Kitchen Garden | What Ryl Parker learnt after one year at Canberra Organic Growers Society community garden

Ryl is an ecologist with parents who live in Curtin and whose mother is a horticulturist. This meant her upbringing included collecting seed for a Canberra nursery. Her dad took her for daily walks that would last hours and that, with her endless appetite, stimulated her interest in growing food.

She has had a Canberra Organic Growers Society plot for a year since moving back to Canberra from Sydney. She immediately made friends with fellow Kambah COGS members some of whom she sees most days.

There were no plants in the plot when she got it while all the other plots were in full summer glory so she immediately got to work selecting, measuring, cutting and sanding timber to edge the beds.

Peter works in IT but he provides manual labour (and he enjoys cooking). Figuring out what to grow was a mystery. She sowed rocket and radish seeds at home in a tiny greenhouse and transplanted them. Then she remembered she doesn't like eating radish and rocket is best in small doses.

The surprise a few weeks later was to have a bumper crop of spinach presumably from seed left by the previous plot holder. Finding new spinach recipes included crispy potato spinach balls, spinach pesto, spinach and ricotta filo rolls.

In that first year she learnt: that burying a waterproof box into the ground to store tools is a timesaver; sowing loads of snow peas will distract snails from cucumber and bean seeds; it is worth putting little pots (with the bottoms chopped off) around young seedlings; lettuce is very easy to grow and rewarding; nothing germinates better than seeds buried with compost, watered daily; coriander hates being replanted (instead soak seeds in water for a week then cover them with half-a-centimetre of soil and water them daily until they germinate).

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At home in Kambah they have four hens, all black cross-breed with a lovely personality. Ryl brought some of the eggs to the plot accompanied by a loaf of bread she had baked the previous night. Every few days she makes overnight bread baked in a cast iron pot from SBS online, which requires no kneading and needs only a spatula to turn.

Our Canberra Times photographer Sitthixay Ditthavong and I were given slices of the bread to take home for lunch. It was delicious with substance and perfect with avocado, squashed tomato and basil.

Now in late summer Ryl is harvesting four varieties of heirloom lettuce particularly a dark-leafed version raised as an heirloom variety, the seedlings from Bunnings, kale, spinach and basil for pesto (you can substitute cashews for pine nuts). Some seedlings came from the plant sale at the Kambah COGS garden. Six varieties of tomatoes including Black Cherry, Black Krim and Grosse Lisse, are slow to ripen. There is always more rhubarb than she can use.

Zucchini slice and zucchini chutney are favourites in the kitchen but Ryl says have you thought of beetroot recipes? Beetroot is quick and easy to grow all year, from seed or seedlings. Here are two recipes, the first is earthy and savoury, the other is crisp and sweet. Both make good side dishes.

Ingredients

4 beetroots

A splash of water

Method

Remove tops from beetroot, rinse them and chuck them in a slow-cooker on low heat overnight. In the morning, wash them in cold water and rub the skins off. You can then dice or slice for salads, sandwiches or any recipe that requires cooked beetroot. They keep in the freezer for six months.

From Ryl's plot neighbour, Anna.

Ingredients

1 beetroot

1 carrot

1 green apple

1 cup blackcurrants*

Method

Peel and grate the beetroot and carrot. Toss them together with a diced apple and blackcurrants and serve.

*You can substitute for the blackcurrants one cup of freshly diced orange, grapefruit, gooseberries, cranberries, under-ripe plums or a splash of balsamic vinegar. For sweeter tongues, add a teaspoon of honey.

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