Mushroom Harvest!

Early Spring: Late September

It's been only 4 days since I last took a photo of the mushrooms in the shed and how they have grown! There are even more clusters of mushrooms that I had not noticed 4 days ago, most of them Portobellos. So I guess it's Mushroom Harvest time!

The white buttons are also starting to grow, but much slower than the Portobellos, and it's funny how most of them grow around the edges of the box rather than in the middle....

Here's our harvested mushrooms all ready for our Sunday brekky!

Frank gently brushing off the soil from the mushrooms.


We are ready! Hehehe....

More cleaning, don't want a gritty mushroom omelette!

Mushrooms sauted with herbs and spread over the omelette, topped with grated Parmigiano cheese, fold the egg, pop in the oven for a minute or two....

Laid over some crusty bread! Breakfast is served! :D

Sprouts and Shoots

Early Spring: mid-late September

Went around the garden to check on my growing green pets and noticed new shoots coming from the pots where we sowed our lettuce seeds! Yippeee! Salads for hot summer days, lots of green for sandwiches, more salads....now if those snails will leave my veggies alone....

Mushrooms!!! Finally! After more than 3 weeks of twiddling thumbs, and rather impatiently too...I went into the shed this morning to perform my routine water spray on the mushroom patch, and was delighted to see the smooth, round, white heads of button mushrooms pushing up through the brown compost! Hallelujah! I was starting to stress out already when I was still unable to spot any mushrooms growing after 2 weeks, and was wondering wether the shed was too cold for growing mushrooms, or maybe the mycelium didn't surive because I had watered too much...etc. Now they are popping out all at once as if they've been sprinkled fairy dust overnight! Pretty soon, we shall be able to have fresh mushroom salads, mushroom omelette, mushroom soups, mushroom stir-frys, grilled mushrooms.....yum!

Colours of Spring

Early Spring: mid-September

Frank is coming home today from an overseas trip, I bought some flowers from our local florist to welcome him home. I have no idea what flowers they are, just thought they look really cheery with all the bright colours of spring! I found out later that they are poppies....didn't know poppies have such a variety of colours. I've always associated them with those used to commemorate Anzac Day, red with black centers, which are known as corn poppies or Flanders poppies, a symbol of rememberance for those who have fallen during the war "in a field of brillaint red poppies". http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/poppy.html

Another pretty flower from across the fence! This is from the neighbour directly oppposite our backyard, and she has this weeping cherry tree (I think), with small delicate pink flowers cascading down the branches. She owns an apple tree too, maybe I should start walking over with a legendary "Kylie lemon meringue pie", so we can exchange our lemons for her apples in autumn! Haha...

Green Pets

My preference for things are often skewed towards the category of "weird"..."out of the ordinary", or a more refined term would be, "unique". So it's no secret that I like cacti, and succulents even more! They come in all forms, shapes and sizes, and are so tolerant that it does take some effort to kill them! Some of them look so out of this world that I fantasize them being aliens in disguise, probably taking over the world one day with bubble guns!

I called them my "green pets". I started my collection way back, when I was still a scientific researcher in-the-making, burying my head in molecular biology books written in dull, heavy B flat minor language! So in between my torturous memorising work, I take frequent breaks by peering at my 3 green pets sitting on the window sill of my bedroom, 14 storeys above ground. When I had to leave them behind in Singapore, it was devastating! But thank goodness, they are just as popular here! So it was not long before I started my collection again! Though, I just learnt through Frank that collecting cacti and succulents is a hobby only for old people...WHAT the!!?......Maybe that's why I married you, Frank!? Ahahahaha....

Some of them are so beautiful and symmetrical, like stars...

Others like polyps in the sea...or maybe lime flavoured jelly beans?

And those that looked well camouflaged, I called this Zebra...

When they do flower....which are magnificent displays of vibrant colours, I do feel like a proud parent! That sense of satisfaction and achievement, from the time spent on nurturing them.....it has all paid off! It's time to sit back and enjoy this artistic display of nature! This is Rocky at 5 months old, badly pecked on by birds, but he survived! :D

Roxette, adorned with pearls of morning dew and shy pink flowers.


Snowy star with a little flower, sweet!

Spidey, (so named because of the many scraggly and thorny "legs" it has) crowned with a burst of pink flowers! :)


So when we bought a place, and have more space....it's time for me to expand my collection! So it's off to the nursery to get more green pets!


Here's my new collection! There are more than just green pets, there are even pink and red ones! Oooo.....


And I spent one whole weekend, painstakingly re-potting them in an old iron wok, which Frank had drilled holes in. I think I quite enjoy practising for my retirement...maybe by then, you would like to join me in this "Old Folks Hobby", Frank? Hahaha.....

Mushrooms and Peas

Early Spring: 1st week of September
I like mushrooms. No, actually, I love mushrooms! Fresh ones especially, when you can still get that musky, earthy scent. Mmmmmm......they are high in fibre, essential in vitamins and minerals, with a texture akin to that of meat, and packed full of goodness!
I've always dreamed of growing my own mushrooms (well, it's one of my many dreams...), so when we saw this mushroom kit (http://www.mushroomkit.com.au/) for sale at the nursery, I was jumping for joy!!! We got the combination kit, which contains 1/2 White Buttons and 1/2 Portabellos. The kits are very convenient. Everything comes neatly packed in a box complete with step by step instructions. It contains a bag of sterile compost already inoculated with the mycelium, and an additional bag of casing for the mushrooms to grow into! We have to wait a week for the mycelium to mature until they look white and frosty, as if they've gone bad, just like fungal growth...erm...of course, because we are growing fungi! Then the casing goes on and our box of precious mushroom babies goes into a cool and dark place, and we wait.....

We also planted our pea seedlings today. I love peas, and I love pea shoots even more! I love them for their curly and squiggly tendrils, they look so pretty and delicate! So it's no wonder they are getting increasingly popular in fancy restaurant menus! Though, they have long been used in Southeast Asia cuisines. I remember Mum using it in stir-fries alot, always reminding us that they are packed full of vitamins. I miss eating them. Occasionally I find them in Little Saigon market in Footscray, and I will be beaming with delight at finding my childhood comfort food! Even if I have to fight the Footscray crowd to get to them! :D

And here's our row of snow peas and sugar snap pea seedlings, ready to start their climb up that stretch of black plastic grid that we have set up for them on the fence! Grow peas grow! Let's see who reaches the top first! :D

Spring's here!! Out with the weeds, sow in the seeds!

Very very late winter: 2nd last day of August
You can tell spring is just around the corner when you see these pretty and delicate blossoms. As they sway softly to a light spring breeze, and dance among the soft morning rays, they light up the world with their cheery pinks....ahh...I love Spring!

These blossoms were taken from our neighbour's apricot tree, hope there will be plenty of fruits to share around in summer! :p

Spring's here, so time to pull out the weeds and sow in the seeds! We got a variety of seedlings from the nursery today, all ready to be planted into our veggie patch! Exciting! We've got spinach, eggplants, rainbow chard, nasturtiums, sweet peas, basil....Frank's already hard at work, guess I better get cracking too!

Of course, there will always be tomatoes, all time favorites! Got ourselves Heirlooms, Yellows and Tommy Toes! Cute name! haha...


Oh look, Mr. Pots has decided to help out this year! Other than looking after our garden (although he spends more time chatting up the garden fairies than anything else!), we've also got him to look after the chives seeds we've sowed in his little pot. Hope the ants don't get to the seeds before they sprout!

One of our rainbow chards already in the ground....

We've decided to plant our spinach seedlings in a pot, so we can get them out of the way of spinach munchers in the garden...but too late, they've already been munched on! My stinging battle with the garden pests continues....Frank caught them red-handed later that evening...snails....

There we have it, our veggie patch! Sowed and planted, all ready for another bountiful harvest this summer, I hope!

Though our font yard is still in a mess! Well compared to our neighbour's, which is neatly trimmed, weed-free and growing daisies....we'll get there, once we clear all those weeds!

And Frank says: "No fear missus! I will get it all done with my Wong Fei Hong flying kick! Haaaaaaiiiii-Ya!"

I think my hunny does enjoy his gardening....we can do it! :D

Fruits de la Mer

Frank and I have always loved our seafood, be it battered, grilled, pan-fried, steamed, poached, raw....as long as they are fresh, we love them anyway! I came across these really fresh sardines at the Victoria markets this morning. With their clear, dewy, bright eyes, they seemed to beckon to me from behind those glass shields at the fish stalls "Buy me! Buy me! I am packed full of Omega-3 goodness!" And I did. For $4.90/kg, simply irresistable! Most people detest the fishy smell of sardines and the thousands of soft little bones tucked and hidden away in that small little body. I used to hate them too, and the only way Mum got me to eat them was canned sardines in tomato sauce, cooked till they look like a disintegrated pile of red mass, with no resemblance whatsoever to a fish! But fresh sardines are different....these ones, not only do they not stink, they smell of the ocean! :) Sardines only stink if they are not fresh, like all seafood do. But, I won't kiss them though! :p And because they are fresh, they are easy to clean. If you snip off the backbone at the tail end and pull towards the head, the whole back bone, together with the rib bones, come off really easily.

Our first thought was to grill them, but our ill-equipped kitchen did not have a proper functioning grill, so the only way was to pan-fry them, and our lemons came into really good use! We stuffed them with a mix of toasted herbed bread crumbs, lemon zest and goat's cheese. Popped them onto a hot frying pan and pan-fried both sides till golden brown, then serve with a drizzle of fresh lemon juice!


Also got some fresh black mussels. We always felt that mussels are an underated seafood, they cheap, easy to clean and good to eat! Anyway, Frank cooked his speciality dish with them, Chilli Mussels! Served with crusty bread, YUM!


And here we have, our sardines and mussels dinner! Both delicious, and full of the goodness from the sea! And they definitely won't create a hole in the pocket!


The following weekend....we visited our local fishmonger this afternoon, Frank got a dozen of these oysters....seasoned them with parsley, crumbed and fried....lined them up, entree's served!


A close-up of these big and juicy jewels nestled in their shells, served with a touch of tabasco and mayonaise. Delish!


Our main dish of herbed butter flounder grilled with Kipfler potatoes...flatfish species are interesting, they started off looking symmetrical just like other fishies in the ocean, but by juvenile stage, one of their eyes will migrate to the other side of the body. Which eye of this flounder do you think had migrated? Left or right? ;)