You may remember that, towards the end of last year, a group of people came to our community vegetable garden who had sourced a large number of native edible plants and helped us plant them.
The warrigal greens have been absolutely thriving. Likewise, some of the native herbs. The saltbushes are very happy. The pepper berry tree is establishing itself as is the lemon myrtle bush. The (not native) lemon tree, which was rescued from a pot in which it had been very unhappy, is positively thriving among its native companions.
However, the humans in the garden are not experienced in growing edible native plants, nor really in cooking and eating them. So the Grow people came back and talked us through some of it. They also made saltbush crisp breads for us to taste, lemon myrtle and also river mint teas. They harvested bunches of warrigal greens and encouraged us to take them away with us. I do pick some of the warrigal greens when I am in the garden. They're a sort of native spinach and I use them as spinach.
I brought a bunch back to the flat with me and used it in a pasta sauce I made with some cherry tomatoes I had been given, mince I had in the freezer, a little saltbush, a red onion I had bought at the Alphington market the previous weekend and some fettuccine, likewise from the market. Oh - and some cream cheese, which needed using and which I stirred through just before I added the fettuccine. It was very delicious.
During the afternoon I wandered around to The District and visited Woolworths and the Asian supermarket. I *might* have had some ice cream before coming home again. Maybe :-D
The weather changed overnight and it was quite wet on Sunday. I went to the Dennis station in the morning and met Simon there with Ziggy. I oh-so-nearly forgot to get off at Dennis station. Usually on Sunday mornings I am going to Alphington, which is two stations beyond Dennis. Fortunately, my attention was re-focussed when the train announcement said: We will shortly be arriving in DENNIS!!!!
I borrowed Ziggy from Simon (who walked home through the park; it wasn't actually raining at that point) and made my way to Daylesford where the Sunday Lunchers were meeting at Gillie's place. We had a delicious lunch of a charcuterie plate, baked creamy chicken and leeks with potatoes and green beans, then poached pears to finish. It was a lovely afternoon and the fact that it was raining didn't impede our conversation at all. Then I drove back to Freyja and Simon's place and Simon generously drove me back to my place. It was still raining!
I am not expecting this week to be as interesting from a food point of view, although there will, of course, be food. I am planning roast chicken pieces for dinner tonight and tomorrow, which will certainly be delicious but which can hardly be described as interesting! I want to run the freezer down a bit so I can sort it out and see what's still in there, so I am mainly planning to "shop" from existing supplies this week and next. I do, however, need some more vegetables and milk, plus I need to go the library. I have a couple of books to return and one to pick up. I shall head out shortly.
A little while ago I bought some floor stickers to cover the stained and cracked kitchen tiles. Replacing them with new tiles would be expensive, logistically difficult and would need authorisation from the Building Management people (who might have ideas about colour and style). Stickers seemed the way to go, so I went hunting for sticker tiles which were specifically designed for floors (so not the flimsier stickers I used on the splash back in Eilish Court). I have started sticking them. I will need help to slightly lift the dishwasher to slide a couple of stickers under its feet. And I will also need help to move the fridge to sticker under it. But I am quite pleased with progress:
I have done more since this photo was taken but I thought I would show you the contrast between the stickers and the original tiles. I'll see how well these tiles cope in a high traffic area. If they last well, I'll get more for the bathroom and maybe even for the Sunset Strip/Winter Garden.
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