August 04, 2010
August 2010 Issue #59
Hello,
What fun that we both love gardening. Thanks for joining me.
1) Entanglement with cats
2) Eco gardening tips
3) Veggie Medley
"Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them."
~ Author Unknown
Provoking an entanglement with cats
I'm knocking the garden into shape where I have now been living for 7 months. The more I knock, the more the local cats come in! I've bought a child's water pistol which shoots out the water in large spray drops so the sweet cats don't get hurt — except their feelings.One of the many Chinese translated water pistol instructions says:
To use in a free place, free length presence susceptible to provoke an entanglement. MEOWWW.
... And this scary one... need to curl up for a good nap and think about it:
Note of use for the interview and the verification of the abeyances and other fixings.
Gina, my wonderful Chinese daughter-in-law, speaks good English and would find these translations funny too.
Crisp vegetables
Here's my take on how to store vegetables once picked.Sometimes you pick too much; sometimes you need to pull up the last few plants so you can re-use the space; sometimes you have to buy veggies (gasp, swoon!)... so see what I do: How to stop vegetables wilting when picked, and any additional ideas, I'd love you to add your comments there.
Eco gardening tips
- Chillin' out:
Picking your chillies at various stages means you can have them mild or full strength. Before they change colour, say from yellow to red, depending on the variety, they will be mild, but as they start to change colour they develop full flavour and hotness. So choose your chilli strength, and remember, the more you pick the more the plant is stimulated to flower and produce lots more chillies. ¡Híjole! - Tap your hands:
When you are sowing seeds, either into trays, pots or garden, tap your hand that holds the seed packet, rather than shake your hand. This makes the seeds come out in a controlled steady trickle. Watch how good baristas control sprinkling choccy or cinnamon on coffee — tappity tap on the bottom of the sprinkler. -
Spider dressing:
No not clothes, but dressing wounds. A renown folk remedy and still used today, spider webs are anti-microbial. As well as the sticky surface on the silky strands to catch prey, spiders also release from their glands a chemical coating which protects their webs from fungal and bacterial attack.
From gardening to tramping, if an accident happens and there's no first aid handy, grab handfuls of spider webs, roll together in the hand and pack into any cuts, gashes or wounds to stop them turning septic.
Veggie Medley
I was poking around at the back of the food cupboard and decided to use up a few containers having a skerrick of stuff in the bottom. I am famous for out-of-date stuff, but moving countries had solved that… for a few years. With the odd veggie and other lonely bits and pieces, I made this – delish. Nice with salad… especially red cabbage and avocado.Ingredients
- Enough veggies for 2 people (I had 6 Brussels sprouts, 10 bite sized florets of cauliflower, 4 florets of broccoli, and a bit of leek).
- ¾ cup of buckwheat pasta and ¼ cup brown rice pasta (use whatever you have)
- 1 Tbln milk powder
- 1 Tbln brown rice flour
- 150gm feta cheese
- 1 heaped tspn mustard powder
- 1 tspn turmeric
- 1 tspn paprika
- 1 tspn apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbln sunflower seeds
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Cook pasta first, drain and rinse and set aside.
- Using same pot without cleaning, cook veggies in 1 cup water until just softening (I cooked sliced leeks first, then put in Brussels, then 5 minutes later cauli (about 20 total).
- Stir in flour, adding more water as needed to make sauce consistency, and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add cooked pasta and rest of ingredients, simmer for 1 minute, sprinkle with sunflower seeds and serve.
Preparation: 10 minutes
Serves: 2 people
Happy gardening,
Megan