Not so silver

Only one more day until the weekend and I'm really looking forward to a visit to the EPIC Farmers' Market for fresh eggs and bacon (free range of course!) early on Saturday morning. The Grandma's Eggs stall is my favourite dealer of yolky treats, and they've only got big chooks at the moment so they've only got HUGE eggs. The perfect accompaniment for some happy, local, smoky pig, home grown tomatoes and not-so-silverbeet, and some nigella sourdough bread.  No, not the busty-shiny-haired domestic goddess, but the seeds of Nigella sativa, a plant from southeast Asia that is a weed in Australia. The seeds are used in naan and for their medicinal properties. It is said that the Prophet Mohammed once said the black seeds could cure anything... except death. There's a stall at EPIC that sells the most divine nigella seed sourdough... delicious with a drizzle of olive oil and all the other breakfast treats I can find!

Eggplants and herbs

This is my first attempt at growing eggplants, and I'm claiming success! Did you know eggplants are from the same family as potatoes? This one plant is so laden with fruit that I've had to prop it up with an old bike wheel.  For some reason, I thought they would start off green like tomatoes and then turn purple, but they have their amazing colour and shiny skin as soon as they appear.  I think the skin must be too tough for the bugs to get through because even though the critters have had a go at the leaves, they haven't touched the fruit. So far I've cooked and eaten two small eggplants, and I might have to do a roossaka (moussaka cooked with roo) to use up some of the next crop!

My herb garden is strategically located at the front door so I can smell it every time I arrive home.  It looks like a little critter has had a go at the basil, but they don't seem interested in the Vietnamese mint.  I'm growing three varieties of mint, and they are all taking off like weeds! The other two are constrained in pots so they don't completely take over the garden.  

Eat your reds

My veggies are starting to ripen, one at a time.  At this rate I'll have enough for a meal next month :)

The First Produce

Some cherry tomatoes and garlic have already been turned into sauce for homemade pasta, and some boysenberries have topped my homemade yogurt, but I'm really quite excited about mini watermelons and eggplants which I've never grown before.  The watermelons are growing at an astonishing rate - from the size of a grape to the size of an apple in a week.  The eggplants are still at the purple flower stage.  Succulents probably  don't really qualify as 'produce', but I'm loving their flowers at the moment.