though. 

In the meantime you can also get a head start on the season by warming up the ground where your plants are going to go.  Lay down black polythene, frost cloth, a cloche, an old window - anything that is going to warm up the soil.   If you have a plastic or glasshouse then you can get them in the ground sooner as well - but I will be waiting for a few weeks yet. 

Farewell to a Gardening Aunty.

Well July is nearly over and I have not checked in this month - sorry everyone.  It's been a big month taken up with family and some travel up north.  

Farewell to a Gardening Aunt. 

We had the privilege of sitting with a dear Great Aunt, known as Aunty Michelle to many,  as she passed away well into her 80's this month. It was only a massive stroke that stopped her in her tracks - up to that point she was a vibrant, funny, busy and hardworking woman and it was no fun for her or us to see her stricken down and no longer able to look after herself.  Like many of her era she was a legend in the work department.  She was brought up during the Depression years in the Gorge Rd area, east of Invercargill and photos of the early days show a raw bleak landscape.  The whole family worked and worked hard. 

In later years she never married and so made it her business to spend time with her siblings and their families so got to know all her nieces and nephews and in turn our children.  She made us all feel listened to and special and was always ready with a funny story. 

I remember when she used to come and visit me in my big rural property in North West Auckland. At one time we had some young blokes employed on a work scheme to do some orchard and garden work.  Even in her 70's she worked them into the ground. It greatly amused her to work over a garden bed and watch out to the corner of her eye 3 young men do a fraction of the output she could. And she worked well after knock off time. And more recently she would regularly visit my parents in Hampden and woe betide any cup left on the table or weed daring to pop it's head above the ground. The cup would be whisked away, washed dried and back in the cupboard. The weed would have its head off in a flash.  She did follow the "scorched earth" school of gardening though so Mum would try to get in and get the garden tidied before Aunty Michelle arrived.  She loved bright colours and flowers so I have cuttings of some of her red geraniums to go in and remind us of her. 

She helped me through some hard times and I know I was not the only one. She was vitally interested in every baby, child and young person in her extended family. And in the last few weeks we met some of her friends - many from her early days in Dunedin and Southland her were her friends to the end - and heard more stories about this amazing woman.  Dear Michelle - we will never forget you.  RIP Michelle Mary Kemp 1929-2014
(The photo shows her reading us a funny story and then having a laugh!  Go Aunty!)