I must admit, we have been quite busy over the last month since we came home from Indonesia.  Our Honey Share Project has taken off and there has been some wonderful support so far in the community. Our vision of bring bees back into the city seems to be working.  So far we have 6 sites and a list which is growing.  Most of our time has been spent building boxes, working on our website, visiting our new babies and replying to inquiries.  This week we have had a mention in The Australian, The Age Epicure as well as Melbourne Broadsheet which is amazing!.  We hope to keep the momentum going!

Back to the patch and it is harvest time, thankfully my patience has paid off and we have had a wonderful haul of Garlic.  Approx 40 bulbs have been dug up and are hanging to dry out as we speak.  I did a lovely version of plats you see at the market, I just hope that mine doesn't fall apart :)

We've just come back last week from a lovely holiday in Indonesia.  I must admit I did miss my plants but I was certainly distracted by the wonderful variety of plants that grow in tropical climates.  I really loved seeing the abundant crops of rice. We even had the opportunity to walk along a rice paddy field to a waterfall @ Gunung Kawi which was just beautiful.


I also noticed that the Indonesians seemed to live a much more sustainable life than us.  Maybe as a developing country they need to, perhaps it is just what they will always do so, I hope so.  There were loads of Pisang (Banana) plants, Nanas (Pineapple), Kelapa (Coconut), Rice, Beans, Manggis (Mangosteen), Cassava and more I didn't know English names for.. basically though any piece of vacant land or road side will do.  

We also visited an amazing Orchid garden.  I have never seen such beautiful flowers, even in the road side drains beautiful lillies and the most amazing tropical flowering plants I have ever seen.  

Back at home, when we returned there was work to be done!  The Borage I planted for our bees had grown like crazy. The Broad Beans plants had died off, and the pods I was waiting on for my winter soups were ready for picking and drying.  Leeks are going to flower - great for seed saving.  Our 20+ garlic bulbs were ready for harvest and the greenhouse plants have gone wild.  Baby Watermelons have appeared and delightful red Raspberries ready for picking.  

Listening this morning to a science podcast I was horrified to hear about the American FDA being close to a decision on whether a genetically modified salmon - dubbed the 'Frankenfish' - should be approved for human consumption.  Not only do they want us to eat it, they think it should not have to be labelled GM!  That I am offended by, you can choose to eat it if you want to... but having no choice is the problem for me.

This atlantic salmon that has a growth hormone from a chinook salmon and DNA from the eel-like ocean pout can grow two kilograms in less than 500 days, as opposed to nearly 700 days for an unmodified fish.  What happens I say 'if' they get out, run with others and breed? Like the European carp in our Australian waterways?  what a disaster.  Oh no, I have heard the breeding fish will be isolated but when humans are involved.. well... mistakes happen that's for sure.

Seeing the FDA and the Bio Tech industry are in each other's pockets, makes me think we won't have much of a choice but I hope otherwise.  Even China of all countries has reservations, and if they do.. well... we all should.  I've also read this week that for the first time since colonisation Americans are expected to live fewer years than the previous generations... Is it all the GM corn crops, that go into 70% of 'junk food' or is it the GM corn that is fed to all the animals - like cows which should be eating grass!

OK I just have to vent somewhere and try and make some difference.. even if it is only in the form of awareness and making informative choices.

Otherwise a family friend Kevin has given me some lovely seedlings.  I have about half a dozen melons I am trying out in the greenhouse.  I have read that you can keep them in pots, and use a support for them to climb - we'll see how they go.  Watermelons and Rockmelons about 6 weeks old.  I also scored some Capsicum seedlings too.


The vegetable patch is full at the moment, I am waiting for the Borage I planted to stop flowering - the bees love it but it has really taken over.  I've got loads of Broad Beans, Leeks, Garlic, Beets, Rocket, Spinach and Carrots with a few Radish, Cabbage and Cauliflower growing in between.....I am eager to replace them with something else, perhaps some Corn, Cucumber or Squash I am thinking.

Just today too on our 21st day of having our hive there was a number of bees kind of just hovering around the front of the hive. Kind of like a pulsing up and down incorporating a somewhat outward rhythm to it - my guess is new bees, getting their flying skills - how exciting.. tomorrow we open the hive again to see what has been happening.

Ok I may have planted quite a few more celery plants than we needed... With more growing in the patch I needed to get busy with it.

I did make an awesome cream of celery soup though.  Another idea my mum uses which is lovely is boil it and mix it into your potato mash.

Cream of Celery Soup

• 20-30g of butte
• 5 cups of chopped celery
• 1 large leek sliced
• 2 rashers of bacon chopped
• 1.2L of hot water
• 4 tsp of veg stock
• 200ml of light cream
• chopped chives (from the garden of course!)

No need to add salt to this dish, there is enough in the butter, bacon and stock... the boiled down celery will also make it even saltier!

1. Melt the butter, fry the bacon and leek until the leeks are soft and clear looking.
2. Add the hot water and stock powder
3. Add the celery and bring to the boil
4. Cook until the celery is soft (I cooked them on a slow boil for about an hour)
5. Process with a blender (if you want super smooth soup, sieve the liquid through a strainer)
6. Add the cream and bring to the boil again, then simmer for 5mins
7. Serve with chopped chives

Yum! smooth, creamy and tasty
Serves: Makes a few bowls and some.