Recipe for a Savoury Loaf

Ingredients:

1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tblsp of olive oil

3 cups of spinach leaves ( could use a mix of mushroom plant, basella and other 'meaty' greens)
salt & pepper
120g semidried tomatoes


2 cup self-raising flour with a pinch of salt
4 eggs
150 g sour cream
2/3 cup olive oil

120g feta cheese

Method:

Cook the onion and garlic in the 2T olive oil.
Add leaves and let them steam down
Then add chopped tomato.
Add salt and pepper and let cool.
When cooled add the other ingredients except for the feta cheese.
Mix
Add the coarsely chopped feta cheese.
Pour into a lined loaf tin.
Bake in 180 degree C oven for 40 - 45 minutes.

Serve as a slice for afternoon tea or with salad for a meal.

Alternatives to lettuce that suit our climate.

Why try to grow lettuce in our hot summers?

We can easily grow Basella, Edible Hibiscus, Cranberry Hibiscus (Hibiscus Sabdiffera), Lebanese Cress, Brazil Spinach, Egyptian Spinach,  and other heat loving salad vegetables. Perpetual Silver Beet survives the heat reasonably well. Herbs also add to a salad. Try nasturtiums for the flowers and leaves.

Baby Amaranth leaves are useful in salads.

Brazil Spinach loves the heat and humidity.

Baby Silver Beet leaves, and Beetroot leaves, are also suitable.

Click on the link to read more.

Salad in sixteen days

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Bellingen Seedsavers visit Susan's banana farm

Susan is aiming at restoring her acquired banana farm to better health. The steep slopes are being planted with seedlings of other fruit trees, especially mango and avocado seedlings. She has stopped all spraying and is planning for certain plants to overwhelm weeds.

 The steep slopes are prone to erosion especially in the high rainfall of the Coffs Coast.














Macadamias grown from the nuts are being propagated for adding to the biodiversity of a food forest.












This mature mango helps to retain the steep slope.














A wild native raspberry flourishes. Some find these fairly tasteless but others enjoy the taste. Be careful to control the runners.

Coriander, in the vegetable garden, flowers and attracts useful insects. 

Fennel grows well at this time of year.


















Silver Beet produces more when the outside leaves are regularly picked.

This Jack Fruit has been producing fruit for some years. With no extra irrigation it is surviving the very dry weather....

.... and producing fruit.

This joey was found in the pouch of its mother, killed on a road. Here he attempts to climb into a non-existent pouch

These gluten free pumpkin, feta and sun dried tomatoes were enjoyed at afternoon tea.

Irene grew this whopper of a pineapple. The size surprised us, our climate not being really subtropical.

Hong Kong Taro is a smaller variety of taro. Irene had brushed off the soil gently, and brought the taro to the boil in cold water with salt and five spice powder.

She simmered the covered pot for 10 minutes then left the taro in the water to cool. This made it easy to peel the taro which tasted like a waxy boiled potato. The boiled taro would make an excellent 'potato' salad. The taro could be stored unpeeled in the 'fridge for a week.

As usual we shared plants and seeds from our seed table.

The new vegetable garden is well mulched in this dry weather.

The early ripe fruit on this peach tree is because of the north facing slope and our latitude.

We plan for our next garden visit to be to Bellingen's North Bank Community Garden on the second Thursday of November, November 8.

In Bec and Wilma's December Garden

December 1 was a rainy day but we found Bec and Wilma's Bonville garden fascinating. Bec has planted lots of exotics, especially fruit and nut trees. Wilma and Bec's vegetable garden is extensive with vegetables at all stages of production.

 Wilma extracts some well composted mulch from the pile.

This mini hothouse well stocked with seedlings.

This pumpkin is leaping up the wire fence.

We usually bring food and feast before our meeting. Beryl brought her award winning muesli slice. Her recipe is in an earlier post. Nell brought delicious steamed choko shoots, some buttered and some mixed with coconut milk. We also enjoyed Kay's tasty pizza  with balsamic onions, goats cheese, tomatoes and herbs baked on a puff pastry base. Part pre-baking of the pastry will ensure it does not go soggy. A pizza stone will also help.

This Atherton Oak was thriving. Can you see the nuts? Click on any pic to enlarge. This will be another nut for us to try. The fruit is bright blue.

Extensive raised vegetable gardens mix flowers and veges.

A bore (under the box cover) produces perfect water says Wilma.

A globe artichoke, lacking thorns and unlike my prickly beasts, is starting to flower.

A turmeric, in full flower, ready for planting out. Heinze uses these as a ground cover along his riverbank.

 Runner beans clamber up the fence.

A spring onion sets seed.

A Dragon Fruit has climbed up this palm. Bec uses a long stick to knock down the delicious red fruit.

The temperate loving Silver Beet  will gradually fail with rust in this humid summer weather. Nell says that this is the time the subtropical vegetables become the 'greens' for salads and stirfries. Choko tips, Sweet Potato tips, Edible Hibiscus, Brazilian Spinach, Amaranth, Kang Kong, Ceylon Spinach,  Rungia (Mushroom Plant) and Warrigal Greens flourish in the heat and humidity.

A bright red Canna provides a showy corner.

Wilma and Bec's vegetable corner.

These Saba Nut (Malabar Chestnut) trees are setting seeds around their trunks.

A garden arch makes a showy climbing bean support.

Borage in flower in the semi shade. Wikipedia suggests the leaves as well as the flowers can be used in salads.

Vegetables are crowded into beds.

Beetroot grows in front of coriander.

A Brachychiton tree shows off its full pink glory.