Monday Harvest – 12th Mar 2012

This weeks harvest is more of the same with a couple of different things thrown in for good measure.  To start with the different, I harvested my first lot of beetroot since Spring.

3 Chioggia beetroot, a golden one and a small Detroit Dark Red.  Although they look pretty I do find the Chioggia lacking in flavour sometimes and whilst the golden one was lovely in the salad I made out of these beets, their leaves and some pumpkin seeds, I do really prefer the dark red varieties for flavour.

Whilst eggplant is not quite new, this week saw the first volume harvest, with 3 large Bonicas being cut.  Unfortunately my first attempts to photograph them were unsuccessful and by the time I realised they were unuseable I’d turned two of the eggplants into Baba ganoush.  I think this one is destined to become Eggplant Masala tomorrow night.

Other than the beetroot and eggplants my harvest was pretty much the same as it has been for the last few weeks.  Tomatoes, chillies and the occasional fig:

I’m still battling against whatever is eating my (well actually my neighbours) figs so the occasional one I get to harvest goes straight out of the basket and into my mouth.  I would love to have more to make jam, or salads with but it is not to be.

What I am making salads out of is: lettuce, spring onions, herbs, and French Breakfast Radishes which I’ve grown in a polystyrene box.  I do find old polystyrene fruit boxes are great planters – particularly for things like radishes.  I know that Diana at Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls also uses them for a whole range of veg as well as strawberries.

We are getting heaps of the Scotch Bonnet Chillies at the moment, I harvested about 500g this week with a lot more left on the plants.  I see some more Sambal making in my future.  The beans are drying up though – the ones below are some of the last I’ll get for awhile.  Except for borlotti beans that is, they are about to start producing.

I am so pleased with my herbs at the moment, they are all looking happy I’m cutting them like mad at the moment.  The parsley’s doing well and I put in a few more plants this week as you can never have enough parsley in my view.  I use thyme regularly and have a few plants scattered throughout the garden.

The basil is also doing well at the moment.  We had spaghetti with pesto for dinner tonight, I also put some pesto away in the freezer.  The plants are getting really big so I should be able to freeze a few more batches before the end of Autumn.

To see what others are harvesting this week, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for pickings from around the world.