Anyone who grows their own vegetables inevitably reaches tipping point of too many vege, especially when they hang out with generous like minded souls. I call it 'too many any vege syndrome' and over the years I've picked up a trick or two to deal with this seasonal glut.
So the sun sets on an awesome year and 2015 is brimming with possibilities. Through 2014, our E'phy followers have browsed our blogs, shared our social, mailed us fabulous snaps of their newly opened Ecolosophy goodies and so much more - you are simply beautiful human beings. Here's a snippet of our wonderful first year in business with our favourite pics, posts and tags...
Zucchini is by far my favourite vegetable (ok fruit) to grow and cook. So simple and verging on being boring with their sheer abundance, they're just so easy to grow and so versatile to cook with. Plus if you can't grow your own there's always stacks at the grocers. I owe the humble zucchini plant for my now thriving veggie patch and love of home grow food. It was the first veggie I grew - from a packet of Diggers Black Beauty - and it was such a bonza crop that I was hooked on growing them from that point on...
I tried something different with this week's harvest and it's heaven on a baking tray. THIS is how our tomato sauce will be made from this day forward. The slow roasting brings out a far more complex blend of flavours than you usually get with sauce made on the stovetop. No joke, this sauce is awesome.
Striving to be plastic free is fine on a good day when I'm super organised, the weather's good and I've had a reasonable amount of sleep but life doesn't always work that way once small fry come on the scene. You know the day....the one where I would have whipped up some healthy homebaked snacks for our trip to town but we had to spend half an hour finding the other shoe (only to discover that the dogs found it first and so we had to pick out another pair but those shoes don't fit anymore…). Or those days when the spare hand I had to bake and pack snacks was occupied carrying the stainless steel water bottles, extra clothes, packages to post plus the newly built airplane made from cardboard scraps that absolutely has to come. It takes time and effort to be plastic free perfect.
Being botanically curious, each season we seem to wind up with a few vegetables that we've nurtured, grown and harvested and then had no idea what to do with. You know the ones... khol rabi, mizuna, gourds, new guinea beans to name a few. Some of these end up becoming staples in the patch once you get the hang of how to cook them (hello khol rabi). Others end up oddities, worthy of little more than talking points for visitors to the patch (looking at YOU new guinea beans).