MICKEY’S BLOG
In the days before Instagram, Mickey kept a regular blog of snippets from Glenmore House.
You may enjoy looking back through them!
Parsnip harvest….
I think maybe soup is on the agenda....now where is that recipe? And all from that spur of the moment gardening day last year (see blog post: A very good gardening day 14/12/11), where I suggested I was gardening on a wing and a prayer. Well look.....it worked!!! ...
Quince blossom….
I'm truly struggling here....and I know why! The elegant quince blossom is cupped towards the sky...and each and every flower is taller than me! (So I had to hold the branch down with one hand....). I so, so love the quinces in flower - I think because the trees...
Plum blossom….
I so love how the fruit trees come into blossom one after the other, so I can enjoy each of them for their own simple beauty, in isolation. You will have seen my posts these last few weeks....first the almond, then the apricot, followed by peach and now plum....
Oh what a beautiful morning…..
Spring really has now well and truly sprung, and this morning it's simply intoxicating! The drone of bees buzzing in the poppies, the heady scent of wisteria; tunnels and wig-wams draped in peas of all kinds, while broad beans thrust skywards. The plums are now...
Jasmin in the air….
Each year I so look forward to the Pantry being swagged with festoons of jasmin, but this year it seems to be running rather late. I love the scent of this trailing vine and bring great bunches inside to fill the house with its sweet smell of...
Thumbs-up for ‘guild’ planting….
It's something we talk about at length on Kitchen Gardening Days.....but I just thought I'd drop these photos in to reinforce the point. Above is a wider view of one of my 'guild' beds, snapped this morning. And below an image of absolutely perfect mignonette...
Talk at Dirty Jane’s Emporium….
I took along this basket of veg collected this afternoon, for display at this evening''s talk at Dirty Jane's Emporium in Bowral: Glenmore, a near 25 year journey of restoration, garden creation & paddock to plate cooking. What a delightful group of new...
Farewell sweet Clementines….
This time it really IS the end of the Clementines for the season......farewell my beauties - we will SO look forward to NEXT year's crop......
Broad Bean perfume….
OK, so you're going to laugh (like Linda always does).....but surely it can't just be me who notices the great waft of scent that engulfs the Kitchen Garden in the late afternoon light? There's no point putting your nose right in the broad bean flowers - that...
Good heavens….they’re turnips!
At last! I always sow seed in the early autumn, in hope of a few turnips for winter, but I've learned over the years there's no point trying to get ahead of the game. Sow too early and nothing happens. Sow when I think its too late and....we have turnips in time...
Naughty…..but nice!
I mentioned earlier in the week there was something I wanted to try with the last of the Clementines....well, they were baked in a very naughty sugar syrup.... And found themselves on top of this ice cream (photo pre-freezing!). But the general consensus at...
Mignonette…..
About as perfect as a lettuce can be.... (enjoy them these next few months, before the heat sets in!)
What’s cooking….
I honestly thought we'd stripped the tree (except for a handful) for Stefano Manfredi's day, but this morning's chilly investigation yielded another 35 Clementines while collecting the daily duo of eggs (go girls - enough now for an Orange Cake!). And so I have...
Peach blossom….
And today is the first of the peach blossom.....(guess it's time to get those ugly fruit fly traps out again!).
Apricot blossom…
Last Friday the very first apricot blossom unfurled their petals. With so many poppies and nasturtium flowers dancing about at their feet, then can be little doubt of the blossom being visited by many a buzzing bee for pollination. My fingers are crossed for a...
Summer joys….
Since my last post we've been lucky to enjoy those lazy, hazy, crazy days of Christmas....quiet ones interspersed with myriad visitors for lunch, dinner or to stay a night or two. There have been days of scorching sun and drizzling rain, morning tiptoes through wet...
Herbal garden workshop….
Oh what fun and delight our Herbal Garden Workshop was with herbalist and naturopath Anthia Koullouros. I could listen to her all day, as remedies and concoctions, suggestions and insights roll of her tongue. It was a day jam-packed full of information of such a...
And the weeks roll on…..
How long it seems already since Luisa Brimble visited one fine, late summer morning to follow me around the Kitchen Garden, when the beans were lush, verdant and scrambling up their poles, It was hot, the days producing late afternoon thunderstorms and a high...
Judging at the Royal….
I was thrilled to have the great privilege once again, to be one of a small panel to judge the District Exhibits at the Royal Easter Show. The imagination and ingenuity of the clever people behind the design, narrative and production of each exhibit never ceases...
Autumn crop rotation….
Events and excitements aside, this is one of the most task-driven times of the year in the Kitchen Garden and a lot has been going on behind the scenes. First, there were literally barrow loads of fennel seeds to collect. I may be mad, but I'm just hoping with my...