Brigitte’s autumn hideaway

Archive for the ‘Herb-diary’ Category

Winter in our region doesn’t mean snow but it can be chilly and frosty…
… we are really glad to have a pellet oven!
I wrote about a convenient and free cleaning preparation for the resins on the window. Please click here if interested.

Our garden has still things growing…

… and even our mystery plant is growing higher. Maybe she will reveal some buds some day and we can identify her.

In a corner were the hazel tree grows we found a ‘Drosselschmiede’ (translated thrush smithy)

A thrush has collected all hazelnuts in a hollow log and opened them on a stone.

The cocoon of the Emperor moth is still in our house and I am curious when we will see the moth.

Outside some bumble bees are still buzzing around.

But the cold weather makes them lazy and I guess they prefer now to stay underground in their homes.
I enjoy the last rose…

… and welcome new eucalyptus blossoms.

Winter in New Zealand is soooooo different from what I grew up and I miss the walks into the snowy forest to visit trees with squirrels peeking out…

… and feeding the wild live with hay and apples…

We have a lot of rain at the moment… since 3 weeks to be exactly… but that can’t stop our kids from playing outside…

… they have a lot of fun in the sand pit…

… and even use the hose to make a waterfall!

Today we had a few moments of sun and a beautiful rainbow showed it’s lovely colours over our place.

David and Aileen went to a mushroom hunt in our ‘wild corner’

There are a lot fungi on tree stomps…

… but also on the ground like this orange cuties around my yarrow

The biggest surprise today was this little patch of mushrooms I first thought might be puff balls…

… but look at this!
This are lovely white buds (Champignon in German and Agaricus bisporus in Latin) growing in our little forest!
Yum! What a great lunch!

Autumn brings so many yummy gifts for the people.
Say onion weed (Allium triquetum) which is one of my favorites is not only growing in spring, no it is also growing now and can be added wherever you use chive or spring onions.

Try my ‘Mac & cheese & onionweeds’ (click here for the recipe)

Another gift are acorns!

Oh I just love acorn coffee which is so good for building bones!
Here is a post where you can see how to prepare acorns so they are edible.

Acorns can be used like nuts in cakes and if you are adventures, why nut try my yummy ‘Acorn cake’
Yummy!

Autumn is my favorite season and I guess it’s also David’s because he is not only climbing trees in the forest…

…he is also searching for his beloved mushrooms which are popping out of the ground

The bushes are loaded with berries like this Mahoe (which are not edible as far as I know)…

… and we enjoy to collect blackberries and other delicate autumn gifts.
Please click here for some autumn pictures and have fun!

In the last post I already mentioned Christoph cutting trees to make space for our new veggie garden.
So today he was busy working on a raised bed.

It is pretty long because this will be in the back the whole length of our future veggie garden.

Christoph worked by hand to get all the long screws into the wood when the power left the screwdriver… yes, he never gives up

The finished work is absolutely brilliant!

We made layers with all the scrap material of the garden…

…and then a thick layer of our wonderful compost hip.

The last layer was made of organic compost from Mitre 10 (Later we will add some mushroom compost ;- )

When time comes we will make 3 more raised beds in the front but from back to forth.

Meanwhile I have a wonderful place for my salad, kitchen herbs and other things I will sow