Nightfall spring harvest, food & seed saving.

Waking to 5am birdsong a chorus that celebrates the abundance of blooms, fruits & vegetables in the Nightfall permaculture garden & wild food forest on the Nightfall grounds. As the days get warmer & already storms are rolling through and new buds put forth you can feel the pull to start anew. Nature’s beautiful bounty, a welcome offering. Time to make the most of this bounty, harvest, save, preserve food and have patience to allow plants to go to seed & save for future planting.

The harvest began in August, our lemon trees were absolutely loaded, far too much to use fresh so by preserving the abundance, we can use our homegrown goodness all year round. Also our Tamerillo was dripping with fruit. I combined cherry tomatoes and turmeric from the garden to make a very tasty breakfast relish as part of the Nightfall Breakfast Hamper.

Another homemade goodness is our homegrown purple cabbage turned into sauerkraut with honey & apple cider, it’s a beautiful magenta colour, a great way to add vibrance to the breakfast hamper, plus flavour.

Our 7yo plum tree flowers abundantly every year in early spring, but for whatever reason this year, we had our first plum harvest mid-spring! I combined the plums with rainforest Davidson plums and homegrown chili to make a spicy delicious rainforest plum chili jam that we serve with either cheese platters or entrées. This is definitely a guest favourite.

Last but certainly not the least is our beetroot, bush lemon & Tasmanian native pepper relish, a brunch delight!

Now that spring is well and truly turning into summer, seeds have been collected and saved, the permaculture garden is weeded, fed & mulched. Fingers crossed these heat wave conditions don’t continue and we can plant a summer garden.

Recipe

“Beetroot, balsamic and Tasmanian wild pepper relish “

Enjoy!!