Veg Patch

At the weekend we prepared our veg patch for the new season. Over winter it's gotten quite grown over. Nico turned the soil and then we planted this season's crop - onions, garlic, carrots, spinach...

It looks bare at the moment but there'll be plenty going on soon.

Meanwhile the tomato nursery (aka the office) is going well too.

Recipe: Filled Courgettes

 Last week we harvested our first courgettes from the garden. I can't put into words how much better fresh veggies from the garden taste. The only downside is that they don't grow fast enough!

We combined the fresh veg with our new Paleo kick to try this recipe and it was really tasty. It's going into our file for future reference...when the next courgettes come through.

Garden Corner: Veg Patch Update

Since we harvested and enjoyed the spinach and radishes, Nico used the space to get his tomato plants outdoors. They look brilliant.

At the far end, the carrots are slowly coming on.

The heat got to the cucumbers but we've got more lettuce and spinach planted.

We also discovered strawberries growing amongst the flowers which are ripening quickly in this summery weather.

Garden Update: Order Up!

Look what we nibbled on last night - our radishes are ready!

They tasted great - a little hotter than the supermarket ones but very fresh and delicious!

So excited for all the tasty veggies growing out there right now. Next up - spinach salad!

Garden Corner: Veg Patch Update

Exciting news! Here you can see our spinach and radish leaves coming out. I can't wait until we have our first harvest. For now it's good to know that I didn't mess anything up with the planting!

Garden Corner

The plan since before we even bought this house was to have a veg patch and it's finally coming together.

Nico created it, we planted it together a couple of weeks ago and shoots are finally starting to appear!

The red brick planters are for herbs at some point. At the moment we've got spinach, radishes, carrots, rhubarb and blackberries going as wel as tomatoes and chillis indoors.

I'm looking forward to sharing a more colourful picture hopefully soon.

Meanwhile, look who else is having fun in the sun...

Avocado Update!

So the avocado pit is hatching! I'm not sure it looks like it should but at least it's doing something. I'm still changing out the water every two days and fingers crossed, it's working.

 Also, the lemon plants are still developing slowly.

 Nico's chilli's are looking amazing.

The tomatoes are turning red too! We've already tasted some and they are delicious.

Edible Garden Update

 This will be the last update for 2014. Our basil (above) is going crazy. We are actually struggling to find recipes with basil. I came across this one at the weekend and I'm hoping to try it soon.

 The parsley is also doing well now that it is protected from Pete. We just need to start using it. Unfortunately my lemon seeds never took. That will be going on my 2015 list.

Nico is having much more success (having put in much more effort). Above you can see his tomatoes. I can no longer see the bird feeder with the plants going so crazy.

Finally Nico's chillies - second year harvest. Already found one red one!

Looking forward to trying some new things next year and glad that most of my attempts yielding something this year.

Recipe - Stir-fry

This week we got back to one of our favourites - a good vegetable stir-fry.  

I love how healthy this meal makes me feel with all the veg in there but also it's great at this time of year as we pack in with ginger and garlic and it's a definite winter warmer.

We don't have a set recipe for this but here's what we included today - 

• three peppers
• a handful of mushrooms
• a head of broccoli
• a bunch of spring onions
• a can of cashew nuts
• ginger
• garlic
• soy sauce
• fish sauce
• lime juice
• oyster sauce
• honey
• spices

The wok is amazing but as it's hard to find gas hobs in Germany we had to invest in a camping stove to get the best effect.  It makes cooking so much faster and tastier!

Crazy Tomatoes!

The second best thing after the amazing taste about growing our own tomatoes is the cool and crazy shapes that you never find in the supermarket as you can see above.

Veggie Bake

As one of our new recipes for June, we tried out this veggie bake on Sunday and really loved it.

Ingredients:

250g tomatoes
250g mushrooms
2 courgettes
Half a tin of sweetcorn
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
100g gouda
Fresh Parsley (from our balcony!!)
Cream cheese with herbs (as a side)

Slice all of the vegetables and arrange in an oven dish.  Cover with the oil, herbs and cheese.  Bake for about 35 minutes.  Serve with the parsley on top and the cream cheese as a side.

Delicious!!  Will definitely be doing this again.