All articles on: Garden meals
How to make home made pasta
I started making my own pasta the moment I moved out of my family home. It was impossible not to. My mum always made it and therefore it was the normal thing to do. In shared households all over Melbourne I made pasta. In rental kitchens in Fitzroy, Kensington,...
How to dry fruit
How to dry fruit Fruit drying is a rewarding way to preserve your summer harvest. Like many preserving techniques it is simple to do (one of the simplest) and the results are extremely satisfying. By the end of the season, your larder shelves will be adorned with...
Preserving
I have had a great summer. I must thank all my volunteer fairies for without them I would not be able to do all that I do. No way. There are so many tasks that take hours and hours to complete, such as harvesting herbs, stripping their leaves and placing them in...
Summer Harvest
I really try and make the most of summer...it is the most productive time of the year on our property. A time to restock the larder and discover new foraging opportunities. During summer I think about water a lot. Every time I harvest, every time I water my trees, I...
Human induced
More and more people from all sides of politics are feeling anxious about the really serious science of Human Induced Climate Change. And more and more people are taking action. Could 2019 be the year when we see large scale state of emergency changes being made? The...
Tomatoes and Gnocchi
I have had a really lucky month. I planted dozens and dozens of tomato plants in spring. My plan had been to grow enough tomatoes to make a year's worth of passata. But I had grown far more than a year's worth and after reaching my goal of 100 bottles of passata and...
Passive Solar & Summer Harvest
There is so much work being done. My motivation levels continue to be high. My energy levels rise and then fall. This is a brilliant time of the year, summer is so bountiful I want to make the most of it. I take enormous pleasure from using ingredients growing free...
Edible Flower Mezza Luna
I have received some very lovely emails asking me to post pictures of the patterned pasta I made last year. Here in this post I am re-publishing pictures of the Mezza Luna ravioli Ahlia and I made over a year ago using calendula, and nasturtium flower petals, parsley...
Ruby wore Calendula
Last summer I made rose petal tagliatelle. Rouge coloured dough sweetened by the natural sugars in the petals. For the Swiss Italian Festival I had decided to make rose petal tagliatelle for a singing and dancing event I had organised. Last spring was hot and fierce...
The best gift
The best gift... rarely comes wrapped and under a tree, but takes the form of wild flowers discovered. On my way to Isabel's house for tea. ...
I had hoped
Before Ahlia was born I imagined what kind of a girl I would like to have. I had hoped for a courageous soul full of vitality and energy, enthusiastic and eager to learn. I had come to realise that learning was among one of my greatest passions and hence dreamed of...
Mezza Luna – home made pasta
Seasonal Tracks – Chestnuts & Quince
It's not a trend, not a phase, a thing in vogue to be forgotten, but a wonderful ritual with many rewards. In the offices where I worked, at every meeting, all year round, up to seven fruits would be displayed upon the tray for us to eat. It meant for me a...
A gaggle of ingredients
Over the past two months the kitchen garden has kept us in an engaging momentum. With various ingredients maturing, frequent harvesting inspires frequent cooking. With friends and recipe books there is never a shortage of ideas. Carolina's kale and breadcrumbs,...
Summer meals
In the heat of summer simple meals are favoured, especially meals that use garden ingredients.
green meals
Fusilletti pesto (below) and the other picture showing, fiochetti with rainbow chard, cucumber, tuna, lemon and red onion. During the summer months I have the opportunity to reduce my trips to the green grocer. With basil, cucumbers, zucchini, dwarf beans, rainbow...
Risotto di Estate
I feel so rich when I have a bounty of greens in the garden. I feel so loving, lofty and vivacious when basil bursts forth from the edge of the garden bed. And a soundtrack, with a melodious, monumental symphony, floats around me as I harvest summer greens and make...
Cicory features next
I am using my lettuce for all sorts of meals. This rice, cicory and bechamel sauce dish with the addition of whipped eggs is baked and served. Add grated zest of lemon and nutmeg to the bechamel sauce for a delicious flavour.
Broad beans
In the past few weeks the humble broad bean has decorated our meals. I made broad bean mustered rice balls, fried and golden. Broad bean and cicory salad with fried egg for breakfast. Broad bean dip with anchovy's on sourdough toast. And for the chickens a broad bean...
Broadbean sagra
It is time to feature broad beans in my kitchen. With a rich harvest I am committed to cooking broad beans with every meal. And while for some this might sound like a dire situation, for me the challenge of celebrating one ingredient in the kitchen for the length of...