Vasili's Garden Episodes
Love Thy Neighbour
It’s not often I visit a home only to find that it’s the wife who does the bulk of the gardening.
Sure you might say that some homes have small gardens that a wife can easily maintain without the help of her strong muscular husband.
But when you turn up to a house that has over 10 fruit trees, a tonne of ornamental plants in the garden and around the house in pots and hanging baskets, plus over 400 orchid plants and then to find a shade house and a hot house in the rear garden. One could easily mistaken thinking that the husband surely must do the bulk of the gardening.
Not at this house folks.
Frida is pretty much the back bone to the wonderful garden they have, but yes the husband does help a little with some of the digging and pruning, but it’s Frida’s passion to garden for leisure and productiveness.
They not only have fruit trees in the front garden, Steve has also planted an almond tree on the nature strip too, that’s not bad going considering every other neighbour has a giant gum tree or a messy Tea tree on their nature strip that’s sucking the daylight out of the soil and not to mention the moisture too.
For a standard block in Rowville, Steve and Frida have stacked packed and racked their plants literally so as to have enough room to move around and probably plant some more too.
While we were there I learnt how to make tomato sauce but not the traditional method that many Europeans do, cut the tomatoes, boil them squash them then bottle them with a basil leaf.
Frida’s recipe is much more intense with flavours and colours, requiring a variety of veggies and some herbs like oregano, but most importantly a blender to help puree everything before it’s bottled.
And yes, it was absolutely delicious, I had it with chicken, chops, in my pasta and I even dipped my village bread into it too.
This was one of many traditional dishes and preserves that Frida practices and shares with her family and friends, who by the way were quietly watching the production of the show, eagerly waiting for the lunch break to indulge into Frida’s dishes.
Having a standard block wasn’t enough for this couple; they just had to spread their seeds through to their next door neighbour’s garden whom by the way, was quite happy to have them grow all sorts of veggies which were obviously shared between the two families.
Grow them together and share them with everyone, what more can neighbours ask for?
Maresi!
Steve & Frida Theodorou from Vasili's Garden on Vimeo.
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