Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Sowing & Growing List

I've been meaning for a while to make a list of all the food plants we have on the go, including those currently in our 2 patches or in pots as well as seeds I have sown.

I have just finished the list and put on as a side 'widget' to the right ... ---> you can find it under my 'followers'.

I am amazed there are over 40 foods on there- particularly as it seems we have hardly anything to harvest! There might even be more as I'm going from memory (it's nearly midnight!) and previous blog posts.You would think from reading it that we were fully self-sufficient, but actually far from it.

The reason is that a lot of the foods are at different stages - things like the herbs are almost always growing and really hardy. However others like potatoes, leeks and garlic have been in for a while but won't be ready for a couple of months yet, and a lot of the others I sowed the seeds recently so are either seedling stage (no food!) or yet to germinate (no food!) Also some need a lot of time and patience, like the hazelnut trees which are just showing their first leaves of Spring, or the Cherimoya fruit seeds that I just started today. Both of those won't produce anything edible for a couple of years. Hmmm... long wait.......!

The bean seeds and some mesclun salad leaves have germinated, and both produced really well last year, lasting us for months.

Until then .... well we are going pretty well in eggs with 12 a week average, and have lots of parsley, (my seed saving  from January worked!) so scrambled eggs with parsley is a popular option!

 :-)

3 comments:

dixiebelle said...

Sounds great! Our seeds are growing like crazy, and once those go in the ground, I will start some new seeds off, so we can some plants growing at different stages. Normally I'd throw in a heap of the same seeds, to make sure I got something to grow, but then I hate thinning them out, feeling bad that I am 'killing' them!! Plus, this time I got some heritage seeds and some more expensive ones, so another reason to just germinate one or two at a time, then if they are successful, start another round, so we can (hopefully) pick all season long!

So, we play the waiting game, then we'll play the harvest and 'what do I do with all these...' game!! I love an abundance of anything, though, and usually have heaps of ideas for cooking with them. Now I am trying to develop my preserving and drying skills too!

Good luck with all yours... if only I could stand to eat eggs (only in cakes or baked things) then we'd get some chooks too! Maybe we will get some as 'pets' who happen to eat our scraps and lay the odd egg too!

mountainwildlife said...

Yes it sounds like we have a lot growing right now, but I will still do 'sucessive' sowing too so we can harvest through the months...I feel mean thinning out as well-weird eh?!!

Do your family eat eggs? Chooks are brilliant recyclers. Between our dog, chooks, worm farm and compost, theres not much at all leaves our house.
And the manure makes for great compost with other waste, which I use for planting.... closing the cycle? Hmmm, an idea for another post...!

Lee said...

Ohhhhhhh...I'm looking at that list of all those tomatoes, and just yumming in antici...pation ;-) You're going to have a feast!

Our little potted garden just keeps growing, with the berries doing especially well - the raspeberry is "gunna need a bigger boat" hehe - and need staking up soon, as it is getting out of control :-)

I think I need to do a list too. Thanks for the idea :-)