Golden Pumpkin, Zucchini, and Olive Loaf

With the weekend almost here, I want to share with you an idea for Sunday brunch, or brekkie if you are out of bed on a cold Winter's morning, or even lunch.  Those of you living in the Northern Hemisphere and coasting into a balmy summer, will be enjoying a breakfast in the golden sunshine hopefully. This is a nutritious vegetarian loaf for everyone which provides a blank but tasty canvas for a myriad of toppings, or for none at all if that's your preference.  Whatever you fancy really and it is a very pushy recipe. If you can reign in a cheffy apprentice from somewhere to grate the pumpkin for you that will cut your preparation time. I tried grating chopped pieces in my food processor but that didn't really work, but  a good firm pumpkin is very easy to grate, just watch those fingers. I always use my food processor to grate the zucchinis though, much safer.

Half a Kent (Jap) pumpkin

The knife in the top photo has had an interesting evolution and probably shudders now when it is close to a pumpkin. The blade used to be much longer with a pointed tip as with a normal carving knife, that is before I tried cutting into a large, very firm Jap pumpkin with it. The blade snapped, thankfully with no injuries incurred, and with Mr. HRK nearby to the rescue he extricated the knife and blade from the pumpkin for me. No harm done. I must say that this all happened about 6 months ago, well before his hand accident. He then reshaped, sharpened and tidied up the blade,  and now it is such a useful knife with a very strong blade. Great for cutting pumpkins. I love buying a whole large pumpkin with a lot of potential, but cutting that first slice requires some care and muscle.

Such a tasty little morsel on my breakfast tray

 Feed this loaf to your family and they will also be eating lots of nutritious ingredients and vegetables without even realising it. Carrot can be substituted for the zucchini, and Mr. HRK suggested adding some blue cheese to the ingredients, wonderful with a cheese platter and a glass of good red. I'll try that next time I make it. Even though this loaf tastes really light, the mixture needs to be cooked well and nicely browned as it is a big loaf. This is based on the wonderful Maggie Beer's recipe from her Recipe for Life cookbook, and I have added a few extra ingredients for a little added flavour.  I'm not a big salt eater, but I thought it needed a little extra salt, so I have added a small amount and a pinch of salt bush flakes from the Australian outback, just because I have them.

 Ingredients:

Serves 8-10

80 g black olives, pitted, make it 100g if you really like olives
3 cups (375 g) coarsely grated pumpkin (I like to use a Jap or Kent pumpkin)
1 cup (135 g) coarsely grated zucchini
3 tablespoons unhulled tahini
5 free range eggs
70 ml extra virgin olive oil
2 cups (240 g) ground almonds
1 cup (90 g) organic rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)
1/4 teaspoon (pinch) salt bush flakes (optional)


Method:

Preheat the oven to 165 deg. C (fan-forced). Grease and line  a 13 cm x 23 cm loaf tin with baking paper.

Place the olives in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl.

To the bowl add the pumpkin, zucchini, tahini, eggs and olive oil. Mix and combine well.

In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds, salt, thyme, salt bush flakes, rolled oats, baking powder and nutmeg.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then pour into the prepared tin. Scatter the pumpkin seeds over the top and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.



Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before removing from the tin.

Serve warm or leave to cool completely.Slices of this freeze beautifully, so cut into 1.5 cm thick slices and freeze in portions in zip-lock bags. We love it toasted.



The toppings to eat with this loaf are only limited by your imagination.  Serve it toasted for breakfast or brunch topped with avocado and eggs of your choice ( poached, scrambled, or fried).



I enjoyed it one morning for brekkie with sliced banana on top, and Maggie  Beer suggests ricotta and sliced tomato. If you like hummus, add some rocket leaves and you have a fast and healthy snack, or just serve it warm with butter. It is also very tasty served with my homemade spicy tomato relish as a topping. Yum! If you have some pumpkin tucked away in your crisper, do you think you would like this recipe?

Eat well my friends and I hope you have a relaxing and safe weekend.

Warm wishes

Pauline

In My Kitchen, June 2020

It's a very special day In My Kitchen today as our beautiful twin Grandchildren, Finn and Evie, who live in the Falkland Islands, turn 1 year old, such a milestone for our babies that started out in the world quite premature.

How to make your own Quince Paste "Membrillo"

Dear Readers, Please allow me to introduce a fellow foodie and good friend, Mr. Paul S. who every Winter provides us with a welcome gift of his Quince Paste, and then little batches sometimes come our way during the year as well, proving that it keeps refrigerated in the tropics very well.  He has been doing this for a few years now, that I know of. The quality is always exceptional and as I have plenty for our use and don't need to make any more, I have asked Paul to be  a guest writer on my blog this week. I have complete faith in this recipe and he enjoys writing about food as well.

(Paul). As an avid follower of Pauline's blog, I am honoured to be invited to be her guest on the Happy Retirees Kitchen blogspot. Towards the end of each autumn I search the markets and greengrocers for one of my favourite fruits, one in short supply in the tropics - the humble quince. I first came upon quince paste on a cheese platter, a "Maggie Beer" product that was perfect with King Island Brie!  Subsequently, in Spain, I found large blocks of the same "membrillo", which they used to sweeten stews and curries. I love it on a cracker with any soft cheese, any blue cheese, any cheese in fact.

Below is a photo of crates of quinces taken by Paul at a market in Fes in Northern Morocco where he and Mrs. S were on holiday last year. Morocco is truly quince land.

This is a very simple recipe, but not an easy one to make. Quinces are initially extremely hard, so peeling and coring the yellow fruit are a chore. As the peeled fruit discolours easily, keep your sliced quinces in water. The fruit has to be softened by boiling - it is rock hard to begin with! Once the sugar is added, the mixture requires regular stirring for around three hours! You keep stirring until the thick mixture is a deep red in colour, and all the water has been evaporated.

Quince paste makes a welcome gift, as Mrs. HRK can attest!

Recipe:

Ingredients:

8 quinces (peeled, cored, and chopped)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup of water
5 cups of sugar

Method:

Place the chopped quinces, water and lemon juice in a large heavy based saucepan/pot. Place on high heat to steam the fruit. When the quinces are soft, use a stick blender to blitz to a slurry. Add the sugar and start stirring, continuing regularly to ensure the sweet mixture does not stick to the bottom.

After the quinces have turned to the bright red colour, pour the mixture into a cake tin or similar, cool, and then refrigerate into a firm block which, kept in the fridge, will provide for 12 months of cheese platters.

Photo 1: The quinces have softened, the blender has liquefied the fruit, and the sugar has been added.

Photo 2: After an hour of stirring, the mixture has started to gain colour around the edges and base.

Photo 3: The beautiful red colour has finally arrived, after all that interminable stirring

Photo 4: In a cake tin or mould, your quince paste is ready to cool and refrigerate

If you have read to the end of Paul's quince cooking journey, and I thank him for doing this, I have to tell you it's been an interesting few days.

 This post for me will always be tinged with a little shock and drama. As I was almost finished loading this story and ready to post at 5 pm on Saturday, Mr. HRK appeared at the door holding his hand upright, rather pale, and said "I've hurt myself and it's serious." I had heard him using the table saw in his shed but that happens frequently as he is a DIY kind of guy. You never know how you are going to react in this situation do you? However I managed to dial 000, the ambulance paramedics came, he was taken to hospital emergency,  and by the time I was allowed to see him, two fingers on his left hand, index and third finger had been cleaned and bandaged up, and he had charmed all the nurses.

 He had surgery on his hand Sunday morning,  and recovered well. He has managed to damage the bone on his index finger and that finger has now been amputated to just above the knuckle and the finger next to it is damaged but just has to heal. After all these years of his constructing so many projects in his shed using a variety of equipment, this shows it can happen to anyone. He is home now, and life will be pretty quiet for him now for a while as his hand heals. It could have been a lot worse. The paramedics and the staff of the Mackay Base Hospital have been absolutely wonderful and we are so thankful for that. It's life in the slow lane now for us for a while.

Thanks for dropping by,

Pauline

Spiced Pumpkin, Orange and Prune Cake

This cake is full of pumpkin, spice and all things nice, including half a cup of our home produced honey. Pumpkins are at their best right now, which is Autumn/Winter here in the Southern hemisphere, although because they are available all year round, it's easy to think that pumpkins don't have a season at all. However Autumn is it's time. When buying a pumpkin, the deeper the colour when it's cut, the riper and more delicious it is likely to be. My preference is always for the Kent or Jap pumpkin and that's what I used for this cake, one I bought from the local farmer's market. 

The beautiful orange colour of the cake in the photo below shows how rich the pumpkin I used was and the flavour comes through as well. If I was making this cake in summer I might not add the spices, it is a versatile cake mixture, however in Winter spices are just a must, aren't they? I've also iced this cake and sprinkled desiccated coconut on top as pumpkin and coconut are great together.

Fresh from the oven

Let's cook and soothe the soul.

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C. Fan forced.

Ingredients:
250 g butter
1 teaspoon orange zest (1 orange)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup good quality Honey from where you live (not heated or blended) or Maple Syrup
3 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup mashed pumpkin, not butternut (cooled)
1 cup diced prunes
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg or allspice
2 cups Self Raising flour
3 tablespoons milk if required for a softer consistency

Method:
Cream butter with orange zest in a large bowl.
Add sugar and cream with butter and orange zest until light and fluffy.
Add eggs separately, beating well after each addition
Fold in pumpkin, orange juice, honey and prunes.
Then fold in sifted SR flour and spices.
If mixture appears to be too stiff, add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until a softer consistency. This might be needed if you change the ingredients slightly. 
Pour into a greased and lined 22-23 cm spring form cake tin.
Bake for 50-60 minutes at 160 degrees C. Fan forced depending on your oven, but definitely check if it is cooked after 50 minutes. Insert a toothpick or fine metal skewer which will come out clean if it is cooked.

Delicious with orange zest icing

This cake is delicious iced with an orange zest flavoured icing, but is equally enjoyable just served with yoghurt and a dusting of icing sugar.

Orange Icing:
3 cups sifted icing sugar
3 tablespoons warm milk
1/3 cup softened butter
2 teaspoons orange juice
4 teaspoons grated orange zest

Ice when the cake is cool and removed from the tin. Mix butter into sifted icing sugar with a large spoon and add milk and mix.
Add orange juice and zest. Mix until mixture is smooth and all the icing sugar is mixed in. I like my icing for this kind of cake to be a little stiff and not runny, so if it is too runny and would run down the sides of the cake, I keep sifting icing sugar into the bowl, a tablespoon at a time,  until it is the right consistency for me.
However if you like more of a soft frosting to cover the whole cake, mix the ingredients in your Kitchen Aid or with a hand mixer until smooth, and cover the whole cake with frosting.

Garnish with finely chopped pistachios if you like. I just added a little desiccated coconut  for this cake.

Thanks for dropping by and have a wonderful weekend wherever you are,

Warm wishes

Pauline

Lemon Tapioca Pearl Pudding with Creme Fraiche Lemon Curd Topping

Tapioca and Sago have the ability to beautifully set a cold pudding without any gelatine, what  winners of grains. I really wanted to call this pudding Lemon Sago pudding as that is what the recipe originally was, and the only thing that has changed is that I had to use tapioca this time as sago is unobtainable at the moment where I live.

Sago and tapioca are distinctly different in their botanical origin but now are used interchangeably. Sago comes from the middle part of the trunk of the sago palm, and tapioca comes from the tuber of cassava or manioc which grows in tropical climates. It's not easy to find sago now in supermarkets,
and  "LION" a Western Australian firm packages "Tapioca pearls" which have captured the business in our supermarkets. "LION" states on the packet that Tapioca and Sago are both starch extracts from plants, Tapioca from the tuber of the cassava plant and Sago from the pith of Sago palm stems. "Tapioca and Sago are traditionally used in both sweet and savoury dishes throughout the world and can often be used interchangeably in recipes". Lemon sago is an old fashioned dessert, which my Mum often cooked for us when we lived at home, however back then I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now. Possibly because back then we ate some kind of "healthy" pudding most nights. Sago used to be the main grain commonly used in the kitchen along with rice and barley, before the super grains like quinoa, chia seeds, linseed, and many others erupted on the culinary scene as super grains and became quite trendy. What I have written isn't in any way an advertisement for Lion.I thought that  seeing a photo of the packet might help you to find it at the supermarket near the jellies if you are interested. It was on the bottom shelf  when I was looking.

 Sago was being used in British home cooking during the 18th century when presumably it arrived aboard British ships trading in South East Asia. Old cookery books from this era talk about recipes for sweet sago puddings made from milk, cream, eggs, spices and lemons, all the good things. Mrs. Beeton was a 19th century cookery icon who in her Book of Household Management, 1861, p. 79, described the sago making process:

"In order to procure it, the tree (palm tree) is felled and sawn into pieces. The pith is then taken out, and put in receptacles of cold water, where it is stirred until the flour separates from the filaments, and sinks to the bottom, where it is suffered to remain until the water is poured off, when it is taken out and spread on wicker frames to dry. To give it the round granular form in which we find it comes to this country, it is passed through a colander, then rubbed into balls, and dried."  
During Mrs. Beetons era, the 19th century, Singapore was the centre for sago processing with this industry employing many people.

Lately sago and tapioca have both been used for all kinds of tropical pudding variations using coconut milk and tropical fruits, or red grapes in the Barossa Valley, where they make "rote grutze" as a signature dessert.  I will be into the tropical varieties next Summer when mangoes are back in season, but for now it's citrus season and I have more bush lemons, so I made Lemon Sago, oops Tapioca,  last night and we both loved it. Lemon brings a tangy sour edge to the sweetness of this pudding which tantalizes the taste buds. Any lemons will work for this pudding, but I think the bush lemons have a rather unique lemon flavour if you can get them. Layer it in a serving glass  for a special treat with this creme fraiche lemon curd topping and it is delicious. I used my homemade lemon curd but lemon curd is available for purchase. For my  Lemon curd recipe please click here.

A bowl of lemon tapioca/sago

 Here's the recipe :-

Lemon Tapioca "Sago" Pudding
4 serves

Ingredients:
1/2 cup tapioca or sago (100 gr.)
3/4 cup  Raw Sugar ( use caster sugar if you like but I prefer the flavour of the raw sugar)
grated rind of 3 lemons
3 cups of water
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of golden syrup

Let's Cook:

1. Wash tapioca (sago); soak for 2 hours in 300 ml of water.  (Don't omit this step, or you will be stirring the mixture for what seems like hours.)
2. Rinse tapioca.
3. Combine tapioca, sugar, lemon rind, and water in a saucepan.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer. Stir regularly over a low to medium heat for 20 mins. or until sago is translucent, soft and thick.
5. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and golden syrup and cool for 30 minutes

This is  nice served in dessert glasses with the creme fraiche lemon topping for a special occasion.

Creme Fraiche Lemon Topping

  4 serves

Ingredients:

200 g creme fraiche

4-5 tablespoons lemon curd (depending on your taste and the curd)

1 tablespoon thinly sliced mint

3 tablespoons toasted coconut flakes

Finely grated lime zest from 1-2 limes

1. Gently mix the lemon curd into the creme fraiche in a small bowl
2. Layer the creme fraiche evenly over the surface of each lemon pudding
3. Top with some freshly shredded mint. Scatter with the coconut flakes and lime zest and serve.

When I cooked this pudding, Mr. HRK who ate much more lemon sago as a child than I did from what he says, so is somewhat of an expert says it is the same as he ate at home, which presumably was the authentic sago. Were Tapioca Pearls even around back then? I am still coming to grips with this sago v tapioca debate my friends so if you can shed any light on the topic I would love to hear from you, and I will keep looking for sago. Whilst this story probably sounds like an ode to sago, I have made this pudding from tapioca pearls and there doesn't seem to be any difference in the final result. It's all in the name. However I would like to know if sago can in fact still be purchased at all. I'm sure packets of it are tucked away on shelves in Indian or Asian supermarkets in the cities, or even health food shops.

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you find some beautiful sunshine to enjoy this weekend.

Pauline

An original recipe by Pauline @ Happy Retirees Kitchen.

Citrus Butter Cake

This cake is a sweet celebration of all citrus in season and a celebration of things starting to return to normal, whatever that is now.  Beautiful orange navels, juicy limes, and tangy lemons found their way into my shopping basket, and the cake I needed to make just had to be a citrus one. With a teaspoon of my homemade lemon curd on the plate and a slice of candied orange, it was such a treat. Mr. HRK called it a citrus fest. A wonderfully fragrant and delicious cake to make, I recommend this one my friends. However, it is so delicious that it could stand alone without the icing, with just a dusting of icing sugar perhaps, and some yoghurt, creme fraiche or cream and a slice of orange.

I made this for our first Mahjong ladies reunion when restrictions were lifted slightly last week. Five people from different houses are now allowed to visit. Hands were washed, sanitiser used, our brains  kicked back into gear, although there's a lot of luck involved with mahjong as well😔,  and it was lovely to catch up again and enjoy a few games of mahjong and have some laughs. It made me realise how much I had missed the company.

Ingredients:
250 gram butter, softened, chopped
1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
1 1/2 cup (330 g) caster sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1/2 cup (125ml) orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice

Candied Citrus Slices
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) water
1 (240g)medium orange, thinly sliced
1 (75g) medium lime, thinly sliced

Glace icing
2 cups (320g) soft icing sugar
1/4 cup boiling water

Let's Cook:
Preheat the oven to 160 deg. C (140 deg. Fan Forced). Grease a deep 22cm round cake pan, line the base and sides with baking paper.

In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, orange and lemon rind and sugar with an electric mixer  in a large bowl until light and fluffy. I used my Kitchen Aid. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined between additions. Fold in the sifted flours and juices in two batches. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan.



Bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes. Check it after an hour.

Stand the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.



Candied Citrus Slices



Meanwhile to make the candied citrus slices, combine the sugar and the water in a large frying pan. Stir over a low heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Add the orange and lime slices and bring to the boil.



Reduce the heat to very low, simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, turning slices occasionally. Remove from the heat, and cool the slices on a wire rack.



Glace icing

Sift icing sugar into a bowl with boiling water, stir until smooth. You might need to add more sifted icing sugar or water until you get the required consistency.

Drizzle cake with glace icing.

Add the candied citrus slices to the top of the cake just before serving.


This cake recipe is taken from an Australian Women's Weekly online recipe that I found. Where would we be without the Australian Women's Weekly which is published monthly now, I buy it every month and always find lots of interesting stories. This is a magazine that has survived despite difficult times, with the staff changing the way they do things and a lot of them working from home. That is a free promotion from me by the way.
Warm wishes everyone and I hope you all have a lovely weekend. It's cold and wet here today, so it's chicken and vegetable soup bubbling on the stove for us. How about you?

Thanks for dropping by,

Pauline 

It's World Bee Day and Saving our Bee Hive

Have you heard the Buzz - it's World Bee Day. It's celebrated every year on the 20th May to raise awareness of the importance of bees and what we can do to help towards their preservation. When I heard on the news this morning that it was all about the bees today, I knew I would have to contribute. Having a beehive is taking conservation to the next level.

When we returned from overseas in early March, and thank goodness we came home when we did just before all of the lock downs started, our Italian Honey beehive was full of honey. However, little did we know that from here on we were on another steep learning curve, making us realise how fragile beehives can be. We extracted lots of honey from the hive on Saturday, a big day, and the following day the whole front of the beehive, bottom brood box plus 3 supers above were covered in a black mass of bees from top to bottom. We had never seen so many bees en masse,  thousands of them, and this was the ominous sign that our bees were getting ready to swarm. And they did. The next day the black buzzing population of bees had gone, but there was still some activity obvious around the hive so we remained optimistic.  However within a week we realised that we had probably lost our Queen Bee, the old queen had swarmed with the hive without a new queen produced to keep the hive going. The female bees left in the hive desperately try to produce another queen but because they are unable to fertilise the egg they only produce drones. This is the tell tale sign that the hive is queenless when a lot of drone cells appear in the middle of a frame.  We called in Keith, our friend and local bee expert, and he very calmly worked with Mr. HRK to salvage our hive. He brought a new Queen for us in a small box, with three escorts, (Keith hatches the Queens and sells them to beekeepers), reduced the hive to just the brood box, and to cut a very long story short, we have basically started from scratch again but our beehive is alive. If we had left it much longer, we would have lost our hive.

Freezer full of beehive frames

 We have our second fridge freezer full of beehive frames which will kill off any diseases present due to the weakened state of the hive after the swarming. They will also be used when our beehive is back on track to expand to another super, that is beehive terminology for another beehive box on top of the existing one. The frames will be a food source in the new box for the bees.

It appears that by the time we returned home the bees were hungry, because there had been lots of hot weather and then rain, and being a very large hive they were depending on the supply of honey in the hive to keep them sustained. Perhaps they were planning to swarm anyway, after all they swarmed to our place in the first place and perhaps the Queen had gypsy tendencies, anyway lesson learned. They didn't appreciate us extracting the hive for honey although our friends that we gave lots away to certainly did and it was beautiful honey. Since then Mr. HRK has been monitoring the hive closely, and to supplement their food sources every couple of days he feeds them sugar syrup to give them the energy to fly off in search for food. The sugar syrup is a mix of 2 cups sugar and 2 cups boiling water. He pours this into a ziplock bag and when it is lukewarm, and the sugar dissolved he places it with a couple of holes  prodded in the top of the bag in the top of the hive and the bees feed off that until it is empty which may only take a day. So I have certainly been supporting the local Mackay sugar industry with the amount of sugar I have been buying. We also bought some hive beetle baits from Keith as that is our main concern now that there is evidence of hive beetle in the hive, which eat the bee larvae. But it all appears to be working and the hive is becoming more active each day. I hope this story reinforces for you just how fragile beehives can be and that beekeepers need to be vigilant and constantly monitoring their hives as environmental circumstances are constantly changing. Beehives and the beautiful honey they produce can't be taken for granted. It's a primary industry to be protected.

This is what our beehive looks like now. 

When the hive has grown sufficiently we will add another super or box to the top. Last weekend Mr. HRK's mission was to let more sunshine into the backyard area around the hive. So the day was spent pruning, something that needs to be done regularly in tropical gardens. The Golden Penda tree and the Lychee tree were both given a good haircut. All the foliage was moved to the shredder, so that it could be shredded down to mulch, and then Murphy's Law intervened. The shredder wasn't working, so Mr. HRK pulled it to bits, but with no luck. The pile of tree and plant cuttings is still sitting there as there are no new shredders available for sale anywhere in town. Another consequence of the pandemic.

Did you know, that all of the worker honey bees are female, only live for about 28 days, and do all the work? The male honey bees (also called drones) have no stinger and do not work. All they do is mate but the health of a hive can be judged by the number of drones it has. Did you know that the Honey Bee is the only insect that produces food eaten  by humans? Interesting eh?

Honey bees are so important for the pollination of all our food crops in Australia and the hives have been hit hard recently with drought and bushfires, as I'm sure you know. Native Bees are the backup plan in case Honey Bees become decimated and so they need to be nourished as well. Moths, ants and even butterflies play a role as well with pollination. One positive bonus of the Covid 19 pandemic and isolation is that many more people are gardening and growing their own vegetables and planting fruit trees. Now that we have the beehive, every vegetable plant and flower in our garden is a potential food source for our bees and a celebration although bees are known to fly 5 kilometres in search of food. Butterflies, moths and birds are also beneficiaries. 

The following are some photos of our garden at the moment. I hope you enjoy looking at them.I planted a whole lot of seeds a month or so ago, rather randomly throughout the gardens, not having a lot of faith that the seeds would germinate but I think most of them did. So now we have lots of tomato plants growing from seeds that I dried myself between sheets of paper kitchen towel, pak choy, zucchinis, eggplant, strawberries and some herbs. I have transplanted some to better spots in the garden

Here are a few photos for you.

Red Cherry Tomatoes, I think. This one is doing well in a pot. The rest are in the garden. I noticed it's first little flower this morning.

Zucchinis

A few female flowers with small zucchinis attached are now emerging and Mr. HRK plans to give them a hand with pollination to ensure that the small zucchinis don't fall off. 

This one seems happy in a pot

Capsicum growing from seeds I dried

Eggplant which I think must have germinated from seeds in the compost heap. I have seen Italian honey bees in their flowers which is inspiring.

Some kind of bug on the Eggplant flower

This is our leafy patch, mignonette lettuces, beetroot, rocket and other greens.

"Beauty is in the Eye of the Bee-Holder" - Some flowers, to brighten up the garden and add to it's diversity.

The Brazilian Red Cloak just coming into flower. This is at least 12 years old, originally from my Mum's garden in Rockhampton.

Cut flowers of the Brazilian Red Cloak I brought inside to enjoy

 If you look carefully you can see a yellow honey eater salivating over my orchids. It was difficult to get a good photo through the kitchen window.

The flower from one of my Cattleya orchids which I brought inside.

Reliable and pretty Pentas flowers that all insects enjoy. We also have a purple one.

Beautiful begonias

Perfumed Chrysanthemum

Old-fashioned Coleus flowers, almost finished and ready to be pruned but adored by bees.

  Beautiful salvia, can you see the Italian honey bee on this one? Loved also by the honey eaters, butterflies, and native bees.

 Happy World Bee Day my friends, enjoy your daily dose of honey, and the vegetables and fruits that Italian Honey and Native bees have probably pollinated just for you.

Thanks for dropping by.

Best wishes

Pauline.