Soil Searching Diaries
Plants, recipes, ideas, thoughts, musings, questions

Flowers can be used to decorate cakes, pancakes, drinks, breads and almost anything. Although it generally makes sense to match flavours...

Grow your own flowers to add to salads, cakes, teas or simply as a garnish for colour and beauty. Commercially grown flowers are usually...

Drinking tea is meditative, relaxing, healing and deeply cultural. From Japanese tea ceremonies to dainty English afternoon teas, a cup...

Cumquat is a treat to have in the garden. The tree hangs with glossy orange baubles like big bittersweet lollies. They are a symbol of...

Ceylon or Malabar Spinach, Basella rubra or alba, is much easier to grow than English Spinach in warmer climates. It grows as a vine and...

This dish works really well as a side dish to dahl or as a delicious snack on its own. Sizzle some a good handful of curry leaves with...

The curry leaf tree, murraya koenigii, also known as kadi patta, is part of the citrus family and very commonly used in Indian and Sri...

Making up a fresh glass of orange juice or after a recipe that calls for lemon, lime or any other citrus fruit you may be left with a...

This is the easiest cake in the world to make and tastes great! It be be made with any citrus fruit available at the time and it uses the...

Salsa literally means "sauce" in Spanish and is an opportunity to creatively blend the many flavours of seasonal herbs to create a sauce...

Salads are a great opportunity to explore a variety of raw green leaves to add flavour, nutrition, colour and texture. Look for the young...

There are many different types of radish The root is eaten raw in salads or as a garnish but can also be pickled or added to soups and...

Comfrey has broad prickly leaves and occasional pink, white or purple flowers which bees and other beneficial insects love. It prefers to...

Amaranth is an annual plant originating from Central and South America and is heat and drought resistant making it very easy to grow. The...

Nasturtium is an easy to grow flowering ground cover. Both its leaves and flowers make a spicy addition to salads, used as a garnish,...

Wandering through Darling Harbour in Sydney, I came across Barangaroo House. It captured my imagination and I saw piles of bowls at a...

Pigeon Pea, or cajanus cajan, also known as arhar dal or split toor (tuvar) dal and Congo Pea, grows in Africa, Asia and Latin America....

This curry contains the flavours of a South East Asian curry and is very versatile as any vegetables or meats can be used depending what...

The root of the cassava (manihot esculenta), also known as manioc, mandioca or yuca, can be used as a year round potato substitute for...