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I have to start by admitting that my gardening escapade began because I managed to kill most of the lovely little seedlings I just bought. It really shouldn't be that hard to just put them in the ground.

“Spring, Spring, Spring!” sang the frog. “Spring!” said the groundhog. 

“Spring, Spring, Spring!” sang the robin. It was Spring. The leaves burst out. The flowers burst out. And robins burst out of their eggs. It was Spring.

Down the back of our wild and neglected garden there lies our rhubarb patch. I ventured past the overgrown raspberries and vegetables today to look for strawberries but to my surprise found my rhubarb oh so prolific.

I have a secret supply of lemons from a sunny town where the lemons grow like crazy. And sometimes when I'm lucky I get a shopping bag or two full of them dropped off by my brother in law.

So when lemons come by the bag full, I juice them! But there's more to juicing lemons than meets the eye. 

A few months ago I finally finished a project of mine. Well, actually it was a few projects that got finished. Firstly our shed got spouting. That was a few years in the making. But the thing that fuelled it all was wanting to install a water tank and hand pump for the garden and play.

Late last year I had a glut of parsley in my vege garden. It was big and bushy and starting to go to seed and it was time for it to go to the compost heap. But before pulling it all out I wanted to rescue as much as I could and put it to good use.

I pulled out one of my favourite cookbooks 'River Cottage Everyday' to find Hugh's wonderful parsley and pumpkin seed pesto recipe and set to work.

After a few batches of pumpkin seed I threw in some walnuts.

This recipe has become quite a favourite in our house and the pumpkin seed version is perfect for sharing with kids in early childhood education as its nut free.

My friend Michelle from Munch thought it was so good she shared the recipe in her recent blog post.

 

Parsley and Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Prep time: 5 mins
Total time: 5 mins

Makes: 1-2 cups

Ingredients

75g shelled walnuts/pumpkin seeds
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
50g parsley leaves
175 ml rapeseed or extra virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
Sea salt & ground pepper to taste
50g Parmesan cheese, grated

Method

Put the nuts/seeds, parsley garlic and lemon juice in a food processor and give it a good blitz.

With the food processor going pour in the oil until you reach your preferred consistency.

Pour into a bowl and add the cheese and season to taste. It will keep in the fridge in a jar, covered in olive oil for a couple of weeks or alternatively it can be frozen for use at a later date. If freezing add the cheese and seasoning once defrosted.

Last week it was my nearly three year old who informed me she wanted "whole eating peas" and not "opening peas". We ventured to the garden to collect our supplies and she proceeded to munch.

Today on a pea hunt there were handfuls of spinach being eaten straight from the garden. But best of all it was my one year old who wandered back into the house with a pea in hand. He has discovered the joy of picking the peas out of the opened pods.

Hi,

I’m Kirsten. I’m Mum to two small people (update Dec 2015 - now three small people) and wife to Andrew. We’re kept company by four chooks and a lovely ginger cat called Put Put. I’m a Piano Tuner/Technician. And I run Hoopla Kids, a small business specialising in fun, colourful, creative and practical kids clothing from Scandinavia.

Together we all live in a little house in Wellington, New Zealand.

We are just a normal kiwi family, but like every “normal” family, we have our quirks.

I get around with the kids on a cargo bike – fondly known as “Mundo”. We have a large vege garden which has the potential to produce lots of delicious organic food. And scattered around our 612 square metre section we have 12 fruit trees, a grapevine and LOTS of berry plants – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, currants, blackberries, boysenberries and gooseberries.

This blog is about many things. It’s about life with small children, being a stay at home mum, and running businesses. Its about growing food, running a co-op, trying to live a greener life. And about how much fun a family can have with a cargo bike. I’d love you to come along for the ride. And I hope that maybe some of my posts will inspire you to try something new or do something different.