Fruit & Vegetables

How to Plant a Choko

Chokos (aka chayote) are amongst the most prolific, versatile and healthful vegetables you can grow. Rarely available commercially, chokos are a traditional staple in many warm temperate and subtropical home gardens. The fruits’ crisp texture and mild flavour lends itself to roasting whole or adding to soups and stews, where it will take on the

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How to Grow Finger Limes

Finger limes are an unusual citrus fruit which are native to subtropical Australia. They taste just like regular limes yet are unique in their texture and presentation; the insides look just like fruity caviar. Even in Australia, this is a gourmet fruit which can be hard to find & fetches high prices in retail markets.

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6 Top Crops to Grow in a HOT Summer

It’s no news to any of us that subtropical and tropical climates have extremely hot summers. Add to that some punishing humidity & daily downpours, and you’ve got the potential for some vegetable gardening disasters. Anyone who has tried to grow traditional European crops through a QLD summer has learnt the hard way that hot

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Why You Should Grow Perennial Basil

There’s nothing like growing your own basil. Inhaling the lush scent when you brush past it in the garden. Watching its flowers attract essential pollinators. Picking leaves for salads, pesto and pasta sauce. Using it as a companion plant that improves the flavour of tomatoes. Sadly these are usually only seasonal pleasures, because annual basil

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Chard Carrot Casserole

This middle eastern-inspired chard carrot casserole combines the earthy taste of rainbow chard with the sweetness of carrots. Chickpeas & cumin provide the protein and base notes, while parsley, mint and lemon juice round out this beautiful looking and tasting dish. When I see Swiss rainbow chard I always sigh because it is so beautiful!

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Veggie Lasagna

This veggie lasagna is so good and packed with nutrition- but by no means is it a traditional lasagna recipe! I have to say this up front, because I really don’t want all the Italian nonnas of the world coming at me to knock me on the head with their wooden spoons! Of course traditional

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How to Grow a Ton of Passionfruit

Do you know how expensive passionfruit can be? It’s outrageous to pay for something that you can grow so easily at home! We love passionfruit, and it was the first major food crop we grew here at the Self Sufficient Me home garden. Using my top tips on how to grow a ton of passionfruit,

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How to Grow Water Celery

Water celery is a little-known perennial edible that grows in most climates & makes a fantastic addition to any food garden. All parts of this plant can be eaten, and the mild taste sits somewhere between parsley and celery. It’s easy to grow, and will survive both very hot summers and hard frosts. Despite this,

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Beetroot Soup with Chive Dumplings & Hazelnut Dukkah

Hearty, delicious, spicy & full of goodness: this tasty beetroot soup with chive dumplings & hazelnut dukkah has it all! The velvety soup texture and soft dumplings contrast perfectly with the crunch of the nutty topping, while the chilli, coriander & cumin add deep, spicy base notes. Whether you simply love the taste or have

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What To Do with Too Much Beetroot?

Beets, beetroot, whatever you want to call them, when you have too many…. well, you have too many. Yet with the price of food these days, none of us wants to be wasting anything home-grown, especially a seasonal crop like beetroot. Our self-sufficiency journey isn’t just about growing the food; we need to know how

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Purslane – The Weed you Need

Purslane is one of those unusual little herbs that lots of us have yet don’t ever notice. Considered a weed in many western countries like Australia, but an edible in the Mediterranean and Middle East, you might say it walks the line between vegetable and weed. What Exactly is Purslane? Purslane is a succulent edible

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Should I Prune my Tomato Plants?

To prune, or not to prune….that is the question! I’m talking about tomato plants, of course, and in this article I’m going to explain why sometimes you should prune tomatoes, and sometimes you shouldn’t. Types of Tomato Plant There are several things I look for whenever I’m thinking of pruning tomato plants, and the first

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Stuffed Red Bell Peppers (Capsicums)

These stuffed red bell peppers are a lovely meal and so easy to make! All you need to do is put them together then put them in the oven. My bell peppers went horribly this year (just like my beetroot) and I don’t know why. It becomes even more baffling because the tomatoes went better

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How to Fill a Garden Bed

Ok so you’re new to gardening. Or maybe new to raised beds. We all know that veggies need soil to grow in, but where do you get the soil from? Which soil do you use? How deep does the soil need to be? What else do they need? Do I need to add fertiliser? If

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SeQLD Summer Veggie Planting Guide 2022-23

The well-known catchphrase ‘beautiful one day, perfect the next’ was devised by advertisers to describe Queensland summer…but I don’t think they had gardening in mind when they coined it. Summer in subtropical south-east Queensland has 3 keywords: hot, humid, and rainy. This is a time where the gentle breezes and pleasant sunshine of spring have

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Easy Chicken & Leek Pot Pie

There are many varieties of savoury pies, but this easy chicken & leek pot pie is a classic for a reason- it’s fantastic! This chicken & leek pot pie is surprisingly simple to make and extremely flavourful. Featuring tender chicken thigh meat & sweet leeks enveloped in a creamy, garlicky, white wine sauce, topped with

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Nasturtium Flower Pesto

You might already know that nasturtiums are edible (and if not, welcome to the club!), but did you know they make an excellent pesto? It’s true! When it comes to edible flowers and plants, nasturtiums are a bit of a superstar. The entire plant can be eaten- flowers, leaves, stems and seed pods. All parts

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Coconut & Mulberry Vegan Panna Cotta

Use berries from your backyard to make this fresh, vegan, sugar-free dessert. When mulberry season is in full swing, you can only eat so many straight from the bush…so what to do with the remaining eleventy-hundred? Here’s a fresh idea for a low-calorie dessert that showcases this wonderful local fruit. Now if you don’t have

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Why You Should Grow Elephant Garlic

Do you love eating garlic, but have trouble growing it in your warm climate? Then you might find elephant garlic (allium ampeloprasum) a fantastic substitute. This hardy allium does well in the tropics & subtropics where the winters are rarely cold enough to grow a good garlic crop. Elephant garlic has huge cloves with a

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Garden-to-Table Fried Veggie Wraps (Vegan)

Whether you’re a vegan or just fancy loading up on vitamins, these easy fried veggie wraps are always a tasty treat! A while ago I got into the habit of going meat-free on a Monday, and devised these vegan wraps…they soon became a regular menu item. Ideal for lunch, dinner, or snacks in between, they

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