Beef, Potatoes and Peas Curry

With the burst of freezing weather this last few days, I thought to cook up our leftover beef and potatoes into a simple Winter warmer for last night dinner. This curry is super quick to prep and cook.

I put extra chopped chilies on mine to give extra warmth.

There was only 3 little potatoes left and I saved a small portion of the beef that we bought in the last grocery run, which turned out to be perfect for this.

This would have tasted even better if I have curry leaves, but unfortunately I don't. So, I only put a few bay leaves.

GentleSoulGnome July 2020 Garden Update

Our garden grew significantly over the last few months despite the lack of maintenance as I battled the all day pregnancy sickness and gardening aversion. I was so relieved when the pregnancy symptoms finally subsided and I can return to the garden. Since then I had managed to complete a few priority maintenance in smaller quantities and shorter time as tiredness seems to be the major hurdle at the moment.

My first priority was to clean up the weeds growing at the front garden because the Tulips and Daffodils had started to grow new shoots. I wanted to clear the area of weeds to give them lots of growing space and minimal nutrition competitor as possibly can. 

Asahi Tulips

Daffodils Tete-a-tete

The Cos Lettuces and Strawberries that I planted at the front garden seemed to thrive and we had since harvested a few of the lettuce leaves.

I have been waiting for the Broccoli seedpods to mature to collect their seeds, but they're taking so long. So I let them be for the time being and besides they are still sprouting, so we've been harvesting them as well. I left quite a few of the yellow flowers for the bees. They love them, I thought I share a little bit happiness with them.

As for the back garden, the Snow Peas and Shelling Peas had grew so tall and a few flowers had blossomed. So, we're hoping it won't be too much longer until we get some harvest.

The leafy vegetables are taking so long to grow from seedlings. Next year I will try continual planting as growing the plants from seedlings are too slow when the temperature dropped. Some of the Kale are looking promising though, I hope I can harvest some soon.

The root vegetables in the third garden bed seemed to be doing well as well. The White and Purple Garlic are looking good. I never successfully grew garlic before, so fingers crossed they will produce this time.

I also never managed to get a single harvest of radish and these ones are not looking promising either. The leaves are bright green and bushy, but I can't see any bulb growing underneath it.

We moved our Lemon tree from the half wine barrel to the ground a few months ago. They survive the move but only time will tell if they will produce better in the new spot. The new spot has more sun exposure which I hope will be more suitable for the tree.

Some more strawberries plants underneath the Lemon tree. They were also transplanted from half wine barrel and survived the move. Some of the plants are showing flowers, so hopefully we have lots more strawberries this year.

I absolutely love our Bay Tree. It obviously survived the big move from Sydney to Melbourne a couple years ago. The tree has reached new height and growing lots of new branches and good looking leaves.

Lastly, we planted 4 bags of potatoes in grow bags. We keep adding more soil as the plants shoot up. It's very exciting indeed, they seem to be growing taller and taller everyday.

Saving Potatoes Plants from Garden Clean Up to grow in Growbag.

After clearing out the remaining of potatoes, I saved a few of the large looking plants and transferred them to grow bags. They were looking limp for a few days but seemed to recovered. Fingers crossed they will produce. I'm not sure, but I didn't want to throw away a decent size plant. Call me thrifty!! Or plant loving.

I do need to get more garden soil though, or check if I still have some ready compost from the bin.

Dinner From the Garden - Quinoa Beans Potato and Tomato Salad

We cleaned up another garden bed at the backyard to install the Birdies Raised Garden Bed and harvested a few remaining potatoes. So, they became our dinner. 

Potatoes, tomatoes and beans from the garden. 

I added in boiled eggs for the boys to keep them happy. 

Lentil and Vegetable Tomato Soup

I may have inadvertently prepared the family to survive without meat. So, I hope we will survive the absence of meat during the grocery panic buying period.

We have had regular vegetarian and legume based dinner for 2-3 weeknights in a week for a few years now. 

A very simple vegetarian soup. Onion, carrot, zucchini, potatoes, dried green lentil, tomato and powdered sweet paprika. Zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes and bay leaves from the garden:

I added powdered Astragalus root as well into the soup to help with immunity and recovery in the time of uncertainty.

No Rice, Dig Up Potatoes!!

This is what happened when your rice stock is low and you can't buy more because people are panic buying. We went to a few stores and can't find stock, so I returned home and started digging up the garden bed to forage for random potatoes remaiing from 2 years ago. 

Note to self - buy seed potatoes this year. It will be awesome to not rely on stores.