Monday Harvest – June 10th 2012

Today is a public holiday, for the Queen’s birthday no less.  I’ve always found it mildly amusing that we get a day off here, in the colonies, but they don’t in the motherland.  Shame, he he he….  Actually I used to be something of a republican but to be honest I’d don’t feel strongly enough about it these days to even call myself that.  Besides I would miss the holiday…. we could rename it Snow Day I guess, as this weekend is also the opening of the Ski Season here in Australia.  If you’ve been skiing elsewhere in the world then skiing in Australia is something of a disappointment – very short and limited runs – but if you haven’t then its fun to play in the white stuff, as long as it stays on the mountains and away from my garden that is.

Speaking of gardens, I guess I should actually tell you about this weeks harvests which have been rather fun.  Anyone who read yesterdays post will know I harvested ginger:

I also harvested turmeric:

And continuing the root theme I emptied the horseradish pot:

I used some of the horseradish in a horseradish and yoghurt dressing I made for a beetroot salad.    I also used some of the ginger and turmeric in a South Indian chicken curry I made this evening.

I did a fair bit of gardening maintenance this weekend, including finally pulling out the eggplants, which although they may have given me another eggplant or two, were casting too much shade on my brassicas.

Pictured with the eggplants are my second ever orange and some absolutely tiny raddichios.  I was hoping for much bigger heads but the outer leaves had started to rot and I was concerned the whole lot would be ruined it I didn’t pull them now.

Aside from the ever present silver beet – which I have failed to photograph this week, my most regularly harvested crop was parsley.  This week I used it in stock, salads, pasta sauce and a pie.

Fruitwise there were more tamarillos:

And greenwise there were herbs, celery

and loads of lettuce:

 Thats it for me this week, but others will have more, lots more, so head over to Daphne’s Dandelions and have a look.