Greetings from under down under,

Spring has sprung and we are enjoying the first of the season’s asparagus, broad beans, rhubarb and purple sprouting broccoli. We are still wistfully waiting for the ground to dry sufficiently to begin new plantings but I am told that this has been the best rain for years and  the fruit trees will thrive. The stone fruit blossoms are just coming to an end and already the tiny apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines can be seen forming. One saving grace of the damp weather is that it keeps the frost away that ruined the fruit at this vital stage last year. If there is one thing we have learnt it is that you can plan all you like but if mother nature has other plans, well, you just have to be patient...

One way we have been able to plant is seeds in our glasshouse and are well underway with all manner of lettuce, herbs, capsicum, eggplant, corn and tomatoes, to add to the thirty varieties of seedling purchased from the “Friends of the Garden” sale at The Royal Botanical Gardens in Hobart, among them are some varieties new to our garden such as Snow White and Earl’s Faux Brandy Wine, you have just gotta love those names. There are still a few seedlings left so if you’re interested and live in Tassie contact Margot on (03) 6236 3082.

If you follow the agrarian kitchen on twitter you will already know that we have added to our chicken run with six baby dorking chicks, a breed some 2000 years old, thought to have been brought to Britain by the Romans. They are distinguished by having five toes instead of the usual four and am told they make quite a roast, something we are looking forward to as we suspect four of them are roosters.

We have also welcomed our next lot of gosling after having stumbled across the well-hidden hissing goose mid-hatching, a rather nature channel experience. It is only this year that it has dawned on us that eggs have a season and it’s now, the Barnevelders have hit their straps, we are enjoying Jennie and Russell’s bartered duck eggs and have even managed to snaffle a couple of goose eggs. Suddenly it all makes sense, of course there is a season for eggs, there’s a season for everything, so if we should make hay while the suns shines then our advice would be to make custard, cake, omelette etc etc while the poultry lay.