With the last few days of Summer, the basil is in full swing, great for pesto. Sweet & Thai have done particularly well & we hope to extend them slightly this season with the tunnel & cloches. It's trial & error.
The garlic is graded & will be ready to go in at the end of next month so hope to have more available next season. The chillies have just started to ripen and we are trialing chervil through Autumn. This time of year is great because it's not so harsh on the herbs and slows things from going to seed, so a bit easier and more coriander possibly. This week I found native frogs amongst the coriander, usually they're in the mint. But it has been pruned at the moment...either place they get a good spa. Much more pleasant than cane toads !
Rob has almost completed the shade tunnel & the ponds for the ducks / frogs as well....just need rain now & a bit more landscaping. Over Winter / Spring we hope to put in another poly tunnel ready for next season.
Being born in a subtropical climate & with part Asian heritage I am slowly getting used to slower growing in a cool climate and enjoying it....In my backyard as a child we had mostly tropical herb/ fruit / nut trees/ grasses including banana, paw paw, macadamia, loquat, mulberry, mango, guava, lemon, mints, bamboo & chillies all on a house block.
Dad cooked great curries. Often ginger, turmeric, Vietnamese mint & chillies amongst other aromas would fill the house.We had the Bowen mango for table fruit, Kensington Pride I think they're called now.Green mango chutney was an annual event. As kids we'd scale ours or our neighbour's huge old turpentine mango tree to pick the biggest green ones. It was a race to see who would get there first, the resident possums or our tin can on a stick ! The pungent sap was like super glue but worth it. I still have the recipe somewhere along with other ones from Burma.
