Growing and Gathering - Page 24 of 27 - 1/4 Acre Edible Heaven

Growing Perennial Chilli (or Chili) Plants

We absolutely love Chillies, and we eat A LOT of them.

Which is why we absolutely have to grow our own, because if we didn’t, come Winter when they are out of season, they easily fetch up to $6 for 5 pretty sad looking red chillies and we’re refuse to pay that much for them.

We have been really lucky with our chilli plants and always get a pretty good crop. But it’s always sad to see these lovely ornamental plants shrivel up and die when Winter sets in.

Well it used to be sad, before we began growing our Chilli plants as perennials.

While, where I live, we are slowly (very slowly) heading out of Winter towards Summer, other parts of the world are getting ready to settle in for the colder temperatures. With the colder temperatures, comes the need for heating and …

Last year, we grew a LOT of Leeks.

We enjoy Leeks. I wouldn’t say they are either of our absolute favourite vegetable but they definitely make a regular appearance on the table.

Even then, there was no way we were going to get through the 20 or so sandwich bags we had full of them in our freezer.

We had already given away a dozen or so bags, but I have to say, Leeks don’t seem to be a particularly popular vegetable among my friends and family so it was difficult to even give them away.

I really wanted to find a way to use our supplies up though. I didn’t want to waste them since we had gone to the effort of growing them and I just knew we had to find a way to enjoy more of our home grown Leeks.

Maybe there was a way of preserving Leeks, other than freezing them?

After searching around online I didn’t really find anything that excited me but I started thinking about all the Onion Jam recipes I had seen, and whether using Leeks would work just as well.

So, with 3 bags full of Leeks, a few other ingredients and my preserving pan, I went into experiment mode.

With fabulous results!!

There are some jobs that I absolutely dread doing in our edible garden.

Not too many, but some that are so difficult, horrible, or painful that I just don’t want to do them.

Pruning our heritage Boysenberry plants is one of those jobs.

I don’t mind digging around in the worm farm, shoveling compost and making fish fertiliser (oh the smell!) but when I know it’s time to cut back the Boysenberries, somehow weeks and months drift by and I still haven’t done it.

Which means that it was totally overdue to be done and with one month of Winter left, time was running out.

So, last week I finally got onto it.

One of the greatest thrills we get in our edible garden, apart from the obvious produce, is using seeds from last seasons crop (or the seasons before) to grow more produce. Seed saving is a great way to keep growing the fruit …

Propagating Boysenberry Plants

Boysenberry plants are a wonderful addition to any edible garden.

When allowed to thrive, they produce loads of fresh, sweet, fat fruit which is delicious whether it’s eaten straight off the bush, still warm from the Summer sun, preserved as Boysenberry jam or frozen and used through the year for fruit pies and smoothies.

As a kid, I remember a friend whose parents had the most prolific Boysenberry bush. We used to sit in the backyard after school and eat as many as we could until all the ripe berries were gone. I always hoped another lot would ripen before I was invited to go around again.

It’s no surprise then that when we first started our garden, and knew we wanted to make it an edible garden, one of the first plants I wanted was a Boysenberry plant.

Growing Perennial Chilli (or Chili) Plants

Organic Fertilizers – Wood Ash For Potash

Preserving Leeks – Caramalised Leek and Garlic Jam

Pruning Your Boysenberry Plants

Saving Seeds From The Onion Family

Propagating Boysenberry Plants

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