After looking at all the things that we buy in the market compared to the ease of growing your own my husband and I wanted to have a small garden in the yard for a few plants that we need for our deli such as Oregano or Basil. While we were sitting outside with Vise (our landlord) we got into the conversation about growing these items and were to get the seeds from.
Seeds!!
Vise just started laughing as us. We are such funny foreigners I guess. He brought over all that dirt and made a garden bed for us, grabbed one branch of Rosemary that I bought at the market that day and stuck the cut end of the branch in the ground.
"That is how we grow things here!" he said "We need no seeds!!"
And apparently it is that easy. Now I have Basil and Oregano growing and I have started some strawberries, grapes, lemons and pomegranate in the small pots that he brought over as well. I just know that we will have the rest of that garden area growing with more herbs as we find them. I never thought of just taking stuff we bought and sticking it in the ground.
Barry has been cutting off the top of his pineapples and planting them and now he wants a place to grow potatoes too. I am so glad that he is the gardening type. I don't mind gardening but he is the one that prowls the yard every day with a watering can to see if the pineapples are rooted yet or notices if the banana trees have grown any taller. I am glad to watch and wait for things I can eat to sprout.
Thank you for posting about your life in Tonga. My hubby and I own one of the stands in Cocomo. Our idea was to sail from South Africa to the Caribbean and then through Panama and the Pacific to Tonga, but having arrived in the Caribbean 2 years ago and enjoying it tremendously, there is no sense of hurry. Thing is Tonga is quite final - can't come back here easily, they have prohibitive import taxes on boats which means we will have to keep leaving the county to avoid paying those and having become a granny to a little one in the U.K. it is easier to fly from here than from Tonga - but, still keeping our options open.
ReplyDeleteHi Char,
ReplyDeleteI KNEW I knew guys from somewhere, and it only dawned on me on the flight back to Sydney. Lightbulb moment !
On reading your blog, I can see that some moments have been tough, yet at the same time you have seen it through and are now the premium sausage stuffers of Vava'u !
Thank you for your hospitality, and I hope to drop in on you guys again, for an exchange of great food and wonderful story telling.
If you'd care to drop me a line at kawcreation@optusnet.com.au I would be most interested in the local gossip and how things are travelling with you both.
A great time was had by all, and I hope to see you both again by years end.
Take care, Geoff
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI have been following your blog for about a year, but this is my first comment.
Last October, I returned to Vava'u for the first time in almost 25 years. Unfortunately, I did not read some of the last posts before we left, so I thought you wouldn't be there when we were there.
Excluding the abundance of smart phones, it hasn't changed in 25 years!
I too will be moving to Tonga, as has been my dream since I lived there for a while in the early 90's with a friend in the Peace Corps. (Almost bought the Kart Adventure biz earlier this year...)
For now I just wanted to say hi. I hope to be commenting more on future posts.
Hi again. Haven't seen an update in a while. How's things as you start to head into the peak season?
ReplyDelete