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These are some photos taken of my garden during 2009, as you can see its both colourfull and well kept. Gardening is the best way to unwind after a hard day at work
This is our ofrenda for Día del Muertos this year, the first in the new house. It's a bit smaller than normal, but with the newborn we haven't been paying a lot of attention to be honest.
The special thing about this is that most of it came from the garden. The beans, the tomatoes, the corn, the calabazas (pumpkins), and the marigolds all came from our garden.
We planted the corn and the beans and the two smaller calabazas came from the seeds we planted together in the traditional style, while the big calabaza was from a neighbours vine that invaded over the wall. It grew two metres off the ground... As for the tomotoes and the marigolds, we didn't plant those they just started growing.
New England is a colorful place in the fall, even in the kitchen. I made up a batch of green tomato mincemeat, an absolutely fabulous meat-free mincemeat recipe that's sweet, tart and rich all at the same time. The recipe calls for dried cherries, so there's a wonderful aftertaste of these as well. It's everything you'd expect in a mincemeat and is second-to-none, particularly if you make the pie with a home made crust.
Green Tomato Mincemeat
Ingredients
- 3 lbs green tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 lbs tart apples, coarsely chopped, with skin
- 3 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
- 10 oz currants
- 6 oz dried tart cherries
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup chopped, crystallized ginger
- 2 oranges, cut into slices, seeded
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp ground mace
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 juniper berries, cracked (optional)
Directions
- Place the tomatoes in a large stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and blanch for 4 - 5 minutes. Drain.
- Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Let the mincemeat cool. Remove the orange slices and cinnamon sticks and transfer to a covered container. Store in refrigerator for up to one week, or freeze for several months.
- Recipe from "Great Good Food: Luscious Lower-Fat Cooking," by Julee Rosso
New England is a colorful place in the fall, even in the kitchen. I made up a batch of green tomato mincemeat, an absolutely fabulous meat-free mincemeat recipe that's sweet, tart and rich all at the same time. The recipe calls for dried cherries, so there's a wonderful aftertaste of these as well. It's everything you'd expect in a mincemeat and is second-to-none, particularly if you make the pie with a home made crust.
Green Tomato Mincemeat
Ingredients
- 3 lbs green tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 lbs tart apples, coarsely chopped, with skin
- 3 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
- 10 oz currants
- 6 oz dried tart cherries
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup chopped, crystallized ginger
- 2 oranges, cut into slices, seeded
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp ground mace
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 juniper berries, cracked (optional)
Directions
- Place the tomatoes in a large stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and blanch for 4 - 5 minutes. Drain.
- Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Let the mincemeat cool. Remove the orange slices and cinnamon sticks and transfer to a covered container. Store in refrigerator for up to one week, or freeze for several months.
- Recipe from "Great Good Food: Luscious Lower-Fat Cooking," by Julee Rosso
For bird watching one needs to be patient. For the ones that are less patient there is the Botterboom Trail. The five minute walk resulted in a few (amateuristic) snapshots. The real bird watchers with telelenses and other hightech equipment stay on the trail for a whole day.
I sent my mother in law the new fall Maxine's the other day and she responded:
"This time of year green peppers are abundant - I made Stuffed Green Pepper Soup today to remind me that Fall is here. Maxine has lots of other ideas - what is your hint that Fall has arrived?" Love, J.
For me, fall means that I dig out the crock pot and make a pot soup or chili every week. It's getting cold in Michigan and I want to have something warm around that requires minimal effort!
Sweaters and jackets are the normal for daily apparel. Leaves are falling and the dogs are collecting and bringing them in the house every trip outside. Picking leaves off the dogs is my main sign that fall is here and winter is just around the corner. The vacuum is a constant companion in my fight against leaves on the carpet.
One of my favorite shrubs is a Korean Spice Viburnum. The scent in the spring when this shrub blooms is heavenly and I wish I had six of them instead of two. In the fall it becomes the bane of my existence with it's fuzzy leaves that refuse to let go of Shih Tzu hair. With three Shih Tzus oh yes, that is why, I don't have six of them!
With falling leaves, comes my thoughts of Christmas, and what shall I make for presents this year. What have I bought or made this year that someone would enjoy? I am one of those people who shop throughout the year with an eye for things that I think people would like. Cleaning out the house and all my hiding places, I have found things I bought years ago for people and forgot I had. DH picked up the habit and started an annual trip to a toy store for all the kids. Birthdays and Christmas presents were squirreled away in the basement. When he went through that pile and found several gifts for kids under the age of five, Toys for Tots was the beneficiary of the bounty. All the kids are now over the age of five!
Too early to do serious Christmas shopping, and I really find it offensive to see full scale Christmas displays before Halloween! What ever happened to waiting until Thanksgiving for all the glitter?
What are your signs of fall?
Are your tomato plants limping along like demented zombies, cranking out tomato after tomato despite clear evidence of fall? Have you eaten all the salsa, gazpacho, and other acidic treats you can handle? If you're still stuck with a pile of tomatoes, oven dry them! Depending on how long you leave them in a low oven you can enjoy anything from a soft raisiny texture to a crispy chip-like treat that is amazingly sweet to eat.
We have around 40 different fruit trees planted at Nanu Martins place at Toolern vale.We decided that the need some maintenance sow we added extra drippers, fertilised, mulched and gave thema good soak. We should be rewarded with more larger fruit to eat. We have plums, apples, pears, olives, figs, mulberries, cherries apricots and much more. We make jams preserve the fruit and eata lot fresh! Here are a few pictures from the day!
The secret gardens of South Africa according to South African Airlines
