Quinces The quince (Cydonia oblonga ) is an excellent backyard fruit tree for cooler parts of Australia. No wonder it is becoming trendy again, because it has several things going for it: it’s small (around 4-5m, but they can be kept smaller with pruning), it puts on...
Antonio’s tomato toast crusty bread, sliced thickly (sourdough is ideal) several large garlic cloves, cut in half several ripe tomatoes, cut in half olive oil, for drizzling salt, for sprinkling 1. Put the bread under a griller or on top of a barbecue, and lightly...
Silver beet: also called Swiss chard. Silver beet can look terrific in the kitchen garden as it comes in several colours. The colour differences are mostly in the stalks, which can be white, yellow, orange, red or pink, although you can get some varieties with red...
What to grow Salad greens are one of the best things you can grow in a kitchen garden, and spring is the ideal time to get started. As well as growing lettuce, and there are many varieties to choose from, it’s good to add variety to your salad with other greens such...
Best orange varieties for backyards Valencia: the seedless ‘Valencia’ orange is the best orange variety for most areas of Australia. It has few or no seeds. It is a fast-growing, hardy tree. The fruit ripen early (mid-September), but hold well on the tree for many...
Mango ( Mangifera indica ) Mangoes are medium-sized evergreen tree 8-12m tall, 5-7m wide with dark green leaves and fist-sized yellow-apricot fruit. They like a warm, sheltered position and well-drained soil and they do best in the tropics and subtropics, although...
By midsummer, many gardeners will have one major problem with chillies – there are too many of them! Turning chillies into paste is dead easy, so is freezing them. Making chilli oil is good fun, but drying them is sometimes harder than it might seem. So let’s...
Green Mango Salad 1 small green mango, peeled, flesh cut into matchsticks 2 tablespoons shallots, sliced finely 1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves 1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves, chopped 2 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts 2 teaspoons dried garlic flakes,...
Parsnip puree Wash, peel and prepare parsnips, cutting out any central woody cores. It doesn’t matter if you end up with lots of small pieces of parsnip. Now, fry the parsnip pieces in a knob of butter for 5 minutes, until they change colour, then pour over...
Lemon myrtle fish cakes This recipe is adapted from one which first appeared in the book, ‘Wild Lime’, by Juleigh Robins (published Allen & Unwin), which seems to be out of print at the moment, but your local library or secondhand bookstore might have it. This...