garden wars with caterpillars

"Your Garden is a Battlefield..."

- Syvlie Benatar, Pat's green-thumbed sister

Ok so I made that quote (and Sylvie) up but it doesn't change the fact that there's a war in my vegetable garden and the enemy is making ground. Every morning I stand at the top of my garden, clutching a warm cup of tea in my hands, and survey the field for fallen soldiers, like this guy: 

Another little green, lost soul. He could have been big things, like kale chips or part of a palak paneer curry. Now? He's caterpillar poo.

The caterpillars favour my cruciferous (kale, brussel sprouts, & broccoli), especially the seedlings. The suspiciously large-leafed parsnips and herbs are left in relative peace... For now. Sometimes I day dream about just sitting down with the little crawly eejits and saying "come on guys, we can all live in harmony. I bought you pretty flowers to munch on, so just stay away from the green stuff... K?"But I don't suppose they'd like being called crawly eejits.

lavender, bacopa, and marigolds in the garden

thyme & parsnips

So what am I doing in this war? I started off with nightly caterpillar hunts, but the crawly eejits have upped their game. The once prevalent caterpillar has gone into hiding and in the past week I haven't found one caterpillar, but evidence of their feasting is undeniable in the morning.

caterpillar food: brussel sprout & kale seedling

Yesterday I introduced a new weapon of mass stinky-destruction, a garlic spray from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Compendium which I've all but stolen from my friend Harriet. Here's the low-down:

"Chop 100g garlic, cover with vegetable oil and leave it to soak overnight. Strain, add 1 litre soapy water [i used dishwashing liquid] and store in a glass jar with a sealed lid. Dilute 1 part garlic mixture to 10 parts water for use in spraying. The smell of the spray is offensive and effective against thrip, aphids, cabbage butterflies and caterpillars. It is also an effective fungicide." -pg 732

Sadly it doesn't give more information, such as how often to spray or how much, but I figure it's so diluted and mostly chemical free that I won't die. With Stephanie in my corner the damage wasn't as bad this morning, but I'm still on the search for those well-fed crawly eejits who started this war.

If you've got any tips for this newbie gardener battle-lass, I'm all ears.

General Reana Louise

go tiny leek, go! 

learning crochet

Harder than I thought... 

But I'm getting better. 

winter cake

One of my favourite things about winter is its seasonal fruit. Tart green apples and fresh, sweet strawberries are a small hint of the spring to come. Caramelised pears warm not only your taste-buds but your insides, too. 

This cake has all of that. It's a winter cake. 

Well, it has cake in it but I'm not sure 'winter cake' does it justice. It's more like apple pie, covered in caramelised pears snuggled in vanilla sponge, topped with baked, gooey figs and strawberries. Obviously that's too long of a name, but I think we both know what should happen. You should make this cake, and have a cup of tea. 

I suggest good quality fruit. I got mine fresh from the farmer's markets and there's nothing better than a fleshy fig that hasn't had its life frozen out of it. Not to mention the sweetness of a freshly picked strawberry. 

Please, let's just take a moment to look at this melted, caramelly baked fig. 

Ok, back to the recipe. 

It doesn't use much sugar because the fruit is sweet enough, so yeah... It's fruit salad. Let's go with that. 

Secondly you can eat this warm with ice-cream and bed socks (preferred) or cool with tea or coffee (also good). I'll leave it up to you. 

If you're lucky enough to be experiencing a warmer climate and still want a fruity cake that's not, well a fruit cake, why not try some seasonal produce such as, 

Spring: Strawberries, seasonal apples, blueberries, caramelised bananas, raspberries.

Summer: Apricots, caramelised bananas, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, peaches, figs, pears, plums. 

It might vary in your area, but just see what you can get!

pre-baked winter cake

Winter Cake

Inspired by smitten kitchen, hugh fearnley-whittingstall, & winter. 

Makes one, deep 9"cake

Ingredients 

3 medium (or 5 very small) green apples, peeled and chopped into squares roughly 2cm

3 seasonal pears, peeled and cut into thirds (if small) quarters if big. 

3 figs, tops cut off and cut into quarters

3 strawberries (more if you can fit them!), tops cut off and cut in half long ways 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

100g softened butter (for cake mix) 

30g butter (for pears)

2 tablespoons brown sugar 

1 and 1/4 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 large eggs

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk (or make your own)

Utensils: 9" cake tin, electric mixer. 

Method 

Preheat the over to 200°C / 400°F and place a tray in the middle of the oven. 

Put a saucepan on medium heat and add the 30g of butter and brown sugar. Add the pears and cook slowly, turning as each side becomes brown and caramelised. This will vary based on the firmness of your pair, but will likely take between 5 and 10 minutes. Don't rush this stage and burn the butter--take it slow! 

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl beat 100g softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Then beat in vanilla, zest, and egg.

Mix in the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk. 

Place your chopped apple in the bottom of a greased cake tin. Spoon in the batter, making sure it fills the spaces between the apples so you don't get holes. Do this buy prodding the apples or lightly dropping the pan on the bench encouraging the bubbles to rise to the top. Add the pears and press into the batter. Spoon the caramelly butter from the pan on top of them. Place the strawberries and figs on top. It doesn't matter if they're sticking out because the cake mixture will rise and 'snuggle' them. (See my pre-baked cake, above). 

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into centre of cake comes out clean, around 1 hour. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then on a rack for around 10 minutes. 

hi!

Hi friends! My name is Reana Louise, you may know me from previous blog Curves, Patterns, and Pins, or perhaps this is our first time meeting - hi! I like your style.

I like making stuff and that's what this blog is all about! Food, sewing, gardening, other miscellaneous crap. And some of it is crap, but that's ok because this is all a learning process, right? Here's where I'm at right now:

Sewing

I've been sewing for just over one year but still consider myself a newbie. Here are some home-sewn garments that receive high rotation in my pitiful but expanding wardrobe.

you can see more at burdastyle. 

This year, I'm hoping to tackle something more advanced garments like boning or a jacket.

Gardening

snow peas and the garden on a sad, winter day

At the start of 2011 we (we = boyfriend, myself, and friends bribed with beer...) built a raised vegetable garden bed in our new apartment. By winter the soil was ready to go, but I didn't account for the sun changing its course in winter right behind the apartment block (d'oh!). This means we've had limited gardening options, but have been growing loads of greens like silver beet which I'm utilising for spanakopita, yum!

I'm also learning how to tackle aphids and what the hell seed packets mean when they say 'cultivate.'

Bring on spring and its sunshine!

There's always loads of cooking, crafting, and drawing (or procrastinating from my honours thesis!) going on around here that I hope to document on this blog. It's a way to connect with other sewers, gardeners, or makers.

So, nice to meet you! And welcome to my little corner of the intergoogles.

Reana Louise x