Monday Harvest – Feb 6th 2012

I have been fairly lax on the photography front this week, although I do have a few pics.  What I don’t have is any shots of tomatoes though – we are still harvesting (despite the state of the plants) but somehow I’ve failed to capture them.  What I did capture was a typical basket – I think I have harvested this combination of things about 4 times this week.

We have been eating a lot of Middle Eastern salads lately – hence a lot of cucumber and mint.  No bad thing given we have plenty of both.

The chillies are going really well.  I harvested about 250g this week so I made my first batch of Sambal.  I use sambal quite a bit, primarily to spice up my plate after having to cook things quite mild for the kids.

We are still getting small but regular harvests of beans, the Majestic Butter & Beanette have been the pick of the varieties from both a usefulness and productivity perspective.

In keeping with my Middle Eastern and Mediterranean dishes I have been harvesting lots of herbs and greens lately, we had spanakopita for dinner tonight so a fair about of chard was in order.  This lot was from my perpetual spinach plant and I do find the green stalked chard varieties tend to be the hardiest, most disease resistant and generally productive.

I am finally getting some nice stalks from my celery plants, up til now they have been a bit skinny and slater infested but the plants are now big enough to fight back and are putting on some reasonable growth.

All in all it has been a good week in the garden, although poorly documented.  I did have to give up on my pumpkins though.  They hadn’t set any fruit, which was my fault for planting them in too shady a spot.  Sometimes its just better to cut your loses, so I thought I’d make use of the bed while it is still getting some nice summer sun.

Now its time you headed on over to Daphne’s Dandelions for the latest in harvest news.

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24 Responses to Monday Harvest – Feb 6th 2012

  1. So were you making Tzatziki. Interestingly the first time we had this was in France

    • Liz says:

      I did make Tzatiki, my daughter is currently very into pomegranate so we have been having cucumber, mint, feta & pomegranate salad a fair bit.

  2. That basket of salad looks so good and I love the colour of your sambal-how do you make yours and how long will it keep for?

    • Liz says:

      I am experimenting with methods at the moment. For this batch I boiled the chillies – hence the colour and then blended them with a bit or salt, sugar, vinegar & oil. I think it should keep for quite a long time. That jar went into the pantry and I have a half fill one in my fridge.

  3. L says:

    I love the look of the sambal. I also like the fact that you call it sambal so I don’t have to try and spell the second word.

    Do you store it in the fridge?

    • Liz says:

      I did go to type the second word and then couldn’t remember how to spell it and laziness meant I couldn’t be bothered looking up it up. I’ve had a sleep now and my renewed energy means I can now type oelek freely, although I have also seen it as ulek.

  4. Mark Willis says:

    That chilli sambal got my interest (obviously!). Do you just stir a spoonful into a finished dish? And how hot is it? The one I made is fiercely hot – almost too much so.

    • Liz says:

      I made this with capsicum as well as chillies but I suspect it will be slightly too hot. If it wasn’t for the kids I probably would cook with it but yes I do spoon it into the finished dish. I am still experimenting to try and get the final heat right. The ones I made last year I definitely made too hot hence the capsicum addition.

  5. Wilderness says:

    It is so interesting ready some of the recipes you make. So different that what I am accustom to. I have celery seed to plant this year for the first time and have no idea where to begin. I am sure I will have to build a row cover to get it to maturity. Do you have growing zones as we do here in the states and Canada? Those are the only ones I have ever seen. Very seldom do I find anyone who grows in zone 4 so I have to guess at new things.

    • Liz says:

      We have zones of sorts, but not as well defined as those in states – where I live is temperate (along with much of the east coast of Australia) which basically means most things grow pretty well at least at some point in the year. We have relatively mild winters – no frost, and hot summers (although the summer temperatures jump around a lot). I imagine our climate is similar to parts of California. Celery does best for me in cooler months which means temps around the 14-18 (55-65F) range, but it still grows albeit unhappily in summer.

  6. Dave says:

    I never thought about making Sambal! I’ve done a lot of things with hot chilis, but never that. I’m sure it tastes much better than the store bought versions.

  7. Julie says:

    I have never heard of Sambal. Of course that meant I had to Google it.. and now it’s on the list of things to make this summer. Although I told myself to only plant 2 hot pepper plants this year because we just don’t use them.

    • Liz says:

      You may well get enough from two plants to make some anyway. I find it convenient to have in the fridge for whenever i cook something that would benefit from some zing – which is quite often really….

  8. Norma Chang says:

    Good looking celery stalk. The color of your sambal is so bright and beautiful.

  9. Michelle says:

    What a beautiful bunch of veggies, but I do miss seeing the tomatoes, it’s comforting to know that someone somewhere is harvesting some luscious home grown tomatoes. The sambal looks great , I bet it’s delicious even if it is a bit spicy.

  10. kitsapFG says:

    I’ll say you had a good week in the garden – lovely harvests! The peppers are such a beautiful deep red and contrast beautifully with the variety of greens in the basket.

  11. beautiful celery, we just started seeds to attempt our first year of growing.

  12. leduesorelle says:

    We’ve a good six months until chili season here, but will certainly try making some Sambal once it does arrive! Your other post on Sambal called for only salt and vinegar, how did this one (cooked peppers, addition of sugar, oil) compare?

    • Liz says:

      Thankyou for noticing, the other one I’ve been making for awhile and is fine for using whilst cooking the dish but since I tend to add chilli at the table quite often these days I was finding the old one a bit harsh. This version is softer and I think better for my purposes – adding later in the cooking process or after cooking. I hope it keeps as well.

  13. maryhysong says:

    Your harvest basket is beautiful with the bright reds and different shades of green. We are still in winter here; tho a strange winter it is, I keep waiting for the snow and rain but it hasn’t happened and the plum tree is trying to bloom. I love some of the middle east dishes (especially lamb) with the various sauces with mint and yogurt in them.

  14. Andrea says:

    Great harvest Liz, all looks so lush and healthy , would you recommend celery as a easy veggie to grow or one that needs quite a bit of attention?

    • Liz says:

      I think celery is pretty easy especially during Melbourne’s cooler months. I’m not sure how cold tolerant it is but it certainly is very happy in Melbourne’s winter but we are frost free. It does need a reasonable amount of water and likes a feed but otherwise I’ve not had any issues.

  15. Your harvest looks beautiful! 🙂

    Lynn

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