Recipe - Mamma Krisieeni's Bolognese Sauce

Contents

• 2 Kg Tomatoes (skinned and chopped)
• 3 Garlic cloves (chopped finely)
• Small Bunch of basil (chopped finely)
• Small bunch of parsley(chopped finely)  (I use a combination of curly and Italian parsley)
• Small bunch of garlic chives (chopped finely)
• 1 brown onion(chopped medium)
• Add half a cup of Red Wine if you want to

Directions

• Boil a saucepan of water and place the washed tomatoes into it for 1 minute or until skin begins to loosen and peel
• Remove the tomatoes from the boiling water, place them in a bowl, allow them to cool slightly and then remove and dispose of all the skins
• Chop the tomatoes into large chunks
• In a clean saucepan add the tomatoes and bring to the boil - boil rapidly for 5 minutes while stirring
• Mix in all of the other above ingredients and boil rapidly for a further 15 minutes (or until sauce thickens) stirring constantly, season with salt and pepper
• Remove the saucepan from the stove and place it on the sink to cool slightly before pouring it into your sterilized preserving jars.

Recipe - Tomato Jam

Tomato Jam

Contents

• 2.5 kg Tomatoes (I use a combination of Roma and Grosse Lisse Tomatoes but any type will be fine)
•  5 1/2  cups of sugar (I prefer raw sugar but you could use castor sugar if you prefer to)
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice

Directions

• Boil a saucepan of water and place the washed tomatoes into it for 1 minute or until skin begins to loosen and peel
• Remove the tomatoes from the boiling water, place them in a bowl, allow to cool slightly and then remove all the skins and dispose of them, then place the tomatoes in a clean saucepan (I include about 1 cup of the juice in the bowl of tomatoes as well and it makes a good consistency (jam is firm but slightly runny) bring the tomatoes (and the cup of juice from the bowl of tomatoes) to a rapid boil and stir in the sugar.  Boil rapidly for 15 minutes stirring constantly.
• Add the lemon juice and boil rapidly for another 10 minutes stirring constantly
• Remove the saucepan from the stove and sit it on the sink to cool down slightly
• Fill your sterilized jars with the tomato jam mixture leaving a slight space at the top below the lid, screw on the lids and tip the jars upside down so they are standing on their lids, this should seal them.  I keep mine in a pantry and move them to the refrigerator once the jar is opened

Vegetable Garden, Netted Garden, Hot House, 2014

Returning after holidays we have a mountain of work to get the vegetable garden producing so that we can supply ourselves (and some family members) with all the vegies we need.
We will try to plant all the vegies that we will eat, with the exception of Broccoli, which will have to wait until the weather is a bit cooler.

The netted garden

Our main vegies are potato, sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin, beans, spinach and broccoli.
Time has passed and the vegetables are now growing -
Tomatoes
Roma Tomatoes in above ground garden
Grosse Lisse Tomatoes in above ground garden
Grosse Lisse and Roma have done fabulously, keeping us in tomatoes for our salads for months as well as making several jars of Tomato Jam and Tomato and Basil Bolognese Sauce- I will share my recipes I used in a later blog.

Roma tomatoes

Grosse Lisse and Roma tomatoes

Corn, Zucchini and Radish in one of the above ground gardens.

Zucchini and Corn

Corn

Below is a fun garden with types we haven't grown before so hoping to have success with these and of course we are always looking for a challenge in growing and trying new things.
Harlequin Carrots, Burpees Golden Beetroot, Silver Beet Bright Lights and Dwarf Butter 
Bean in one of the above ground gardens.

Fun garden

Dwarf Butter Beans

Silver Beet Bright Lights

Sweet Potato, Mango Melon and Strawberries in the large above ground garden.

Pumpkin in the ground on the border of the property

The paw-paw trees

Passion-fruit
Boysenberries
Raspberries
Sugar Melon

In a previous blog I mentioned the Sturt's Desert Pea plants that I have grown from seed, Much excitement here when the first flower bloomed last week. 

The Glass House

Desert Rose - Adenium Obesum 
I am in the process of growing some Desert Rose seeds I purchased from a seller on ebay that imports them(from Africa south of the Sahara region) They are shooting up and are my 'babies' at the moment until they grow strong.

Adenium Obesum - Desert Rose

Clivia
Approximately 20 of my clivia seeds, I gathered from the original plants we grow, have shot and are now about 5cms tall so almost ready to go out into larger pots

Grosse Lisse Tomatoes
6 Tomato bushes I have grown in the hot house have produced a huge number of tomatoes - I was not sure how this would go as we get temperatures in the 30C - the hot house has a shade over it in summer and I did not trim back the bushes thinking the growth might protect the fruit (just my idea and not sure it made it any better but probably will do it again next summer 'if it aint broke, why fix it'?)

Water Lilies
I have purchased and been given plants to grow at the edge of our creek but they have lived in the hot house all summer due to the creek being low and the hothouse being misted regularly.
That is all that is going on in the hothouse at the moment but I am looking forward to starting more seedlings in the next month so will update then