Mmmm, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Sprinkled with a little Licor 43 and then a dod of crème fraiche
Surely not from the allotment?
Gary
No, Somerfields.....
Lindsay
We have been quite lucky in our small garden this year - good loganberries, a good batch of wild brambles as well as a Giant Rhodesian strain, and our first batch of grapes from our own vine (greenhouse) as well as tomatoes and potatoes in a bin bag.<br><br>Raspberries and blueberries we too get from the supermarket, though the few strawberries we managed to rescue wee very very good. None of this, of course, is my work.
Gary
I had some good lettuces this year and the onions are looking fantastic. Some potatoes from a bin but they didn't do too well. The tomatoes are sitting in the greenhouse not ripening. The courgettes we threw in up at that allotment are doing splendidly. Soft fruit has not been good though for some reason - a few balckcurrants in the garden and no rasps. Up at the allotment there are loads of fruit bushes but they need work to get them back into production. Lots of apples but agian, not ripening.
Lindsay
The possums ate the strawbs so we gave up. Our kumquats were nice, we made 3litres of marmalade. Basil, flat-leaf parsley and sage keeps on coming, the lettuces have bolted in the heat, fennel is an experiment this year. We're also trying sweet potato up in the other veggie beds (too dry to water them so we pulled back to the herb bed by the kitchen window) and snow peas, and also tomatoes. <br><br>I wish we could grow rasps or blackberries. they just don't like Brisbane climate. Apples are a distant dream. For some reason, nobody down under does russets or any of the dry-skin varieties but we do get fuji's which are yummylicious.<br><br>Bananas are up to $AU15 a kilo, because of the storm which wiped out 75% of the onshore production, and a very aggressive ban on imports (spongy-top would kill the local industry, which is purely based on the cavendish banana. people grow ladyfinger at home but its very messy, cockroach-laden business. I can't be bothered with the suckers). They will be back down under $3/kg by ecksmass.<br><br>-g
George
But you do have supermarkets, don't you, George?
Gary
Yes, but the variations in fruit pricing for seasonal imports is amazing. we have californian cherries right now, at $AU 7 punnet. Rasps vary from $AU7 out of season to $AU 3 in-season. <br><br>Apples are not imported. Like Bananas, the risks for the native fruit industry are felt to be too great (this caused a huge stoush with the NZ fruit industry, which led to a noted NZ biologist attempting to prove an ozzie botanical garden specimin apple tree was infected with fire blight, in some bizarre eco-terrorism to get his national fruit exports in)<br><br>Here is the NZ spin on things:<br><br>http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/daretobewise/advanceaustraliafair.html
George