Boldly tangy, with home-made ranch dip & fried in bacon fat, American-style fried green tomatoes are a crunchy savoury with a true wow factor! Long-perceived as a staple of the American south, fried green tomatoes are in fact from north-east USA but popularised by their namesake 1991 movie. What’s more, the dish is thought to
A classic way to use up leftover cooked vegetables, spicy choko fritters help maximise harvests, fill tummies, and are easy to make. Just like classic vegetable fritters, choko is grated up and used as the basis for a yummy fried vegetable patty, known as a ‘fritter‘. Ideal to make in advance for lunches, they can
What is Choko? Chokos (aka chayote) are amongst the most prolific, versatile and healthful vegetables you can grow. Uncommon in shops and stores, 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, stews and sweet dishes,
There’s nothing so comforting as the delightful combination of salt, spice & warmth, and our potato, paprika and choko soup fits the bill perfectly. Chokos can be a little difficult to know how to use. Even if you grew up with a choko vine in the backyard, those vintage recipes can be a little ho-hum.
A traditional Australian favourite yet rarely seen on restaurant menus, the humble backyard choko is experiencing a resurgence. No-one is surprised. This classic vegetable is at once unique, nutritious and filling. Its mild, buttery flavour means it can be adapted to a wide variety of sweet and savoury dishes (apple pie with choko, anyone?), and
Long prized for its health-boosting and purported medicinal properties, turmeric (curcuma longa) is a flowering plant in the ginger family. This heat-loving perennial is easy to grow at home if you can provide the right growing conditions. But beware- growing turmeric is addictive, and the harvests can be huge! Turmeric is a natural source of
Being able to preserve your harvest for later use is just as big a part of self-sufficiency as growing the produce. Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food in such a way as to stop or greatly slow its spoilage, and prevent foodborne illness while maintaining nutritional value, texture and flavour. When crops
Miso, mushroom & green bean bake is a fresh, modern take on green bean casserole, which Americans will know as a traditional thanksgiving side dish. Green bean casserole is usually made with tinned mushroom soup, as it was invented during the 1950s by Campbells specifically to boost sales of their tinned soup. Here, we freshen
Whether you’re looking for a light meal, an unusual side dish or something different to make from your own produce, these roast zucchini w/nasturtium leaf pesto fit the bill! Tasty yet vitamin-rich, this neat little dish packs a serious punch of greens. Sure to be a crowd-pleaser for vegetarians, roast zucchini w/nasturtium leaf pesto showcases
With the advent of online shopping, there is now a plethora of websites offering vegetable seed to the home gardener. So much so, that it can be difficult to choose what to buy & where to buy from. Buying seed from your own climate zone gives you the best chance of success. Many of the
What is Ube? Ube (dioscorea alata) is a perennial tropical vegetable that you may not have heard of. A specialty of south-east Asia, this purple winged yam is a low-GI, easy-to-grow staple that puts a lot of food on the table for minimal effort. Especially versatile in the kitchen, it can be used in both
Introducing mulching to your vegetable garden beds can be a game-changer for the health and productivity of your crops. Mulch, a protective layer of material spread over the soil surface, offers a myriad of benefits that extend beyond mere aesthetics. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a beginner, you’ll find that mulching serves as a
One of the biggest joys of gardening is its constant challenges. But as each new one greets us, we need to know how to manage it. Aside from issues with soil & the plants themselves, all sorts of unexpected weather conditions can occur, like a late frost, heat waves, freak storms, high winds, or too
If you’re a beginner gardener & not quite sure how to start….this one’s for you! While more and more people are turning to food gardening to beat cost-of-living price rises, gardening should also feel like an enjoyable hobby, so it’s best if you can set your garden up the right way straight off so it
Dreamy, creamy & easy to make- this vegan vegetable soup ticks all the essential boxes! Despite the small ingredient list, this soup has a delightful taste and creamy mouthfeel. Big enough to feed a family or make dinner for several nights, this zucchini, potato & pine nut soup makes for a perfect quick weeknight meal.
Making relish is a great way to preserve your beetroot and perfect for when you have a whole crop that needs to be harvested at once. It’s spreadable, versatile, and will last several weeks in the fridge. Beetroot relish adds interest to a cheese platter or poached eggs, can be used to top mini quiches,
When you first start growing your own food, the excitement is real. So much so, that it can be hard to wait for your first harvest! But it’s easy to start eating from your own backyard quickly, if you sow the right crops. Here are our favourite 6 crops you can harvest in under 30
When you first start vegetable gardening, the path to successful crops isn’t always clear. There’s a steep learning curve, especially when you’re starting your vegetables from seed. Variables like soil, watering, propagation, and maintenance can seem like minefields for the beginner. One technique that is critical to the success of any food garden, is potting
Don’t get the wrong mental picture: this deceptively-named edible plant is in fact a green leafy vegetable. An ancient annual salad green native to southern Europe, its name came about because it would typically self-seeded in corn fields. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of Dutch corn salad- it is definitely a lesser-known edible.
We all know how good an authentic home-grown heirloom tomato is, so it’s no wonder that tomatoes are one of the most common plants in any home vegetable garden. But growing great produce is really only half of the self-sufficiency journey; we need to know how to use & preserve our harvests too. There are
Self Sufficient Me is a blog about self-sustainment by growing our own produce (plant/animal), and self-fulfilment by looking after our health (physical/mental) through exercise and slowing life down a little.
