Harvest

Delicious pickings from the garden

Broad Beans and Mint on Toast

Suddenly we have so much to eat in the garden!

Make delicious Broad Bean and Mint (Pesto) on Ciabatta Toast

Peel and Shell broad beans into a bowl – about 2 to 3 cups (our beans are so tender, we use it fresh - some recipes boil for 3 minutes)
Crush beans a little with 2 Table spoon olive oil.
Add a handful of chopped Mint (about half cup chopped)
1 Table Spoon of grated Parmesan
Cut Ciabatta long ways and toast. Rub the slices of toasted bread with a garlic clove.

Top the toast with the above mix, more Parmesan, a little Olive oil, Coarse salt and Black Pepper.

Or click for Jamie Oliver Broad Bean Receipe. Enjoy . . . !

Bern, Switzerland

I Visited the Saturday Morning Market

in Bern, Switzerland, with my friend

three weeks ago

 

September

Been away for a while; returned to a garden full of delicious produce!

Louis helping me shell some peas



~ Vegetables from the Babenhorst Farm ~

~ Badenhorst Wine ~

Met a young couple on a farm near Wellington. They grow the most beautiful vegetables and also produce their own wine.

Our vegetable garden is coming along slowly but surely. . . The weather has been fantastic since Saturday morning; we started to paint the “werf mure” (the walls in the garden). Begun to put up supports for the Espalier Fruit Trees I hope to plant along the fence at the Vegetable Garden.

The following  photos were taken nearby at Babylonstoren


~ Espalier Fig Trees ~



~ Espalier Peach Trees ~





~ Espalier Plum Trees ~



The Citron Jelly.

 

Use the yellow outer skin to make Marmalade and the inner fruit for the Jelly.
Squeeze out the juice and strain. Cut up and boil; 3 cups water for one cup of fruit pieces.
Boil until pieces are soft. Strain the above plus the juice squeezed from the fruit through muslin cloth
Bring to boil again. Add equivalent weight of sugar to weight of liquid.
Boil until it has a jelly like consistency when you cool a little on a cold plate.
In the recipe they suggest putting blotting paper soaked in Brandy or a thin layer of hot wax over the top of the jelly before you close the bottles.


It was fun to make the jelly, but I shall not be doing it regularly!
I have a new admiration for my late grandmother; her pantry was always full of bottles with delicious Jams and Preserves. What a job!

Delicious Monster

Delicious Monster in our Garden

"Monstera deliciosa"

 

                                                                                               The Flowers are so Beautiful!

We have never eaten the fruit.

I read on the Food Blog that one should wait for the hexagonal scales to fall off before you can eat it.

(The unripe fruit is very high in oxalic acid) 

There are several flowers. I cannot wait to taste the fruit. 

Meanwhile we are now eating salad, regularly, from the vegetable garden.





~ Tonight we are having - Lettuce, Pak Choi, Chinese Mustard, Swiss Chard, Fennel, Pansy ~

Citron Tree

Many years ago, on the farm where I grew up, my grandmother had a Citron Tree.

She used to make Marmalade with a mix of Citrus fruit, but I was too small to know if the Citroen was included.

I have not seen a Citron Tree since then; until we moved to

de Klippen Valleij.

Our tree is currently full of beautiful fruit; inedible, it is sour/bitter and also dry with very little juice.

I “Googled” for recipes, see this site for Etrog (Esrog) Jam / Marmalade.










More interesting to me is an old recipe book of my Grandmother’s - brought out by Pyrex. The printed dialect is very old – a mix of Afrikaans and Dutch.

One recipe for “Sitroën Jellie”; the writer claims that it is “the most beautiful of all citrus jellies, because it is as clear as water”.
I’ll record my attempt to make the Jelly

and post it on here if it is a success.

If you have a recipe for something we could make

with the Citron please let us know.

There are lots of

"perfect tarte au citron" recipes

on the internet but are made with lemon.