Do you have big dreams and sustainable homestead goals to grow food and create your dream self-sufficient lifestyle but it feels so far off? You may be renting or in an apartment. Today, I’m going to share 10 actionable steps to help you achieve your sustainable homestead goals no matter how far away they feel. This is the path I have been on and I think this may help or inspire you too.
Are you ready? because your dream life starts now!
Click to watch the video 👇
I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about you are where you are for a reason and that is because you still have more to learn. If I got /my big break and had 100s or 1000s of people flocking to join my garden-to-plate membership would I cope? the answer is probably not! My systems have been built on a small scale and I still have lots more work to do before reaching that level (goals!). Hopefully one day I will be able to help 100s and 1000s of people grow food so I’m continuously working on improving my systems.
The same with getting your dream homestead, if you suddenly found yourself dropped in the middle of an off-grid property would you know exactly what to do? Would you know how to improve your soil, plant trees, care for animals, or afford a house, infrastructure, and the bills that come along with it? or would it be an overwhelming chaotic mess?
There are so many small steps you can start taking today and these are the 10 stages I have been working through to bring my dreams to life. so hopefully they help and inspire you too!
10 ACTIONABLE STEPS to start your Sustainable Homestead Goals now
1. What are your goals?
Write them down. Where do you want to live? What lifestyle do you want to achieve? How do you want your days to look?
The great thing about having clear goals is that decisions along the way become easier (great for people like me that struggle with decision-making!) Does this align with my goals or not? Start at the end and work backward. Will this change along the way? Probably but at least it will give you a direction to start working towards and not be stuck doing nothing.
2. Make a vision board
I like to do this every year and I use Canva and put together a collage type of document. I then have mine as my screen savers on my phone and computer for constant reminders but you could just print out some images and put them on the fridge or the wall. I am a real visual person so this works for me.
3. Pay off debts
Ditch after pay and all that. Don’t buy things you don’t need with money you don’t have. That has always been part of my mentality so I have never financed furniture or anything like that…Hence why my house looks a little bare 😅 I prioritize money in other ways.
One of the hardest things I did was prioritize paying off my student loan. It took me a few years and I set up automatic payments to come out after each pay. If I was still buying coffees and let’s be honest probably plants…then I would increase my repayments a bit because I obviously still had disposable income. ..and repeat. As a student, I knew how to live off the minimum. Lifestyle creep is inevitable but if your dreams are big and solid you can do it!
Hard now and easy later!
Something I found so useful was the debtfree charts. You can choose a relevant one and divide the amount into sections. Each time you pay one down you can highlight it. For a visual person like me, this worked a treat. I just wanted to pay one more line . These also work great for savings too.
4. Start savings
Once you have your debts out of the way start saving. You know what you are capable of paying after paying off your debts so switch to a savings mode. Don’t get into the continuous reward stage. Remind yourself of the goals you are working towards.
5. Start growing food
This can be started from day one. You don’t need all the gear or all the nice raised garden beds, that will come. Start with what you have. Keep an eye on marketplace there are so many free pots and random things that you will be able to turn into gardens. Both my compost bins were free and I even got a free fruit tree recently.
If you dream of creating these thriving edible gardens that produce a whole lot of food then the only way there is through it. There’s no quick fix. you have so much to learn and you will learn faster by doing.
So get seeds in the soil and start growing.
6. Learn learn learn
We are so lucky to have incredible resources at our fingertips. Watch YouTube, listen to podcasts, invest in the skills you want to have, and visit community gardens. Learn to love the process because continuous learning is so important!
7. Take action
Take what you have learned and put it into practice. Grow cuttings, and plant fruit trees in pots, if you plan to have a homestead in the same state then you can be growing your future plants and trees in containers to eventually take with you. Or even sell at a higher price to add to your savings.
8. Surround yourself with Like-minded People and Communities.
This is a great way to stay motivated and learn so much. Not just about how to grow food or raise chickens but just about their outlook on life and values. People are so generous with their time and resources. Offer to help someone in their garden, this is a great way to learn and you may even receive cuttings or seeds from special plants.
9. Start working on Financing the Dream.
We all need to make money its just part of the world we live in. Does your current job and career align with the sustainable homestead goals or lifestyle you are working towards? It may do, you may already love your job but it also more than likely does not. Start a side business or grow your hobby with the direct intention of it becoming your career. Keep coming back to that lifestyle you set out in stage 1. If you want to have time to go on adventures or spend days in the garden then make sure what your working towards actually allows for that.
Do you dream of starting a flower farm? What can you do now? Start social media and grow a following. It’s free and it’s a real actionable step toward that goal. If you need some ideas check out this video on 100 ways to make an income from your property. I guarantee if one of those things excites you, there is an actionable step you can take today to make progress.
10. Re-evaluate and check in with yourself.
This is really the stage I am at now. I have been working on the last 9 steps for the last 10 years and it’s important to make sure my sustainable homestead goals and visions are still aligned. Don’t be afraid to pivot. Maybe after growing food or doing cut flowers your are unsure if that really fits anymore. For me, annuals just aren’t really it ( I LOVE PERENNIALS) and I’m actually unsure about all the 100s of animals I initially wanted. Animals are a lot of work and commitment I kind of want the freedom to come and go more often.
My dream is still real and I would love to have land to rewild and have my dream homestead but lots of things have changed. I also want to be able to travel and explore more. So I’m creating new visions that I can’t wait to share with you along the way.
Sometimes it will be really tough. But find joy in the journey, IN THE INBETWEEN, the learning!. and absolutely celebrate the small wins! because they are aligned to stage 1 so they will all add up to be something incredible.
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Do you have areas that get very hot, full sun, and nothing seems to survive? These 22 heat-tolerant edible plants to grow in HOT full-sun locations will help you grow productive edible gardens. I’ve been growing food here in Perth, Australia, for the last 10 years, and let me tell you, it was a big change and learning curve coming from the lush green of New Zealand.
Today, I’m sharing some plant ideas to plant in those super hot locations, but keep reading to the end because it’s not just about what you plant, but also when and how! Bonus tips on that, so you can turn your hot barren wasteland into productive edible gardens.
Click to WATCH 22 heat-tolerant edible plants
22 Heat-tolerant Edible Plants for Full Sun
1. Rosemary
Attracts bees 🐝 and has healing properties, and is great for skin and hair care. Flavour-enhancing culinary herb🌿 When I first moved here, I wondered why so many houses had Rosemary hedges out the front – and it’s because it thrives on neglect and our poor sandy soils. Rosemary is a great heat-tolerant addition to your edible garden. Try making your own Rosemary Salt.
2. Guava – Strawberry & Tropical
Strawberry/cherry, lemon cherry, and tropical Hawaiian/Thai guavas are really hardy, low-maintenance fruit trees that produce bucketloads of fruit!
3. Mulberry
Another powerhouse perennial that survives on neglect – they grow super fast so you can use these as a nanny plant or a pioneer plant. If you have a barren hot area you could plant a Mulberry to get quick shade established and later on remove it or heavily prune if it gets too big. Mulberry also loses leaves in winter to let light in.
4. Lavender
Lavender is drought-tolerant – a great pollinator plant with many medicinal (calming and sleep) and culinary uses. In my garden (which will be different with climates and varieties) Lavender flowers at the same time as my Feijoas so I have it planted in between them to attract pollinators and increase my Feijoa harvests.
5. Feijoa / Pineapple Guava
If you have been following me on Instagram or subscribed to my YouTube, you will have guessed this plant would make the list 😂 Low maintenance, super hardy, and produces plenty of food! Feijoas do taste better when they get 50 chill hours a year so they aren’t optimally grown here in Perth, but they do grow well and are drought-tolerant. They are evergreen and super bushy, so they can be grown as an edible hedge. They are known to have fire-retardant qualities, which is very handy for hot, dry climates. If you are looking to purchase a Feijoa, choose a named variety (such as Duffy, White Goose, Mammoth, plus more) as these will perform better and produce fruit faster than generic seedling plants.
6. Passionfruit
Passionfruit is an edible vine that can be used to cover a fence, structure, or grown over an arbor to create shade. This can help cool your garden down and provide delicious fruit. Passionfruit flowers can also be used to make calming teas to aid in sleep and anxiety. NOTE: Avoid planting a grafted variety the grafts take over and become invasive, hard to get rid of, and don’t produce good fruit.
7. Citrus
Citrus like full sun and, once established, can thrive in hot environments. Avoid planting new trees before or during the hot summer so that they have time to get their roots established before the added stress of summer.
8. Lemon Verbena
A fragrant lemony scent that is similar to lemongrass. Lemon Verbena is great in teas, baking, and all the things! Lemon verbena is one of those plants that quietly becomes a favourite. Its leaves have a sweet, lemony fragrance—similar to lemongrass but softer—and the whole plant smells incredible when you brush past it. It’s perfect for teas, baking, syrups, and infused water,and it keeps its flavour really well when dried. I always keep a jar in the pantry for quick herbal tea blends. In the garden, lemon verbena is easy to grow in full sun and well-drained soil. It drops its leaves in winter (don’t worry, it’s normal!) and comes back quickly once the weather warms.
9. Pomegranate
Pomegranates are one of the best heat-tolerant fruit trees you can grow in a hot climate. They thrive in full sun, handle dry conditions like champions, and still reward you with glossy red fruit and bright, beautiful flowers. They’re incredibly low-maintenance, needing far less water than most fruit trees once established. Their deep roots make them drought-resilient, and they’re also naturally pest-resistant — perfect for gardens with harsh summers. If you’re building a resilient, water-wise garden, pomegranates are a must-have: tough, productive, and beautiful all year round.
10. Loquat
Loquats are incredibly hardy, fast-growing fruit trees that thrive in hot, dry climates. They handle poor soils, need very little care once established, and fruit heavily in late winter–spring when not much else is producing. Their sweet, tangy fruit is amazing fresh or made into sauces, and the large, glossy leaves give your garden a lush, tropical look with almost no effort. Loquats can be a pest plant because they grow so easily, and birds spread the seeds, so check with your local area.
11. Lilly Pilly
Lilly pillies are tough, water-wise Australian natives perfect for hedges, screens, or structure in hot climates. They handle heat, humidity, pests, and pruning exceptionally well. Many varieties produce edible pink or purple berries that can be made into jams or syrups. They’re also fantastic habitat plants for beneficial insects and birds. Part of the Syzygium genus is a great dense evergreen hedging plant with bright pink fruits. The fruits are edible and can be made into jams, sauces, and even sparking wine!
12. NZ Spinach / Warrigal Greens
NZ Spinach is one of the best heat-tolerant leafy greens for summer. It thrives when regular spinach collapses, spreading as a groundcover that shades and protects the soil. Harvest the tender tips regularly for stir-fries, and sautés. It’s low-maintenance, productive, and perfect for filling gaps in hot, sunny beds. Due to oxalates it does need to be cooked first.
13. Malabar Spinach
Malabar spinach is a vigorous climbing vine that absolutely loves the heat. Its fleshy, succulent leaves stay tender and productive even in scorching weather, and it grows beautifully over trellises to create summer shade. It’s ideal for warm climates but doesn’t tolerate frost, so give it a protected spot if your winters are cold.
14. Quince
Quince is a hardy, drought-tolerant fruit tree that thrives in hot conditions and poor soils. It produces large, fragrant yellow fruit perfect for making jams, jellies, pastes, and preserves. The tree itself is stunning with pretty spring flowers.
15. Zinnia
Zinnia is an edible flower that thrives in hot dry conditions. Zinnia has vibrant flowers in a huge range of colours. The great thing about Zinnia is that it produces nectar so it attracts a diverse range of pollinators to the garden such as bees, hoverflies, butterflies, and small birds. Zinnia is susceptible to powdery mildew so great for dry summers.
16. Sunflower
I love growing Sunflowers because they attract a huge amount of pollinators to the garden, and you can pretty much eat the whole plant! I use the petals fresh in a salad or press them to use on baking as garnishes. The seeds can be used on top of salads, to make oil, or to make spreads, and the leaves are also edible. Sunflower stems can even be made into flour! Sunflowers also help remove toxins from the soil, so they are a fantastic addition to a hot, full-sun garden.
17. Figs
Figs are one of the most reliable hot-climate fruit trees. They adore full sun, tolerate drought once established, and produce incredibly sweet fruit with almost no fuss. They grow well even in poor or sandy soil, making them ideal for Perth-style gardens. Prune them in winter to keep them compact and productive.
18. Olive
Olives are true Mediterranean survivors, heat-tolerant, drought-resilient, and long-lived. They thrive on tough love and poor soil, and they’re surprisingly productive even with minimal watering. Whether you grow them for fruit or as hardy ornamental structure, olives add beautiful silvery foliage and year-round resilience to hot-climate gardens.
19. Grapes
Grapes are great for growing over structures to provide shade to your garden and help other plants grow. Grapes are deciduous so they lose their leaves in winter to let light in and have full leaf coverage in summer to protect from the harsh midday sun. Grape plants have so many uses from fresh delicious table grapes to jams, preserves, and wine! grape leaves also have many uses in the kitchen.
20. Hollyhock
Hollyhocks are edible flowers that can grow up to 10 feet tall! They attract 100 of pollinators to the garden, and their height acts as a flag inviting them in. The leaves are also edible and can be cooked to make wraps. Hollyhocks are an annual so they will need to be planted again each year but they are so worth it! They can be susceptible to powdery mildew.
21. Thyme
Thyme is a hardy herb that thrives in hot conditions. Thyme is very versatile in the kitchen and pairs well with tomato dishes, on pizza, and roast veggies. Thyme also produces masses of tiny white flowers that attract an array of beneficial insects and pollinators. Thyme creeps over the ground so it makes a great edible ground cover plant.
22. Macadamia Nut
Macadamia nut trees can take a long time to start producing (5-7 years) but are really hardy and nuts are great additions to a homestead to make flour and milk from.
8 Tips for Successfully Growing Heat-Tolerant Edible Plants
Many of these heat-tolerant plants listed are perennials, and the reason perennials are so good for hot environments is that they have established roots and have time to get used to their environment. Annuals such as lettuce and tomatoes are planted new and have shallow roots so are more vulnerable to overheating.
Below are some tips to help you get your plants established and thriving through hot periods.
Avoid planting in hot weather (always check the forecast)
Provide temporary protection,such as shade cloth or umbrellas, during hot periods.
Grow nanny plants or pioneer plants (quick-growing trees that provide dappled shade in summer eg: grapes, mulberry, and deciduous fruit trees)
Plant new trees in pots until after the summer heat has passed
Plant densely – allow other plants to protect and shade each other and the soil.
Grow Endless Fertiliser
Growing food in a hot climate doesn’t have to be a struggle. By choosing tough, heat-tolerant plants, layering your garden with support species, and working with your climate instead of against it, you can build a garden that stays productive all summer long.
If you want to take it even further, my new ebook Grow Your Own Natural Fertiliser shows you how to build healthier soil, boost resilience, and keep your garden thriving — even in extreme heat. It’s the perfect next step for creating a truly self-sustaining garden.
Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) is a perennial herb with fragrant lemon-scented leaves. Lemon balm is part of the Mint family and is known for having weed-like growth and self-seeds easily. With hundreds of small white flowers, the lemon balm is a powerful bee attractant. It has toothed edges and slightly hairy leaves with a lemony scent.
Lemon balm-like many herbs, has been traditionally used to aid in an array of health conditions. With calming and relaxing properties as well as anti-viral and anti-bacterial qualities, lemon balm is a great addition to a kitchen garden.
Springafter the last frost.Can be grown all year round in many climates.
SOIL
Fertile, moist, well-drained soil. Will grow in most soil types.
LOCATION
Full sun – Dappled or shaded position.
CARE
Regular watering – is a thirsty plant.
FERTILISE
Easy to grow and doesn’t need much help.
PESTS
Snails, slaters, and aphids.
HARVEST
Harvest regularly to keep contained.
REPRODUCE
Grows easily from cuttingsor save seeds after flowering.
Why Grow Lemon Balm?
There are many reasons to grow Lemon Balm and it is so easy to grow!
Here are some of the many reasons to grow Lemon Balm
Easy to grow
Fragrant lemon scent and flavour
Grows well in containers
Low maintenance
Pollinator plant
Relaxant
Antiviral
Aids in Cold sores
Great for teas
Salad dressings
Cut and come again harvest
Pest resistant
Reduce stress and anxiety
When to Plant Lemon Balm
Lemon balm grows well most of the year. New plants should be planted after the last frost. If planting in summer, keep well watered.
How to Grow Lemon Balm
Choose a sunny spot with dappled or part shade in the heat of summer.
Prepare the soil with rich compost
Direct sow seeds or plant in seed trays first.
1 plant is plenty.
Can benefit from protection during the heat of summer.
Care/ Maintenance
Lemon balm, like Mint is a thirsty plant. Keep well watered and have a drip tray for pots. Cut back the plant after it has finished flowering to promote new growth.
Once the plant is well-established, harvest sprigs as needed.
Use clean, sharp kitchen scissors to cut your harvest, or just pick with your hands to prevent the spreading of diseases.
Cut and come again crop that will regrow quickly. I often harvest and use in cold drinks or teas every other day.
Reproducing
Take cuttings and allow to root in a jar of water. Refresh the water every few days. Seeds can also be saved and will flower with white flowers on the stem. Once the seeds form and turn brown, collect them and dry them further. Keep in a dark, cool and dry environment.
Cooking and Using Lemon Balm
Lemon balm is best used fresh. Dried leaves lose their scent and flavour.
Gift-giving doesn’t need to be expensive, stressful, or hard! These sustainable DIY gift ideas will have you inspired to create more gifts from your garden – all year round! Whether you are visiting a friend or trying to find a Birthday, Mother/fathers day, or Christmas gift there’s something for all occasions in this gift guide.
Click to watch my gift guide ideas below
My thoughts around gift giving
I don’t always buy or give gifts for special occasions…It can seem strange at first to skip out on gift-giving. We may feel guilty, awkward, or just like a bad friend or partner! But if nothing is popping up as the perfect gift idea then I don’t waste money on consuming more “stuff” that they may not even like.
BUT….what I do is.. make more homemade gifts myself! It’s much more personalised and can spark inspiration in others. If you gift produce or create gifts from your garden you may even inspire the receiver to reconnect with their own garden. I also give small gifts from my garden each time I visit friends and family. In short, my gift-giving is sporadic and you may receive an amazing gift from me, regular handmade gifts, or nothing at all. But if I find the perfect idea later in the year I just gift it then. Who doesn’t love a surprise gift?
Garden to Gift Ideas
These gift ideas can be used all year round to create personalised gifts from your garden. The great thing is, they are free/low cost, low waste, and easy to put together for last-minute (oops I forgot ) gift ideas.
—- GET CREATIVE —-
1. Framed Art
Pressed flowers make beautiful garden art ideas. Mixed with small illustrations or paintings. TIP: Choose small frames as nearly everything looks cute in a small frame… You could also get second-hand frames and paint them for an extra thrifty option.
2. DIY Colouring in Book
Draw basic outline illustrations and create a custom colouring books for kids. They don’t need to be professional artworks just choose objects that they love and use their name to make them feel special. Choose themes such as Farm, Beach, Woodland, Food Forest, and Veggie patch!
3. Photography
Framed photos or prints make great gifts! They are low-cost and can be easily personalised. Close-ups from the garden, scenic landscapes, and photos of friends and family. I love getting printed photographs because it is something I rarely do anymore. In this digital age, we rarely take the time to sort through our hundreds of photos so sometimes it’s nice to do.
4. Custom Clothingand Plant Dye
DIY Jackets are a fun way to get creative and make custom gifts. Denim jackets can always be found at secondhand shops and upcycled. I love making jackets for significant events like weddings and first birthdays. They make great keepsakes too. Paint flowers from your garden or sew fabric patches. Get extra creative and make your own natural plant dyes from the garden.
—-GETPRESERVING —-
5. Homemade Jam, Chutney & Sauces
Homemade preserves make such great gifts! Especially if they are made from delicious fruit and vegetables grown in your home garden. Create fun, custom labels easily using Canva templates. You can also create DIY tags and notes using leaves and small bundles of herbs and flowers.
Herbs produce in abundance and drying them is a great way to preserve them to use throughout the year. Make your own mixed herb blends and gift them to others to use in their kitchen. Homemade dried herbs are so much better than the greyish uninspiring supermarket editions.
7. Dehydrated Fruit
Dehydrated fruit is one of my go-to garden to gift ideas! I make large batches and always have enough on hand to either pop in a recycled jar or cut up and mix with dried flowers for a tea blend or a cocktail garnish blend. Dried citrus can be used in teas, cocktails, cakes, and baking. Also, incredible in mulled wine! Try chocolate-dipped for something extra special!
8. Flavoured Sugar and Salts
Herbal sugars and salts are such a fun and easy way to incorporate produce from your garden in a unique way. Simply blitz herbs and mix through salt and allow to fully dry. Dried edible flowers, herbs and citrus can be added to sugar to create flavoured sugars. Try Mint sugar in a hot chocolate!
Tea blends make incredible gifts from the garden. See the list and mix and match to make your favourite blends. Dry herbs and flowers fully first either air dry or in a low-temperature oven or dehydrator (30-40 degrees Celcius). Dried fruit, herbs, and flowers also make great cocktail garnishes. Add to a nice jar and create a DIY Label.
—-GET BAKING —-
10. Bake Bread
Homemade bread is so delicious and makes a great gift idea. Baking great bread is not a skill everyone possesses so if you do, share the love and make a sourdough loaf or even a Garden Foccacia using herbs and fresh ingredients from your garden. Wrap it in brown paper with a note and place a small bundle of herbs or flowers. Done!
11. Sweet Treats
Who doesn’t love sweet treats? Homemade cookies, cakes and slices always make great gifts. Get creative and use edible flowers, herbs and fruit from your garden to create something special!
12. Savoury snacks
Savoury snacks are an entertainer’s dream. Try some botanical crackers for a great way to use herbs from your garden. Other delicious snacks could be scrolls, scones, slices, quiche or flavoured nuts.
—-GET GROWING —-
13. Cuttings and Seedlings
Take extra cuttings and pot them up to have extra gifts on hand at all times! Cuttings such as Sweet potato, mint, rosemary, fig and mulberry are easy to get striking. Check out my Cuttings Ebook for more ideas. If you have extra plants pop up in the garden, (hello volunteers!) simply pot them up to give as gifts.
14. Plant Extra Seeds
It’s always a good idea to plant extra seeds in case something happens to your others. I do this in stages so I plant extra seeds 3-4 weeks after my first lot. That means if my seeds have made it to the garden as seedlings but get eaten or damaged I have replacements already on the way. However, if I don’t need the backs up then I have plenty to gift to friends and family.
15. Edible Bouquets
I love picking wild vegetable and herb flowers that have gone to seed, herbs and edible flowers to create beautiful edible bunches to gift. There are so many great reasons to do this!
They smell amazing
Look beautiful and a little wild
Don’t cost anything!
Can be used to flavour meals and tea
Can be regrown in their own garden.
The great thing about keeping herbs such as Mint, Rosemary, Basil and Lavender in jars of water is that they will send off roots! Let your gift receiver know what they can replant.
16. Fresh Produce
Extra produce makes incredible gifts! This can be vegetables, herbs, flowers or fruit you have grown in your garden. Pop in a basket or box and deliver to your friends and family. The great thing about gifting produce from your garden is they get to try different things that may not be at the supermarket. You may also inspire them to reconnect with where their food comes from and start growing their own. You really don’t know how much you can inspire and make a change by simply gifting some homegrown produce.
17. Gifting Seeds
Once your gardens get established you will have plenty of seeds to start harvesting. Pop some in a brown envelope with a note of what they are, when you harvested them and who they were from. Seeds are great gifts because they bring with them so much inspiration and potential!
If you found these gift ideas helpful please share this post with others and help to inspire more people to create their own Homemade Garden to Gifts.
There is nothing quite like the taste of homemade tomato sauce! This recipe is so easy – basically, just cook and blitz and you have the most incredible tomato sauce to pour over pasta, pizza base, or dip crunchy potato wedges into. Add fresh herbs from your garden and it’s a winning combo. Try this sauce poured over spinach gnocchi for a mouth-watering garden-to-plate dinner.
Simple Roast Tomato Sauce
Yield: 2 cups / 400-500g
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Additional Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Simple and delicious tomato sauce. Staple condiment and the backbone of so many garden-to-plate dishes!
Ingredients
6-8 medium tomatoes (or 2-3 cups of cherry tomatoes)
2-3 Garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
4 TSBP Olive oil
1 medium brown onion
1 TBSP Balsamic vinegar
5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme (2inch long)
1/2 cup fresh basil
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Drizzle roughly 1 TSBP oil in a roast dish.
Cut tomatoes in half and add to the roasting dish skin side down. Add Garlic cloves (skin on) and thyme throughout the tomatoes.
Drizzle another TBSP of olive oil on top and season with salt.
Roast for 40-45 minutes until cooked and slightly golden. Time will be significantly less for cherry tomatoes (20 minutes).
While the tomatoes are roasting, dice the onion and add to a pan with 1 TBSP olive oil. Cook until soft and slightly brown. Pour in the balsamic and deglaze the pan (get all the delicious flavour off the bottom). Remove from the heat.
Remove the garlic from the skins and add the roasted ingredients to a blender (or jug and use a stick mixer). Allow the tomatoes to cool slightly before blitzing so the mixture isn't piping hot. Add in the chopped fresh basil, chilli flakes, and cooked onions. Blitz to combine. Smooth or chunky however you prefer.
Taste and season with extra salt or chilli to your liking.
Notes
Tomatoes will have varying amounts of liquid. If you get a lot of liquid in the bottom of the roasting dish, pour some to the side and blitz then add if you want a runnier sauce.
Add excess to a jar and keep in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze for longer storage.
NZ Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) also known in Australia as Warrigal greens is a perennial green with beautiful lush leaves. Although not part of the Spinach family, NZ Spinach is used as a spinach substitute. The great thing about this edible plant is that, unlike many spinach varieties, it thrives in warm weather! It has thicker more succulent style leaves perfect for warm climates or coastal sea spray.
NZ spinach grows as a thick edible ground cover and will cover and protect the soil in just a few short weeks. Thus, providing an abundance of leafy greens to eat!
Springafter the last frost.Can be grown all year round in many climates.
SOIL
Fertile, moist, well-drained soil. Plenty of compost.pH 6.8-7
LOCATION
Full sun – Dappled or shaded position.
CARE
Regular watering.
FERTILISE
Compost teas or liquid fertilisers.
PESTS
Slug and snail.
HARVEST
Harvest regularly to keep contained.
REPRODUCE
Grows easily from cuttings
Why Grow NZ Spinach?
There are many reasons to grow NZ spinach and it is so easy to grow!
Here are some of the many reasons to grow NZ Spinach
Easy to grow
Abundant producer!
Handles hot climates
Low maintenance
Edible ground cover
Antioxidants
High in vitamins A, C,B1,B2
Protects soil
Cut and come again harvest
Suppress weeds
Pest resistant
Handles coastal environments
When to Plant NZ Spinach
NZ Spinach is a hardy perennial but thrives in warm weather. It does not tolerate frosts so it may be grown as an annual in climates that receive cold frosty winters. Sow in Spring after your last frost. It is a vigorous grower so make sure you have space for it or it will overtake small plants. Great for a food forest-style garden or low-maintenance corners.
How to Grow NZ Spinach
Choose a sunny spot with dappled or part shade in the heat of summer.
Prepare the soil with rich compost
Direct sow seeds or plant in seed trays first. Can benefit from soaking the seeds in water overnight first.
1-2 plants per person is plenty!
Plant seedlings on small mounds to keep them well drained.
Care/ Maintenance
Protection from the harsh summer sun can help the flavour of NZ Spinach and reduce bitterness. Keep well watered in warm temperatures.
Once the plant is well established with approx 1m sprawl you can start harvesting stems at 3-4 inch pieces. This will help contain the plant and also promote new fresh growth which tastes the best!
Use clean, sharp kitchen scissors to cut your harvest.
At the end of summer, it can be a good idea to back old growth and use as mulch.
Cut and come again crop that will regrow quickly. I often harvest and use in meals every other day.
Reproducing
Take cuttings and allow to root in a jar of water. Refresh the water every few days. Seeds can also be saved and will flower with tiny yellow flowers on the stem. Once the seeds form and turn brown, collect them and dry them further. Keep in a dark, cool and dry environment.
Cooking and Using NZ Spinach
NZ Spinach like many leafy greens contains high oxalates so it is best to blanch greens first. Blanch greens in simmering hot water for 2mins and then plunge them into ice-cold water to keep them vibrant and fresh. Or simply cook or stir-fry. Young leaves can be eaten raw in small amounts. NZ Spinach is great to cook/blanch and freezes for future use. Or try fermented greens.
