Thinning the carrots, a job that is necessary for good yields, yet goes against my instincts to love and nurture the plants until fully grown. At least they are getting to edible size, so will not be wasted. We only have been without home-grown carrots for two weeks since December last year. The supermarket ones taste so bland after eating our own.
Carrot Love
Broken hearted
Carrot demolisher. Note the summer hat - it is the middle of winter and we are indoors, but the little one feels under-dressed without a hat.
Eating a Rainbow
- Purple mash, from a medley of potatoes that included Purple Congos. Photo is a bit overexposed and doesn't really do the cool colour of this mash justice. I made a lazy mash which included the skins - I really can't be bothered peeling potatoes and saw Jamie Oliver do this once. Tasted delicious. I am a huge fan of the purple congos, such good looks, and I am finding they are storing really well.
- Yellow and red tomatoes, the last few from the garden. Just a few yellow cherry tomatoes are holding on.
- Green and red garden leaves - rocket, freckle lettuce, beetroot leaves, sorrel
- Watermelon radish, white with a terrific red blush in the centre
- Green and yellow pickled zuchinni
- Home made tomato relish
- Brown lentil salad with parsley, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Variations of this salad come out a couple of times a week in our house.
- Free Range Chicken Sausages
Love how much we can fill our plates with our own produce, and how beautiful the different heirloom varieties are. We discussed how it was healthy to eat a rainbow with the kids last year and it really resonated with the little one. Now she looks at her plate and quickly comments if it is lacking in colour. We have to rush and find her a carrot to brighten up her dish if it is looking a little bland.
Some unexpected excitement here at bed time tonight. I was reading our littlest a book when the house started shaking beneath us. There was rattling and rumbling and the feeling of a very large train going past our house. I called out to the bigger kids so they knew what was happening and the middle one had a bit of a nasty fright, it is a surreal feeling. So glad that an earthquake is unlikely to amount to much in this part of the world. That 20 seconds felt incredibly long. Makes you think about how little we know of what is happening beneath our feet and the power of nature. Those poor New Zealanders who are feeling tremors on a regular basis, it would be so unnerving.
I love your yellow kitchen ..i miss mine its so cheerful...your right about the taste of homemade carrots ..storebought justhave no flavour at all...your child must be the only child i have heard of that freely wears a hat
ReplyDeleteThe shaking last night just seemed to go on and on, didn't it? Youngest thought her dad was in the roof rattling around..at first I thought it was a big gust of wind. Very strange event, I have to say!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful plate of rainbow goodness. You're very lucky to have tomatoes still hanging on! Love the carrot(s) too..that is before the 'breakup'.
Those carrots are awesome! I haven't even been hugely successful with growing carrots, and possibly my aversion to pulling out the baby ones (the really baby ones, too small to eat), hasn't helped!
ReplyDeleteWe are so lucky in Oz to have such stable earth (mostly) aren't we? I have never been in an earth quake bigger than about 4.2 I think (and that was in California, not here), I imagine there were a lot of freaked out people in Melbourne & surrounds last night!
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