24 August 2009

daylesford day, part three

On Sunday, G and I drove out to Daylesford for our third organic gardening class. I'm now most-definitely determined to add cape gooseberries and borage to our plot:

But the highlight of the day was learning how to transform these...

into these:

After a demonstration by Jez,

we set to work making our own ropes of onions, shallots, and garlic. I was so pleased with my handiwork:

Binding alliums has the restful repetitiveness of knitting, and it gave us a chance to chat with our classmates. One couple was trading their allotment produce for pints at their local pub! And another had just acquired a massive plot on a nearby farm through the Landshare scheme.

In addition to my allium rope, we took away loads of gorgeous seedlings...

and a punnet of heritage tomatoes,

as it was also Daylesford's Heritage Tomato Weekend. A super way to spend a (mostly!) sunny Sunday.

8 comments:

  1. Oh Kristina, how lovely. I am very taken with the strings of onions and garlic.

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  2. I love borage! That periwinkle-y color... Usually I have some volunteers, but nobody popped up this year. Couldn't possibly have been choked out by weeds (cough, cough)...

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  3. Lovely stuff. We have borage in the garden, but I plan to put some on the allotment for the bees - along with lots of lavender etc etc.

    What are your seedlings then?

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  4. Cultivating Cape Gooseberries for the first time will be an interesting challenge :)

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  5. A very productive day out and your rope of onions is lovely. R would be all for trading product for pints! D x

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  6. Borage flowers are really pretty in ice cubes. So you could have a cocktail hour in the Allotment Cafe.

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  7. Love the look of the green lumpy tomatoes. I have borage in the garden, but it's fallen over :S

    There is something really fetching about allium strings, isn't there? They look so pretty in the kitchen.

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