New home for my vintage plant stand

My new vintage plant stand has found a new home on my front verandah with pots of ferns and pansies.  Such a cute homespun look.

How to use tea bags: to think I used to just throw these in the compost

I found this great post on Rhonda Hetzel's Down to earth forum:
http://www.chasinggreen.org/article/25-ways-re-use-tea-bags

Top tips I think I will try at home:

1. The antibacterial contents of tea bags will help neutralize the odor in your litter box, as well. Just sprinkle the dried out contents of a brewed tea bag into the kitty litter.
2. If you have a bruise, sunburn, bee sting, mosquito bite, or cold sore put a cool, damp tea bag on the affected area and use like a compress. The tea will bring comforting relief, reduce inflammation, and promote healing.
3. Did your dishwasher fail to clean that big, greasy dish of stuck-on lasagna? Just soak the dish overnight with hot water and a few brewed teabags and the tannins from the tea with break down the grease by morning.
4. Deodorize stuffy rooms by pouring one quart twice-brewed tea and four tablespoons lemon juice or your favorite essential oil in a spray bottle.
5. Make your mirrors sparkle and shine by using cooled, twice-brewed tea as a cleaner. Just dip a soft cloth in the tea and use it to wipe away dirt and grime, and then buff dry.
6. Tear open a brewed tea bag and work the contents into the dirt of acid-loving plants like ferns and roses. The tannic acid and other nutrients will be released when you water the plants, spurring their growth. If these plants are ailing, watering them with cooled, twice-brewed tea will set them on the path to recovery!
7. Speed the decomposition process and enrich your compost pile by pouring a few cups of strong, twice-brewed tea into the heap. The liquid tea will hasten decomposition and draw acid-producing bacteria that will create acid-rich compost. 

Which are you going to try?

Artichokes: a new addition to my vegetable garden

I like the odd artichoke. I'm not good at preparing them and have never learnt how to eat them peasant style. They are a perennial vegetable though so I thought I would plant some in my garden.

So earlier this summer I bought and planted two small artichoke plants, planning a crop for next year.
I never imagined they could produce fruit the same season. I have noticed how big they were growing but still got a shock today when I saw all the fruit on them.

Now tell me though what is the correct term here? I'm thinking fruit because I'm going to eat them, but perhaps flower is more correct.  They're a thistle so I do think its a flower, an edible flower. Intriguing, if you know, please comment and help me out.

Anyway here they are.  I have counted 5 across the two plants, one of which is taller than me (not terribly hard, I'm short, but I don't expect to be outgrown in the vegie patch).

I wonder when they'll be ready?

Unknown fungi in my garden: can anyone identify it?

Happy chooks in a clean coop today

Today I have cleaned out the chicken coop. Its been raining over the last few weeks. When its wet they tend to get basic care. Neither of us want to spend a minute more than necessary in the rain and muddy chicken yard.  And the chickens have started to moult so there were feathers everywhere.

There is still plenty of rain lurking around but it has not actually been raining today so I took the opportunity to give the coop a good clean out.  Firstly the nesting boxes and perches have been cleaned out. I sprayed everything down with eucalyptus oil.  Kate and Scully have clean, dry paper and scattered herbs to keep away lice. Today's selection is lemon balm, rosemary, common mint and lavender.

The rest of the coop has been cleaned out and covered in dry sawdust.  I even scrubbed their water bottle, it gets a bit green after a while.

I have hung up a selection of green pick for the girls. Today its silverbeet, comfrey and sage. Aren't they lucky girls?

And I made them a special dinner. I have not done this often enough lately.  I have given them plain yoghurt, layer mash, pureed garlic and seaweed powder.

I stirred in some scratch mix also.  This will keep them busy for quite some time.

Zucchini flowers deep fried in tempura batter

Its zucchini season, when zucchinis must be picked daily before they become unpalatable marrows.
Zucchini is Italian for little marrows giving a strong indication of how they should be eaten: small and fresh. You can't get smaller and fresher then eating the tiny zucchinis before the flower falls off.

Zucchini plants produce both male and female flowers. The male are essential for pollination but do not produce fruit. That comes from the female flowers.  They are easy to tell apart. The male flowers grow on the end of an ordinary stem

whilst the female flowers gradually move away from the bush on the end of a dark green zucchini.

To cook zucchini flowers you will need tempura batter and ricotta. Tempura is easy to make from scratch so you don't need to buy the packet mix.  And you will need a deep fryer with vegetable oil.

Tempura batter mix
1 egg
3/4 cup plain flour
pinch bi-carb/baking soda
1 cup icy cold water

Beat egg and water together. Add flour and bi-carb/baking soda.  Mix quickly.  This makes a thin, runny batter.

Prepare the zucchini flowers by gently reaching into the centre of the flower and pinching out the stamens. If you forget and leave them in they won't hurt you, but they don't taste good!  Handle the flowers gently as they tear easily.  Place a teaspoon of ricotta in the centre of the flower and close the flower over it.

Dip the whole zucchini into the batter until completely covered.  Place on a plate and chill in the fridge for an hour before cooking.  This helps the batter to stick.

Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer.  Place the zucchinis in the basket when the oil is hot and fry until crispy and golden.

Serve with a salad and tangy dressing.

Yum.

Re-carpeting a cat scratching post

Restoring our cat scratching post has made Lily and Riley very happy.

We've had a few scratching posts over the years and this is the first one that hasn't fallen apart. The cats managed to rip the carpet off it but the structure is fine so we decided to fix it. It was a simple job. Pull off the old and replace with a fresh piece. I looked around for off cuts but settled for a carpet mat from the hardware. There is enough for us to re-cover it at least twice more.

Howard used really strong u-shaped nails to hold the carpet in place.  We resisted the temptation to glue it in place realising it would be almost impossible to remove.

The cat's are loving it. And they're leaving the door frames alone.