Pick me, pick me....

If there is one way you can put a smile on my dial is to take me to a garden shop and put me next to the fresh herbs. Gosh I love them.

After asking hubby to take me to one of our more favoured garden shops, we arrived only to find out that the herb section was sadly lacking. Mind you, it was the New Year weekend and unfortunately I did not think that supplies could be low due to this fact. Yes, that was the case and I have filed that away in my mind for future reference.

I decided to take my darling daughter to the same place a couple of days later but was smart enough to ring the shop first to check on the availability. Would you believe the lovely lady at the end of the phone line informed me she was in fact standing waiting for the truck to arrive with their first delivery of herbs for the year. I was so excited as I so wanted to grab some fresh herbs and was desperate to re pot the 'old' ones as they were certainly needing newing.

We arrived at the shop to be surrounded by shelves and shelves of beautiful fresh herbs. Quite honestly I could not decide which to purchase as I really wanted to buy one of everything as they all looked so fresh and I am sure they were calling to me to take them and care for them. I did resist however and purchased my much needed mint, rosemary, basil and parsley, paid for them and lovingly took them to the car with glee.

Hubby very kindly potted them for me last weekend and I love going out each morning to say hi to the fresh new additions. They are all looking very happy and my daughter and I look forward to harvesting them in days to come to add to our cooking and enjoy the health benefits of fresh herbs, not to mention the monies saved from growing your own.

Basil.....fly away!

Whilst recently visiting a lovely Italian girlfriend for morning tea at her home, I noticed on her sliding gauze door a couple of Basil cuttings were placed on the door. On enquiring why the Basil was on the door, my friend informed me that her aunty had often placed the herb on her doors to rid flies.

Whilst sharing a cup of coffee with my girlfriend, she placed the same Basil on the table where she had also placed some yummy morning tea. During the couple of hours I was sharing with her, indeed, the flies did not seem to want to join us at the table. I was amazed and informed her that I would be trying this natural fly deterrent at home.

Yes, 'tis true. I have placed various springs of Basil offcuts around my kitchen and this has indeed warded off those pesky flies. So my friendly readers, feel free to try it.....you'll like it.

Merry Christmas and thank you

It is the time to be thankful during this Christmas season and so it would be remiss of me not to thank you, my readers, for taking an interest in my banter. My 1000 visitor will occur over the next day or so to this my Lady Lou Lettuce blog and quite frankly I can't comprehend that so many of you from all over the world take an interest in my blog. Regardless I thank you all.

I hope I have put a smile on most faces whilst you read and I look forward to continuing the blog into 2012. Though my gardening prowess has been limited due to my downsizing from a garden to a balcony, I am hoping to diversify in the future and chat about other gardening happenings around my area with the intent always to, each time, put a smile on your face and maybe even create a little giggle too.

To you and yours I wish each a very Merry Christmas and again I thank you all for taking the time to read my words. I look forward to continuing to fill these pages for you into the New Year.

Say it isn't so!

Well, my friends, after having spent a weekend away in Melbourne, Victoria, I went to say hi to the balcony family and alas..........it is with much sadness I must say that the Coriander has not thrived  as I had hoped. Actually, I have an admission...the poor things started looking sad about two weeks ago, interestingly I had just fertilised them but to no avail. Clearly I do not have the magic touch and along with our very hot (already) summer's arrival, I guess I will just have to put this Coriander to it's resting place and continue to purchase it (yuk) from the retail outlets. That is OK.....we can't be good at everything. Having just crossed to surf the net, I have been reading that it is a cooler weather herb and clearly my Queensland balcony heat is just too much for this very delicate herb. Boohoo but I can take it!

However, I can say that about a week ago I cut back the mint as it had started to acquire a powder mould on the leaves, I think I may have been over-watering it (yes, due to the extremely hot weather I was killing it with kindness). After giving it a very good haircut last week as you can see, it has returned to it's former self and I am delighted as there is much lamb chop bbq'ing and eating to come and we must have our home-made lamb sauce to accompany the lovely lamb.

Here is my darling grandmother's mint sauce recipe for those of you who have mint growing at home:

Home-made Mint sauce

A bunch of washed and chopped mint leaves; boiling water; sugar; white vinegar; heat-proof jug.

Place the chopped mint into a pouring jug; sprinkle approx 1-2 tblpsn sugar over the top of the mint; cover with recently boiled water, just enough to cover the top of the mint and allow to cool; add the approx 2 tablespoons of vinegar and stir, remember to taste as you go. You just want it tart enough but not so that you cannot taste the slight sweetness and the beautiful mint. Accompany with a lovely roast leg of lamb, maybe some delicious bbq lamb loin chops or fabulous pan-fried crumbed lamb cutlets! Scrumptious.

I have learnt much during this Coriander learning curve. Mostly, it is clearly a colder climate herb and I just have to accept that. I do know that my friend has success growing hers and I have an idea that she has a lovely cool area in her garden for this scrumptious and precious herb and that is fine.

I will however try growing it again as we reach autumn and hopefully I will have more success with it.

As a consolation...here is a photo of some beautiful roses which my darling hubby purchased for me from a wonderful Brisbane rose farm yesterday, (which we visit on a regular basis, yes I am a little spoilt), as a gift to me to celebrate our wedding anniversary......life is good.....no life is great!

Lucky Lady Beetle

I just had to share this little creature with you all. I have just walked out to check on the hydration of the pots and there she was, enjoying a relaxing time on the Basil. Apologies for the lack of focus but I have never and will never profess to be an ace photographer....Mother Nature....you've gotta love her!

Coriander light my life.....

I cannot believe it has been a month since I last put fingers to keys. Oh well. Life has indeed been busy.

As you can see, the Coriander is coming along nicely. However I dare not get too cocky about my achievements as Brisbane's summer has certainly arrived and the heat has graced us well and truly with it's presence. How will these delicate shoots manage through this heat is a question only they could answer.

Whilst at the markets yesterday, where I sell my handmade wares - see below - (Davies Park Markets, Montague Road, West End Sat 6am-midday), my customers were chatting about how they are in agreeance regarding the heat onslaught.

My concerns, therefore, is whether my little lovelies above will survive well or will wilt away due to heat exhaustion. We must await the outcome my friends.

I have included as above, a selection of some of my other herbs in progress, Thyme, Basil, Rosemary (also Parsley, Mint, Oregano not visible here).

Now most of you who have read my blog regularly will know that cooking is one of my great loves and so I would like to share a recipe with you all, as simple as it is, which is a big hit in this household. Due to the abundance of herbs on my balcony, and with a family who loves food, I came across this little beauty recently which was the perfect solution for utilising my lovely home grown herbs and gave it a go and it is a very very welcomed meal in our home. This is a crust for a rack of lamb but I have tweeked it just a little.......

Herb Crust:

Preheat oven to 180c

Ingreds: 1-2 cups breadcrumbs; 1-2 tblspn Dijon mustard; zest of 1 lemon; 3-4 tablspns oil; salt and pepper; chopped herbs of your choosing. Chops of your choosing. Now I use this with lamb loin chops and I always include Mint in the herb selection. When cooking Pork chops which are also ideal with this crust, I will include Thyme in my selection of herbs. Naturally, a rack of lamb would be ideal too.

Method: Mix the breadcrumbs etc together in a bowl. Pan fry the chops on both sides so that they are just browned. Remove the chops from pan and place chops in ovenproof baking dish, lying chops flat. Cover the chops with the herb mix and pat down firmly. Cook in the oven for approx 35-45 mins or until the crust has browned.

I cook up some lovely "in season" vegetables with this in winter or in summer, will accompany this dish with a lovely fresh salad and a boiled potato or two adorned with some lovely sour cream. I assure you am in everyone's 'good books' when I cook this. Enjoy......

Well my friends, until next time, I wait to see how these lovely Coriander shoots go and hopefully will be able to harvest them very soon for use in a lovely Thai dish or salad and will hopefully have another pot or two growing well at the same time.

Don't take life too seriously and remember to laugh often. Sometimes it is hard to do but it is so important.........oh and stay tuned!

Coriander problems solved? Maybe

Hubby and I recently attended a 60th birthday celebration of one of my darling girlfriend's hubby's (gorgeous Italians) birthday and the room was 99.9% filled with their Italian relatives and friends of the birthday boy. It has been a little while since we were in a room where we didn't know anybody (except the family of the birthday boy) and so it was a real "meet and greet" fest for us. We sat at a table where there ended up being not one Italian but lovely people nonetheless. Whilst we girls chatted about life, one of the birthday boy's co-workers, female, informed me that she was a keen gardener. My ears poked up immediately as I was very interested in learning about her expertise...which ended up being broccoli, lettuce and wait for it.....Coriander. My interest increased ten-fold due to my lack of being a successful Coriander grower so I listened to her intently. This lovely friendly lady informed me that, having had trouble herself growing this gorgeous herb, she was listening to a radio gardening show not too long ago and the learned as the host took calls from many unsuccessful Coriander growers....his conclusion to the problems was that he believed most people planted the seeds too far below the surface soil, he suggested not even 0.5cm, hence just below and to then lightly cover the seeds with soil.

Problems with the herb plant going to seed too early was also a very common problem of the listeners and again the host suggested we plant the seeds in a cycle ie plant one pot and then some 4-6 weeks later plant another lot of seeds in another pot etc etc and hence you will have a never-ending supply before they start to seed.

Naturally I was so excited about this information and I mean so so so excited I could not wait to utilise this information at home. Hence the pot above. The seeds were planted about a week ago and so far so good. Ok, it is very early days but regardless, I am very determined to give these suggestions a go as we do so love Coriander in our meals/salads in this household so I am being very positive about it all. I promise I will let you know about the progress of these gorgeous plants. Very excited!