Getting to know Mizuna

Growing in the middle terrace there are several self sown Mizuna plants. Since Mizuna is not regularly available commercially, not everyone is familiar with its use. It originates from Japan where it is used in salads, stir frys and pickles. It is a reliable vegetable producing good yields throughout most of the year.

Cut the mizuna leaves close to the base of the plant and then trim off most of the white stalk. The leaves may then be used in any of the following recipes, or in stir fry add mizuna in place of other asian greens.

Asian Greens with Sesame Dressing

This dressing also tastes great on any other greens, raw or cooked.

6 cups Washed mixed greens which include mizuna, tat soi, red mustard or other dark and spicy greens

1/4 cup orange juice

1 Tbs. tamari

1 Tbs. rice vinegar

1 Tbs. honey

2 tsp. sesame oil

2 Tbs. toasted sesame seeds

Place washed greens in large bowl or on individual plates.

Combine all liquid ingredients; whisk to blend. Pour dressing over salad just before serving; sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Baked Pumpkin and Mizuna

1kg pumpkin

Approx. 4 cups trimmed mizuna

30 ml olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Chilli-flakes or chopped chilli – to taste

Salt

Pepper

· Peel pumpkin and cut it into 2 cm x 2 cm squares.

· Crush garlic and mix it with oil and chilli.

· Toss pumpkin in oil mixture then place in a greased oven-proof dish.

· Cover and bake until just tender (about 30 mins) at 180°C.

· Wash the mizuna in cold water and drain it.

· Mix mizuna through the cooked pumpkin and serve.

Tossed Greens and Potato

Take any fresh greens from the garden, chop them roughly then toss with boiled new potatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper.

It mellows out spicy greens but still highlights their flavour .

Stir fry for One

About 2 cups mizuna, stems discarded, rough chopped
1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 capsicum finely sliced
Crushed garlic to taste.
1 tsp. tamari or soy sauce
½ tsp of lemon juice.
Dash of salt to taste

Saute onion in a small amount of olive oil until it softens, add garlic and capsicum then stir for 1-2 minutes. Add mizuna, stir to coat with veggies and oil, and cook until wilted to roughly 1/3 original volume and bright green color. Add tamari, lemon juice and a hint of sea salt, if desired. Stir a few times and serve.

Notably Newsworthy

Kiama Community Garden has featured a few times in the newspaper recently and workshops held at the garden have also helped us show community members what is happening here.

It is terrific to have more people wanting to help grow vegetables together as we implement the overall garden plan.

Visitors to the garden may well meet Vince O'Dwyer who visits frequently to nurture produce, organise propagation and attend to various maintenance tasks.

Living next door has made it possible for him to keep a very close eye on how things are going.

Barry Stephens is another of the regular workers at the garden. His window looks down over the garden and he is often out and about in this magnificent back yard!

There is a weekly meeting at the garden every Wednesday at 4pm.

Current members are encouraged to attend and newcomers are welcome.

Here we keep up to date with what is currently happening and dates are set for work to be done in the weeks ahead. To achieve a consistent yield we also discuss strategies for maintaining and harvesting each of the current crops.

Construction of Compost

On Saturday 26 February, 10 keen gardeners gathered to construct a Berkeley style compost heap under Dan and Aaron's guidance.

We had already discussed the various components we would use and we each brought along a particular ingredient and then collected more around the garden.

Berkeley composting requires multiple layers of various nutrients whilst ensuring a balance of carbon and nitrogen containing substances.

A sprinkle of mature compost supplied vital microorganisms to the base layer of straw.

And so the layering began!

2 bales of straw first, then every subsequent layer was watered in. Caleb did a wonderful job as waterer!

We also used molasses solution to give the microbes a good head start.

There was something rather fishy about Norm's mystery ingredient, but he seemed very happy once it was in the heap.

The heap gradually became taller with its alternating layers and Leanne realised what an important job she had, as she recorded everything used on the whiteboard.

Finally all layers were almost complete, just another layer of comfrey, chicken manure and compost before a final layer of straw and one of our famous round zucchini's as the cherry on top.

Thanks team,

Gabriella, Deb, Norm, Kathy, Doreen, Joe, Dianne, Leanne, Caleb, Maria, Dan and Aaron.

It was a great day!

Saturday 5th March.




Saturday was a nice morning, much cooler than the last few weeks. Ideal for a bit of labouring in the garden.




Deb had kindly brought along some fairly advanced potato seedlings from her garden.


The plan is to try out planting them in old tyres, and as they grow, we add more tyres and soil to build up the plant and increase the number of potatoes produced by each plant.


As you can see with Deb, Barry and Vince’s help the potatoes are up to two tyres already.

Vince set about making access through the gate nearest the Blue Haven complex easier and safer.

He levelled off the area inside the gate and installed a step. Then he top dressed the area with blue metal left over from the seating arc.

I gave Vince a hand to make a level pathway to the storage container also dressed with blue metal.



















The tyre section of the seating arc is now complete and we are looking for recycled timber to start the decking surface for sitting on.
























Our newly installed rain gauge showed that we had received an impressive 19mm of lovely rain the night before.


It was a great morning’s work thanks to Deb, Vince and Barry. I am looking forward to turning the compost for the first time this coming Saturday morning.


Happy gardening,


Joe

A small but happy crew ...

We were a small, yet happy AND productive crew at the gardens for our working bee on 12 February. The rain tended to keep the punters away but we found, once we started getting our hands dirty, that the rain itself stayed away – at least until right at the end when it was most welcome. Nothing like a good soaking rain on new seedlings!

Our primary tasks for the day included refreshing and planting out two of the raised garden beds. The first we planted out with lettuce seedlings, chilli plants and coriander seeds. The next we refreshed by building it up ‘no-dig’ style; the manner we used to create the beds in the first instance. This bed we planted out with an assortment of herbs – all of which will now be much easier to harvest. We also planted perennials amongst the fruit trees; these not only look good but will also attract pollinators, such as bees, into the garden.

A Harvest of New Taste Sensations

We've all been looking for new ways to eat lots, lots, lots more .... zucchini and eggplant recently.

I recently cooked delicious stuffed eggplant with Indian spicing (recipe below).

There are plenty of zucchini and cucumbers to harvest at present, and some delicious beans beginning to ripen. Join us planting and preparing new beds this Saturday 12 Feb @ 8am.

Enjoy

Tomato Stuffed Aubergines – bharwan baingan tamattari

A delicious spicy eggplant recipe that Sol, from Heart & Sol recommended.

4 medium eggplants

Oil for cooking

PASTE

4 medium tomatoes

2 onions grated

2 fresh red chillis

4 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp fresh coriander

1 tbsp grated ginger

3 cloves grated garlic

1.5 tbsp ground coriander

2tsp ground cumin

1tsp fennel seeds

1tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt

Besan or gram flour if required to thicken.

METHOD

Using blender, Blend all paste ingredients. The texture should be stiff and not so runny that it slides off the eggplant slices. Add flour to thicken if required.

Slice each egg plant vertically from bottom to top (without cutting through the stem) into 4 parallel slices that remain joined by the stem.

Spread each eggplant layer with the spice paste and then rearrange the eggplant to look whole again.

Generously oil a flameproof casserole dish that can hold all eggplants lying down. Cook very gently for 20 mins on the stove top, then turn eggplants and cook a further 20 mins. If they begin to stick, add a few tbsps water. (alternatively, bake at 180°C for 40 mins turning halfway) Serve warm or cold.

Forget about a "pound of flesh", I’ll take my 'payment' in beans!

I went to the gardens to water the fruit trees today. It seems the twice-weekly deep-soaking is doing them good. That, and the extra mulch we loaded onto them on the weekend, should help the soil to hold moisture and stay cool. I did notice a few things while there worth noting: A few trees are shooting from below the graft - we need to keep an eye on this as we do not want them returning to their ‘root stock’. I also spotted some telltale ants running up and down certain trees (generally the citrus). They are ‘farming’ scale; a slight infestation will not hurt but, again, we need to keep an eye on them. At this stage the scale are easily removed but if it gets more serious we might consider using some eco-oil. The garden is hosting some weird and wonderful bugs too; the most colourful seen today being the caterpillar of the Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly (commonly known as 'Citrus Butterfly')

Both the caterpillar and the butterfly are awesome looking creatures. We only seem to have few so I think the rewards outweigh the costs at this point in time, so ‘live and let live’.

The harvest from the garden continues to impress. Kathy and I gathered cucumbers (both apple and Lebanese), eggplant, MORE zucchinis (or, in a few cases ‘marrows’) and a couple of small baskets of beans – 350 grms of which went home with me. They made their way into a warm beetroot (the last of my own summer crop roasted), bean, walnut and fetta salad. The basis of the salad came from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5181/warm+beetroot+bean+walnut+salad if anyone wants to take a look. It’s a true and tested favourite of mine.

One final note, the hot weather might have gone but the rain has not yet returned, so we need to keep up the watering. The fruit trees and passionfruit are covered, as are the pumpkins thanks to Vince, but if you can get along to water the veggie beds please do so!

See those of you who can make it along on Thursday.