Saturday, January 8, 2011

What Do You Reckon???

When I arrived home from our extra long family break/holiday I was welcomed by an abundance of ripe passion-fruit, 40 to be exact, all waiting for me on the ground, just below my trusty old passion-fruit vine....
It's taken me nearly 4 years to finally grow a vine that is healthy enough to produce an abundance of fruit and an abundance of fruit it is bearing...
So with visions of passion-fruit wine (be very excited) in my head I pulped my 40 passion-fruit into zip-lock bags.
These are now headed for the freezer until I have enough pulp needed to create my very first brew of passion-fruit wine.... YUMM-O!!!!!
Another fruit ripe on the vine at the moment are heirloom Tommy-toe tomatoes....
These babies have had a pretty hard start to life. You see about 3 months ago 80 head of sheep decided to have a little party in my garden when I went to Sydney for a long weekend with DH and my girls... I arrived home to a TRASHED garden and have been too devastated to share pictures with you all... Everything, and I mean E V E R Y T H I N G was gone. Grapes, tomatoes, roses, jasmine, apples, cherries, pomegranates, citrus trees, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, shrubs, vines, oh and did I mention my tomatoes, my 30 odd heirloom vines ALL GONE!!!! Well, not all gone, the stalks were still left so I guess that's something, right???!!!
Well, thankfully we had just over an inch of rain that very same week which gave all of my little bare stalks a boost of energy and they got to work recovering....
So now 3 months down the track I'm starting to see greenery again and small amounts of fruit, I'm so glad that everything is recovering... I spend a lot of time in my garden and to have it all vanish over a couple of days was heart breaking to say the least... I hope those darn sheep got a belly ache for being so cheeky....
Tomorrow we are heading out in DH's plane 'Charile' for a joy ride....

We might stay out all day, heck we might ever bed up somewhere for the night.... We're thinking fishing, on the river, with a nice cooked meal maybe even an ice cold beer from this place, what do you reckon????

14 comments:

  1. Gorgeous tomatoes! Your little airplane adventure sounds like lots of fun!

    MGM

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  2. Have a fun day. I haven't had 80 head of sheep devour my garden but certainly one ever hungry ram has feasted on my vegies and he did enough damage on his own. Your tomatoes are looking good now though.
    Your pictures of Millie were beautiful, what a cutie.

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  3. The plane trip sounds awesome Jode! How cool that you can jet off somewhere for the weekend!

    I can't wait to hear about your wine adventures!! Thats a great idea for the passionfruit!

    Have fun this weekend!

    Ellie x

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  4. Yummo! I love passionfruit. It is the taste of summer I reckon. Your poor garden. No wonder you were devestated. At least it has been a good season to get everything growing again. Enjoy your little trip. Not a bad place to visit for a cold one. Thanks for sharing the photo journey of Millie. She is certainly a cutie.

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  5. Oh those darn sheep! Were any of them named Shaun? I've recently discovered "Shaun the Sheep" on DVD and I love it! Thought I'd pass it on to your girls.
    Your passion fruit looks so Yummy! I wish I had a green thumb like you.

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  6. Wow, the sheep really did a good job! Glad youve had some recovery. Ive got exactly the same tomato in my garden, and picked the first ones last night :-)

    Yum to all that passionfruit. We tried to grow one once, and failed miserably.

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  7. Can I send you my address for when the passionfruit wine is ready? (wishful thinking)

    I can sympathise with the sheep thing, as the neighbours sheep used to break in and eat all my spring bulbs (not as devastating as your veggie garden tho).

    I now dont have ANY remorse about lamb for dinner....

    Cheers
    Fi

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  8. I love passionfruit! you are more patient than me, I would just eat it. Hope you had fun on you flight, I used to all sorts of adventurous things, but these days more of a stay at home type!

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  9. Look at those tomatoes, yum. I enjoyed looking at the photos of Millie and how she has grown. What a joy!
    Also, I am very happy to pass on the stylish blogger award! When you get a chance, come by my blog. Cheers!

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  10. Those passionfruit and tomatos look so good!!!So glad there is some recovery in your garden. Enjoy your day out!

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  11. What a lovely "crop" you have created. Something nice after your devistation.... Enjoy your flight.

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  12. Happy birthday in your household!! I'm not a huge passionfruit fan, so not help for you, unless you sperad it on a thousand pavlovas??
    Happy high flying, love Posie

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  13. Oh yum, I love passionfruit. Never had Passiofruit wine though, I bet it's nice. It's great to see your tomatoes have recovered. We had a similar thing happen this season too, not sheep, but massive gale force winds while we were away took out all my corn, bean and half my zucchinis, and caterpillars got into my potting shed and stripped all my seedlings, just stalks were left. We were only gone 4 days. I didn't share pics either, too depressing. Some plants have recovered.

    Enjoy your plane ride and Happy Birthday to beautiful Millie. Such a gorgeous pair of gilrs you have :-)

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  14. Oh Jodie you must have been gutted to see your garden....stupid sheep! So glad your little plants were able to recover from the stripping. My Jacaranda got a trouncing from Douglas the bull when I went to Sydney and I had put a new wire cage around it and tape just before I left. It was like I had put a sign on it EAT ME! My neighbour txt me the next day to say he was into it. I have not been game enough to see if the poor darling has survived this time. Have a great trip and that coldie sounds good :-)

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