sartoric

I’ve never grown it before, so haven’t had fresh turmeric to play with until now. I’m going to try some drinks/teas tomorrow. Here’s the colour difference between the freshly dried and ground, vs store bought on the right.

Winter here, so time to harvest the turmeric. I’ve dehydrated and ground half of this so far. I think the rest might go in the freezer, unless you have a better idea ??

So sorry for your loss Liuzhou. The best any of us can hope for is a peaceful transition. It’s lovely that you got to see her recently.

@KennethThere’s my ornamental ginger. Do you know the variety ? Here’s turmeric nearly ready to harvest.

I have turmeric ready to harvest too. When it gets light I’ll take some photos of our ornamental ginger and maybe you can tell me what it is

My first time growing ginger. Love that I can just harvest enough for a few days. It costs $45 per kilo here, so there’s that too.

The leaves make a refreshing tea too.

Ah, yes. I thought of Thai curry paste after I asked the question. I also just remembered I tried making lime pickle (the Indian style) with some once. It was very bitter and ended up in the compost.

Thanks for sharing your interesting adventures. He who must be fed is angling for a road trip set up. We’re currently negotiating, he wants an off road caravan, I’m not so sure we’d get away that much.

I’m curious as to what you use kaffir limes for. I have a tree but only use the leaves. The fruit falls off eventually

My apologies for the assumption. Mines I knew back in the day were dirty places and very blokey.

Clearly you have never worked in a mine. Painted toenails = death by a thousand ostracisms.

Oh wow, I haven’t checked this forum for ages and look what I missed ! Well, I’ve caught up now over several hours and send my thanks 🙏 Safe onwards, and healing vibes to Mr Smithy.

Thanks for that, it looks great. Still raining, fruit still on tree

Late to respond! We have two types of oranges, navels and something else. Two types of mandarins (I don’t know the variety, but one is sweeter than the other), cumquats, bush lemons and kaffir lime. It’s the best mandarins that we’ve sold. I’ve made orange marmalade, oranges in brandy, oranges in sherry and pickled cumquats. Todays task is supposed to be cumquat marmalade, but it’s raining and they’re still on the tree

Thanks for the info @rotuts. Anyways, it went in the fridge with lid ajar. Tonight I felt brave enough to try it. Slightly sour, but also sweet from the sugar and brandy. We ate the oranges with a little pouring cream from the local dairy farmer. Sorry I didn’t take a photo, but imagine a few orange segments with thin cream and there it is. Hoping we don’t get sick and die tonight xx.

No photo, but our citrus is so prolific we even took some to the farmers market yesterday where a local guy added them to his stall. He took 15% commission and we got $25 for no effort. Better than seeing them rot on the ground.

Ran to fridge and undid the clasp. Thank you !

Thank you ! I suspect the problem started when we, err, sampled a bit on Monday evening, thus leaving fruit and bark exposed. It’s now in the fridge, will see how we go. Fellow cast ironers here.

About two weeks ago I made a jar of oranges in brandy. I think the seal is bad and the fruit has started fermenting. There’s a few bubbles and a slightly sour smell, the taste is still sweet. The oranges were off our tree (no spray) and it’s a simple no cook recipe that calls for sugar, brandy and spices. The jar was sterilised. What would you do ? Is there a way to rescue them, are they still safe to eat ? Any advice will be much appreciated.

Somehow I forgot about the Princessmobile diaries. Now it’s several hours later and I’m all caught up Thanks for a great read which made me hungry and I’m so glad to hear you’re travelling well. (Chocolate cupcake for snack needed eating anyway)

Wow, my orange tree is only a few weeks from looking exactly the same. We’ve had lots of mandarins from tree 1, and tree 2 is ripening now. Also had big drought of course. One theory is the trees all thought they’d die in the prolonged drought, so were desperate to reproduce. I reckon that’s how we got 90 odd mangos from a smallish tree.

Are your kumquats fruiting now ? Is my tree out of whack, or yours ?

We’re having a seedling and seed shortage here, probably due to panic buying by non gardeners. Heard someone walked out of a nursery with broccoli seedlings saying “yay, broccoli in 2 weeks” yeah right. The Tibouchina is flowering, a beautiful colour. Shame about the bare patch, a product of the recent drought, it will be pruned back heavily soon. We’re harvesting lots of mizuna for leafy green dishes. We’ve also got lettuce (cos and butter) sufficient for current needs, a large butternut squash patch, jap pumpkin, sweet potato and regular potatoes. These first little guys are destined to be steamed and slathered in butter. I will do this while husband is in his shed, there’s not enough to share, lol. We have also picked okra and two types of green beans. This is a huegelkulture bed, I think we’ll plant cauliflower and broccoli (if we can get seeds somehow). Behind it the kumquat tree is full of fruit, they are slowly ripening. The brandy is waiting. A weird one - this is wild tobacco, should be pulled as it’s a weed. However, it’s also said to be a great substitute for toilet paper...keeping this one in the ground.

Here’s a garden update ! The veggie bed is going great after a weed and a feed, plus my handyman has installed a door to make it easier to get in and out. A neighbour gave us a mature bunya pine cone. They’re easy to pull apart to remove the seeds. Apparently, the easiest way to prepare them is to boil for a couple hours. Said to taste like chestnuts....there will be a stir fry in the future. Gratuitous mango shot here. I’ve made pickle, chutney and this lot are destined for the freezer. These are just the ones that have fallen off the tree. I’m giving them away as fast as I can, typically though, nearly everyone I know also has a tree. This was yesterday’s pick up, there’s another eleven on the back deck from this morning Happy days in paradise.