Looking Forward

One of the best things with having your own vegetable garden is the planning of it. If there is one thing that you need to have when growing vegetables it would have to be patience. Don't expect edible goodness within days of planting. The very earliest of vegetables takes roughly four weeks from germination to picking, and even then it's restricted to radishes and some leafy greens. Things like cauliflowers can take up to around six months before they are picked once. It makes you think about the relative worth of food.
Speaking about radishes, the Black Spanish Long that were planted over the last weekend should be almost ready to germinate. They are a special variety (well, more so than other types) because they were brought to Australia with the First Fleet. That, to me, makes them a vegetable with real heritage in Aussie gardens. I should be able to let you know what they are like in roughly 60 days. You can get the seeds for them from Eden Seeds.
Radishes aren't spared by the problems that face most other vegetables in the market today. The ones you get in the supermarket are usually old, woody and will taste like turpentine mixed with hot English mustard. When you buy them from the supermarket look for bunches that don't have wilted leaves - that's a sure sign that they have been out of the ground for a while. Plus also try them with a little salt - the French do, and it takes that nasal burning hit out of them a bit (although omit the salt if you love having second-degree sinus burns).

I have also noticed that the beetroot (that have been in since November) are almost ready to be picked. There are plenty of things that you can do with them, including eating the leaves (many pre-mixed salad leaves found at supermarkets have beetroot leave in them), making soup, baking, boiling etc etc. My favourite out of all of these would be in pickling them in vinegar, and then enjoying them for a lot longer. This means that I will undoubtedly be getting purple hands very soon, but I can't wait.

So until tomorrow, remember that FRESH IS BEST.