Category: My Garden

Braving a Weed Salad …

Published on by FJB2 Comments

Last night I ate my first weed salad and obviously, I lived to tell the tale.

My bravery didn’t extend to a full sized bowl, just entrée size, and I took the precaution of texting a photo of the ingredients to a friend with the instruction …
“If I don’t text you back in four hours – call an ambulance”!!

So, first I collected a selection of weeds from the garden, then using my Weed Foragers Handbook I sorted them, only keeping the weeds that I was 99% certain were edible and discarding the rest. I ended up with – farmer’s friend (cobblers pegs), sow thistle, dandelion, chickweed, nasturtium, ribwort (plantain) and a solitary Indian strawberry.

To boost the size of the salad, I added baby rocket, parsley, lime mint, berries & cream mint, common mint, chives and a few clover flowers that I picked whilst en-route to check the letterbox.

Then I added some lightly toasted spiced pine nuts and sunflower seeds and dressed it with an oil, mustard and local organic honey dressing.

Conclusion – individually the weeds tasted a bit “unusual” but the combined salad was really very tasty.  The Indian strawberry was a total non-event.

I can’t believe I’m saying this but … I was actually slightly disappointed that I didn’t find more edible weeds.  I particularly wanted to find some oxalis* flowers. When we tried them on our herbal exploration day they were like a little burst of sherbet (due to the oxalic acid I assume)

My new bible
Toasted spiced pine nuts & sunflower seeds
Salad possibilities ?

* Note: Oxalis is not a house or garden plant in Australia – it is a pesky weed.

I’ve given up veggies !

Published on by FJB3 Comments

I’ve decided to give up veggies.  Not eating them of course, just growing them.

What with the constant watering, applications of fertilizer, minerals and mulch, and fending off marauding birds, wallabies, those “damn bandicoots” and caterpillars – it all got a bit too hard.  So I’ve planted out my vegetable beds with salvia, exotic mints, perennial basil, nasturtiums, society garlic and anything else that I think might make a bee happy.

So far, it’s working well … I’ve seen butterflies, ordinary European bees, native bees, hover flies and other insects all taking advantage of the flower buffet!

Hover Fly?
Ordinary bee
Unknown Bug
Ordinary bee
Native Bee

And it’s not like I’ll have to resort to eating those plastic-wrapped supposedly “fresh” supermarket vegetables … I can still eat local and organic …

Every second Friday we have our Bellopy Organic Market in the main street of town. Then every second  and fourth Saturday we have another Growers Market at the showgrounds.  If I really can’t find what I want at either of those, I can always visit the Green Grocer in the middle of town.  They have a policy of no overseas fruit or vegetables and NO plastic.

Growers Market
Bellopy Market
Bellingen Greengrocers

While the weather’s still warm, I’ve been experimenting using the mints in smoothies, and in Winter I’ll try herbal teas – the Liquorice Mint should make an unusual tea.

Mint, yoghurt, apple & zucchini smoothie
Mint, yoghurt, apple & zucchini smoothie

Seems like a win for me, the bees, the organic growers and the environment.  And those “damn bandicoots” will have to make other arrangements.

The citrus caterpillar …

Published on by FJB1 Comment

When is a pest not a pest?  Well, when it’s as weird and colourful as a citrus caterpillar. I found this one sunning itself on my Kaffir Lime tree.

Apparently it grows into one of our largest and most beautiful garden butterflies, the Orchard Swallowtail.

Photo by Aviceda
Photo by Aviceda

When threatened it rears up and pops out a defensive organ called an osmeterium which exudes a strong citrus smell.  This one obviously didn’t feel too threatened by my poking, as it didn’t extend it the whole way.

Gardening blogs advise that you immediately beat this creature to death before it consumes your citrus tree, but as I can only find one, and I have a suspicion it would make the most horrible squishy mess.  I’m just going to wait and watch …

Chasing teddy bears …

Published on by FJB2 Comments

I’ve been chasing a Teddy Bear Bee around the garden for weeks.  It is probably the most manic bee so far, in that it seems to spend all its time hovering and darting around the rock wall near my garage and no time collecting pollen.  Of course this can’t be true, but I’ve yet to catch it on a flower.  The result of my efforts is a collection of fuzzy bee photos … can you spot the bee in this photo?

In desperation I resorted to chasing after it with a big white plastic jar – luckily out of sight of my neighbours who would surely have thought I had lost my remaining marbles !!

So here it is, my one and only and still not quite in focus, photo of a Teddy Bear Bee. You can see the bald spot on the top of its thorax indicating that it is an “older” bee.  It’s a solitary native bee which nests in a burrow, or sometimes under houses, which could explain why I see it hanging around the garage rather than the garden.

Footnote for Manuel who thinks that strange and wonderful creatures lurk outside my door just waiting to be discovered …  I have been trying to confirm a sighting of a  Domino Cuckoo Bee for over two months.  Watch this space!