Adventures in our garden

In the past week, our asparagus has started to sprout. I've never know much about how asparagus grows and in our current abode I don't need to - it just does. It seems that every October when the weather starts to warm, spears of asparagus just start to pop up out of the ground in the flower/weed bed in front of our kitchen window.

There is also a patch which grows underneath the washing line, and another in amongst the mint. They grow so fast - every evening you can go out and pick a new bunch which seriously did not exist the evening before. Crazy.

Whilst fossicking in the garden tonight for asparagus, I had a hunt around to see if there were any winter vegetables still loitering, or wild vegetables which seem to appear at this time of year. I was delighted to find some silverbeet (some leaves looking like they may have been recently munched by slugs):

..and even more pleasantly surprised to see that some sorrel had reared it's head for spring:

I had some fresh fish in the fridge (say THAT 7 times without getting tongue tied!) and so scouted out some herbs from my newly planted potted herb garden:

Turns out the placement of my original herb garden wasn't particularly clever as when we had our floods in winter the entire garden was submerged in water and remained so for over 3 weeks. Bad news for the herbs, but now it's less wet the clover and twitch have thrived!


So I picked some dill, chives and parsley and harvested some chervil from the kitchen window (which is looking super in my plant pot from bison that Matt brought back from his trip to Sydney).

These I baked with the fish, squeezed over some lemon (picked in Kaiteriteri during our recent visit) and here you have it - cod baked with fines herbes, fresh silverbeet and asparagus, garnished with sorrel leaves.

The perfect Sunday supper. Matt was suitably impressed.

Long light nights.

Oh daylight savings, thank you for arriving so soon, what a pleasant surprise! After months of dark and wet it is so lovely to switch to light and dry. And warm right now too.

Even though it's not advisable to do so soon (there are still a couple of frosts to be had before spring is sprung), I just couldn't resist planting some veges out. I chose the hardier ones - caulis, broccolis and cabbages and a couple of fennel bulbs (I'm hoping to recreate a sorrel and fennel salad I had at Pegasus Bay Winery on the weekend). I'm a little apprehensive and worried for the little things but hopefully they will withstand any final insults the weather will throw at them.


Hopefully they will be ready by summer. Speaking of which, this summer is going to be really special. As of 7th November I will no longer be employed. I'm taking a couple of months off from working and will spend the time sewing, gardening and looking for a new house for us to live in. I am also planning on drinking large amounts of gin, during the day, while lying on the grass reading. And, although it's slightly at odds with this, I am hoping to get fit. As in exercise fit. I have never really achieved this before, so thought I may as well start now. I may even enter some sort of event, like a duathlon, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here.

Anyway, we are feeling so good now the sun's come back.... bring on summer. Bring. It. On.

Misty spring morns

We have had some cracker mornings over the past few weeks - some warm and windy, others - like this one - misty misty misty. Just like it probably is if you live near the moors in England. I reckon anyway.

Quite a lot of the mist in this photo is actually coming out the back of our car...

Calves in the mist - not quite as good as gorillas, but close.

Jams, pickles and preserves

There is absolutely no doubt now that spring is here - we had a howling Nor'wester last night that necessitated turning the tele up a notch it was so loud. And nowhere is it more evident that spring is present than in the Lil and Matt kitchen. The past week has yielded:

1. a batch of marmalade:

Which, by the way, I won't be entering in this year's A&P show. I think it'd be nice to let someone else take the prize this year.

2. some pickled onions:

They aren't actually pickled yet because it takes a few weeks, but hopefully they will be yummy. Matt and I both enjoy a pickled onion with cheese before dinner.

3. and just tonight... preserved lemons!

I have never preserved lemons before, and used a Stephanie Alexander recipe which is a Middle Eastern version with cloves and cinnamon. I am so excited but they won't be ready for eating for at least a month. Preserved lemons were mentioned in the book The Rabbi's Daughter by Reva Mann, and they sound good.

I have a few other spring projects on the go, but more about them in another post.

ps The coolest Christchurch kitchen ever?

Turns out the people who bought this house promptly demolished it. Kitchen included. Crumbs.

My new bike

You may recall that I mentioned that I was on the lookout for a new bike for when we move into town. Well, I went to the Waimakariri Refuse Centre with our recycling one day and found a poor old abandoned thing not unlike the style I am in the market for:


Upon getting it home I realised that it was actually totally un-road-worthy... for one, the handlebars are on backwards, and secondly there is LOADS of rust (invisible to my so-excited-a-free-bike-that-might-be-really-cool eyes).

Fortunately, I found a much more useful and cooler version on trademe. It's a 1955 Phillips Ladies Bicycle, and has working front and rear dynamos.. I take it up and down the farm tracks with Boo running behind.


Dot commented that our back doorstep looks like somewhere in Amsterdam, what with all the old red bicycles lying around.

The coolest Christchurch kitchen ever?

We have been trying for several weeks to find ourselves a house to live in in Christchurch, but so far the search has be fruitless. Anything we like is well outside our budget, or not for sale. Matt has been mainly concerned with the house itself, whereas my demands focus on the surrounds - namely enough room for a vege patch and a decent washing line. However, after he found this gem online I think I may start to pay attention to what's on the inside.


The colour is putrid, but those slanted cupboards! Man! They are choice! What a cool kitchen; my Denby Arabesque would fit right in.