At the start of Spring last year (08), we embarked on a project to grow our own salad vegies and herbs in half wine barrels. It has been over 5 months since we first planted out the barrels and the project has been an overwhelming success (apart from one little incident with very hungry caterpillars) and completely rewarding! Not only does our balcony look much prettier (we put roses in the barrels along with the herbs and vegies), but we have been able to harvest from them for every meal and have saved buckets at the fruit shop.

We wouldn’t have been able to get this project off the ground, however, if it wasn’t for David Gowenlock, who sourced, delivered, and helped us plant out the barrels. Dave is a qualified horticulturist, and knows pretty much everything about plants (I wasn’t exactly born with a green thumb, but I am learning), so he was the first one we turned to when we decided we wanted to grow our own herbs and vegies.

Given the success of the project, and the number of friends, family and people who have visited thecookbook.com.au that are interested in starting their own wine barrel gardens, we have collectively decided to launch Wine Barrel Gardens online.

We (the team at The Internet Incubator) have produced the website, order flow and created an online marketing campaign for the launch, leaving Dave to do what he does best, produce wonderful gardens!

If you are interested in growing your own herbs and salad vegies, then I highly recommend you have a look at the website www.winebarrelgardens.com.au. If you live in the Sydney metropolitan region, Dave will deliver and install on site (saving you all of the heavy lifting and planting!) your very own salad and/or herb wine barrel garden. He can even provide rose, lemon or olive tree upgrades, and care kits (to save you from a nasty caterpillar attack). You can order online with a credit card or paypal account and have the barrels delivered to you in around 5 working days. Take a look at the site for pictures of the beautiful finished wine barrel gardens.

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Given that food allergies seem to be on the increase and people general are becoming more interested in the health benefits of food, I have decided to introduce categories across the site to help identify and search for recipes that are gluten free, dairy free, nut free, sugar free and meat free.

At the bottom of every recipe, you will now see ‘Tags: …’ showing if a recipe is gluten free, dairy free, nut free, sugar free or meat free (have a look at the screenshot to the right).

When you come to the site, you can also search for recipes that are gluten free, dairy free, nut free, sugar free or meat free by typing these keywords into the ‘search this website’ box at the top of the page.

Please note that whilst we have taken as much care as possible to ensure correct categorisation, you need to ensure that the ingredients you use meet your allergy/food requirements. For example, some brands of ready made chicken stock may have gluten in them and some brands of ready made biscuits (used for cheesecake bases etc) may be manufactured on equipment that processes nuts.

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I’m often asked where I draw my inspiration from, and the answer is all of the restaurants we visit, cooking shows I watch (much to the annoyance of PS) and magazines I read, but most importantly the cookbooks that I own.

I don’t have a huge collection (and I think this surprises some people), but the ones that I do have are very well worn and loved. Being able to, and wanting to, use a cookbook repeatedly, really is the sign of a great cookbook. Some of the books I use for reference (how much of one ingredient should I use, or what method would be best for whatever I am cooking), and some of them I use to cook recipes from time and time again.

I have a variety of cookbooks that all approach food from different points of view. Most are Australian authors (I’m a bit biased), but there are a few international chef’s/cook’s books that I own.

Serge Dansereau’s (chef and owner of The Bather’s Pavillion, Balmoral Beach) “The Bathers Pavillion Cafe Cookbook” contains recipes that are great examples of the relaxed but still ‘restauranty’ food that we enjoy in Australia. I use this book quite often for cooking breakfast (the blueberry pancakes are fantastic) on lazy Sunday mornings. Stephanie Alexander’s ‘The Cook’s Companion’ however, at a whopping 1126 pages, is great for different takes on and ideas for using ingredients, and is an amazing reference book for different methods and techniques. This has got to be my favourite book of all time, and contains the best recipe for hollandaise sauce ever.

The best of the international authors is Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie at Home’. I love the way that he works his recipes around the seasons and the herbs and vegetables growing in his garden. The lamb skewer kebabs in this are great and we often make them when friends and family come for lunch on the weekend. I also own the Nigella Lawson cookbook “Nigella Bites”. This is an okay cookbook, but I do find that she has a tendency for heavy, fatty foods; sometimes though this can be exactly what you are after!

Of course, I can’t leave off the Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbook’s. Their quality, easy to follow, tried and tested recipes are wonderful. I don’t actually own any of these cookbooks, but I grew up learning to cook using the books in my mum’s collection (and whenever I need to, I still raid them for ideas). My favourites in the series have got to be the ‘Best Ever Recipes’, they are spot on with title, probably one of the reasons they have sold over 1,000,000 copies, and the ‘Kids’ Birthday Cakes’ books, both of which are still in print today (although I grew up with the original versions)! Margaret Fulton should also get a mention in this blog, as she helped me (through ‘The Margaret Fulton Cookbook’) cook my first ever meal for the family, pikelets, at age 6 (page 178, I remember it off by heart)!

Top 5 Favourite Cookbooks of All Time

1. Stephanie Alexander, “The Cook’s Companion”, Lantern, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2004, hardcover, 1126 pages.
2. Jame Oliver, “Jame At Home”, Penguin Books, 2007, hardcover, 408 pages.
3. Serge Dansereau, “The Bathers Pavillion Cafe Cookbook”, ABC Books, 2004, hardcover, 224 pages.
4. Maggie Beer, “Maggie’s Kitchen”, Penguin Books, 2008, hardcover, 260 pages.
5. Margaret Fulton, “The Margaret Fulton Cookbook”, Hardie Grant Books, 2006, hardcover, 320 pages (NB, mum has the original one).

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Since beginning our wine barrel garden at the start of summer, we have enjoyed the fruits of our work. It is incredible how much actual food you can get out of two wine barrels! The biggest producer has been the lettuce, while we have still supplemented our summer salads with the usual bags of leaves from Harris Farm, we have relied on our little garden for many many meals – that was until last week’s caterpillar carnage.

Within 2 days our lettuce, basil and others were had for dinner, stripped bare. It was like the caterpillar equivalent of the Empire’s attack of the rebel base on Hoth. 

You can just see the little guys bringing their mates over for dinner, Bachelor & Spinster Ball style  – “we’ve found a huge array of foliage here, every slug for himself” was the cry.

It took us by surprise, with no time to react, short of trying to find the little varmint and squash them one at a time we were defenseless.

So after a couple of days of commiserations (and no salad for dinner) we decided to hit back. “Caterpillar Napalm” was the call when we met with our friendly nursery shop assistant, you can imagine the look we got but regardless she knew exactly what we were after. So weaponry in hand, and a new supply of lettuce, parsley etc.. we returned home and replanted.

Now, while we wait for the kettle to boil, we stand and peer through the window at the wine barrels, any sign of green slimy movement and we are out there karate style, well with spray weapons in hand anyway. (Can’t imagine Bruce Lee attacking with a pint sized spray bottle, but its all about the imagery)

Suffice to say, rice for dinner tonight.

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It was mid November last year when we planted our wine barrel garden (visit this link for the original article). Its now January and you won’t believe the transition. Here are some photos to give you a idea of how it’s all going.

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Since planting we have had a pretty good summer in Sydney, all of the herbs have grown very well. Except for a couple of weeks away on holiday, the simple key to success has been to water every day. It’s not really the chore that it sounds, coming in from work it is actually very relaxing to spend 5 minutes giving them a bit of a hose. Every time you hit the basil with water the smell is terrific.

The lettuce as you can see from the photos has probably been the biggest surprise, we just keep eating it and it just keeps growing. The local farmers market are starting to put off staff as we are no longer in there buying bagged salad every other day! In hindsight though, we should have given over one full wine barrel to the lettuce, it’s a bit like the back seat of the car with the three kids in there – elbows everywhere! The strawberries and parsley that co-habitate have done ok, but you can see them gasping for a bit more space.

The roses don’t feature in the photos this time around, mainly due to the fact that they had a bit of a falling out with the wind. We have had two displays about a month apart, each bush with 8 – 10 fully developed flowers. Here’s hoping that we will have some more great looking flowers before summer ends – will get photos next time they bloom!

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The more you read and watch material relating to cooking there is a common but simple theme that rings true; use good, fresh produce (and organic where possible).

I have been taking this mantra more literally than most people for a long time now (some might say slightly over the top); imagine for a moment what my boyfriend thought when we first lived together!

Here he was thinking that he had a well-stocked kitchen with all the general supplies that most people expect to get you through cooking the basics. Then I come along, with my good produce neurosis, throwing out his bottled lemon juice, discarding his parsley (yes, bottle again) and filling the fridge with “fresh everything” so it looks more like a scene from Burke’s Backyard than an Aussie bloke’s beer cooling facility.

The problem with fresh everything, is that you have to be a little bit organised. There is no point in buying that fresh parsley today, only to return to the refrigerator a week from now to see it more limp than Elton John’s wrist. So instead of taking three trips to the fruit and veg store each week, why not try growing at least some of the fresh produce that you would normally buy.

I wrote a little while ago about the benefits of setting up your own kitchen garden, however thought I would take this a bit further. Now if you live in an apartment, don’t tune out at this point – “I don’t have a backyard” won’t stop you.

Let me take you through a little project that we did recently (we have always had herbs and some vegies in small planter boxes but we wanted something a bit bigger) that will get some fresh tasty things growing in very little space – and it looks good (see below pics)

In keeping with the theme of this website, here are the ingredients that you need.

• Two or three half wine barrels* with holes (4 or 5 holes will do the job) drilled in the bottom for drainage
• 3 caster wheels per barrel and screws (try and get stainless steel casters and screws so that these don’t rust)
• Three bags of potting mix per each half wine barrel
• Garden felt to line the bottom of the barrels (to stop the soil from falling out)
• Assortment of herbs, fruit and vegie seedlings (we used parsley, corriander, thyme, basil, rosemary, mixed lettuce and strawberries)
• Fine grade mulch (we used lucerne hay)
• Hubby/boyfriend/brother to do a bit of the lifting, drilling and screwing for you (that body pump class is not going to cut the mustard here!)
• One free day to pot everything out (project takes most of a day from start to finish)

Screw the caster wheels to the bottom of the wine barrels using an electric drill (wine barrels are made out of oak and can be very hard to screw into, so don’t try using a manual screwdriver). You don’t have to follow this step, but beware, once filled the barrels can weigh up to 90kg, so it is a good idea (particularly on a balcony, as it means you can move them around to track the sun and to clean around them).

Turn the barrels up the right way, line with the garden felt and fill with potting mix (leaving a 4 inch gap to the top of the pot). Arrange the seedlings (still in their pots) on top of the soil to mark out where you would like to plant them (take note of how close they like to be to other plants in the planting instructions).

Dig a hole as deep as the pot, gently squeeze the pot to release the seedling and place in the hole. Fill the hole with extra soil and gently push down around the plant. Repeat with all of your plants. Once done, give the seedlings a generous watering and top the soil with the mulch. Make sure all of the leaves of the plants are on top of the mulch (so they do not rot). The mulch will protect the plants from contact with the soil (which can rot their leaves) and will also keep the water in the soil, protecting from evaporation.

Remember to water every day (yes, every day), keep your new patch in full sun and enjoy!

*I can let you know where you can source wine barrels in Sydney

**NB We also planted standard roses in the middle of the pots as we wanted to make a bit of a feature out of the pots.

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Growing your own herbs, fruit and vegetables is a great way to introduce kids to new flavours, vegies (god forbid they might put something green in their mouths) and cooking. It also means cutting back on your weekly fruit and vegie bill, and satisfaction from growing your own produce.

If you don’t have very much space, don’t despair! Using small window planter boxes or even larger chinese food containers you can grow pretty much anything.

Simply purchase some window planter boxes, good quality potting mix and seeds (or seedlings if you want a head start) and you’re away. Get the kids involved and together fill the planter boxes three quarters of the way full with the potting mix, sow the seeds according to packet directions (some varieties of seeds do better at different times of the year, so make sure that you purchase the right seeds for the season), and water well. Most herbs, vegies and fruit prefer to be in full sun, so try and position your planter boxes for maximum sun every day.

Remember to water well every day, and you will soon have beautiful fresh produce. If you have problems with slugs and snails (especially when growing strawberries), simply lay some lucerne hay around the plants and this should stop them. Also look out for curled leaves with what looks like very fine web/silk. This is where butterflies and moths have laid their eggs. You need to dispose of these eggs and leaves, or you will soon find caterpillars munching on your garden.

I have found that the most kid friendly herbs, vegies and fruits are parsley, mint, rosemary and basil (as these are very easy to grow and show results almost immediately), dutch/baby carrots, salad leaves (a great way to get kids to eat green things!), cherry tomatoes and strawberries (the very first strawberry of the season was a momentous occasion in our house!)

You might also want to try mixing up the edible garden with some flowers too.

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A great idea for organising all of those recipes that you have collected over the years (cluttering up your cupboards and drawers on bits of paper!) is to purchase an address book and write them in.

By using an address book you have all of your recipes in the one place, making it easy to find the recipe you need (and you can declutter your cupboards and drawers at the same time).

You can easily categorise recipes in alphabetical order (by main ingredient or by recipe name) using the alphabetical address book tabs.

Having a physical book also makes a lovely hand me down; something that future generations will treasure. You can pick up some really nice address books with pretty designs for around $15 at your local news agency. Just make sure that you get one that gives you enough space (A5 is a good size) to write the recipe in.

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