Baby Asparagus

Time is marching on faster than I can keep up now. I have only just finished saying "what happened to last month?' and another month has whizzed by!

Among the preserves I have done for the coming winter are an old favourite, and a new one.
Last year, even with being careful, I ran out of my wonderful pickled (fermented) peppers way too soon. This year there is a glut of capsicums on the market - usually around $3 each, they are going for $5 a kg at the moment, (which averages 10 peppers). Whoopee!
So I have been putting a few jars of those up. Wonderful in salads, tapas plates, and on pizzas!
The new one this year is Batinjan Makdous (Preserved stuffed baby eggplant). My soil was finally good enough this year for the eggplants to produce, so I have done this wonderful Mediterranean preserve - baby eggplants stuffed with chopped walnuts and garlic, and marinated in olive oil. Yum!

Always looking to extend my garden repertoire, I decided I would do asparagus this year. Normally grown from 2 year old crowns, which take another 2 years until first harvest, I wasn't able to get crowns, so decided to go the harder route (of course!) and try growing them from seed - which takes 4 years (they are very much a long term thing). I went out this morning, as I do every morning, to survey the garden, and lo, the asparagus has finally popped up! Teeny tiny asparagus spears poking out of the soil. Thank goodness for macro lenses on cameras!

My next garden addition - mushrooms! I found a place where I can get the mushroom spawn, so I am going to give those a try. I will start with Oyster mushrooms, then field mushrooms, then I want to do the large Burgundy, and the Shaggy Cap. Once I am confident with these ground growing mushrooms, I hope to give the log growing varieties a try - Shitake, and Poplar (a native NZ variety).