Glad to finish off the mosaic today, filling in the gaps between the tiles so I don't slice my foot open! The path is all done so I can walk all the way to the compost heap without getting my feet muddy - or my ugg boots, depending on the weather. You can see the progression of the mosaic here and the garden path here.

Oh all the goddesses, it's been beautiful warm day in sunny Victoria, which is a bit weird to say as it's late May and should be freezing. We need rain, but things are doing well with the damper weather, especially the vegetables. Here you can see the mint going gangbusters, the brassicas doing well, the snowpeas (mangetout) busting out of the soil, marigolds, the artichokes recovering from last season and the summer heat, silverbeet and rogue self seeded beetroot which I'll use for the tops.

Gardening is totally punk for me. I love the way I can refuse so many of the products on supermarket shelves and just duck out into the garden for dinner. Tonight is what I called garden rice, which is basically vegetables I've found in the garden - beetroot tops, silverbeet, spring onions, garlic shoots. I then stir some brown rice in there, and I'll garnish it with some home preserved lemon, some marigolds, and some toasted pepitas on top - it's really nice with a splash of Worchestershire sauce too. It's the kind of meal I make a lot in winter when there's not a lot of produce going on in the garden and it just feels really satisfying having grown everything myself (bar the pepitas and rice). I've got a jar of last year's olives left too so we'll eat that on the side as they have pips in.

Here's Jamie burning off the big pile of gum branches that are messing up the garden and being a fire risk. We have to clean up the property every year as a legal requirement - bushfires can be a real danger around here in the summer months. He's looking a bit hot and sweaty, and is properly wondering why the blazes I'm taking a photo of him and not helping him out. I'll just pretend I have to go to the toilet and he'll forget about it.

I'm also pretty pleased with how my cactus carpet under the birch tree is coming along. It's actually a good substitute for mulch. Speaking of which, does anyone know how to kindly get rid of bloody blackbirds, as they seem to think it's totally fun to dig up my mulch so it goes all over the garden path. Not happy! I do love birds but wish they'd bugger off and be nuisances somewhere else!

It's been a pretty productive day. I really love how getting your hands dirty and getting out in the garden can invigorate your soul and give you a sense of achievement, especially when all that hard work is not just beautifying the environment but feeding the household. We also went mushroom foraging - no luck, but did get some joy finding teeny weeny ones poking up from the dampening soil. Also filled the house with the beautiful smell of sourdough made out of biodynamic flour - you can find my rave about it here!

Mum also dropped over a big basket of lemons. Our lemon tree didn't do too well in the frost last year, which I found devastating - need to transplant it maybe into a more sheltered spot. I'm making a fresh batch of preserved lemons, which are great in Morrocan food and can give the most boring meal a zingy salty pop.

They're actually lacto-fermented, so there's some good probiotics in there for you as well. Enjoy - let me know if you give them a go. Oh, and Hive account@mountainjewel? I'm not putting lemons in my ears.

Preserved Lemon Recipe

1 kilo of lemons
¼ cup sea salt

Cut the lemons into quarters and pop in a bowl with some salt. With clean hands, mush that salt right into the lemons, as if you're giving them a massage. The rinds should start to soften and the lemons will release their juice.

The lemon juice combines with the salt to create a brine that should be great for making that beneficial bacteria that's so good for you. Some people add a splash of apple cider vinegar or kombucha to the mix as well to really get it going. If you'd like to know more about lacto fermented foodstuffs, Hive account@mountainjewel was getting into it and you should read about that here.. There's such a wealth of knowledge on Steemit, and I always think we should be referring to others work to support and acknowledge their amazing work.

Place in a jar and squish down so the juice rises above the level of the lemons. You might need to weight them.

Ferment at room temperature for about a month. They can be kept for 1 or 2 years, and will go far - you only need a small amount of them in any dish.. They are really nice in a stir through pasta with zucchinis, olive oil and basil, or in a couscous dinner with roast vegetables and chickpeas and cummin.

Believe me, these things are a splash of sunshine in the colder weather. Have you ever tried them?

I'm also totally honoured to be a passenger on the #ecotrain - check out this hashtag for some pretty amazing posts permaculture to meditation, environmental issues to food forests - I highly recommend checking out this tag as you're guaranteed of sweeeetness!

Plus, I'm super excited and honoured to be part of Hive account@tribesteemup - a heap of amazing crew who all post quality posts about helping the Earth and humanity and generally making the world a better place. You should definitely check out the #tribesteemup trail to find some quality writing.