Our 1 Acre – One Veggie Patch at a Time

From the Garden

October 19th, 2008 AndrewD

We have been eying off the broad beans for a few weeks and Lee Ann decided that today would be when we harvested out first lot of beans. We picked beans the that were approx 15cm long. I have 8 plants in this lot and another 5 on another vege patch (but they are a bit younger). We picked what seemed like a lot.

Fresh Broad Beans

Fresh Broad Beans

2 kgs in fact. I have never had broad beans before and the ones when freshly picked seemed a little bitter. We had two recipes picked out, a dip and a pasta dish.

Well after removing them from the pod, boiling them and removing the outer skin of the beans we had only 400 grams, while that was enough for dinner, it was not enough for the dip. So 200g have been frozen and we should get approx 2-3 more pickings of the same size from the plants. We will try the dip next week.

Shelling the Broad Beans

Shelling the Broad Beans

Dinner was great, just a simple pasta dish with bacon, onion, garlic, thyme, parsley and broad beans. We will be making it again.

Now I know how much to plant, I would probably double the quantity grown for next year and go for approx 16-20 plants.

Also today I removed the last of the broccoli (which we blanched and froze), planted some celery, fennel and water melons. And put a tray of seedlings down

  • Capsicum
    • California Wonder
    • Corno Di Toro
    • Alma Paprika
    • Long Red Cayenne
  • Chilli
    • Tobasco

A last comment while talking about the garden some of the Queensland Blue pumkins have sprouted.

Frost Last Week

July 27th, 2008 AndrewD

The heaviest frosts of the year this past week, I missed most of them due to me being in Sydney, but Lee-Ann managed to snap this shot of Lynsey outside one morning next to the baby alpaca (yes I could have said cria). It was so heavy the frost itself came all the way up the deck.

Lynsey and frost
So how have the veges faired. Well Ok, The broccoli and broadbeans all seem OK as do the garilc and onion. Some of the broad beans tips did go a bit black and a few of the stems fell over from the weight of the frost (most plants fell under the weight of the frost) but overall everything seems to be fine.

What’s in the Garden

May 12th, 2008 AndrewD

Some Broad Beans

Broad Beans

Some Broccoli

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Cauliflower

And Garlic

Sprouting Garlic

Last Week (24th Feb) – The Vege Patch #2

March 1st, 2008 AndrewD

So last week I planted in veg Patch number 2 (The 1st of the rock log vege patches)

  • Cauliflower – All Year Rounder
  • Red Cabbage – Ruby Ball F1
  • Broad Beans – Coles Early Dwarf
  • Broccoli – Emperor F1

I will sneak in there some more parsley as well.