Kitchen Garden by late November

curly endives with red endives

My kitchen garden looks fabulous at this time of the year. I can say that all the vegetables are at their optimum health condition. My romaine lettuce, endives, puntarelle....broccoli are simply looking great. The weather is warm too! You could never ask for more for this temperate weather at this time of the year. This is the best autumn weather! The colors of the trees are changing every minute and they are losing faster too. The colors are so intense like red, gold,brown, russet etc... with all earth tones, you have to feel the abundance whenever you see all of them through out the day.The beauty is so 'revealing', you can actually feel joy deep inside you.

OLIVE PICKING

The time has come to picking olives. It is the time for therapeutic adventure..... having quiet time to yourself, 'melurut dengan tangan' all the olives from the branches could give opportunity to reflect on our lives. The process is very slow and takes time. Therefore, the actual price that we pay for a bottle of olive oil at the supermarket is never the real price because this industry is heavily subsidised by the European union. This is one of the heritage industries for the Mediteranean countries.This tree already existed since ancient time and they are very resistant to weather and never lose leaves in winter.

The weather is absolutely warm to pick olives now. It is really a blessing because a couple of years ago, we had to brave ourselves in almost freezing weather to pick all the olives around our house. Usually olive picking is almost a 'family or national affair'. Almost everywhere, we could see and hear people gathering together to pick olives. The whole family and extended family will spend a few days together for this activity and this could be fun.... picnic under the olive trees with warm tea and a few slices of chocolate cake or having warm lunch too!

The olives will then be taken to the 'frantoio' where they will be pressed. The quality of oil depends on various factors, like weather, location of the tress etc. The quantity of olives this year is much less than the previous year but the quality of oil is superb and we have almost 20 litres of 'olio olive extra vergine'.

Olive oil is like tea, it tastes better not by the process of 'aging'. They are best consumed as soon as possible, like other oils too. If the oil is kept for too long, it will lose its taste. The Italians like to consume new oil on the bruschetta. The taste of olive oil differs from region to region too. The oil that comes from the Southern Regions and certain places from Central Regions are very strong and sometimes can be quite 'kelat' and others can be very mildly strong and delicate.

The rain does not seem to stop. It is really autumn and the weather is rather variable. I could not do much in my kitchen garden or flower garden. Before the rainy season started last week, i managed to prepare the beds for the spring bulbs. Clearing all the weeds was not an easy task but i managed to work the soil too. By the time I want to plant the new bulbs of tulips and daffodils, the rain came and it looks like I have to wait until the soil becomes dry.

I normally plant all the bulbs gradually so that by the spring time, I will have the succession of colors in 4 weeks. I will try to plant all the bulbs from now until right before Christmas.

My kitchen garden looks very well, eventhough the weeds are growing like feeding them with high dose of minerals and vitamins. One of the weeds that is very useful is nettle. Nettle stings, but it contains a lot of iron and very useful for detoxification. Making frittata (omellete)using nettle is divine and simple. This year, I am allowing a lot of space for the nettles and i will have loads of them for my detoxification process!

curly endives with some spring oninons


After a few days of cold snap and thermal shock, my kitchen garden is taking back its regular 'winter shape'. Sicilian broccoli, endives and others plants are surving well through the first round of cold. I presume they can cope well with this sudden change of temperature!
I have sowed some peas and planted some garlic too! Since rotation of crops is very important in organic planting, my peas and garlic are in the new beds and I hope they are going to do well together with romaine lettuce and poppies!

Thermal shock

The temperature has gone down drastically, leaving us gasping for more air. Thermal shock!The difference between this morning and the day before is more than 10 degrees! The temperature has gone down to 4 degrees at around 7.30 am in the morning with some thick ice on my windscreen (it is quite unlikely to have ice in the middle of October) It was so warm a few days ago and suddenly with 30 minutes storm, it has changed the weather completely. My body can't cope with this sudden change of temperature and so does my brain.

I couldn't resist to see what happened to my kitchen garden as I just planted light green broccoli and salads a few days agos..... I think the plants are coping very well with this sudden cold and my kitchen garden is saved at the moment.

Magic Nuts!

soapberry

Take a closer look at these nuts! They look like 'dried mata kucing' that we can buy at the local shop but I call these 'magic nuts!' because it works like magic! These are sapindus mukarossi. It is a type of nut that contains active natural soap ingredient and biodegradable too.

I have found these nuts at a local bioshop and did not think twice to get them.They are also called 'soapberry'. These nuts are natural laundry soap and by using only 5 or 7 nuts (put them in a small bag which is given together) and put that small bag together with your laundry. Of course the end result of your washing won't smell like lavander or wild rose but they are absolutely smell fresh! The best thing about this soapberry is that you can reuse them for 2 or 3 times! You can get approximately 50 washings just from 250 grams of these nuts. If you like your laundry to have sweet smell, just put a few drops of essential oil together with these magic nuts!

Autumn/Spring Kitchen Garden

The day is still warm and in fact it is warmer than usual. It is early October and the sun is still scorching hot in the middle of the day and the temperature can go up to 28 degrees Celcius.

I planted more or less the same vegetables like last year but without beets. However, I planted more red cabbages, Italian parsley, Sicilian broccoli, romaine lettuce and 'puntarelle'. Puntarelle is a family of chicory and is best eaten raw with garlic and anchovies. It is an early spring salad and you have to cut them in small strips and put in a bowl of cold water. Then, these small strips will curl up and become very crunchy. I love to clean and cut them into small strips. Eventhough certain people might think that cutting and cleaning puntarelle is more suitable for old ladies with some spare time to spend, I think it is so 'therapeutic' and even relaxing. I love to see them curling up in the water.

The organization of my kitchen garden this year is more 'linear' with some flower bulbs in between the vegetable rows like tulips and daffodils. Last year the daffodils were extremely spectacular and I am planning to extend the space for them this time. My kitchen garden will blend with many spring flowers and usually it will have an explosion of colours in early April to late May.

This year, I am planning to sow various types of poppies too, (I am a BIG fan of poppies!) like Iceland poppy( I am not that lucky with this poppy) , American poppy and opium poppy and I will put them together with the peas!

I love to do the winter/spring kitchen garden each year as it so rewarding. Working with the nature and observe how it works wonders and only through preserverance and patience, we can see the abundance. However strong my wishes are, there are still a lot of work to do here. Weeding really makes me feel so helpless. It is such unending task. But, as for now I have a few dahlias to admire!