Eat your greens

I do feel a tad ridiculous showing you a photo of my dinner salad. But dear reader, the salad is made of greens entirely from my vege patch. Now, to a former city girl used to buying insipid fruit and vege from supermarkets, this is exciting, heady stuff worthy of a photo.

The horses are really coming in handy because they supply the manure for the vege patch. Since I’ve been using horse manure, the vege patch has really been going well and the lettuce, particularly, seem to grow in abundance. The taste dear reader: well, there is actually a taste! Knowing that I’m eating something fresh, and grown with no nasty chemical fertilizers, is enormously satisfying.

I’m dreaming of sacrificing one of the paddocks for an enormous vege garden. Hubs is planning it out and thinking of a greenhouse. Whilst he’s planning, I’m also considering bees. Yes, bees. Why not? How fab would it be to produce my own honey. I have no idea if this is practical or not but plan to look into it. There are plenty of farmers around here who I know either have bees or used to have bees. It’s simply a matter of chatting to them.

 

Oxford farmers’ markets

Oxford is called the best little town in New Zealand. The population is around 2,000. It’s about 50 mins from Christchurch and is a great place to pass through on the way to the West Coast, Hanmer or the Southern Alps. Every Sunday morning is the Farmers’ Market where locals (and visitors) can purchase fresh produce from around the district.

It was a bit miserable on May 16 when we went along – grey, raining and cold – but we walked to the markets and I bought a bunch of carrots and a head of cauliflower (NZ $5.00); bag of onions ($3.50); home-made sweet orange marmalade ($3.00); German and sourdough bread ($5.00) and four Dutch sugar and spice biscuits ($1.20). Also at the markets were pork pies, fresh meat and veges galore. On the first Sunday of every month, there are arts and crafts available to purchase in the Town Hall. I’ll bring you photos of that when I go along in June.

But here are some iPhone photos of my haul from the Farmers’ Market today. Eventually, I’ll be growing and making my own stuff but until then, at least I know the produce at the markets is fresh and locally produced.

Onions and a bunch of carrots with the dirt still clinging to them

German and sourdough bread, plus Dutch sugar & spice biscuits

Oxford Farmers' Markets

Plump head of cauliflower; homemade sweet orange marmalade

 

Learning about veges

A major reason for moving to NZ is to live a more sustainable life – away from polluted, crowded cities and with an opportunity to grow our own vegetables, fruit and have some animals (even if they’re not our own but are grazing). New Zealanders seem to be pretty conscious of the environment and even in Christchurch, you can see gardens with fig or apple trees and small vege plots.

I found out that an important book to have is The NZ Vegetable Garden. It’s sort of like a Bible for vege growers. So I bought it plus another small book called New Zealand Edible Garden.

The two books on growing veges that I'm studying

Did you know that if your veges get hit with aphids or mildew, you can make an excellent spray from rhubarb and soap flakes? Nope, me neither. Get some rhubarb leaves, chop them up and boil for 30 mins (1.5kg leaves to 3.5 litres of water). Strain. Then dissolve 15gm soap flakes in the remaining water and when the rhubarb is cold, mix it all up, chuck into a spray bottle and spray those nasties to smithereens. Sweet.

And on my list of books to get (now that I’m no longer working and can become a domestic diva) is a book called The Aunt Daisy Cookbook. I also want to get High Tea at the Victoria Room and Ginny’s Herb Handbook.

How to grow herbs & use them fresh from the garden

Stuffed full of recipes for cupcakes, high tea sandwiches and yummy pasties

Aunt Daisy was a NZ radio personality for decades. Her nationwide broadcasts ended 40+ years ago but her book of recipes, which was first published in 1968, lives on. It contains classic NZ recipes that I plan to master.