Spent the last few days reading through this entire thread (and the bee keeping thread as well, which sadly, seems to have died... I've got Aust. native stingless bees).
What a great read and some great ideas.
I've got cabbage, carrots, leeks, onions & silver beet in raised beds you can see up there ^^^ somewhere. Mandarins are just about ready and had some nice lemonades ... My first bunch of bananas should be ready in a few weeks. Some of my other plants are a nectarine, which turned out to be a peach ... some tropical plums, 4 or 5 south american cherries. Who remembers loquats? Have a young one of those. Tropical apples, an olive from St. Helena Island. Choko vine is going good, getting plenty of those lately. I had a spare garden bed looking for something to do. Last weekend I put in a few Otway Red spuds to see how they'd fend ... I love beetroot & was interested in reading various preparation methods. I boil them up like a potato, skin them like everyone does, slice them thin, put them in a Tupperware container in layers with red onion - then fill the container with balsamic vinegar, which is a bit sweeter than malt or cider ... after a week or so, nice in a salad or a sandwich.
Anyways - keep up the good gardening everyone ...
[Edit] forgot to mention the dragon fruit ...
... and one of the plum trees, I took from a root cutting from my Dad's place. The original tree is probably 100 years old. It was well established in the '50's when they moved there. It's a deep red flesh plum and sweet. I used to gutz myself on them when I was a kid.
My motivation? My father in law is Hungarian, when he was younger they used to make a local drink called palinka, originally based on plums but often apricots were used as they moved over here to Melbourne.
I love the Hungarian culture, Sunday morning we go over there and have wonderful coffee with a shot glass of vodka as an accompaniment ... and a spread of hams, sausage, pickled veg - fresh home made bread.
I'd love to make some palinka before it's too late ...
Q