The start of our holiday...

We left on Saturday 17th December at 6.00a.m.  We were going to leave on the Friday, but it was the start of a long weekend (and, in some instances [like us] the start of the Capetonians Christmas get away), so we figured that the road traffic would be heavy.  In addition we spent the entire Friday cleaning our house as we had a show day booked for Sunday 18th.  So it made complete sense to wait another day.  


Clever plan - no traffic at all :)  We were taking our dog, Scallywag, with us, and naturally that entailed (with or without the pun LOL) a couple of pit-stops - as he's not that used to long-distance travelling, we really didn't want him getting car sick.  So all in we had a trip of 3 1/2 hours arriving at the farm at 9.30a.m.   A stunningly beautiful day - the perfect start of our three week break.  Whilst we were driving, RMan and I were discussing the last time we went on holiday - and apart from 2-3 days here and there every month to month-and-a-half, or the occasional week, we last had a full length holiday about 16 years ago.  Long overdue...


Arriving at the farm, the first thing I saw was my shadecloth veggie hut...

The comparison to a month previously just blew me away for there was growth - luxuriant growth - everywhere LOL  The rocket plants were head high, the tomatoes full of flowers, radish the size of golf balls, lettuce, basil, beetroot - everything was growing stupendously.


And my gorgeous Franchi Sementi purple beans - they seem to love it there...

The plants were full of beans...

... and flowers.

I am besotted with these beans.  Firstly, they are so unusual - they look so good, they seem to be pest free, and being dwarf plants, the beans are easy to harvest.

They are about the size of normal string beans, without the string.  And when you slice them open, they are green inside.  Completely delicious raw in salads too :)

And the rocket.  As I said the plants were head height, and the leaves...

Rocket leaves with a length of 30cms (a foot)

... they are enormous.  We just had to have a fresh farm a salad with our first night's barbecue... :)

Radish, tomatoes, lettuce, rocket, spring onion
and caramelized onion pieces - t'was yummy :)

Perfect proof that soil preparation is key, and the porous pipe works, and works well!  These plants had absolutely no fussing / TLC for a month and performed at least 500% (if not more) better than the vegetables in my town garden :)

More in a couple of days (too many photo's to go through LOL)...