Tomatoes

We bought four plants back in Sept and we realised that the bushes were healthy and big but no fruit. Bugger that I'm not watering flipping bushes, so I pulled them,luckily the one we put in our new vegetable bed is doing well and does have fruit and flowers on it although won't be picking for another few weeks yet.

Saturday we bought two more tomato bushes, one is black and the other small yellow ones, planted them out yesterday and they are standing tall this morning so it seems they like where they are, we also bought some strawberry plants, never been very successful with them before so we will see how they go.

Last night I wanted to make a light dinner as we had been out for lunch. I made salsa to go on turkish bread and we had some steamed seafood yum cha, different to our usual fare but light and filling.

Gardening

I am not a great gardener or even a good one but I do like fresh produce and have dabbled in things in the garden for some time.

That's all about to change (fingers crossed)

Last year when we came home from China our house sitters had ginger and parsley growing up the side of the house as well as tomatoes. We have grown a few more tomatoes in the same spot and that is where my egg plant is doing well. Have had beans got a few of them and we did have a couple of lots of corn but I think it is out of sight out of mind and the plants around there probably didn't get enough water.

My recent buy, garden beds even delivered free. This morning we set the small one up in place, the one on the left will end up there and the other three probably along the fence line further to the left.

Bunnings was very busy this morning , We had to queue toi get into the place! Seemed that everybody was doing some work in the garden. Cardboard in the bottom to keep the weeds at bay.

Headed straight to the garden area and picked up four bags of potting mix, another four bags of soil and then a special one with growth hormones etc and finally some cane mulch. Then the plants, what to select? Went with another tomato we have four already doing well, capsicum green and some small red ones, spinach and silver beet, and climbing beans. Added the soil etc and watered it in and retired to the lounge as it was to be 33 degrees, plants would go in later.

Didn't fill it but allowing for good growth?? They even got a good drink so off to a good start.

Chutney

Growing up my mum made our own chutney, sauces and jams. We had quite a big garden often the big stew pot would be boiling away with something on the stove, it was a wood fire so usually just pushed to the back to continue cooking. I was quite happy to eat Mum's produce unlike my sister who complained about "home made stuff", she insisted on Mum buying her a small bottle of tomato sauce. What she didn't know was when the bottle was empty, Mum filled it with the home made stuff and sister couldn't tell the difference.

When I married and moved away from home, we didn't have the luxury of a big garden, sometime no garden  at all, so I didn't get a copy of Mum's recipes. We would always come home from a visit with some jars of different stuff until it got too much for Mum to do.

The other day I read a recipe for Chutney and it reminded me of Mum's, the recipe looked quite simple and I had all the ingredients.
Recipe (as per the magazine)
5-6 large tomatoes
1 onion
1 apple
2 garlic cloves
2 tlbsp of brown sugar
pinch of salt

Everything to be chopped and boiled until it thicken. it was cooked in the microwave. I rarely follow a recipe but I had every intention of doing so for the chutney until I found I only had two tomatoes left and they were smallish.
I chopped them and added a tin of tomatoes and only added 1 tlbsp of sugar, thank goodness as it did seem too sweet so I added a dash of chilli sauce to counteract the sweetness.

It made two pots of chutney and I have added it to some meat sandwiches and pork chops, much taster than tomato sauce on its own. I love bbq sauce but have found that the spices in that causes mouth ulcers so I don't eat that any more.  I will be keeping this recipe and making it again.