Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I don't think the temperature swings will bother them toooo much. They may not be ideal but there'd be plenty of shallow creeks and puddles that Perch end up living in that would have daily temperature swings when the sun's shining

Yesterday we passed a huge milestone - cooking and eating a meal where all the major ingredients were grown in my aquaponics! Yaaaaay~! And it was delicious. It was based on one of the spaghetti squash recipes my husband looked up, but modified to fit in with what I can and can't eat; the original included onions and garlic, for example, which we left out completely, and IIRC the vermouth was a spur-of-the-moment addition that turned out to be brilliant.

It started with both the spaghetti squash my teeny vines have produced:


They were cut in half, seeds scooped out, insides rubbed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then turned cut-side-down on a lined cookie tray and baked for 40 minutes. Then my husband went to get cherry tomatoes out of the fridge, realised we didn't have any left in there (because he'd eaten them all ) and asked me to get more. So I picked this bowlful out of the aquaponics:


As you can see, the cherry tomatoes are producing like mad, it's awesome. I cut about two-thirds of them in half, and he sauteed them in a little oil, then added chicken stock and vermouth. Then he discovered that we'd also finished the baby spinach he thought was in the crisper and sent me out to pick some young silverbeet leaves, which got ripped up and added to the pan, and he simmered the resulting deliciousness to reduce it down:


Once the spaghetti squash was cooked we scraped it all out of the skins with forks, put the sauce on top, and discovered that it was glorious. This one's going on our list of recipes to repeat in the future, and next year I'm planting a lot more spaghetti squash!

Hi Mel,

We are having a gathering at my place this Sunday the 26th. Would you like to pop by?

It will be from 3pm to 6pm.

Bloody hell this is getting worse than social media, big difference we are insanely jealous instead of WGAF

We would love to Gurkan, thank you! PM me your address?

*snicker* well at least I didn't mommyblog it and lead off with a rambling story about how this recipe reminds me of my childhood and somehow symbolises the Good Old-Fashioned Values I was raised with

Wowowow! It is an incredibly great feeling to make a meal with things we grew. Homegrown food is liberating, empowering and just plain good old-fashioned fun. I can't wait for our Spring to begin. I have big plans again here as well. I hope our bounty is a cornucopia as varied and beautiful as yours! That meal looks fantastic, yummy yummy!

mmmm Mel I want some of those cherry tomatoes please! My favorite! I typically grow a lot of cherry tomatoes but they don't usually make it indoors... I could spend the whole day in the garden just picking cherry tomatoes and eating them straight from the vine. I make it a meal and eat so many of them until my stomach hurts.

It was absolutely delicious, Brian! Our only complaint was that we wanted more.

Rininger, I'd mail you some if I thought they'd make it. I only planted two cherry tomato plants but they're going so well that we can pick a big bowlful every two or three days.

What a beautiful dish!

I'm growing spaghetti squash as well this year after my wife bought two of them and we found them absolutely fantastic.

I salvaged some seeds from one and now I have 5 seedlings on the window sill straining to reach into the light. :-)

I also have multiple varieties of tomatoes coming along now.
Joined by some lemon basil you have yourself a complete dish!
Can't wait for it all to come up in the summertime!

I'm also sourcing all the materials for my new grande greenhouse these days.
Got foodstuff IBCs for 30 USD a pop! Ready to pick up in a couple of weeks.
Got the blue barrels stacked up against my shed.
All the piping stuff has been ordered.
This weekend I'm clearing the area where the greenhouse is going.
Mowing the lawn all the way down and covering it with polycover.

Found a Trout breeder who will sell me just 100 fingerlings.
He usually sells large fishes to put-and-take lakes, but he fancies my project so he is willing to support me with fingerlings.
It's a renowned biological breeder, so I'm well happy about that!

Can't wait to get building and get the new system running and growing!

Cheers - Jens

That's awesome, Jens! I look forward to seeing lots of progress posts. I saved seeds out of my spaghetti squash too, and we plan to plant several in Spring - we'll be putting some in different places around the dirt garden too, to see where they do best.

Today's tomato harvest!

Great harvest whats the big red tomatoe

"Reisetomate" - I've seen similar ones called brain tomatoes. We got two plants and one produces weird blobby tomatoes as advertised, the other one is giving the bigger cherry tomatoes you see next to them! I guess either it didn't breed true or the seeds/seedlings got mixed up.

The stripy green and yellow-green ones are green zebras, and the plain yellow ones (two down the bottom) are Wapsipinicon Peach. They're fuzzy!

Those brain tomatoes look awesome!

I'll be sure to post lots of photos on the new build Mel!
I have it all sketched out in my head and it will be awesome!

I'm no good with Sketchup etc. so no sneak peaks I'm afraid.

Now I'm just waiting for partd to arrive and the snow to melt off my lawn.
We just got a plaster last night again, but it's melting fast.


Cheers - Jens