This is our last blog post for 2011 - like the rest of New Zealand, we're off on holiday and will be back on 9th January.  This week we would like to announce the winners of the competitions we have been running.   

We recently ran a colouring competition and we were amazed to see the quality (and quantity) of the entries sent in.  We had a total of 260 entries over all the age groups and we could see how much effort the children had put into their artwork.  It was extremely difficult choosing the winners from amongst all the beautiful entries! 

Winner (2-4 year olds)

The winner of the 2-4 year old age group is Briar from Picton, who is 4 years old.  We love the bright colours that Briar has used.  Congratulations, Briar!!

 

Winner (5-7 year olds)

The winner of the 5-7 year old age group is Hui Qi Sheak from Upper Moutere who is 7 years old.  We love the pink gardening tools and the pretty colours.  Congratulations!

Winner (8-10 year olds)

The winner of the 8-10 year old age group is Amelia (aged 9) from Whitianga.   Amelia has put a huge amount of effort into each blade of grass and we love the bright sun in the clear blue sky.  Congratulations Amelia!

Winner (11-14 year olds)

The winner of the 11-14 year old age group is Margaret from Dunedin, who is 13 years old.  Margaret's entry is just beautiful - she has added texture and colour to the background and the whole picture really pops.  Congratulations, Margaret - we love it!

Thank you!

It was a real challenge picking just one winner for each age group, with so many really gorgeous entries so we would like to thank all the children who entered - your work is beautiful and we so enjoyed seeing it!  Thank you also to the families and school teachers who helped the children organise and send in their entries - we appreciate the time you spent doing this!

Each of our winners received a certificate, our Children's Easy Peasy Annuals flower selection and our Children's Easy Peasy Vegetables selection.  We hope the winners have a lovely time sowing their seeds and watching them grow!!

Random Draw Winner

In addition, we randomly drew one colouring competition entry to receive a $50 Kings Seeds voucher and a copy of our catalogue.  The Random Draw winner was Markus Thomasen from Taupiri!  Congratulations, Markus!

What is the Cat's Name?

We also offerred a bonus prize for guessing the cat's name.  Well, despite some very inventive guessing, no-one guessed the correct name - his name was Fergus.  However, we have chosen a winner for the best guess.  Louie and Isla from Kamo thought his name might be Catnip.  What a cool name!  Louie and Isla will be receiving some packets of seeds - congratulations to them both!

Grocery Voucher Winner

We have one final winner to announce.   The winner of the $200 grocery voucher prize is Daphne Keller from Tauranga.  This prize was randomly drawn from all orders received up until 20th December.  Congratulations, Daphne!!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  Our Kings Seeds office will be closed from now until 9th January.  You are very welcome to continue to place orders for seed online over the Christmas break and we will process them for you as soon as we return on 9th January.   


Have a lovely Christmas, everyone!

I thought I would share some of the many lovely things about our holiday in Otago and Southland.  Since the beginning of the year, we have had this holiday planned for after the busy Spring season.  We are fortunate enough to be able to visit with friends in Cromwell where we are always able to fill in our time pottering around markets, visiting lovely village shops, wine tasting, and having long lunches etc.


Our first day in Cromwell was a Sunday, so a visit to the Cromwell Market in the old town was a "must do".  It is a really great spot with live music and a smallish market,  with an excellent range of food.  There was something for everyone.  Personally, I think I managed to taste most things, including relish, jam, vinegars, meats, tea,  and breads.  Cromwell is an area of extremes, (of temperature & landscapes), and I think this is reflected in their regional food.  The cherry vinegar and Pinot sauce were two of my favourites and a must for purchasing for home.
My friend spotted the peonies straight away and purchased some with great delight as they were the perfect gift to buy for our hosts.  They provided the most divine perfume throughout the house.  We don't tend to have them in the Bay of Plenty as it is a little too warm and they last such a short time, so it was nice to enjoy them in the cooler climes.


Cherries are one of my fave fruits, and I had been told it was a little too early for cherries, so I was ecstatic when I discovered the first ones on sale - sizable boxes of seconds for a bargain price.  Needless to say, we took some of them home and munched our way through them very quickly.

It was a wise decision not to have breakfast before we went because we bought the most divine pastries (Danish with asparagus and bacon, pain au chocolat, vanilla slice and bacon & egg pie) from Wild Thyme Gourmet in the market and then great coffee from Amando's Kitchen (who had a lovely selection of Kings Seeds microgreens and herbs packaged to sell).  We then sat in the sunshine looking out at the hills and the turquoise blue water of Dunstan Lake - bliss.  We returned to Amando's Kitchen for a delicious dinner and I enjoyed spotting all the items grown from Kings Seeds seed when not gazing at the view.

We managed to get to the market again the following Sunday and did it all over again, which was just as enjoyable.

Timing was great for the men in our wee group as they did a road trip down to the Burt Munro Rally in Southland.  This is an excellent event by all accounts.  It was their second time attending all the racing and they even managed to find themselves a lovely apartment in the middle of Invercargill rather than brave the weather in tents.  As for the girls, we did a road trip too - down to the Catlins for a couple of days and then further around the coast to Riverton.  We happened to choose the most windy time of the year, but this just added to the exhilaration of exploring the coastline and spotting seals and penguins.




One of the funniest things we saw was a seagull being blown off the picnic table on which it was perched.   When we needed a bit of a break from the wind, we explored the bush and some beautiful waterfalls.


On the last couple of days of our holiday there was an open day at Omeo Peonies, so off we trooped for a few hours wandering among the 80 varieties.  The colours were incredible and it was hard to choose a favourite.  Some beautiful names included 'Many Happy Returns", "Angel Cheeks" and "James Pillow". 


There is so much more that I could share about my stay ... snow dusted hills, wild thyme everywhere, tiny miners' huts dotted about the hills, vast vistas of grape vines, the turquoise colour of the water........thank you Southland and Otago for your hospitality.  We look forward to returning.

I'm not sure if I have achieved what I wanted in the herb garden this year or whether I am in real trouble!  I've always longed for a bountiful, overflowing herb garden, with herbs and flowers tumbling over the garden edges.    But now I am wondering whether I may have taken it a step too far!


I sprinkled a packet of Heartsease over the herb garden in early Spring and I think every one of those seeds germinated because the herb garden is filled with these cheerful little flowers.  They are one of my favourites, so I didn't want to pull any out.  I think the birds moved a few of them around because they seem to be coming up in lots of places where they weren't sown.   I like the saying that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place.  I'm starting to think that some of the heartsease plants have now morphed into weeds - there are so many in the herb garden now that they are burying my (very small) lavender plants and I have completely lost the tarragon.


In my enthusiasm, I also planted quite a few other flowers in the herb garden:  there are stock, snapdragons, delphiniums, some very loyal nasturtiums which keep re-appearing every year, and the new addition of some very cute little ladybird poppies.  The herb garden is also my "garden without rules" where I slip in the odd vegetable seedling that won't fit into its proper place in the vege garden.  I love the mixed-up hodge-podge of plants but I'm not sure that my husband does.


Anyway, lately I have been looking at the herb garden with new eyes and I think some of those pretty little heartsease plants are going to have to come out, if only to make room, because I have just had my eyes opened up to a whole new range of plants I need to fit in (gulp!).

My main focus for herbs up until now has been culinary (with a focus on pizzas!).  We wouldn't like to go without our thyme, rosemary, sage and oregano, and I would hate to be parsley-less! 

Other favourites in the herb garden are lemon verbena, lemon balm and chamomile, all for picking for herbal tea.  But now I can see some glaring omissions.  There is a reason for this ....  I have just taken up soapmaking as a hobby.   I've been having a lovely time reading up on skincare properties of plants (but I am still a rank amateur, I would hasten to add) in order to make infusions to add to my soap - you can see the results of this below - cucumber-mint, chamomile and calendula are some of the soaps I have made so far.


So now that I have expanded my herb horizon beyond the culinary, there is a whole new range of herbs that I would like to fit into the garden.  Some of the herbs useful for skincare and soapmaking are comfrey, echinacea and marshmallow, and lavender flowers are a very pretty addition to soap.  


The plant I most want to add to the herb garden, however, is calendula!  My friend Jen kindly let me pick great quantities of her calendula flowers.  After drying the petals in the dehydrator, they were ready to add to the soap.  The calendula soap is my favourite so far - with its pretty speckles of calendula petals it just begs to be used!

So I think some of the heartsease will just have to go.  But only some of it!

It's a bit cold here today, but last Saturday definitely felt like the first day of summer!  The garden was giving us that "water us, water us!" look and it was too hot to pull weeds out without wearing a hat.   And the paving stones out the back heated up in the sun and were hot enough to burn my bare feet when I went outside to grab some herbs for the pizza. 


Summer is a great time of year - long hot days, trips to the beach or the river, barbies in the back yard, tons of ripe tomatoes, zillions of zucchini, cartloads of cucumbers.....  

Now's a good time to have a think about where you'll be for your summer holiday.   Most keen gardeners end up a bit conflicted.  "What? - go away on holiday just when the tomatoes are ripe?  And what about the zucchini - they'd be bigger than the house by the time we got home!"  But unless you are happy to stay home right through the summer, then you need a plan for the garden that you are leaving behind. 



If you are lucky enough to have a bach, doing some sowing for summer harvesting is a good plan.   If you plant mesclun or salad greens now, you will have them ready for Christmas at the bach.  You could also do some wild herb sowing - just scatter the seed in odd corners of the garden and you can enjoy adding heaps of flavour to your summer meals with some home grown herbs.  And sowing some beans or transplanting some cucumber and tomato seedlings over at the bach is a great idea right now.   Or sow wildflowers to enjoy later in summer.

Another way to make sure that you don't have to be without fresh produce in  summer is to take your garden with you.  You can make a herb or salad green basket - just line it with plastic (with drainage holes poked into the plastic), fill with potting mix and sow or transplant your favourite herbs or salad greens into the basket. 


Keep watered until you are ready to take it away on holiday with you.  These also make absolutely lovely Christmas presents!


Microgreens are also a great holiday idea - since they are so quick to grow, you could even wait until you arrive at your destination before sowing them! 


Whatever you decide to do for summer, we hope you enjoy your garden - I'm looking forward to a glut of tomatoes but of course with gardening there are no guarantees, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

I said a couple of weeks ago that I would do a blog post on Basil so here it is!  Now that the warmer weather has arrived, it's definitely time to get some basil into the garden!

I have to admit I'm a tomato groupie these days, but when I first got into gardening I definitely started off as a basil groupie!  When I received my first Kings Seeds catalogue way back in the dark ages, I spent hours trying to decide not which basil to buy, but which ones to leave out!    I've calmed down a bit since then, but basil is still one of the things I grow every year - what tomato groupie wouldn't want basil growing alongside their tomatoes - they are great companion plants and go brilliantly together on the plate as well.

The botanical name for basil is Ocimum basilicum.  "Ocimum" comes from the Greek word Okimon, which means smell and "basilicum" comes from the Greek word basilikon, which means king.  In antiquity, basil was considered to be a sacred plant and was cut for use in ceremonies and sacred rites.  Basil is hugely popular now as a culinary herb, but has had a very contradictory reputation through the ages.  Gerard has gathered together a lot of info about basil in the King Seeds catalogue, so I will quote him here:

There are many different varieties of basil - flavours range from lemon to cinnamon to anise or liquorice.  The most commonly known basil is Sweet Genovese, with its sweet clean flavours.  However, each variety of basil will bring its own unique combination of colour and flavour - wonderful purple basils, compact varieties with fine leaves and prolific huge-leafed varieties.

Basil is an easy to grow annual - it just likes to be warm and won't do well if sown too early, before  the temperatures have warmed up.  Basil grows best when night temperatures are above 15^oC.  Basil is frost tender.   Basil can be sown directly but you may have more luck sowing into seedraising mix in seedtrays for planting out when the plants are bigger, because snails and slugs find it delicious and can gobble up the whole crop overnight!  Your plants will be ready to plant out about 4-6 weeks after sowing.  Basil will do well in pots or in garden beds - choose a position in full sun  - somewhere near the kitchen is always good!  Basil doesn't like to be too dry, or to have wet feet, so ensure you water regularly and also have good drainage.   Pick leaves from your basil plant regularly, to make the plant branch and to encourage fresh new sweet leaves to grow.  


Basil can also be grown as a microgreen (see our microgreen tutorial)  - basil microgreens are tender and mild, easy to grow on a warm windowsill, and are a wonderful additions to salads. 


I found a wonderful recipe  - Panna cotta served with Strawberries and Microgreen Basil Oil in Erick Franks and Jasmine Richardson's book "Microgreens - A guide to Growing Nutrient-Packed Greens".  Here is the recipe for making the oil - the recipe uses basil microgreens but you could also use normal basil leaves if you don't have microgreens. 

 

Microgreen Basil Oil

• Make an ice water bath and set aside.
• Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add 1 T salt and blanch 250g of basil microgreens (or basil leaves).  Refresh the basil in the ice water bath.
• Spin or squeeze the basil dry and puree in a blender with 1 cup canola oil.
• Let it sit at room temperatures for 2 hours and then strain through a fine sieve.  Discard the solids.
• Drizzle the basil oil over panna cotta and serve with strawberries and a sprinkling of basil microgreens.  It would also make a fantastic dipping oil for fresh bread!  Use it up, as home made herbal oils don't keep forever.

Basil is of course the main ingredient in pesto - there are as many different recipes for pesto are there are keen cooks, but just in case you haven't tried making it yourself, here is a recipe for pesto:

Fresh Basil Pesto

• Roughly chop the basil, garlic, and pinenuts together, add olive oil and and parmesan cheese and mix by hand for a chunky, rustic pesto. 
• If you prefer your pesto smooth, you can make it in the blender - just put all your ingredients in and blend until you get the desired consistency.
• Store in a jar in the fridge - pour a couple of tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil on top to prevent your pesto from discolouring. Stir before serving.

If you have plenty of basil and you would like to match a big batch of pesto for the freezer, leave out the parmesan cheese - you can then freeze the pesto in ice cube trays and when frozen put the cubes in bags or containers in the freezer.  Whenever you would like some fresh pesto you can simply thaw a few cubes, stir in some freshly grated parmesan and you are ready to go!

I hope you enjoy choosing and growing your basil this year.  If you have any recipes you would like to share with us, you could post them on our Facebook page - we'd love to hear from you!

Since I tend to do most of my sowing in one big batch in early Spring, by now most of my seedlings have grown past the needy "baby-me-or-lose-me" stage of their development and have grown up enough to have been planted out in their place in the garden. 

The trick now is to stop the snails and slugs ruining all that mollycoddling and pampering by gobbling them up overnight.  Most at risk in our garden are the cucumber plants at present - they are still very small - maybe another slug hunt is a good idea!  I wouldn't recommend eliminating slugs from the garden the way I did it this week - accidentally standing on them when out in the garden after dark, trying to pick lemon verbena for a pot of herbal tea!  Bare feet.  Dead slug.  Yuck!


At this time of year it is as if the plants are growing inches every time you turn your back - a few days ago I spotted an exciting development in the pots outside the front door - our first baby zucchini for the year!  Yes, I know that by the time these plants have finished their work we will be thoroughly sick of eating zucchini, but right now I still get a huge thrill every time I walk past and see that tiny little fruit growing. 

These are my favourites - Zucchini Zephyr....they look very cool when they are bigger with their yellow and green colouring and they have the added bonus of tasting really nice. 

These zucchini are are nutty and sweet without being watery.  This is the third year I have grown them and I'm not sick of them yet.  We have grown them every year so far in pots and they seem quite happy as long as they get enough water.  

Zucchini (or Courgettes)are pretty generous plants!  It isn't too late to plant some if you would like a steady supply for the kitchen this year.  Zucchini are frost tender and can't be planted out until all danger of frosts is past. 

Either sow them in trays for planting out when big enough, or sow them directly into a slightly raised, well-composted bed.  Mulch to retain soil moisture.  They are best planted following root crops such as carrots or potatoes in your crop rotation.  Make sure each plant has enough room - they produce large leaves and spread to about 1.5m x 1.5m.  We like having them in pots for this reason as otherwise they take up quite a lot of room in our already crowded garden. 

Zucchini can be susceptible to powdery mildew late in the season or in damp conditions and plants that are under stress are more susceptible.  You can avoid moisture stress by irrigating your plants to supplement rainfall, but don't overdo it!  Too much water can also be harmful.  Ensure your plants are not overcrowded (leave about 1m between plants) and make sure they have good air circulation.  You can also spray with a solution of 1 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in 600ml water to try to slow powdery mildew.  Yellow varieties sometimes have yellow patches on their leaves - this isn't a sign of disease but just natural colouring.

What have we been harvesting out of our garden this week?  Well, the thing we have been picking the most often recently has been radishes.  There's a very good reason for that.  Back in early Spring, my 9-year-old solemnly asked whether he could have his own garden this year.    We absolutely jumped at the chance to get him into gardening! 

Well, it's been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently (blogger on holiday!).  We took the kiddies away for a few days but holidays can be a bit conflicting for a keen gardener!!  "Where shall we leave the seedlings?"   We thought that they would be ok tucked into a corner of the back vege garden where they would get a light spray with water from the sprinkler. So they were carefully moved and off we went.  We were only away for two nights and I must admit that I got not a wink of sleep on the second night because we were hit by a massive rainstorm.  I lay in bed all night listening to the rain absolutely pounding down on the roof, worrying that my seedlings were being pummelled to death back at home.

When we got home they were the first thing I checked.  I don't think it rained too hard at home, because most of the seedlings were growing happily with no sign of having been flattened while we were away. 

The only casualties were three capsicum seedlings which a disgusting, horrible slug had gobbled up.  A vengeful slug hunt followed and all the offenders were removed from their nasty lurking places and humanely stomped upon.

The last part of our holiday was spent popping all the seedlings into the garden - as the vege garden has started filling up I have had to resort to some guerrilla gardening!  Vegetables are slowly spreading to the front garden as well as the back, with kohlrabi and cabbage being transplanted into some of the flower beds.   Maybe the white butterfly won't look for them there!

Beside the outdoor gardening, we have a few microgreens on the windowsill  these little plastic dishes from the supermarket were fantastic - we just poked some holes in one of them and used the other as a "saucer" underneath.  Just a bit of seedraising mix and some basil seeds and the microgreens are looking good.  (There will be more about basil coming soon!)

I thought I would finish with some thoughts about gardening:
 

Ten things I have learnt since taking up gardening

 

Buying a plant doesn't guarantee that you will have that plant forever.

The children will always beat you to the blueberries....and to the strawberries....actually, they will beat you to all the berries.

Snails and slugs can break your heart overnight.

Sometimes things die.

Sometimes it is very nice to have rain in the middle of summer.

If you don't label your seedlings, you WILL forget what they are, no matter how sure you were that you would remember.

You get more results from time spent in the garden than from time spent reading about gardening!

If you keep putting more seedlings in the gaps, then eventually your garden will be very overcrowded.

It is a miracle every time you pick a tomato from a plant that was once just a tiny seed in the palm of your hand.

It is going to take to a very, very long time to learn everything I would like to know about gardening!

Kings Seeds is open to the public on Friday mornings.  Last Friday, Gerard had a visitor who had some questions about growing Soybeans.  So of course that made me curious and so I have been looking up info on soybeans this week.  Sure enough, now Soybeans have joined the queue of plants waiting for me to find growing space for them in my garden.  I don't have room for them this year but I thought I would share my enthusiasm with you - maybe there is someone out there who does have room for them! 


The soybean plant  (Glycine max) is a bushy annual legume which grows to about 75cm tall.  The flowers are white with lavender shading and the bean pods grow in clusters.  Each fuzzy pod contains 2 to 4 seeds. 
Before planting, prepare your site by adding aged compost to the soil. Soybeans are tender warm-weather legumes.  Sow soybeans in Spring, two to three weeks after the average last frost date, when the soil has warmed up to at least 15°C.  Soybeans are not frost tolerant. (Aside:  Neither am I.  Especially at this time of year!)  You can get your soybean seedlings started earlier by sowing under cover and planting out when the temperatures are warm enough and when all danger of frosts has passed.  Soybeans grow best when the daytime temperature averages at least 20°C.  

Sow soybean seeds 2-5 cm deep, about 5 to 10 cm apart, in rows spaced about 60-75cm apart.  For a good supply of soybeans you will need about 4-8 plants per person (depending on how many soybeans you would like to gobble up or process into other soy products).  Thin successful seedlings to 10-15cm apart by cutting thinnings with scissors at ground level so as not to disturb the roots of remaining plants. Do not soak seed before planting and do not over water immediately after planting as seeds that are too moist may crack and germinate poorly. 

Plant them in full sun - they will tolerate partial shade but you will get a better yield if they are in a sunny position.  They grow best in loose, well-drained soil rich in organic matter but will tolerate a poor soil.  Soybeans prefer a soil pH of 6.0 to 6.8.   Keep the planting beds evenly moist until the soybeans have pushed through the soil and water regularly during flowering and pod formation.   Mulching will help conserve soil moisture during the heat of summer. 

Some suggested companion plants for soybeans are potatoes, cucumbers, corn, strawberries, celery, and summer savory. They are best planted away from onion or garlic.
   
You can harvest soybeans either as green beans, also known as Edamame, or as dried, mature beans.  Soybeans for use as edamame are ready for harvest when the pods are green and plump, about half mature, 45-65 days from sowing.   


The dried beans require 100 or more days to reach harvest.  All the beans on the plant will reach maturity at the same time, which makes harvesting easy - just pull up the whole plant and hang it upside down to dry it.  The dry beans can be shelled once the pods are fully dry - they will store well in a cool, dry place.  
 
As well as learning how to grow soybeans, I wated to know about the different uses for soybeans once you had grown them.  Eating the green soybeans as edamame certainly sounds delicious - you simply toss the green bean pods into salty boiling water and boil over high heat for 5-6 mins.  Drain and serve either hot or at room temperature.  You eat the bean by squeezing it out of the pod into your mouth - the pods are discarded.  Edamame sounds like a fun treat.  Be aware that uncooked soybeans contain trypsin inhibitors which make them toxic to humans (and pigs and chickens) - you must cook soybeans.  The following recipe also sounds delicious:

Edamame With Mint, Almonds, And Spring Onions

500g shelled edamame, cooked about 3 minutes in boiling water, then drained and cooled

2 Tablespoons sesame oil

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon chilli sauce

1/4 cup sliced almonds (or chopped peanuts or cashews)

2 thinly sliced spring onions

1/4 cup chopped mint or coriander

Combine sesame oil, soy sauce, chilli sauce, and vinegar.  Taste and adjust seasoning to taste.  Toss the edamame and the dressing together in a large bowl, then add the mint, scallions, and almonds and toss again.  Serve at room temperature.   This is also nice with the addition of some finely chopped fresh ginger.

If you are a try-making-it-at-home type, then you could also try using your green soybeans to make your own soy sauce.  I'm not sure if I want to try this....but if you are interested, here is a link to a recipe to try (let me know how it went!!)

If you have harvested the dried beans, you can use them like any dried bean in soups and bakes - delicious!  There are some other interesting things you can do with them!  

When I started to look into how to make your own soymilk and tofu from soybeans, I found a wonderful food blog with an article on making soy milk (complete with photos) - if you are interested, click here.  

There is also a follow-on article which explains how to make the soymilk into tofu - click here! 

Soybeans contain all three of the macro-nutrients required for good nutrition - complete protein, carbohydrate and fat, as well as vitamins and minerals, including calcium, genetically and iron.  They are the only common plant food that contain complete protein and they provide all the essential amino acids in the amounts needed for human health. The amino acid profile of soy protein is nearly equivalent in quality to meat, milk and egg protein.  

Growing your own soybeans means that you know "where they have been" (bean?).  Ninety one percent of soybeans grown in the US are geneticaly modified and it can be difficult knowing where your soy products originated.  If you are not a fan of GM crops, then growing your own soybeans might appeal.  Fresh out of your own nice backyard!!

At this time of year there are really only two things I want to spend my time doing - messing around in the garden, and reading gardening books.  Most of my messing around in the garden is a bit unproductive, because it involves peering closely at my seed trays to see if anything new has come up since I last checked.  In the weekend, it is often only about half an hour since I last checked!    The seedlings are like my babies - they get fawned and fussed over, moved to sunny spots, gently soaked in a water bath to keep them from drying out, brought back under cover of the porch roof at night.....  when our little dog did a dance over them with this stick the other day he was a bit unpopular for twenty minutes or so!
We've used all last season's red and white onions but we still have some shallots left.  I'm a bit fan of shallots - they taste great, keep well and seem to be dead easy to grow!   All we did last year was sow them and transplant them out into the garden when they got big enough to handle. Then in February we dried them out and had fun plaiting them and hanging them in the porch.  

Whenever I want one for the kitchen, I just have to pop outside and pull one off the plait.  

Shallots in particular are great to grow them in the garden, because then't always available to buy here. 
We're hoping for a good crop again this year.  We've grown them from sets (small bulbs, available from garden centres), in previous years but there isn't much excuse for buying those when you work at a seed company, so last year we planted seeds.   We've sown them from seed again this year, but we still have enough shallots left for us to try planting the smaller outside cloves from last year's crop - I might try that too and compare the results.  Just have to find the room.

This time of year it's always a balancing act between sowing-and-growing enthusiasm on the one hand, and practicality on the other.  I supply the enthusiasm (wow, look at THIS tomato!!) and sow the seeds, and my other half does most of the hard labour and supplies the practicality.  We've overflowed the back garden now and last weekend we started to dig up the front lawn. 
If you are keen to grow onions, then you can sow onion seed now.  Onions can be sown in Autumn or in Spring.  If you live in the south or in colder climes, you might want to start your onions in Autumn to give them a bit of a head start.  Onions can be sown directly or in seed trays.  Sow them in shallow drills and thin them to about 5 - 10 cm apart.  (If you have sown your onions in Autumn, thin them to about 2.5cm apart in Autumn and in then further thin them to about 5 - 10 cm apart in Spring.)   It is good practise to remove all thinnings so that you don't encourage onion fly attack.   When planting out seedlings, don't plant them too deep as this will encourage the onions to have "thick neck", which affects how long they will store.  If your plants are too close together, you will get smaller onions.  Give them enough room to grow.  

It's lovely having the Spring flowers out in my garden.  As well as violets, we have a lovely display of freesias.  They are the most beautiful pale pink, deep pink and clear yellow and they last beautifully in a vase, but I still hanker after the simple, less flamboyant and very much more scented "old" freesias.  I might have to ask someone nicely if I can dig up one of their clumps.  The people who have clumps of old-fashioned, scented freesias often have large quantities of them.  The kind of freesias that scent the whole room if you bring just a few inside! 

It must be because I have been enjoying seeing some flowers out in the garden that I thought that this week I would have a bit of a talk about edible flowers.  Chances are that if you visit an upmarket restaurant, you are likely to be served a salad made up not only of salad greens, but also including the prettiest petals and edible flowers.  It isn't something that we have to leave to the grand chefs - we can have edible flowers at home too!    Flowers can be crystallised and used as decorations on cakes and desserts, and fresh flowers or flower petals can used as a garnish, or added to salads.  Some of the prettiest flowers are also very easy to grow and found in many gardens.  

The pretty, star-shaped flowers of Borage are edible and are such a pretty addition to a plate.     

Borage flowers can also be frozen in ice cubes for adding to summer drinks, and look delightful in salads.  And Borage also comes in white! 

Viola oderata, or Sweet Violet is a hardy perennial with heart shaped leaves and sweet smelling flowers which rise on long stalks from late winter to early spring.  The sweet smell of the flowers have made it a favourite throughout the centuries.  It is said that Viola oderata was one of the first plants to be grown commercially - they were for sale in Athens in 400BC!   The Greeks were so fond of violets that they made the violet the symbol of Athens.  The violet was also the flower of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and of her son Priapus, the god of gardens.    It was Josephine Bonaparte's favourite flower and Napoleon picked a bouquet of violets for her grave before being exiled to Elba. 

The Victorians were particularly fond of the violet - to them it was the symbol of faithfulness and fidelity.   A lady of quality would often go out wearing a bunch of violets and they were so popular for making perfume that huge areas were planted in violets in the late 1800s. 

To top all of this off, the flowers of sweet violets are edible and make the most beautiful additions to salads or can be sugared and used to decorate cakes. 

Sweet violet has also been used traditionally to treat a range of respiratory disorders such as coughs and head colds (and hangovers apparently!).    During the middle ages, violets were grown in the monastery gardens and monks would use them to make liqueurs and meads as a treatment for coughs, colds and flu. 

Violet seed is a cold germinator and requires chilling to break its dormancy, if sowing in Spring.  Alternatively, you can sow your Viola oderata seed in autumn, allowing it to winter over naturally for spring germination.  Viola oderata thrive in a semi-shaded position and once established, quickly create a carpet of lovely, sweet-smelling flowers. 

If you are lucky enough to have a good supply of violets, you might like to try some of the recipes we have included below

 

Sugared Violets

 

Sugared violets make the prettiest decorations for cakes and cupcakes and are very easy to make.  All you need is a supply of violets, egg white, caster sugar and a clean paintbrush. 

Pick your violets, leaving a long stalk for ease of handling.  Use the paintbrush to lightly coat both sides of the petals with egg white, then sprinkle with caster sugar.  Snip the stalks off with scissors and leave the flowers to dry on baking paper. 

When dry, store in an airtight container until you are ready to use them. 

 

Violet Tea

The following tea recipes are from Margaret Roberts book: "Tea, Recipes for Health, Wellbeing and Taste".  The first recipe is said to be good for sinus congestion and is a useful recipe as it is made with the leaves of the violet plant, which are available year round:

Take 1/4 cup fresh violet leaves, and a few violet flowers if you can find them, 1/4 cup sage leaves, 1/4 cup bergamot leaves, 1/4 cup tea tree sprigs and 2 teaspoons of aniseed and simmer together in 3 cups of water for 10 minutes.  Cool and strain.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice if you like.  Sip 1/2 cup twice a day, warmed, to relieve sinus congestion.

To make a quick, simple and refreshing violet tea, pour 1 cup of boiling water over 1/4 cup fresh violet flowers and leaves and leave for 5 minutes.  Stir in a little honey if you like, strain and enjoy!

 

Violet Syrup

I found this very quaint, very old (1585!) recipe for a syrup made from violets (or roses) and thought you might enjoy the antiquated English.  It is a bit hard to read though - so I have also included a modern recipe as well.

To Make A Sirop Of Roses Or Violets

Take of violets or roses a pounde, steepe them in three pints of warme water, put it in an earthen pot with a narrow mouth the space of seven houres or more. AFTER straine it and warme the water againe and put in againe so many Roses or Violets, and likewise let them lye in steepe eight houres, and thus do at the least five times, the oftener the better, in especiall the roses, and after take to every pint a pounde of sugar and steepe them together, till the sugar be molten, then seethe them together with a soft sweet fire to ght height of a Sirrup; if you have more Roses or Violets, or fewer and let so much be the proportion of the water, according to the proportions before. –The Good Housewife’s Handmaid 1585

 

Old Fashioned Violet Syrup

You will need six handfuls (about 85g or 3 ounces) of sweet violets, 300ml boiling water and 600g white sugar. 

Remove all of the green, stalks and leaves from the violets and put the flowers into a non-reactive heatproof bowl.  Pour the boiling water over the flowers, cover with a lid and allow to infuse for 24 hours, or overnight.

The next day, add the sugar to the water and violets. Bring a saucepan of water to a rolling boil, and place the bowl on top of the saucepan.  Keep stirring the violet mixture until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Strain and pour into a sterilised jar or bottle.  Label the violet syrup and keep it in a cool place (it can be kept in the fridge) for up to 6 months.  This is a wonderful ingredient to add to icing or buttercream for cakes and it can be added to sparkling wine or lemonade for a lovely and very elegant drink.  You could also try using it to make violet icecream or jelly.  One teaspoon of syrup is usually enough for most recipes.  And imagine what a beautiful gift this would make for a like-minded friend - choose a pretty bottle and add a pretty label and some serving ideas.

This week the whole country has been talking about the snow - from deep drifts in the deep south to is-it-snow-flakes in the north! 

We thought that this week we would tell you the story of a Christchurch garden, belonging to our customers, Kathy and Barry. 

Last week I gave you a bit of a summary of some of the information Gerard included in his recent introduction to our new varieties.  This week I thought I would continue where I left off - giving you some new snippets of info on some of the additions to our range of Gourmet Vegetables, based on Gerard's recent talk given at Kings Seeds.


In our Organic range, we have a new tomato which has actually been bred for taste rather than for looks, uniformity, keeping ability.  This is the Tomato Diplom.  It is disease resistant, which may help if you are in an area where the psyllid is established.  As soon as our customers heard that there was a tomato bred for taste, there was a rush for packets of this seed!!

Another organic addition is Zucchini Partenon, which is a floretsrpic zucchini.  This means that they will set fruit without the need for a pollinator, making them a suitable plant for glasshouses.  Just as an aside, when your zucchini plant is flowering, you can pick the flowers for stuffing.  The male flowers will not set fruit, so they are the ones to pick for stuffing - you can tell which are the male flowers because they face upwards. 

In our range of Gourmet Vegetables, we have some wonderful new additions....


An addition which is already proving to be popular is Cauliflower Orange Bouquet.  This was developed from a rouge plant discovered years ago - it has a sweet, mild taste and it's colour darkens when it is cooked, to a wonderful dark orange, making a spectacular addition to your plate. 

A couple of Fridays ago, Gerard gave a talk at Kings Seeds - an introduction to our new varieties.  We know that most of you can't make it to Katikati to visit us, but we thought you might be interested to hear a bit about what he had to say.  I couldn't write fast enough to get everything onto paper, but there are some little gems of information that you might enjoy ....  this blog is a great way for us to let you know some of the extra bits and pieces that we can't fit into our catalogue.  This blog entry doesn't cover all our new varieties but we thought we would mention a few of them.

 

WHY NEW VARIETIES?

The reason we introduce new varieties is to be continually refreshing the range of seeds we offer at Kings Seeds.  This year we have added about seventy new varieties.  Around sixty varieties have been discontinued.  Some of the reasons we might discontinue a particular variety is if it hasn't been popular, it has become unavailable, or because a better, improved variety has been brought in as a replacement.  

NEW TO OUR FLOWER RANGE

We have about 25 new flowers.  One of the things Gerard considers when choosing the varieties for the new catalogue is to look at what we presently have and how it is used - for example bedding plants, cut flowers, perennials, vines, plants for hanging baskets.....or do we need to increase our colour range - more in the range of blue flowers, or red flowers, or white flowers. 

One of our prettiest new flowers is our Hibiscus Flower of an Hour - this is a New Zealand native which flowers for six months of the year. 

NEW TO OUR ORGANIC RANGE

This year nearly half our additions are to our organically certified range - these seeds are all certified to IFOAM standard. 

The additions to our organic range have been brought in to strengthen our range and include some high quality hybrids.  Three examples of additions to our organic range are:

Bean White Emergo - this is an organic white flowered runner bean  - now you can have a wonderful variety of spectacular (and delicious) runner beans in your garden with red, white, pink and bi-coloured flowers.  The Sunset Runner and Painted Lady beans we introduced last year have been hugely popular.  Pictured below from left to right is White Emergo, Sunset Runner, Painted Lady and Scarlet Runner.

Beetroot Kestral is a good monogerm beetroot.   Most beetroot seeds are clusters, meaning that you will get a number of seedlings growing together, but Kestral is a single seed and makes for easy spacing, eliminating the need for thinning. 

 

 

 

 

 

Our new Rainbow Blend of coloured carrots is already proving very popular - it has just jumped to number one in our list of top sellers!  Sow a row of these and you can enjoy red, purple, white and yellow carrots - hugely entertaining for kiddies and grown ups at harvest time!!   

 

 

 

 

 

NEW TO OUR HERB RANGE

Well, it isn't easy to find new herbs!  Gerard has added Angelica Giant Purple to our range of herbs this year.  It is an impressive plant which can grow to 3 metres in height!  The stems are purple and are more purple when the growing conditions are colder. 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW TO OUR VEGETABLE RANGE

We have added Soybeans to our catalogue this year and this is another product proving to be very popular.  We do get asked a lot about the orgins of our Soybeans - these are regarded as a genetically engineered crop and they are therefore difficult to get into New Zealand.  We have found a New Zealand-grown GE free source and so have been able to add Soybean to our range.

 

 

 

 

 

Caigua (click here to go to our more detailed blog entry about Caigua) is another new addition.  Caigua is good for blood cleansing.

 

Carrot Samantha is a baby carrot, like the ones you see beautifully packaged in the supermarkets....previously available only to commercial growers, we have now made it available to home gardeners.  This carrot has a "precocious" gene for colour, which means that these carrots have their wonderful bright colouring even when harvested young.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that gets me only about halfway through Gerard's talk and mentions just a few of the new varieties but I think I'll stop now and continue in next week's blog post, when I'll let you know what Gerard said that caused a stampede towards a particular one of our new varieties, and give you a bit more info on the world's hottest chilli, among plenty of other things. 

Thanks for reading our blog!