An Explosion of Life

Now that we've had a few warm spring days all that rain is really paying off: everything is growing like mad (weeds included of course) and I'm starting to feel really guilty about how much time I'm not spending in the garden. I did have a nap lying in the sun, though, and it was glorious. I can really see the appeal of this photosynthesis business.

I think the blueberries are starting to berry!

Despite it being spring, the stormy weather has continued to plague us. We've had a whole lot of rain, interspersed with tantalising sunshine. It's really no wonder that things are getting so completely out of hand out in the garden. The blueberries are starting to turn round and blue (that's how it works, right?) and the artichokes are opening - the biggest one, on the main plant, is especially grand at roughly the size of both my fists held together - and the raspberries are bushy again. There are buds on the lemon tree (it's too young for fruit of course but I'm still thrilled) and on the spinach (about which I'm less thrilled but it has been growing for most of a year now, and is probably due replacement). The fruit trees are thick with lovely green leaves again and the seedlings in their trays are putting out true leaves.

Object in picture is much larger than it appears.

I accidentally dug up a pair of potatoes from that bed while weeding - I grew potatoes! Between that and the hopeful crop of garlic and onions on the way, I'm starting to feel quite accomplished! - and, while they're not read enough to fully harvest and store, they're still perfect. They just look like, well, potatoes. The skin is still very thin at this point, in fact I rubbed some of it off just pulling them out of the dirt, but apparently that's just how they are at this stage of growth. Once the plants have died down the skin will thicken and they will then be able to store for extended periods of time somewhere cool and dry. I'm not entirely sure if the plants are going to flower or if that's even necessary since, unless they already did and I've missed it, they seem to have grown potatoes without actually flowering yet. Most plants don't produce anything harvestable before flowering, right?

I grew potatoes!

Sadly, the kale has bolted. The flowers are gorgeous though - simple little yellow things - and I have to admit that I didn't use the leaves nearly as often as I gave them away, so I can't be too upset. I'll certainly grow it again though: if nothing else it makes an excellent chow mein (I'm not converted to enjoying kale chips just yet, though!). The spinach looks like it's about to join the kale - it has gone from its already ridiculous height to thick spears as tall as I am with what looks like clusters of buds on the ends. The marjoram, too, seems about to flower, but it's hard to be upset as the plant was already looking a little sad. I'm not sure yet how to effectively trim any of my herbs, and I'm afraid of hurting them in a way they won't bounce back from. Except for the parsley. I don't think it's possible to hurt parsley - mine is currently aiming for, and achieving, total garden domination.

Like I said, genuinely taller than I am at this point.

At this point I just have a lot of respect for anyone who can actually keep up with a garden. I swear, every time I turn around something has gotten out of hand. The straw blew off one of my beds in the latest storm (just the one, mind you - and I found some of it in the FRONT yard), the gravelled and weed-barriered pathways are sprouting weeds left and right, the front lawn is back up to a nice, scraggly ankle height and there's so much I want to plant out. It feels so much like I'm just breaking even at this point - for every victory there's a setback. The gaura is looking brown and wilted at the edges and the lemon tree leaves remain speckled. I keep forgetting to feed the worms and, frankly, the chicken poop is piling up.

And did I mention the weeds?

At least I know how to keep these guys going.

They aren't growing fast, I'll admit. I don't know how long it SHOULD take for seeds in trays to grow but, since they aren't in an actual greenhouse of any sort, I'm being patient. The house isn't a warm one and we haven't had enough sun yet to really warm it up during the day. Basically every space has growth, though, which is encouraging, and the tomatoes are beginning to grow their true leaves (exciting!). I can't wait to get these out into the yard and, hopefully, producing.

From inside the house a lot of my attention recently has gone to our Halloween party. While it's not really a 'thing' here in Australia, some of my friends are American and also, frankly, dressing up is fun. Most of us are busy on the actual weekend at the end of the month so we held ours a week early - and now it feels weird seeing posts and decorations around the place! Don't you guys know Halloween has been done already?

I had a great time preparing my contributions to the party: vegan gingerbread (recipe from Veggieful and one I am completely in love with - their sausage rolls are amazing too), chocolate coated pretzel mummies and a vegan baked spinach dip (not pictured).

The brownies, also delicious, were brought by a friend - these are the ones I managed to sneak home afterwards!

I genuinely love Veggieful's gingerbread recipe. Ginger itself is (along with coriander) one of my most hated flavours in the kitchen, and one I only tolerate when absolutely necessary - a lot of Asian cuisine, for example, just isn't the same without it. I never really enjoyed gingerbread as a kid and only sought out the recipe at all because I wanted to build a gingerbread house for my friends (that was also edible by the vegans in the group). It isn't the easiest thing to make - the dough tends to be quite crumbly and takes a bit of work - but something about the ratio of spices just makes it so delicious. It's also really easy to choose between soft, thick biscuits and thin, crispy ones - you can roll it out as you like, or bake it a little longer if you like them harder. They're also really tasty with the most simple icing of them all: water and icing sugar. I recommend this recipe to pretty much everybody I meet.

Vegan Gingerbread: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
One of my favourite things to bake, full stop. Delicious, simple, and vegan-friendly gingerbread that is met with 'oh I love this!' literally every time I serve it. 

And, as an aside, as I mentioned above their 'sausage' rolls are also truly excellent. They're mostly filled by tofu and cashews but, coming from someone who finds tofu mostly just kinda off-putting, these don't taste like 'vegan food'. Everyone I've given them to has been truly surprised when I tell them afterwards what they're made of. Luckily, my vegan friends brought a big plate of these to the party too (we're both big fans of Veggieful's site) and I was able to steal a few of those from the leftovers on my way home, too.

Vegan Sausage Rolls: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Pretty crumbly and messy to make, so don't try this one if you're short on patience - but really delicious, no matter what your stance on tofu. Extra good with tomato sauce. 

The pretzel 'recipe' comes from Butter With A Side of Bread and was a lot of fun to do - dipping stuff in melted chocolate is great! The really valuable part of this is the note about using coconut oil to improve the consistency of the melted chocolate: it made the whole process so much easier, and while it was a little thinner I just did a second coat to even things out a little. The best part about these (I mean, aside from eating them) is the goofy expressions they end up with.

Chocolate-Coated Pretzel Mummies: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Simple and fun - what's not to love? 

Finally, the dip, from Ceara's Kitchen! While I wasn't too impressed by the pre-baking flavour, the moment this heated up it began to smell really, really good. I think this might have been because of the presence of a weird little thing called nutritional yeast - a type of 'deactivated' yeast (ie, doesn't make stuff rise) that is full of vitamin B12 and that elusive 'umami' flavour. The recipe was pretty straightforward and in the end tasted really nice, though it ended up being quite dry and closer to the consistency of stuffing than anything else. Not ideal for a dip with bread, like I had it, but would probably fare much better with hard crackers or fresh veg. I may have baked mine a little long, though, or let it sit out a bit too much.

Vegan Baked Spinach Dip: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
In the end it didn't blow my socks off but it was easy and tasty with definite potential to tweak to individual taste.