Canning Cabbage Chow Mein

 Officially since Wednesday 7th, my birthday, I now enter the 6th. year of blogging, who knew? This will be the 317th post to date and today I am showing off the canning or bottling as known in Australia, what I have done with 6 cabbages, yep 6, picked them fresh from the garden and still 3 more growing. 

2 were over the kilo and the other 824g

One 920g the other two 725g & 750g mark.

Also picked another broccoli head several days ago, which have done extremely well this year. Can't recommend enough 1/2 cow manure and 1/2 mushroom compost for the garden. 

 I actually went out to count how many plants just now, and there were 7,  so I picked another and it weighs 472gms. not bad hey, 2 more left but will leave these plants in as they will start to grow side shoots, small like broccolini.

So my favorite meal for cabbage, and that is the only way I will eat it, is made up per 500gms(lb.) ground beef(mince), pkt. chicken noodle or french onion soup, onion, tsp curry  then one whole cabbage cut and mixed in, or half a one if not sure. I made up 2. 1/2 kilos with this lot.(5.1/2 lbs) which made up 10 quarts. 3 of the bottles didn't seal so I froze 2 and we had one for dinner. 

Yesterday I then did 3 chilli con carne and 3 shepherds pie mix, which I preserved two in a left over space, and the rest is now on the boil while I type. Always fingers crossed that they seal with mince as it is quite fatty and can mess the whole canning thing up. In which case I will freeze or if  one of the shepherds pie mix doesn't work that will be tonight's dinner.

Every now and then I turn them upside down so the liquid goes to the top, not that it matters much. When they are opened I heat for 10mins to be safe. We never eat anything cold from my pressure canned food. It may seem a lot of food but they keep at least 3 years for me, if they last that long. Often when we are late back from choir I open one, or if I have had a tiring day. So if I end up with 15 bottles it is only 15 meals. Easy Peasy.

 

If you remember several weeks ago I decided to close down some of the garden, a bit of a waste really and I suddenly had a thought that I could plant something that took time to grow and came up with beans. Now is the time to plant beans so I researched and found a company that specializes in DRIED beans, although you can eat them when green.

My own colourful collection now

 Before we weren't allowed to import seeds, Bob Reid came from Scotland and through his work collected seeds from all over the world. Hundreds of them. Pictures in this link. 

Bob Reids Beans Display

 So as one of the gardens hadn't been covered I was dumping the fire ash on, which is alkaline, which beans like, so decided to buy a few different colours as I use them or chickpeas a lot. They will grow right through to summer when they will dry out, probably till December.

One bed ready for planting.

 I am going to have to cover the beds though as I am having trouble with 3 bush turkeys who have taken to digging up freshly weeded and dug parts, including plants and seeds. Now that our dog EinstEin has gone, they are scared of nothing, short of running down to the garden via all those steps (ouch the knees) to shoo them away.

This is what they look like as high as your knee at least.

And the damage.

Last night or early morning digging around the rhubarb that I just split and Blueberry roots.

This garden growing so far Butter Beans and Pak Choy

The other half  Turkeys have dug up of beetroot, and lettuce seeds, some flowers. They have huge claw feet.

 So I think today's job when John gets back from the Community Garden is helping me cover this lot up with wire netting.

Anyway, my sister arrived yesterday with morning tea of my favorite bun of Apple and Walnut, and a variety of chocolate bars plus 4 microwave holders and 2 masks that she made, which is wonderful needed all of them. Love the yellow sunflowers as well

 I received a lovely birthday gift, in the mail, from my long time girlfriend of a felt kit that makes into a mug shape for holding sewing items, so cute and looking forward to making it.

 

Flowers from John, which had very long stems so cut them short to try and grow from cuttings. 

That was my week so stay safe everyone with covid on the rise in the Sydney area. 

Till Next Time.

Broccoli & Sweet Potato Week

The hour a day gardening is certainly paying off. Things are starting to look a lot better. This week I planted the broccoli of which some seedlings, have finally come up. I planted them straight into the garden although still small, rather than into pots. Hopefully they will be all right. I also covered them with netting which now completes that bed, but also saves the drying out with sun and wind. The weather has been lovely.
 

Removed all the lettuce and added extra compost.

After

The Chinese cabbage Wombok is certainly doing well, after a couple of weeks.

While I was at it added in some rocket seedlings and also Chinese Celery. I like the soft leaves of the celery to add to soups and salads, but you have to keep on top of both these plants to keep the new growth young. I use old dog beds to cover up until they settle in to growing mode. Instead of planting a clump, like I usually do, divided each individual plant up, so that should be interesting seeing I had at least 8 plants of each. There is always the worm farm to feed with green leaf though.

The sweet potato grows at the back of my ornamental fence, and has certainly taken over. The actual potatoes aren't that big but I got a small basketfull while cleaning up most of it. Really I was just scraping  the growth off the top and off other plants, as I will let some of it regenerate to increase the size of the tubers.

 

This is the amount of greenery I got from it.

Amongst it all was the lovely purple/white chrysanthemums.

Looks a little bare now.
 

Sweet potato hiding under all of it.

Will leave a little growth to enlarge more tubers.

Some are small but will be ok to cook with.

Just near this area is the pumpkin vine on the trellis, so cut back a lot of the leaves so they ripen a bit quicker.

Finally also started to prune some of the roses. There are three right in the corner so got stuck in to them also. Our wheely bin is certainly stuffed full now.

Before

These are climbing ones.

I would love to plant some more flowers, but it will be a case of whether I want to go into Bunnings or not. Maybe get out some current marigold seeds and plant everywhere for a change, rather than just one garden.

 I had some sad news this week, my cousins wife A was killed in a quad bike accident. They have an alpaca farm in Heathcote Victoria, for over 20 years at least, so I find that hard to take, as it is something she would have done every day. My cousin R had a heart attack at the scene and was air lifted to hospital but has now recovered. The online funeral was yesterday, so I am glad I was able to "attend" even if a bit odd, I certainly couldn't have gone to Victoria for it, in normal circumstances, so have to say this online thing is a good solution, and perhaps should be more of it. It certainly helped me find peace with it all. The accident came up on my facebook link to my cousin, even though both of us are pretty quiet on there, but I wouldn't have known either, without it. They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in May, and has all been a nasty shock to the family.

It is John's birthday Tuesday but don't think much will be happening for it. Hope everyone's week went well.

Till Next Time.

Autumn Harvest - Cabbages to Chow Mein

Underneath the net are 5 cabbages, 2 Vertus, which are the ones with a rough crinkly leaf, and 3 Greyhound. The Greyhound are the ones I picked.

Netted cabbage bed.

Greyhound Cabbages on show, 2 weeks before picking.

Last year I dehydrated some cabbage and it worked out great. Love adding it to crock pot meals, as it helps absorb the liquid. With this lot I made Chow Mein, with mince,onion,chicken noodle soup pack, teaspoon of curry powder and the cabbage.

Picking stage, few bugs attacking now.

This one weighed a kilo.

 I wanted to freeze a few meals, and this one is so easy and tastes the same after heating it up with a bit of water in the pot.

Nice and clean inside.

 Chow mein is a pretty common meal in my family, been around for years but should anyone want the recipe just ask, or google it. It is a great use of cabbage for those who don't like it. 

 

I managed to freeze 3 meals and we ate one that night. It has been a bit of a cooking week, as also did some more oat biscuits, this time with dried apricots, instead of sultanas and another boiled fruit cake, to use up the rest of the fruit mince.

Last Monday a nice surprise from our daughter in America arrived  for Mothers day.

So just in case she didn't get my message, here they are, and still going strong today. The buds  of the Lillies are opening and smelling the house out. Turned out to be pink.

My sister and I finalized Mum's pre arranged funeral, and I feel so much better to have it done. When the time comes it will be so much easier, than having to do it at the time. For those who don't know one basic plan simple wood coffin, (cardboard is more ) for 10 people and celebrant is $8,500.00, a lot of money, which fortunatly my father had saved enough to cover it. An eye opener though for pre planning for John and I, which is still an expected 20 years or more away, goodness knows how much a funeral then is.

That's it for this week, till next time.