Audrey's Quiche

Asparagus, chicken and mushroom quiche

Another favourite family recipe that Nana used to make when I was a little girl.  Our old neighbour gave it to her

It's more like a fritatta than a quiche, but as it doesn't require fluffing about with pastry, and it's simple to make, it's the perfect recipe for me!


Basic ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheese
3-4 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp baking powder
1 onion, diced

Mix the above in a bowl, add your choice of filling (see ideas below), pour into a flan dish or similar and bake in the oven for 30-50 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius (until the top goes golden brown)

Some filling ideas:

• Chicken pieces, corn and asparagus
• Bacon, tomato and mushroom
• Spinach, carrot and corn

I'll leave any other filling ideas to your imagination.  Use at least 1-2 handfuls of veges and/or meat fillings.

Plants, baby chicks, Papa Sam and eggs

"Poo-berries"

Sam  and I have been busy in the garden, planting out some of the plants our kids bought, in the places we organised with them...  So, for our youngest boy, we now have his "poo-berries", being his Pajaro strawberries, planted in our old toilet in the front yard.  He hasn't seen them yet, but he'll be absolutely thrilled!

"Love heart" rose

Our eldest girl now has her rose pride of place by the front door, which has given our garden the beautiful red colour we've been noticing a severe lack of lately.  Some onion seedlings around it will hopefully provide our first response against aphids.  We're also trying to attract ladybugs with parsley, yarrow and coriander flowers nearby.

Our middle boy has his "Seascape" strawberries out in a couple of pots on the front porch, with some white Scabiosa belonging to his sisters.






His blueberry is planted out near the chooks, to hopefully give them some shelter next summer

And our eldest boy's kumquat is in the chook enclosure too.  It's already flowering, and looks like it should be fruiting nicely next season.  It seems such a waste to take the fruit off at the moment, but it will be a better, stronger tree for it.

So, the school fair happened on Friday, and I took along two big containers of seedlings, only to end up with two containers of different plants in return.  I now have 5 more raspberry canes for our back section, 3 apple mint, some lemon balm, a camellia and a few extra herbs.  So much for clearing out the greenhouse...

Our eldest daughter and I spent our evening transplanting some seedlings into bigger pots, so we now have a whole lot of small pots of strawflowers, statice and swan plants and some seed punnets of night scented stock and scabiosa "Starball".  I also added some brussel sprouts, cauliflower and romanesco broccoli to the mix (fractal food - awesome!).

My beloved tomato :)

Best plant in the greenhouse for the moment still has to go to the beautiful tomato plant (I think it's a money maker) given to me by a friend.  It's grown a couple of feet since she gave it to me, and still thriving (witness my pitiful attempt at cherry tomatoes in the window box to the left of the main greenhouse photo for comparison).






We are almost zucchini parents!  Yup, they're starting to colour up, and we should have 6 or 8 before the week is out.  And our beans in the front yard have produced their first tasty crop (another gift, from a different friend).

The Meyer lemon growing in our old toilet out the front (another gift from my tomato giving friend) was finally starting to get sick of the lack of space, so I've moved it in with the chooks as well.  Surrounded by beneficials, it should get along ok.  It's only small, so will hopefully take the transplant a little easier.

Our guinea pigs are still thriving, and getting used to lots and lots of cuddles.  They've been great for our middle son, too, who has Aspergers Syndrome.  It's helping him to learn some empathy and a little responsibility as well.

Papa Sam has had a hard week, working oncall, with his last night tonight, so finally managed to squeeze in some much-deserved rest and relaxation, making miniature scenery (so that he can kick my bum at Warhammer YET AGAIN!).  Will post updates as to how the scenery comes along...  But you gotta love those trees!

Our neighbours are adding to their brood of chooks and got some eggs for one of their girls to sit on, which have hatched (I believe they're Aracauna).  There's 6 gorgeous little chicks running around in their own separate enclosure now.  Here's hoping that at least 3 or 4 will be girls, as they're so very sweet!

And on a final note, I thought I'd put up a pic of the absolutely gorgeous eggs our own girls lay every day.  Sometime soon, I'll pop up a couple of favourite recipes, with pics, so you can see just how yellow the yolks are!

Fluffyfeet & Sammy's eggs at the top, with the 3 brown shaver eggs below

Take care,

Mama Fern

Home made lemonade

Thought I'd pop a recipe up, just for a change...  This is the lemonade recipe our kids absolutely love, and it's just so easy to make and only takes 5 minutes


Sugar syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Juice:
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 12 lemons)
3-4 cups cold water (to taste)
Ice (if you want to drink it cold straight away

Making the sugar syrup

Mix together the sugar and first measure of water in a pot and heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved
Remove from heat

The kids can help out here

 Juice enough lemons to get 1 cup of juice

The finished product

 Mix lemon into the sugar syrup and add cold water to taste
 (If you want to drink it straight away, just add ice)








The perfect drink for the coming summer

Enjoy,
Mama Fern

First day of summer 2010

It's officially summer!  The days are just starting to get really hot, and today is no exception.  It's gorgeous outside, but too hot to spend long doing much, but everything has had a major growth spurt over the last couple of days, and we've got a few more things to plant out soon

Wild radish

The kids were all keen to spend some of their pocket money, so we went for a walk to the local garden centre and they spent a little money each on edible plants they wanted.  We even incorporated a bit of a wild food walk with it, and learnt about some of the edible and inedible weeds along the way.  Fairly well received was the wild radish, which has a nice spicy tang to it.  As there's a fair bit in the garden at home at the moment, I'm sure the kids will try it a few more times



Our two youngest boys decided they wanted berries.  So, we ended up with the youngest buying an "Ivory" variety raspberry (yellowish berries instead of red) and 4 strawberry plants, while our middle boy bought a blueberry bush and 4 strawberries of his own.

Raspberry "Ivory"

"Pajaro" & "Seascape" strawberries

"Centurion" blueberries

Our oldest boy wanted something a bit different, and after quite some deliberation, he picked a Kumquat.  None of us have ever tasted one before, so we figured we'd try it.  It'll go out with another "Meyer" lemon and the "Satsuma" mandarin in the chicken enclosure.  Our oldest girl picked herself out a "Love Heart" rose.  Not strictly in the edible vein, but we'll try the rosehips in autumn and see what they are like.  It is a lightly fragrant rose too, and will go nicely in our front garden.

Kumquat

"Love Heart" hybrid tea rose

The rose will get a few herbs and some of the onion family to try and help it keep pest and disease free.  Maybe another rose or two in time, but all in all it should turn into quite a pretty wee spot, with some nice fragrance for the summer.

Dwarf beans...  You call that dwarf???

I've been really slack about not prepping garden beds and planting out my seedlings, so had a big surprise when I went into the greenhouse today and saw the size of my beans...  Okay, okay, I promise to get them into the garden on the weekend...

Sweetcorn for the school fair

 The school fair is only two sleeps away, and the seeds I planted last week are looking ready to go along to it.  I wasn't sure and only planted them to see how quick they grow...  Most impressed with my sweetcorn.

 And our footpath finally reaches our gate!  I couldn't help but giggle though, when the guys poured out the cement, then saw me leaving the house with all 5 children in tow, to take them to school...  We jumped the fence and used the driveway next door to get out to the road, but I think they'd forgotten that I leave that time every morning...  Priceless

Now with exposed aggregate - looking nice!

My footpath, prior to exposing aggregate :)

Baby zucchini!

I poked my finger into the lasagna garden this morning, to see how it had fared after two or three days with no water...  There was moisture only an inch down still, which would explain why Sam's zucchini has gone from seedlings to actually flowering and starting to produce in just a few weeks.





Well, that's about it for today, but hopefully I'll be able to post up some of the stuff we harvest over the next couple of weeks!

Cheers,
Mama Fern

Two weeks later

Ok, so it's been a while since I wrote an update, but we've been a little slower around here later...  More rest and planning and less working on the garden

Everything has another two weeks growth on it since I last posted, and we're definitely keen on our lasagna gardening now.  Who would have thought that such a lack of prep would give such a great result?  Sam's seedlings have turned into large, happy, healthy plants that need a minimum of watering and the garden itself needs hardly any weeding.  Even my tamarillo has grown a huge amount

 My most awaited treasure of the garden thus far is starting to show signs of fruiting.  It's a pepino (incredible Ruby variety) which I've potted on the front porch.  I've never eaten pepino before, but it looks like it'll be interesting to try.

The nasturtiums around various plants are just starting to get to a decent size, and the blooms are coming.

My seedlings will be split between our garden and this Friday's school fair.  The greenhouse has been working absolute wonders, even though I keep leaving it open overnight and broke one of the zips that close it (already)

The girls have been and started their garden.  We've decided to give them a spot on the porch to put pots and fill them with colourful flowers and some herbs and fruits.  This is the statice and straw flower seeds they planted a few weeks back, now as nice healthy seedlings

 My potatoes are taking off and now need to be packed higher with another tyre and some straw.  It's something I've never tried for potatoes before, but I understand you can get good results with straw in place of soil

The chooks have been clearing out the wandering jew from under our kiwifruit.  It's finally starting to look really good, and I'm working on some beneficial plants to put under the vine once the area is cleared

As for the kiwifruit vine itself, the branches are heavily laden with flowers, and there's a quiet buzz around the vine continuously, from our friendly neighbourhood bees, pollinating furiously

The first raspberries have started forming on one of our canes

One of my most looked-forward-to flowers has finally produced it's flower heads.  This is the heirloom "Cathy" sweet pea I bought seeds for and planted earlier in the year.   It's taken forever, and unfortunately, it looks like her companion "Heathcliff" hasn't come up at all, but hopefully the next lot I planted will come up.  The fragrance is gorgeous and wafts lightly past your nose when you enter our front door.  Next year, here's hoping I can cover the whole railing with them.

Sam has removed three of the four native trees we had in our front garden.  Lovely as they were, 20 metre tall trees that are messy just wouldn't cut it when they were next to the front door.  The sunlight in this garden has improved massively now, and we're working on filling the area with some brassicas and more herbs.  The kanuka and  two cabbage trees have been transplanted to the back yard, with the manuka to follow soon.  Hopefully they'll survive, but we'll replace them if we need to.

Other than that, we've sat down and planned out our next year worth of changes to the house and garden and are getting excited about the holiday time coming up, where we can put some plans into action!

Until next time, take care and enjoy yourselves,

Mama Fern

First wedding anniversary weekend

This weekend was our first wedding anniversary, so the garden got a little less attention than normal.  But, I got spoilt by Sam, so it was all good...  Not only did he take me out for dinner to my favourite restaurant, but he bought me a lovely pounamu (greenstone) necklace in the shape of a koru, which I haven't taken off yet.  I've always wanted a pounamu necklace, but according to tradition, you cannot buy or acquire pounamu for yourself, you must buy it for someone else or have it given to you.  The koru design is a traditional design based on the unfurled leaf of the fern plant, and represents new growth, new beginnings, renewal and hope for the future.  The iwi which my family originates from, Ngai Tahu, have had long links with pounamu and ownership of all pounamu in its natural state in the South Island of New Zealand lies with them.
Pounamu Information

My pounamu koru necklace

Our strawberries have started to produce more fruit just lately, so Sam and I got a couple of berries this weekend.  Best performers so far have been the smaller Camarosa berries, but we've had a couple of Gaviota as well.  Some of our berries have been planted with garlic nearby, which will apparently affect the taste of the fruit for the worse in time, so I will have some transplanting to do before next season.

Another nearly ready to pick Camarosa

Being my usual stubborn self, when I was told that lavender cuttings can be really difficult to do properly, I had to prove everyone wrong...  And I actually succeeded in getting at least 10-15 plants to root properly.  I took cuttings, dipped them in honey and left them in potting mix for a couple of weeks and now, we have some tiny lavender plants, some of which are already flowering.  10 are out in the tyres round our lasagna garden and the rest in pots, while I see how many of the original 40 actually took root.

Lavender cuttings, just starting into flower

We have had an unwelcome visitor this week.  Or should I say visitors...  So far, we've spied two rats going in and out of the chicken coop, so we went out and bought two massive rat traps and have concocted a safe place of sorts to keep them in...  Here's hoping we get them both!  And maybe more, if there are more rats.

Function over form - modern art or rat trap?

The lasagna garden is filling in faster now.  In the tyres, from left to right are: celery, a tamarillo tree, lavender, 3 tyres of kumara, cape gooseberry, bergamot, more lavender, cos lettuce and globe artichokes.  The centre contains our 3 sisters (zucchini, corn and beans), beetroot, ruby chard, broccoli, sunflowers and hollyhocks.

Lasagna garden

We're hoping for some pumpkins this year, and have planted about 7 plants in different spots, then found a few self-seeded ones.  So there might be one or two or ten dinners of pumpkin soup planned...

Some of the pumpkin plants

We're getting a new footpath in front of our house at the moment, and I might have convinced the digger guy to scrape all the grass away in front of the fence at the same time...  Either way, I have big plans for the front berm, starting with dichondra repens (mercury bay weed) for a metre or two each end of the fence, in place of grass, then filling the centre with lupins to prepare the soil for being inundated with flowers...  So watch this space, because I've laid down two seedling trays in preparation for the lupins starting to shelter the new seedlings.  Master 7 has already planted scarlet runner bean seeds at the base of the fence some weeks back, which are already popping their heads up, so there will hopefully be a riot of colour out there any day soon.

My next proposed garden space being nicely prepped by the council

Baby scarlet runners coming through

Sam spent a few hours lugging tyres, mulch and soil around, and has completed and planted out the rest of the front yard tyre wall.  In addition to what was already there, he's added bergamot, lemon grass, rosemary, Southland snow peas, and ruby chard.

The last part of the tyre wall, completed and planted

The greenhouse is proving to be useful, but we've had a few problems with the zips on it, so my next project is to fix them, perhaps using some velcro instead.  In the meantime, it's still filling up with future plantings...  There's a few larger plants to go out to the garden soon, including the feverfew and horseradish, which will be going into tyres on top of concrete, to try and stop them becoming too invasive.

seeds and plants waiting to go out to the garden

and yes, there's more

And that was pretty much our weekend...  Will update you all again soon...


Take care,
Mama Fern