Brisbane Edible Gardening

14/06/2026

In case you haven’t already got your winter veg in, it’s not too late to plant kale (which is a short lived perennial in our garden, producing for about 3 years), snow peas, cherry tomatoes and beans.

11/06/2026

Winter in our subtropical food forest. At the moment we are enjoying dragon fruit, Atherton raspberries, oranges, an abundance of edible leafy perennial greens, lab lab, chayote, pumpkins, lemonade fruit, grapefruit, cumquats, tomatoes, eggplant, capsicums, custard apples, sweet potato, red amaranth, pawpaws and passion fruit. Not an over abundance of anything but enough to keep us going. It’s not too late to get new fruit trees in the ground along with short lived perennials like Tuscan kale. Cherry tomatoes and beans also do very well planted at this time of year.

04/06/2026

02/06/2026

30/05/2026

Custard apple (Annona sp.). A native of South America this sweet tasting creamy troping fruit is well suiting to south east Queensland growing conditions. If you want a good crop, give them plenty of sun and rich well draining soil. They are ripe when the distinctively crinkled skin fills out and becomes smooth towards the base of the fruit. They are still green in colour when fully ripe but will be soft to the touch and aromatic. Our favourite way to enjoy them is fresh, in fruit salads or just dig in with your fingers and suck the flesh off the shiny black seeds. They can be messy to eat but are well worth the effort. They are also divine in smoothies with banana and pineapple and can be frozen for later use.

29/05/2026

This 30yr old black sapote tree has been producing since January. The rains have caused some to spilt (they will still ripen).

29/05/2026

Carambolas are in fruit now. Look at these beauties we spent the morning picking. The recent rains have resulted in some of the largest around!

24/05/2026

Coffee syrup. When you separate the fresh coffee flesh from the seeds, put the flesh in a pot with enough water to cover, and simmer till they lose their colour. Sieve out the skins and add enough sugar to make a syrup (a lot), then boil to reduce to the correct consistency. Use the syrup in place of sugar, as cake toppings, on ice cream, yoghurt, as a swirl in cakes. Thanks to Mark Gould for this reliable recipe.

24/05/2026

It’s peak rosella picking season and while ours haven’t been fantastic, that is the beauty of sharing seeds and plants with fellow gardeners. After posting that we had pumpkins but not many rosellas we had two lovely random deliveries of gorgeous rosellas this morning. Two buckets full to the bring with huge pod black rosellas along with jam. A garden community is a wonderful thing to have.

23/05/2026

Strawberry shortcake with stewed strawberries and chantilly cream. Some inspiration to get your strawberry runners in the ground! If you want a good crop you will need rich, well composted soil, full sun and regular watering between now and summer but they are well worth the effort. Just be mindful that, being so delicious, the birds can’t resist them so you will likely need some form of exclusion (we use overturned old fan guards - not the prettiest but very effective.