Singapore and Malaysia: Travels with Ibu and Pak

Magnificent orchid display at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

The blog has been a bit quiet lately because I took a short and unexpected holiday to Singapore and Malaysia.  Just thought I would share some of my travels with you. 

All in all it was a great trip: fantastic food, wonderful gardens and lansdcapes, warm and friendly people, inexpensive and easy to get around.

A truly inspired archway of orchids, Singapore Botanic Gardens

We started off in Singapore (this is expensive) and much has changed since Gavin Young's 1991 fantastic travel book "In Search of Conrad" but he sums up the place much better than I could.

Torch Ginger, Singapore Botanic Gardens

"The skyscrapers of Singapore's newly created seafront shoot-up have a self satisfied look, shining like dragon's teeth in the sunshine.*  They proclaim both the rewards of hardwork and a new hard-headed Singaporean-Confucian attitude to the wicked layabout modern world. 

 At the same time one cannot deny that those icing sugar towers, those shiny dominoes announcing MONEY make a spectacular background to the scores of cargo ships and tankers of all sizes and nationalities that spread themselves across the anchorage in neat rows like a fleeet waiting for some cock-hatted admiral to review it." *(Very smoggy when we were there from the fires in Sumatra).

A must see if you are in Singapore are the Botanic Gardens - a beautiful and welcome green space full of the most spectacular display of orchids and tropical plants.

Okra, chokoes, bitter gourds, snakebeans, eggplant on a market stall in Little India

We also get a chance to catch up with my daughter's old friend Claudia - a professional chef - who took us for a sumptuous seafood meal at Long Beach on Dempsey Hill with black pepper crab and razor clams - the kind of food that Singapore is famous for.

Perhentian 'Tuna Bay'

Next we took the overnight 'jungle' train through from Singapore in the south to the north of Malaya.  All I can say was that it was 'interesting', nothing like the photos in the internet site (no buffet car!!) but the scenery was spectacular. 

We then spent a heavenly five days on the Perhentian Islands with the best snorkelling I have ever done.  Clear blue waters, live coral and spectacular sea life including turtles, fantastic tropical fish and even baby sharks.  To walk off the beach into clear warm waters and be surrounded by hundreds of rainbow coloured fish I think is becoming a rare thing.

Penang - our 'limo'

Penanga Hotel

Back to Kota Bahru on the border with Thailand and then a day long bus trip west to Penang where we had one of those lucky breaks - the gorgeous Penaga Hotel in central George Town, part of the UNESCO heritage site.  

The Penaga is one of the few hotels in Malaysia with 'green' credentials and an eclectic mix of modern art and furniture and antiques, converted from old shop houses.  They have an 'artist in residence studio' with two lucky Australians currently staying there sponsored by the owners.  We spent a happy few days covering the 'art trail' of Penang by rickshaw, taking in the sites and feasting on the famous Nyonya food (Malay/Chinese).  We travelled far and wide looking for good, authentic food and on the last night had one of the best meals of our holiday in the Penaga 'Cinnamon' restaurant- 4 courses for MR28.50 (about $9A)

Nutmeg and mace drying on the streets of Penang

Temple sign - how you know your in the exotic East

Food is a funny thing.  It can be the simplest thing, but if you are starving and you get what you are craving for - it can be the best.  It was like that when we got off the train from Singapore after 13 hours.  While we were waiting for the boat to the Perhentians I found a Kopi/Roti open-air cafe (Coffee/Bread).  Here a man in a Malaysian long shirt with songkok hat was making a kind of stuffed pancakes from scratch.  My mug of strong black Malaysian coffee with a stuffed banana and coconut pancake was one of the best things I have ever eaten.


We discovered a real mix of cuisines in Penang, a lot of it familiar to us from our travels in Indonesia with the added flavours of Thai, Indian, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Vietnamese and Western.

B-b-q lobster and prawns with tom yum soup and kang-kung

Berjaya, Langkawi

Our final stay was on the beautiful island of Langkawi - a three hour ferry trip from Penang.  We stayed on the north west part of the island on the edge of the Machinching Geoforest Park at Pantai Kok. 

It was an incredibly beautiful location with soaring jungle cliffs full of wildlife - lizards, squirrels, birds and lots of monkeys.  Langkawi is also duty free so a cold Tiger beer will cost you about 30c.  I was beginning to get addicted to $4 Mai Thai's so it was time to head for home.

Macaque monkeys, Langkawi

The lovely Pantai Kok marina, Langkawi

The delight of travel are, for me, those unscripted moments - the unexpected places and people that you meet and one snapshot is from Penang.  We had gone to Fort Cornwallis and Michael was enjoying every exhibit, while I had taken a rest in the shade by the ticket booth, when suddenly the aged Chinese ticket seller pulled out her mouth organ and started playing a medley from 'The Sound of Music'.  By the time she got to the second bar of 'Edelweiss' I was laughing with her and singing along.  Her furious husband appeared from his nap under the table and, in spite of his loud remonstrations in Chinese, she continued with a wink and a wave as I left playing a lively rendition of 'You are my Sunshine'.  Happy travels!

Sunset in the Perhentians (with lots of smog from fires in nearby Sumatra!)

Recipe: Homemade Bread with Baked Ricotta

I used to think that bread making was a real art form and that you needed weightlifting muscles for all that kneading - not true!!  I have got into the habit of making this bread at least twice a week because it is so easy and so delicious (and, have you seen the price of real bread recently?)


500 g organic flour (I use a mix of spelt and wholemeal)
2 level tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 level tsp sugar
2 tbs olive oil
350 ml filtered water (approx)
handful pitted olives
1/2 cup polenta


1.  I use the dough hook on a food processor, but you can do this by hand.  Mix together dry ingredients.
2.  Add oil and slowly add water until it forms a dough.  Continue to beat for 10 minutes until dough becomes elastic.
3.  Leave to rise in a greased bowl for approx. 2 hours in a draught free place.  I use my laundry.  I loosely cover with some greased plastic wrap and a tea towel over the top if it is a cool day.  Should double in size.
4.  Punch down on a tray scattered with polenta.  Shape however you wish.  I then either press half olives into the dough or brush with an olive oil/salt/fresh rosemary mix.
5.  Leave for another hour.  Heat oven to 200oC
6.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes.  You know when it is cooked when it if slightly golden and it sounds like a drum when you knock it with your knuckle - and it smells heavenly!!


BAKED RICOTTA


500 g ricotta (the 'cake' kind)
1 tbs chopped chives
1 tsp fresh marjoram or thyme
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
salt and pepper
1 tbs olive oil
1 free range egg


1.  Use the oil to well grease an ovenproof ramekin or souffle dish.  Scatter with the chilli flakes.
2.  Mix all the other ingredients together.
3.  Pour into the dish and bake with the bread for approx. 20 mins.  It should puff up and go golden.
4.  Cool slightly and turn out onto a plate.  Delicious for lunches, picnics, breakfast and sandwiches.  Will keep for a few days in the fridge

Recipe: Kale (Cavolo nero or Tuscan Kale))

Tuscan Kale - I prefer this to any other variety for it's flavour and ornamental look when it's mixed among a flowering border.

I was sitting in Brunswick Heads the other day having my hair cut by Gini, hairdresser extraordinaire (and roller derby queen), when she asked me what you do with a garden full of kale? 

I have to admit that it has taken me a while to warm to all kinds of 'greens' - for they are too redolent of my childhood school dinners and the pervasive smell of boiled cabbage lingering in the damp corridors, along with malingering, bored teenagers. 

Kale has changed all of that.  It's fancy name of cavalo nero just means black cabbage in Italian. (It's like finding out the Casanova just means Newhouse!)  It becomes every day instead of exotic.  

It's part of the large cabbage family of Brassicacea - botanic name Brassica oleracea acephela - and therefore susceptible to pests of this family - particularly the cabbage white butterfly.  

What changed my mind?; it's incredibly easy to grow, cold hardy and long lived, it doesn't smell when you are cooking it, it's extremely versatile to cook with and very good for you at the same time.

KALE is very nutritious: a good source of folate, vitamin K, iron, iodine, calcium and Vitamin C and fibre.

TIP:  When the stems get long and leggy, just cut the top off and it will sprout from all sides giving tender, new succulent growth.  Just make sure it gets some water and you give it a liquid feed.

Cavolo Nero and Bean Soup:  This is a delicious Sicillian recipe (freeze what you don't use)
400g dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and cooked in salted water until tender (they are firmer than the canned variety but they can be used instead)
2tbs extra virgin olive oil, plus extra
2 sticks celery, diced
1 carrot. chopped
1 brown onion, chopped
1.5 litres chicken stock
1 cup halved, fresh cherry tomatoes
200g cavolo nero, shredded (discard thick stems)
Shaved parmesan, to serve
Juice of a lemon


1.  Heat 2 tbs of oil and saute onion, carrot and celery for about 5-10 minutes stirring often.
2.  Add tomatoes, stock, cavolo nero and beans and simmer for another 15 minutes.
3.  Add salt and black pepper to taste
4.  Serve topped with shaved parmesan and a drizzle of olive with bread recipe (to follow)
5.  I like to add the juice of a lemon.  See what you think

Other ways to use kale:
Sauteed:  Shred it, removing the midrib, and blanch in hot water for about three minutes.
Meanwhile heat a fry pan or wok with some olive oil.  Toss the wilted kale in the hot oil for about 1 minute.  Add sea salt and pepper.  Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.  Serve with any kind of meat or fish.  You can beetroot tops in the same way - they are delicious and a favourite in Greek cuisine.  
Breakfast:  Blanch some covolo nero (stems removed), drain and chop roughly.  Divide between individual buttered ovenproof dishes and break two eggs into eat dish.  Add a handful of grated cheddar cheese (can be fetta), salt, cayenne pepper and bake in a moderate oven until cheese is golden and eggs are cooked. (You can add a bit of cream too)
With pasta:  Sautee some day old sour dough breadcrumbs with olive oil, anchovies, fresh chilli and lemon zest.  Meanwhile blanch some shredded covolo nero.  Mix together with fine spaghetti.  Drizzle with olive oil and top with freshly grated parmesan.

A walk on the wild side: Charms and Puggles

Banded Finch

It's that time of year when the Australian bush is flowering in all it's glory so Sunday found me out with the grandchildren on a bush-walk in Mt Jerusalem National Park - which we are lucky enough to have right on our doorstep.  I remember the very first bush-walk I went on when I first came to Sydney over over 35 years ago - for me it was one of those 'eureka' moments - the ones in your lifetime you never forget.  We came to the first flowering shrub,  and my knowledgeable friend said 'that's Prickly Moses' Acacia ulicifolia.  And so it went on for the whole day - one amazing plant after another and I didn't recognize one of them,  let alone know their name.  It was like being at a huge party where you don't know a soul.  The diversity was absolutely astounding.  Then we spotted the glorious crimson Waratah Telopea speciosissima (the state emblem of NSW) and she explained that the Latin name meant 'the most spectacular plant seen from afar' - I was hooked. It's been a fascinating journey ever since - which continued on Sunday.


Charms of finches: The warmer weather has brought the birds flocking to my garden including dozens of these beautiful double-barred finches.  I then discovered the collective noun for finches was a 'charm' - very poetic and very apt I think.

Koonyum Range, Mullumbimby, NSW

On the way up to our walk on Koonyum Ridge a fat black and gold echidna was waddling across the road and I wondered if it had a puggle in its' pouch.  This is the very cute name for the baby echidna - also shared by it's monotreme cousin, the platypus.  These are the very unusual creatures of the Australian animal world in that they are marsupials (have a pouch) but unlike other marsupials, like kangaroos, they lay eggs instead of live babies.  It's amazing what you find out when you do your kids school assignments!

So there was a lot to talk about with the little ones on the way and lots of flowers were out including the lovely Native Iris Patersonia fragilis.  The views were lovely.  It didn't rain.  We only had to carry two of them - and then we finally got there.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour

William Blake

Hot Composting with Dave

 Few gardeners make enough compost for their needs.  HOT COMPOSTING is an easy way of producing a lot of compost in a short space of time.

Most of the ways we make compost is termed COLD COMPOSTING (see previous blog) that is; slowly adding to the heap over time and raking out the decomposed material from the bottom when it is cooked.
With HOT COMPOSTING the heap is made in one go, left alone to decompose, and then the whole heap is ready to use in a relatively short space of time.


Advantages of HOT COMPOSTING over COLD:

• Finished compost faster than COLD which can be quite slow.
• Kills disease organisms - COLD does not
• Kills weed seeds - COLD does not
• True soil food as NITROGEN is retained in the composting process.*
• Efficient use of space - can be made as a 'ready to use' garden bed

Jenny and Penny on quality control duties!

DID YOU KNOW?*  I love it when you find out things like this.  COLD and HOT composting employ different bacteria!!  A HOT compost heap will have a lot more air in it and they use oxygen loving bacteria to break down the heap so the nitrogen (essential plant food) is retained in the heap.  This is not the case with a COLD heap which has less air in it and employs nitrogen loving bacteria, from the material in the heap, to help it break down- essentially you end up with compost that is more of a 'soil conditioner' than a plant food.

HOW TO MAKE HOT COMPOST:  Come with me to Dave's place and see how he does it.
Dave lives on 5 acres with a large re - forested area, vegetable garden, chickens and ducks - so he always has a lot of material for making simple compost heaps like these.

TOP TIP:  Make your HOT COMPOST in a spot where you want to have a new garden bed - then just rake it out, when it is ready, and PLANT - bingo!

 1.  Make a simple frame with some chicken wire and pickets.  You can also use wooden pallets/straw bales/old bits of corrugated iron etc.  It just needs to be big enough to generate heat.  Put on your best hat.


2.  If you have looked at the previous blogs for making a NO-DIG garden and COMPOSTING you will see that we are going to use exactly the same 'lasagne' methods that we used in those-layering CARBON with NITROGEN about 15:1.

3.  Start with a good layer of dry/CARBON material - straw/shredded paper/dry leaves/cardboard/egg boxes/wood shavings/dry prunings etc.


4.  Next, a layer of green/NITROGEN material - old pumpkin vines/freshly pulled weeds/grass clippings/spent flowers/kitchen scraps/seaweed/any plants from the pea or bean family (they are nitrogen rich)   

5.  It's important to water well between each layer.  Here Dave is making sure the composting process will be activated quickly by adding diluted urine - a valuable source of nitrogen that we just flush away.  Not so long ago this was all returned to the land - it still is in many countries.

6.  There are other compost activators like COMFREY.  This is a deep-rooted plant that mines nutrients and helps to speed up decomposition.

7.  Any kind of animal manures are good in not too large quantities and better used as a 'slurry' - watered down.  


8.  You just keep layering until the heap is complete.  Make sure you water it well and then cover it.  You need to keep heavy rain out and the heat in.  What this may lack in looks will make up for fattest eggplants and greenest lettuces. 

It will take about three months to be properly composted 

Recipe: Orange and Almond Cake (flourless and gluten free)

This is a very easy cake!!  And delicious!!!
The citrus season is in full swing, so when my daughter asked me to make a gluten free cake for a party I knew what it was to be - but where was the recipe?  I wanted to use Claudia Roden's orange cake from her fabulous Middle Eastern Cookbook, but whom had I lent it to?  I just had to 'fudge it'.

So here we have the 'accidental orange and nut cake' and, I must say, it was actually better than the original which can be a little dense - that's the way cooking goes. I will definitely be cooking it again.

2 large navel oranges (because they have no pips!)
5 eggs
1 1/4 cups soft brown organic sugar (you can use caster)
2 1/2 cups ground almonds (I used a half half mixture of almond and hazelnut which worked well)
1 tsp baking powder
Heat oven to 170oC
1.  Place oranges in saucepan, cover with water and boil for one hour.  Remove from water and cool.
2.  In a food processor beat eggs and sugar until pale and creamy.
3.  Add nut-meal and baking powder.
4.  Add cool and chopped oranges and whiz until a smooth consistency.
5.  Place in a lined and buttered spring-form pan and bake for approximately one hour.  Let it cool in the pan before removing to cooling tray.

The only piece left!

It's raining- it's pouring nitrates

Rain coming across the Tweed Valley

It rains a lot in the sub-tropics.  Mullumbimby, where I live in northern NSW, gets an average of 1,731 mm per year- London has 583 mm - but, of course it's a lot warmer. The average maximum being 23.7oC compared to 14.7oC for London.  The rain also falls in roughly the same number of days as London-which means that it just chucks it down - and then the sun comes out - not much of the grey drizzle stuff of my childhood.

We have had a recent dry spell, but this weeks thunderous storms have, almost overnight, turned the browning paddocks into an emerald lushness.


This wonderful phenomenon of nature occurs when rain falls through an electric storm and converts nitrogen in the air into the soluble nitrate form - which is readily absorbed by plants.  So it's not just your imagination that everything looks greener after a storm-it's Nature at work.

Flossie has found herself a dry spot!

Obesity: The Dying Art of Eating

"Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" 

 Michael Pollan* (Food Rules)

Fat and NOT Happy:  Where did we go wrong?  How did we loose our sense of healthy eating and cooking that have sustained humans for thousands of years?

"If it comes from a plant,  eat it.  If it was made in a plant, don't" *

'Dibesity':  Almost every day we hear and read news stories about the epidemic of obesity that is sweeping the world and with it associated health problems like diabetes and heart disease. Elizabeth Farrelly (Sydney Morning Herald July 21 2011) wrote about the aptly named 'doughnut effect' in Sydney where the spike in obesity/diabetes was affecting the poorer outer suburbs - forming a 'fat circle' around the more affluent inner city ones which were largely untouched.

Conversely, the more affluent burgeoning middle classes of the emerging economies, like China and India, have in the last ten years seen an average 25% rise in obesity and with it diabetes.

In India, since 2000, 100 million people have become fat who were not fat before - a population the size of Germany! (BBC World Service Health Check)

This is the most serious medical and economic crisis that is affecting the whole world.  Our systems will not be able to cope with the pressures put upon it.

"Don't get your petrol and food from the same place"*

 Affluence is killing us: How did we allow ourselves to be so seduced by the global industrial food giants and fast food peddlers?  I am eternally grateful that I was too dumb for the Latin class at high school did Domestic Science and learnt basic cooking and nutrition instead - the most useful things I ever learnt.

"Eat FOOD. Not too much. Mostly Plants"* 

Most of the blame can be laid fairly and squarely on the industrialisation of our diet.

For the past sixty years we have been led a merry dance by the food industry, agog at all the claims they have been making about what kind of diet is good for us and hijacking the fundamentals of good nutrition. 

Nutritionism is good for the food business, but is it good for us?

All of our uncertainties about nutrition should not obscure the plain fact that chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of food: the rise of highly processed foods and refined grains; the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals in huge monocultures; the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat produced by modern agriculture; and the narrowing of the biological diversity of the human diet to a tiny handful of staple crops, notably wheat, corn and soy.*

Where is the life we have lost in living?


Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?


Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Choruses from The Rock (1934)  T.S. Eliot

Teach Your Children Well:  Our town has recently had an almighty battle on it's hands to keep Woolworth's out - we lost.  I found out today that Woolworth's had been up to my granddaughters' primary school doing a PR spiel and offering 'free apples' - sounds like the wicked stepmother in Snow White to me!  Resist this kind of insidious bribery.

FACT:  Woolworths and Coles supermarkets currently have an 82% share of the food market sales in Australia.

(On a recent visit to Sydney I visited my children's old public school and was thrilled that they had achieved what I had tried to do 25 years ago - created a kitchen garden, installed a kitchen for them to cook in AND introduced gardening and cooking into the curriculum - Yeh!!..................)

Turning Back the Tide:  My unsung hero number 2 is Australian chef/cook book writer/ school food garden guru - Stephanie Alexander - a modern day King Canute.

Almost singlehandedly she has turned the tide with her food gardening/cooking school's programme which has been running since 2001.  Why did she do this?  Because she was working with trainee chefs that didn't know how a bean grew or how you harvested it.  Her store of knowledge from childhood had not been passed to the next generation.

FACT:  One can of soft drink has an average of TEN teaspoonfuls of sugar.  This is converted to fat in the body.

Children have to learn about how food grows and how to cook it.  This is where most the community/school gardens I have worked with, over the past 25 years,  have ultimately failed - NO harvesting/recipes/cooking/eating element was included in the grand design. 

The new kitchen garden at Vaucluse Public School, Sydney

We need to complete the circle of finding the shortest route from the earth, to the hand and the mouth.  Along with organic food gardening and nutrition, these subjects should be part of every school curriculum.

Armed with this knowledge we can make more informed decisions about what we put in our mouths and ultimately take responsibility for our own health and well-being.

*Ref. Pollan, Michael, In Defense of Food ; Food Rules, Penguin Press, 2008 

Recipes: Leek and Pea Risotto (with Prawns)

Leek and Pea Risotto (with prawns)

Leeks, peas and lemons are in abundance at the moment and this fabulous risotto is a favourite with my family using seasonal and fresh ingredients.

lovely leeks at the Farmer's Market

The very first time I ate a real risotto was in San Gimignano, Italy over twenty years ago - and I remember every mouthful.  Fresh crab, subtle lemon flavour and glistening, succulent fat grains of rice - heaven.

Risotto is not a difficult dish to make but, because there are usually just a few ingredients, they need to be of the best and freshest quality. Plus, you need to put a bit of time aside for the stirring (glass of prosecco in the other hand!).

NOTE: I add the prawns as a garnish if I can find fresh green ones, but this is a lovely dish on it's own.  Without the prawns you can garnish with grated parmesan.

1 leek (white part only), washed and finely sliced

1 litre stock, vegetable or chicken

1 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas. if using frozen peas, make sure they are at room temperature

1 lemon, zest only

500g arborio rice

120g butter

2 tbs finely chopped dill OR parsley

salt and pepper

4 green prawns per person, shelled (leaving tails on) and deveined

100g butter

2 cloves garlic finely sliced

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1.  Heat stock and wine in saucepan.

2.  In heavy based pan, melt butter and saute leek until it softens.

3.  Add rice and evenly coat with butter mixture and cook until the grains go slightly translucent.

4.  Add one cup of hot stock at a time, stirring constantly until rice is almost cooked.

5.  Add peas and lemon zest, adjust seasoning, and cook until liquid is mostly absorbed and rice is cooked (no hard bits in the middle, but firm).

6.  Just before rice is cooked heat a frypan with remaining butter, add chilli and garlic.  Add prawns and cook on high heat until they are golden.

7.  Add finely chopped dill (leaving a little for garnish) to risotto and stir through.

8.  Pile risotto onto plate and garnish with prawns and remaining dill.

where's my food stylist?

Buon appetito!

Kitchen Gardens: What to Grow in the Sub-Tropics

When and What to Plant?

Climbing French beans

I wasn't thinking of taking my wheelbarrow any further than the end of the garden so I was a bit perplexed this morning when I noticed this warning on it's tyre 'not to be used on the highway. 

A little later on a friend stopped me in town and asked "can I still plant onions"? It seems like a simple question but it is really quite a big one - what can I plant and when?  This would be the topic that, over the years, I have probably been asked the most. When answering this, the most important factor that you have to take into account is your climatic region and then the micro climate of your garden.  

Treat each site on it's merits.  To give you an example.  Our region is classified as sub-tropical and I have certainly had to totally rethink the question "what can I plant and when" since moving from the temperate (cooler) climate of Sydney. 

For example; I can't get garlic to 'head' in my garden and use it as 'wet garlic' (like a fat spring onion) in cooking - yet 5 km up the valley they grow beautiful stuff - it's a few degrees cooler than here. Conversely, none of the valley folk have any ripe tomatoes or zucchini yet, but my neighbour and I are harvesting already (something unheard of until December in Sydney) 

Here goes!  Below is a list of all the food plants in my garden at the moment - divided into annuals (I have to plant them almost every year) and perennials (they just keep going).  If you have realised that it's good to have a mixture of both - you are half way there. 

ANNUAL

Dinner!

Harvesting Now!
basil
basil lettuce
beans(going since summer)
beetroot
bok choy
broad beans(not quite)
broccoli
chard
chilli
coriander(almost finished)
dill
eggplant
fennel
garlic
leek(2nd crop this year)
broad bean (in flower)
lettuce
mustard greens
onions

Radicchio

peas
parsley
potatoes(2nd planting)
purslane
radish
spinach
spring onions
tomatoes(just ripening)
tuscan kale
watercress

ANNUALS 

About to be Planted!

carrots
capsicum

corn

Broad beans in flower

cucumber
rocket
squash
zucchini

PERENNIALS in the garden
banana
bay
betel leaf
blood orange
ceylon spinach
choko
cumquat
curry leaf
feijoa
fig
French tarragon

Pineapple - makes a good border

galangal
ginger
kaffir lime
lemon
lemonade
lemon myrtle
lemon thyme
lime
marjoram
mint
oregano
papaya
pineapple
rhubarb
rose apple
rosemary

Bananas are easy to grow and bountiful!

strawberry
sweet potato
tamarillo
turmeric
thyme
Vietnamese mint
yacon

All of this has been planted within the last five years and a most of it virtually looks after itself, with a lot of the annuals self seeding.
The most important lesson I have learned is that the annual food plants in the sub-tropics do best in the cooler months of autumn, winter and spring and deteriorate rapidly when the rains come over summer.

However, for most of the year the garden is incredibly abundant and always gives us something to eat. To answer Jo's question - if you want to plant onions, do it now and you might get be able to harvest them before the rains come. Give it a go. Just see how much you can grow!

" Beware of gardens of the righteous! Trimmed edges mean a frightened soul. "Jackie French

NOTE:  See Page SEASONAL PLANTING GUIDE