Two recent local magazines have had food features that promote the use of local indigenous plants to enhance the flavour of food. It felt as if a door had been opened and a breath of chilled invigorating fresh air had blown in over the herb garden. Hallelujah I shout from the (admittedly now bare) tree tops! The July 09 issue of Food and Home Entertaining features Shaun Schoeman, chef at the Fyndraai restaurant on the Solms-Delta Estate in Franschoek and who is promoting the use of different types of fynbos in his kitchen. And then in the May 09 issue of the Conde’ Nast House and Garden, Olive Hamilton-Russell creates dishes using plants that grow on the conservancy section of the Hamilton-Russell estate in Walker Bay. Now I know that both these articles are very Cape based, but most of the plants used will happily grow in Gauteng and I can recommend the following to add into vegetable gardens as companion plants or to augment existing herb gardens.

Kooigoed – Helichrysum odoratissimum, is a grey leaved shrub with pungent smelling leaves that can be grown in a pot, clipped into a low hedge or simply planted as a companion plant in the vegetable garden. The flowers can be picked and added into a mayonnaise to add an unusual dip for crayfish.

Sour Fig- Carpobrotus edulis is a succulent ground cover that will happily grow in a hot dry place (perfect for a Gauteng verge!) and whose flowers can be made into syrup and used in puddings.

Persbessie – Muraltia heisteria, which produces very pretty aromatic flower that make a wonderful garnish on a plate. It will make a lovely show in a sunny mixed border and likes full sun.

Wild Garlic – Tulbaghia violaciae, whose flowers can be used as a garnish, but more interestingly, the stems can be used to infuse oil for cooking and making bread. I plant these in rows to divide up my vegetable beds.

Bloublomsalie – Salvia africana-caerulea, has a strong sage flavour and can be used to flavour gamey meats. This plant hedges wonderfully and will also happily grow in a pot.

Confetti Bush- Coleonema pulchella, can replace thyme in recipes. This is the most rewarding plant in the garden and also hedges well. The flowering aromatic stems also make a good addition to potpourri.

Wild Rosemary – Eriocephalus africanus, can replace regular rosemary, and also makes a wonderful garden plant.

Sunday sees us celebrate the winter solstice and means that we need to get tools sharpened and cleaned, plans drawn, last years summer planting list looked at, basically getting ready to do business for the summer of 09/10! Winter veggies will slowly start to respond to the lengthening days, and although they will keep us busy well into October, it is also time to start getting the summer seedlings going in seed trays so that the first of those crops can go be planted out in September.

I have also started digging the pumpkin pit for this coming summer. I dig a hole about the size of a black rubbish bin and then simply dump all my kitchen waste into it. By September it will be broken down enough to plant the seeds directly into this compost rich mix. They spread out from this hole which makes watering more efficient.

Winter is also citrus time, and lemon trees are covered with fruit at the moment. I am on the look out for Seville orange trees and love the idea of creating a grove of them on the hot west side of the house to provide some relief from the baking heat in summer and then produce good fruit in the winter.

The quieter days also mean I have a little more time to observe the animals on our property and I have discovered some rather interesting facts.

- Free range hens (and one rooster called Henry) lead a very routine life. After a cold night in the pine tree they flutter down for a breakfast of meilies and any unsuspecting insects trying to thaw out on the ends of the long grass. Then they amble around to the front veranda to catch the morning sun. They like to be on the veranda itself and will even lie down (I never knew chickens lay down, but I suppose after a hard night, in a tree, in the windswept Karoo one needs to recover) Then around 11am it is egg laying time (in hard to find places of course) followed by a sand bath and then back to the veranda to shake out the sand and preen. Another sleep in the afternoon, perhaps a bit of a clean up in the garden, but then it time to hassle humans for the afternoon feed, before heading back to the pine tree for the night.

- Our two donkeys roll in the same spot every morning and are busy creating their own donkey pot hole. They also sleep during the day and have had me in a panic thinking they were dead. They sleep in their hole in the blazing sun for at least two hours a day. Having built a stable for the donkeys they took one look at it and then went back to their self styled hole and passed out again.

- Our little dam dried up and exposed some stranded barble fish. It was scary trying to catch them as they are large, slippery, strong and look terrifying. In the name of self sufficiency they were supposed to make cat food, but they are currently swimming around in the reservoir while the cats eat imported I-Ams which (I actually read the label last night) contain smoked Norwegian salmon!