Its cold here today (59F/15C) and as a result I don’t know how much longer the summer crops will last. We are still getting eggplants, a few tomatoes and the never ending chillies.
What we are not getting are decent coriander crops, I pulled up this lot which had bolted before producing many leaves in order to use the roots in a Thai red curry paste. The paste also contained the lemongrass.
The below Thai basil, kaffir lime leaves and chilli went into the curry I made with the paste.
I just know that I will be harvesting a bit of silverbeet (chard) each week from now until Spring so I am trying to find new ways of photographing it. Not entirely sure that this one was that successful photographically but it did taste good in Chicken Saag.
Another thing that I harvest each week and have similar photographic issues with is parsley. I can’t remember if this lot became stock, was used in bean and chorizo casserole or was simply used in salad. What I do know is that the lizard didn’t eat it.
The reason why I am trying to find different ways of photographing parsley and chard is clear when you see this next pic – while this picture is fine do you really want to see it every week? Celery is something that I harvest every week so I need to come up with some new ideas for that too. Thoughts anyone? I do like the little spider in the bottom left of the photo though.
Despite the cooler weather I’m still eating a lot of salads – this basket went on to become a Salad Nicoise which I ate for lunch one day last week.
I didn’t only harvest summers crops and greens this week. More tamarillos hit the basket, I’m up to about 50 so far and counting:
Finally, I decided it was high time I harvested one of our pots of turmeric. This is what it looked like just out of the pot.
This is what the rhizomes looked like after I’d cleaned then up a bit:
This is a pretty small harvest admittedly but then my climate is really not well suited for growing turmeric and this is really something of an experiment. This is my second year of trying and I’m learning all the time. This lot comes from some rhizomes that I left in the pot over winter. I will be interested to see how much bigger or smaller it is than that from the pot with freshly purchased rhizomes. My suspicion is that I will get better crops from rhizomes that I either buy fresh each year or lift and store until the next planting season as our winters probably cause a reasonable amount of it to rot in the ground. But I might be wrong. I’ll leave my other pot for a few more weeks and then harvest it and compare.
For more harvest related excitement head over to Daphne’s Dandelions to see what else is being cut this week.
Liz, your blog is fantastic…. just reading turmeric harvest…. I am curious to know is that based on expert advice about the correct time to ‘harvest’. I was planning to do the same thing with my turmeric & galangalal pots- as I figured that it seems logical as the plants die down for winter the goodness will be transferred down into the rhizomes- I am not sure if there is any basis to that theory or not-! I have been growing up my plants for a couple of years now, but I tend to let the pots dry out in the winter time to avoid the rot.
My gut feeling would be very much the same as yours – harvest in winter when the plants have died down (my understanding is that that is what the commercial growers do) – my harvests from last year certainly bear that out – the later ones were much larger than the earlier ones. Having said that if you live in a tropical climate I think the growth rate would be high enough to be able to harvest pretty much whenever you liked particularly when the plants are well established. Can I ask where you got your galangal from? I’ve tried to grow it a couple of times with no success whatsoever – I bought the rhizomes from the same source each time and think perhaps its time to find an alternative. Thanks for the feedback I really appreciate it and can I ask how you found me – I’ve had a few new people lately and I’d love to know where they came from?
Hi Liz- I purchase mine from a specialist grower who comes to the Melbourne flower and garden show every year. I understand they also do mail order- but will need to check with a friend I am pretty sure she got their card because they were sold out of the ‘normal’ galangal this year. (apparently there is another variety- I am now wondering if thats what I got…..mmmm will soon find out I guess). No idea where I found out about your blog- its been sitting in my feeds for a while now 🙂
Thanks for the feedback, if you do come across the name then thats great, otherwise no worries – I can always do a search or even buy some from the Asian grocers at Preston Market and see if I can get that to grow. Loved you blog by the way really entertaining.
15 degrees is positively balmy – as long as it isn’t in fahrenheit
At the end of winter maybe but not to this summer warmed body.
Very nice. I want to try growing turmeric but can’t find any rhizomes in the stores here. I may get some online though to try.
i can only find it online here too. Having said that they do sell it at the Asian grocer for culinary purposes so I could use those rhizomes next year.
It’s cold here today too, though we should be getting some warmer weather as we’re on our way in to summer, something’s not right.
I have noticed your weathers been pretty dreadful – hope it improves soon!
Wow, love your tamarillos – what will you do with them all? Just eat them fresh? I once saw a great recipe for them poached in orange juice so you eat them warm. I guess there is somthing else in the poaching fluid but I cant remember. What do you think would match?
Celery? If I were at home and if it were cold I’d make a big pot of stock with lots of celery in it. Or you could take a Chinese approach and cut up thin and use the thin bits oj top too, and stir fry with lots of garlic and ginger and beef.
You are making me miss my garden…
It could be just orange juice and sugar. I like them plain but I will try a few things if I harvest absolutely heaps at once. So far the kids and I are keeping up with the harvesting rate, especially as I’ve given a few away as well. I do use celery in my stock a lot. I should use it in stir fries more than I do.
Are you looking for new ways to photograph celery and parsley or to use/cook them? I suspect the former. If I’m right, I have no advice (that you wouldn’t laugh at!). I’m not at all creative, that way. I do love your photos and those at Mark’s Veg Plot.
I’ve recently made some parsley soup and some celery soup with my gluts. The jury’s out on the celery soup but I think it’s growing on me. By the way, blanching the celery by wrapping in newspaper certainly took some of the bitterness away and provided a lovely haven for slugs and snails as a bonus. Note to self, a few environmentally-friendly pellets wouldn’t go astray.
Photograph but the culinary hints are great too. Sounds like you discovered a great way to capture slugs and snails. I really must try blanching my celery too. I’ve never made parsley soup which seems very remiss of me. What do you put in it?
You need lots and lots and lots of parsley, about 150g, a wedge of butter, a large onion or two, a couple of cloves of garlic, a few celery sticks, a litre of stock (veggie or chicken), a few teaspoons of flour, salt, pepper and a blob of cream (though I don’t usually have it on hand so I don’t add this). Finely chop everything and sauté until soft then stir through the flour. Add the stock and simmer for about half an hour and puree. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in cream before serving, if using.
Because of my other glut, I reckon I’ll add a chilli next time for a bit of a kick. I’d add chilli to icecream, if I thought it would work!
I also wonder if a potato (rather than the flour) might be better?
As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m always on the look-out for vegan recipes to make for my daughter and she just loves parsley and extols its virtues!
Oh, of course, I don’t use butter nor cream for the vegan!!
You are obviously a bit of a foodie so if you come up with some tweaks to this recipe, I’d love to hear them!
I’m feeling a tad embarrassed that I’m responding to my own posts but that’s what happens when you virtually live on your own (or with a son who is a mushroom). You talk/write to yourself. 🙂
Sounds delicious – enjoyed your 3 responses too so thankyou for taking the time to write them. I’ll give it a go and hopefully write it up if thats OK with you? I have actually had chilli in icecream before – it was chilli chocolate and it was nice, if slightly pointless but nice.
Please do (write it up)! It’s a recipe that I adapted from one I found on the internet so I don’t take any credit for the concept. Google is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
Thanks Nina, Now I just need to make some stock.
Everything looks fantastic!! How neat to try and grow Tumeric. And your curry sounds like it was delicious with the ingredients you used!
I have to say I was very proud, especially as pretty much al the flavourings came from the garden.
The tumeric looks like ginger. I too would love to know how you use your tamarillos. I noticed your lemon grass is purple while mine is green, suppose yours is a different variety.
I think they must be very closely related as they do seem to grow in much the same way. i’ve recently discovered that the leaves are often used for culinary purposes so thats my next thing to experiment with. So far I’ve (and the kids and a couple of friends) have eaten all the tamarillos raw but I have a few recipes I’d like to try before the season finishes – if I get around to it. The outer leaves of the lemongrass are purple but the inner ones are green and it doesn’t seem to have the smae white bit that shop bought lemongrass has. So I presume its different – it seem to taste identical – to my palate anyway – though.
How fun to see gardens on the other side of the world! I don’t think I’ve ever seen tumeric; here it’s just a powder in a can. What are tamarillos? What do you do with them? What do they taste like?
You’ve reminded me I have parsley seed to plant, but it’s so hot I think I will wait more towards fall when the weather is cooling off and see what happens.
The tamarillos are a fruit – the plant originated in South America – and they are often called tree tomatoes which kind of gives you an idea of what they taste like. Not quite the same and with a different texture. I do struggle to explain tastes sometimes…
Your summer crops seem to be winding down nicely.
I am afraid I am not a good inspiration or source for creativity in photo presentation of veggies, my harvet Monday weekly pics look much the same from week to week although I do use different baskets etc to put the harvest in for the pics. Just round a nice wire mesh tray at an antique store while traveling this past week which I think will be great for the pics of harvests.
Oooo I do like the idea of wire mesh – I shall look out for it in your posts.
This is making me excited for my summer garden. We’re entering late spring in my part of the world and I’m anxious to see what the harvest months will bring. I don’t think I would have noticed that little spider if you hadn’t pointed it out. 🙂 I’m curious about the tamarillos as well. Have you mentioned them before? How do you use them?
I talked about them (the tamarillos) last week but thats Ok. Mostly the kids and I just eat them as is – you sccop the flesh out of the very bitter inedible skin.
Reminds me of my time in Nepal. The village name”Haldibari” (Turmeric field) is as common there as is “Burton” in the UK!
Love the Nepalese trivia.
I’ve never seen turmeric harvested before. I hope you figure out how to grow good roots.
I suspect the answer will be to move to the tropics…the little I did get is probably enough for about 4 curries though – I did tofu with lemongrass and turmeric – I loved it the rest of the family was noneplussed.
Liz, I like how you put it: never ending chillies…:) I remember last year I harvested chillies through December…
I think this year will be like that too. It will be interesting to see exactly how long they do last.
Your tumeric, in its simplicity, is amazing! I continually find items that others are growing that I hadn’t even thought were a possibility to grow! So inspiring!!!
It is fun to be living in a mild climate where so many plants are possible to try – some with better results than others though.
Perhaps that is going to be your photography challenge, how many different ways can you photograph Silver Beet, I look forward to see it myself. 🙂
Oh the pressure – still it should keep me out of trouble.
I tried growing tumeric for 2 years and same luck with yours although we have longer summer here. I gave up last year and some did sprout by itself which is surprising. I thought the tumeric that I did not lifted will rot in the soil. So I left them growing again so I can harvest the leaves. But the leaves does die in winter. Still you can freeze the leaves, I use the leaves for Malaysia yellow curry or rendang dish. Lovely harvest and this week I envy your celery…hehehe…
Do you chop the leaves up for the dish? How finely? I’ll google a Malaysian yellow curry as I have heaps of leaves at the moment and would love to use some.