Recipes and Food
Here’s where you’ll find some ways to use garden pickings, and some of our favorite recipes. Feel free to add your own as well.
Liz on quinces, preserving and the joys of cellaring
The quinces on our tree this year are enormous – Doug keeps calling them tree pumpkins. The season is earlier this year. Perhaps we’ve been fortunate with an even summer temperature over the fruit setting period. Not the horrendous 45 degree day of last season which seemed to halt the growing phase for at least … Continue reading Liz on quinces, preserving and the joys of cellaring
Weed walk orange cake
I think this is the Claudia Rodan one. I cut back on the sugar and sometimes I add cardamon pods to the oranges when cooking them. It usually takes longer to cook than the recipe says. 2 oranges, washed (use organic or biodynamic ones as you’ll be eating the skins) 175 g raw caster sugar … Continue reading Weed walk orange cake
The community garden cake
We inherited this recipe from our visit to the Barwon Heads garden. We’ve made it a feature of our gardening eating since then; it was a hit at our plot handover. The chestnut flour, pine nuts and rosemary give a fabulous taste and it is easy to make. Ingredients: 155g chestnut flour; 155g self raising flour; … Continue reading The community garden cake
China Flat Peaches par excellence
Gen recommends this (from Richard Cornish) – dress stone fruit with the scantest amount of honey, a tiny squeeze of lime and the lightest sprinkling of finely chopped mint. It’s divine!
Lovely Fartichoke Soup (alias Jerusalem Artichoke Soup)
Gen made a lovely soup for our birthday lunch. These tubers get a bad wrap, but they taste lovely and can be used as a substitute for spuds (or with spuds) in recipes. Saide also made another version for our Compost Workshop last weekend – her recipe can be found here: Artichoke Soup. Jerusalem artichokes are … Continue reading Lovely Fartichoke Soup (alias Jerusalem Artichoke Soup)
Quince duo – paste and jelly
I found this recipe for membrillo (quince paste) and used the strained liquid to make quince jelly by adding equal quantities of sugar and heating to setting point. I tested the jelly by putting a dollop in the freezer and when it wrinkled on the saucer it was ready to be bottled. Six quinces went a … Continue reading Quince duo – paste and jelly
Saide’s Artichoke Soup
Here is the Jerusalem Artichoke and Chestnut Flour Soup served at the Biodynamic Compost -making Workshop on 27 April 2014. This recipe takes about an hour if you dig your own Jerusalem Artichokes! Half an hour, if you already have the artichokes. Ingredients: 500 gms Jerusalem Artichokes 2 medium onions 1-2 cloves of garlic 1/2 … Continue reading Saide’s Artichoke Soup
Pomodori Verdi Sott’aceto e Olio
Green Tomatoes in Vinegar and Oil 5kg Green Tomatoes 1/2 Kg good Celtic or Himalayan Salt 500ml of Apple Cider Vinegar 4 Tbsp Oregano – dried 5-6 Cloves Garlic 2 red hot chillies finely chopped Choose only the freshest green tomatoes and slice into 1/2cm slices. Place in bowl and cover liberally with salt. Put … Continue reading Pomodori Verdi Sott’aceto e Olio
Zuchinni Cake – 2 ways, and more
My zuke glut this year was enjoyable to start with, but I soon got to the point of almost weeping to see those that I’d missed picking the morning before were doubled or tripled in size the following day. All the neighbours ended up with furtive deliveries to their doorsteps. Still, my favorite ways of … Continue reading Zuchinni Cake – 2 ways, and more
Bountiful broad beans make marvelous dip
Wondering what to do with all those broad beans? I have just discovered a taste sensation that I intend taking to a birthday barbeque this evening. At the rate we’re tasting ‘just to be sure’ there’ll be none left to take! Hope you enjoy it too – Mary. Moroccan broad bean dip Shell 1 kg of … Continue reading Bountiful broad beans make marvelous dip
Flourless Rhubarb and Lemon Cake
This is one we ate at thegarden and thanks to My Darling Lemon Thyme (that’s a blog) and Sarah for making it … 250g rhubarb (about 4 decent stalks/2 cups finely sliced), sliced into 1cm pieces 2 1/2 cups (275g) almond meal (ground almonds) 150g soft butter 3/4 cup (150g) blended unrefined raw sugar* see … Continue reading Flourless Rhubarb and Lemon Cake
Garlic and Garbage Broth
This is my version of a recipe from ‘The Vegetarian Epicure’ by Anna Thomas – a paperback book so well used in our house that it’s held together with a bulldog clip! The idea is to use peelings from scrubbed potatoes and those left over bits of celery from the bottom of the fridge! It … Continue reading Garlic and Garbage Broth
in the garden 
My best Jerusalem Artichoke recipe is simple as washing the artichokes with a firm bristled or wire brush, and tossing into a roasting pan. Sprinkle all over a good quantity of fresh (or dried) rosemary leaves and good olive oil. Then roast at 150 – 180 degrees Celsius.
Variations include:
Add cloves of garlic for extra flavour
Try other herbs such as cumin or oregano or caraway seeds
Or roast slowly at 120 degrees in a pizza oven for three hours and a tasty snack of crispy succulence will result.
The last suggestion was an accidental recipe!
These little gems also have a surprising reputation, according to Maggie Beer and Stephanie Alexander, of being well tolerated by diabetics, in fact some have told me these little gems assist to keep our insulin levels in better balance and thus also our glucose readings!
Your blog is really lovely and veryuseful, I’m enjoying reading it
Thanks!
Here is a flow food day courtesy of Sarah Wilson’s book Simplicious Pan McMillan 2015. She also wrote I Quit Sugar, filled with surprisingly delicious recipes.
This is how Sarah spends a couple of quiet cooking hours on a Sunday, readying for the rest of the week:
Put the oven on (90C) and keep it on to roast 8 heads of garlic.
Set a double steamer on to the boil.
Fill the sink with water and dunk watercress and lettuce. Remove and drain the greens (keep the sink water), then spin and store the leaves.
Snap asparagus ends and place in a stock bag; store the stems.
Load up the slow cooker with vegetables and stewing steak for a cheapest ever stew.
Remove the garlic from the oven and set aside.
Turn the oven up to 180C. Scrub a few roots in the sink water: 2 sweet potatoes, 1 bunch of beetroots, and 1 bunch of baby carrots. Pop in the oven for 40-60 minutes. Meanwhile, wash and dry the beet greens and carrot tops, plus one bunch of siverbeet.
Boil water in the double steamer and cook a bunch of eggs, then ue the same water to steam the beet greens followed by the silver beet. In the bottom of the steamer blanch the carrot tops.
Use the sink water to cool the legs and store these.
Make Leftovers Pesto with carrot tops and parmesan. Add parmesan rind to the asparagus soup/sauce stock bag.
Make Sweet Potato Puree with the sweet spuds. Pop carrots and beetroots into containers and leave in the fridge for salads during the week.
Place all vegetable scraps into a vegetable soup stock bag.
Make Good for Your Guts Garlic with the roasted garlic cloves using whey from last week’s Homemade Cream Cheese. For 8 heads of garlic add 1 teaspoon of iodised salt (essential for our thyriods in Australia), a tablespoon of homemade whey, another teaspoon of dried oregano of basil plus one bay leaf. Place all in a one litre jar and top with water. Leave 3cm clear at the top. seal loosely and leave on the bench for 3-5 days (longer if not using whey). Then seal tightly and keep in the fridge for 6 months. Best left for a couple of weeks before eating.
Here is a Quince Chutney Recipe that was acquired by a friend who met a very old farmer at Abbotsford Farmers Market and had quinces to give away with this recipe:
Combine in a large saucepan:
3 diced quinces
1 cup of chopped dates
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of cider vinegar
3 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons of black mustard seeds
3 strips of lemon rind
Bring to the boil, then simmer for one hour or until thick. Season with salt (pepper and/or chilli, if liked) and pour into clean airtight jars. Allow to cool then cover and store in the fridge.