Happy New Year ...

... and what better way to ring in the new year than with pictures of bebe tomatoes?Resolutions? Plant earlier next year!

Those last ones, the eggies, were planted by Mrs Possum, in an empty pot, beneath her feeding spot. Tomatoes often self seed around the garden, generally via the compost heap, but they've never fruited before. The benefits of feeding possums organic, heirloom tomatoes perhaps.

PS - Hey Lee, so far so good, I'd leave to clock alone if I were you :)

Beans ...

... Walk through THAT little lot Pythagoras, I dare you.Almost. Even MORE almost. So, now I'm just waiting.

Something else that makes me happy ...

... better be careful now, I don't want to be mistaken for Pollyanna.

In 2008 I learned that ...

... spiders drink.
I'd been sitting outside, painting my toenails I think, and spotted a row of St Andrews Cross Spiders in the steps railings. Naughty me splished one with a bit of water from my glass. I watched in wonderment as madam spider carefully groomed each drop from her legs and body, combing the drops slowly to her mouth parts with her dainty toe tips, where they disappeared. She drank them.
I tested carefully on a couple more spiders who each delicately combed the drops up to drink. I was charmed.
From then I've misted spiders at the end of very hot days when I'm applying restorative H2O to plant life in the garden. I did so tonight, apparently it got up to the high 30s (centigrade) today - so I suppose I should be grateful I was inside an air conditioned office. But I'm not.
I also picked some more tomatoes and made the most amazing tomato bruschetta - green, orange, yellow & red. Humming with garlic, I could see the haze shimmering above the bowl. Lucky I'm single at the moment then.

So far I've picked ...

... some green zebras, a few wapsipinicon peaches, a couple of jaune flammes and dozens of a mystery tomato - egg shaped, red, firm, tasty. I've narrowed it down to either Amish Paste or Red Fig.
Next year I'm going to have to get separate packets of seed. I HATE not knowing exactly what I've got.

A sign of true cook-dom?

... what with the plethora of red and yellow tomatoes I've got rolling around the kitchen at the moment, I thought I'd whip up a nice tomato tart for tea.
I could remember the basics of the pate brisee I need but just wanted to check a recipe to be sure. I found this, on a post it, in my special book of recipes.
Pate Brisee
1 + 3/4 cup plain flour
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 big egg
1 tablespoon milk
pinch fine sugar
It's the "method" section that made me laugh
- rub in butter, add egg & milk
Knead
Make cold
Roll out
Quite a bit of assumed knowledge there really - I'd better make it a little clearer in case Mr Brown ever wants to make it.

Wapsipinicon Peach ...

... tomatoes, I just picked 2. They really do feel fuzzy like peaches.

You go away for a day or 2 ...

... and what happens?
Tomatoes ripen, that's what.So, Mr Brown's last home-cooked meal for some time was Insalata Caprese (garden-grown tomato & basil - and the buffalo fresh mozzarella was, at least, Australian) followed by frittata with free zucchini (just appeared by the magic of compost) and home-grown potatoes (and do my thighs HATE me for that wee harvesting adventure).
That should cement in his brain box why he needs to come home.

Before and after ...

Little Green Bastards.

They fill me with RAGE.Mr Brown too, he's agreed to build a cabbage cage.

Into the compost they go.

Tomato bragging ...

... I was beginning to wonder where all the tomatoes were. But here they are, all hidden away amongst the leaves. I've got to fossick around in amongst the leaves to find them, which leaves my hands smelling that wonderful green smell. There's nothing else quite like it. There are plenty, quite a few varieties (we planted a heirloom mystery pack of seeds so we could end up with Green Zebra, Lemon Drop, Black Krim, White Beauty, red Tommy Toe, pink Brandywine, Purple Russian, cream Wapsipinicon Peach, Brown Berry or Orange Jaune Flamme). I can't wait for the colours to come in. I love that, at the moment, they all have their bebe fuzz, in a certain light it looks a little like they've been sprinkled with gold dust. No, these aren't tomatoes but they are beautiful.Makes a mighty fine weed pie too.

What am I doing right now ...

... I'm blogging while drowning greebilies in a kitchen sink full of salty water. And you?
I'm going to leave them there while Mr Brown & I go out for dinner, and rinse them down the sink upon our return.

LATER: Oh my invisible friend, there were dozens and dozens, it was a massacre. I'm not just a murderer, I'm a mass murderer.
The restaurant was good though.

Vegetable Lace ...

... I appear to be hosting a feast for 3 different types of green wriggly, or perhaps it's just 3 life stages of the same kind of wriggly. I've been stamping the bastards since it became apparent they could swim (I'd been attempting to drown them in a rain-collecting receptacle), yuck.
I'm going to have to sweet-talk Mr Brown into building some sort of gauze cage for the brassica section if we're ever going to get to taste our own dark, iron-rich, leafy greens.
Well, that or start eating the wriggles.

Celery harvest ...

... took place this afternoon, in between rain storms.
All harvested and chopped and cooked and bagged up and in the freezer for soups, stew bases, soup starters and whatnot. You'd think, from this picture, that I'd have filled the freezer and that we'd be living on celery for the rest of the year but no - an awful lot got composted I'm afraid.
Some sort of soft brown ickyness in about 60% of the stalks and loads of leaves, too much something in the soil I guess. Still, what I did salvage is very strongly celery flavoured so it wasn't a completely wasted experiment.
I don't think I'll bother with celery again next year. More room for something else - but what?

So it turns out I AM capable of murder ...

... if I catch you eating my broccoli & kale you little green bastards!

Life isn't too short to pod peas either ...

... just in case you were wondering.

These came from the free peas the garden's pea-straw mulch provided.Mighty tasty there were too.And they came from such delicately-pink flowers with a faintly scented sweet pea-ish perfume (hardly surprising really). I think I'll call them "Double Pleasure Peas".

Monster bread ...

... Zoomie's post about zucchini reminded me of a "science experiment" a friend and I conducted for a school project (the details elude me).
We made a zucchini bread with so much yeast it just grew and grew. It wouldn't stop, it looked like it was going to take over. We halved it, threw half in the bin, IT KEPT ON GROWING IN THERE.
Terrified of our creation, we finally thew the rest in the freezer and slammed the door.
Returning much later to see if we'd managed to kill it, we found it had continued to grow inside the freezer for some time. It had taken over the section and was firmly and frozen solidly wedged in.
That took some removing indeed.

Sometimes ...

... celery isn't always the vegetarian option - particularly home-grown celery.

Life really is too short ...

... to stuff a mushroom.
But it certainly isn't too short to double-peel broad beans. Nope, I'll always make the time to dual peel these little green lovelies. Clearly the whole lettuce and water diet didn't make it past lunchtime, and these became a sort of pesto, through which to toss some lovely fresh tortellini.
Oh, our new tea-towel, found in Melbourne. Excellent kitchen advice. I wish I'd had it the first time I tried to cook Mr Brown a quiche!*

* a story for another time, perhaps.

Red steam ...

... today I learned that roasted beetroot, reheated in a microwave oven, makes RED STEAM.
cool

Life is too short to stuff a mushroom ...

... but I may find it in my heart to put time aside to make these zucchini dumplings.
Probably not though, to be honest, I may just look at the pictures.