I totally freaked out last year when I pulled a ‘space ship’ (kohlrabi) out of the box. But it became the basis of some good eatin’.

Kohlrabi looks striking in the garden, as the colourful bulb grows above the ground.  

Kohlrabi is a member of the brassica family, like cabbages and broccoli. Both the bulb and leaves of the plant can be eaten. We enjoyed chopping up the bulb and steaming it along with potato to make a mashed potato-kohlrabi side dish – it brought a really nice flavour to the usual potato mash! We’ve also had it grated raw on a salad wrap, but it has a bit of a bite to it so you don’t need much fresh.

Kohlrabi looks so striking in the garden, and we quite enjoyed the taste of it when cooked, so this week at our local fresh food market we stocked up on a few more kohlrabi seedlings.

Anyone else tried growing and eating kohlrabi? We’d love to hear any ideas for recipes you have! A few suggestions can be found at http://vegbox-recipes.co.uk/ingredients/kohl-rabi, while more info about how to grow this colourful veggie can be found at http://www.annettemcfarlane.com/Stories/kohlrabi.

Yesterday we had a train trip up to the Organic Expo and Green Show in Sydney, and were re-invigorated to see just how much the organic movement is growing. It was fabulous to see so many organic farmers talking about their wonderful, clean organic produce.  

Costa from Costa's Gardening Odyssey appeared as a special guest and presented the ‘dig for your dinner’ award to the school judged as growing an abundance of fresh produce. We were thrilled to see one of our local schools, Cringila Primary take out the winning ‘dig your dinner’ award! Big congratulations to all students and teachers involved!  You truly are leading the way with inspiring the next generation to ‘get growing!’

Within months brown marsh frogs stumbled across it, and decided it would be a good place to start a family (if you look closely in the photo below, you can see a second frog on the back of the other, shrouded in their spawn). Peron’s tree frogs have moved in too, they’re a bit more elusive to photograph...

Dragonflies have also decided our pond is a good nursery for their young. One morning we were lucky enough to watch an incredible transformation, as about ten water-dwelling dragonfly nymphs crawled up the stems of the water chestnuts and slowly pulled themselves out of their shells to emerge as stunning dragonflies that flitted off in the wind...

Waterskinks love to warm themselves on the rocks around the pond...

And this morning an Eastern Spinebill dived into the pond for a refreshing Sunday morning dip...

All this wildlife in our garden brings us so much joy and entertainment. Attracting a diversity of wildlife is also important for us in implementing a holistic, integrated, approach to managing pests in an organic garden. If you’re thinking about installing a pond in your garden, now is the perfect time to get this garden task done before the hot summer months! For more info about ponds, check out our pond webpage.

We dug up our mulch paths....

And spread this mulch, which had been decomposing for a year, on top of the worm castings around the fruit trees.  Then we ordered a big load of mulch (which in the winter here you can often get for free from local tree lopping companies – that’s what we did!)

And had a working bee with friends to spread the fresh mulch onto the paths – thanks again to our working bee buddies!

If you need some extra inspiration for getting out there and building your soils, check out the movie Dirt! like we did earlier this week! Happy soil building! 

We really enjoy watching films that tell stories about where our food comes from, and the Food Inc documentary is an eye-opening look into the America's industrialized food system and its effect on our environment, health, economy and workers' rights. At the Flame Tree Soup and Film Night you can watch the film and be warmed by homemade soup for $15, or for $20 you can have a yummy dessert as well. Soup and music will be from 6-7pm, with the film running from 7-9pm. Bring your own bowl and cup to this lovely community event!

We buy all our organic staples in bulk from the Flame Tree Community Food co-op, like rice, lentils and dried fruit. It’s great to save on packaging by taking our own containers and bags, and the community vibe at the co-op makes it such an enjoyable shopping experience!  We’re pretty much self sufficient on fruit and veg, but for those people wanting organic fruit and veg, the food co-op also sources fruit and veg boxes.

Check out the co-ops website for more info – and if you’re in the Illawarra, we hope to see you at the film screening!

Recently the lovely Emily Duncan, a journalist student from the local univeristy, popped around to create a short audio visual film about our adventure in sustainability. She did such a fabulous job! See below for the finished product:

Luckily there was no damage to our trees, and only a few of our veggies took a turn for the worse. The new cheery tomato seedlings aren’t looking to happy, but hopefully they might hang in there...

And the leaves of our sweet potatoes which we use as a ground cover in the food forest look a bit worse for wear...

On the up side, a bit of a chill is good for stone fruit like apricots and plums, so maybe they will reward us extra well this coming summer!

Anyone else been touched by frost lately? If so, we hope it hasn’t done too much damage at your place!

1) Cherry Tomatoes - They grow like weeds and fruit for us pretty much all year round. We’re still picking them fresh from the vine, and have young seedlings in now for early spring harvest! Unlike other tomatoes, they’re so hardy and very resistant to pests. We use them so much in the kitchen - in salads, soups and pastas, on wraps and pizzas. We’d be lost without them!

2) Zucchini – Again they grow like nothing else, and as such as have become used to having them in almost every dish over the summer! Zucchini are a new gardener’s best friend, giving instant reward for little effort. We like zucchini best in stir-fries, and grated raw onto salad wraps.

3) Potatoes – Home grown potatoes are just delicious and taste so much better than store brought varieties. Slow cooked home grown potato wedges covered in spices and olive oil are just to die for. With bumper crops, there’s not much more satisfying than digging up a potato patch...

4) Corn – Juicy, sweet and oh so tender, fresh corn straight from the cob doesn’t even need to be cooked! But lightly steamed and with some melted butter – divine! A patch of corn in the garden is such an impressive site to behold. If you have any member of the grass family on your block, let it be this!

5) Onions – We probably eat more onions than any other vegetable – they’re the base of almost every meal! Onions are impossible for us to buy organically around here, so growing our own is the perfect solution. Easy to grow and good at being stored for long periods, onions for us are a must, and we’ve just planted a whole bunch for harvesting in the summer.

What would be your top five veggies to grow and why?

Glorious weekend breakfasts down by the frog pond...

Harvests of fresh ginger....

Handfuls of chillis...

And for our chooks - much fun having dirt baths!

The process started by ripping 60 sheets of green used A4 office paper into little pieces, soaking the pieces in hot water for an hour and then adding them slowly to an old blender...

Blending the paper into a pulp, adding scoops of the pulp to a large container of water, giving the mix a swish and then creating a sheet by dipping in a frame and screen...

Gently transferring the paper to a drying card...

Peeling the paper off the cards once dry and admiring the final product of 58 sheets of beautiful 100% recycled A3 paper!

I was lucky enough to be able to borrow two simple paper making kits from friends (thanks Kel and Alex!), which have the frame you need to make paper. You sometimes see these kits at op shops, garage sales or e-bay. You can also make your own frames. If you’re keen to make paper at home, libraries often have helpful ‘how to’ books, or a quick Google search will give you lots of ideas!