I suspect the tone of my Monday Harvest posts is largely determined by the weather on the day I write them, and the good news is that today it was sunny. So today I bring you a veritable feast of winter produce, or that’s the spin I’m putting on today’s collection of veg.
I’ll start with a winter favourite, or rather two winter favourites: cauliflower and broccoli:
Both went into a gado-gado I made tonight and may post about later this week. This was my best cauli so far this year and I have two to go. I am wondering if early planting was at least part of the reason behind my earlier failures. Last year I planted fairly late and my cauli’s were pretty good so if I do decide to grow them again next year I certainly wont be putting them in too early.
I had friends over for dinner on Saturday and I cooked curries one of which was a saag made to a slightly adapted version of the saag posted on A Kindred Gardener. These mustard greens went into it:
as did this silver beet (chard):
We’ve had quite a bit of rain over the past week hence the volume of dirt on the leaves. The saag was great, the mustard leaves make it quite pungent though so you would have to like their flavour to enjoy it but for me I found it a great variation on the chard saag I generally make.
I also harvested a few curry leaves and mint, not for the saag but for other curries I made on the weekend.
The peppers in the basket are a few mini Mama capsicums which have been slowly ripening over the winter.
Also slowly ripening over winter were these chillies:
I’m hoping the plants will start putting on new growth soon so I decided to harvest most (but not all) of their remaining fruit. They still have a respectable amount of heat which is good.
I started harvesting my Easter Egg radishes this week:
I think they’re my favourite radish – nice flavour and great asthetic appeal.
My other first for the week was watercress. Here is a little bit I used in a mixed salad, along with some lettuce I used in the same salad. I use lettuce most days so I thought I post a picture of my standard daily, for sandwiches (rather than salads) harvest. That’s it on the right. Isn’t lettuce a wonderful vegetable?
Speaking of wonderful vegetables, Mr 2 and I decided to ferret around in the potato pots to see what else we could unearth. This was largely to stop him from pulling up my coriander – a project he had just begun under the pretence of ‘weeding’… Anyway here is what we found just under the surface of one of the pots. Just enough for dinner.
And that was it for my harvests this week, but if you want more then head over to Daphne’s where the whole world of harvests comes together in one place.
Great harvest again. I am down to a handful of snow peas, spring onions, lemons and the odd lime – that’s all. Must plan better!
Not sure about your early cauli planting theory – I usually plant mine in Feb or early March and my caulis are usually pretty good if I have limed enough…
It’s amazing that you have kept your chillies going and I guess ready for early spring growth. I really like your Eater eggs – pretty colours
Oh dear yet another theory with very little foundation bites the dust…that would be 3 for the week then and its only Monday… I have to say my ability to idly speculate on all manner of things with little to back it up drives my partner mad so naturally I shall keep doing it – with gusto, he he he…. I have been really pleased with my chillies these were from a 2nd round of flowering from the long cayenne – it gave an early and a late crop this year.
Beautiful and bountiful harvest as usual. I gave up growing cauliflower, not worth the real estate it occupies in my garden. Lovely mustard green, my volunteers are starting to appear so hopefully I will be harvesting some in the fall.
Having read this I think I will let my greens go to seed and let nature take its course – I do like a plant that works for you.
I enjoyed looking at your broccoli. Now I can give my little seedlings a pep talk and tell them what they’re going to look like when they grow up! No cauliflower for me this year (part of my ‘scaling back’ strategy).
My cayennes are just now ripening. It will be a week or two before I have enough, but I do see some sambal oelek in my future, and maybe some fermented pepper sauce as well. I should have ripe serrano and jalapenp also.
I do like the idea of a scaling back strategy, although I have a tendency to find new things which I simply must try whenever I decide not to grow something else.
Not a ‘saag’ but last night I made silverbeet with onion, garlic, chilli, olive oil and some well-reduced, intense veggie stock and it was delicious. I’ve got some squirreled away in the fridge to take for lunch tomorrow.
I have to thank you for suggesting I persevere with my chillies and suggesting they will eventually ripen, despite the winter weather. I would normally have harvested them all green and pulled them out, by now. I’ve still got jalepenos and kill-you-with-a-sideways-look chillies ripening which makes me very happy, indeed.
Your curry leaf has regained its colour, I see. What a lovely plant it is. I’m almost loath to use mine in case I kill it with over picking. It’s a dilemma!
As always, I’m envious of your broccoli and cauliflower. Next season, maybe!
That silver beet sounds lovely. Glad your chillies are still going – I do enjoy being able to pretend its warmer than it is by looking at them. Once your curry tree reaches a reasonable size I think you’d be hard pressed to kill it, more likely hard pressed to contain it…
Hi Liz!
Mr. 2 did a great job on those potatoes. My little curry tree finally has enough foliage for curry this year. I’ve never made any before. Had to grow the tree first since you can’t get the leaves here. Really looking forward to it!
He did didn’t he. Yay for curry leaves!
Nice harvest, and great looking broccoli and cauli. I’ve never grown cauliflower, but planned to definitely grow broccoli again this year. Maybe I’ll try planting a little later too. We got rather small broccoli heads last fall, maybe I’ll experiment planting different sets at different times and see what happens.
Your mini Mamas–is that as big as they grow? We’re growing some that look very similar but are just called cherry peppers. Sometimes they’re sweet, sometimes they have a little heat. I think cross-pollinating happens? I’ve never seen anyone grow anything similar. I like the compact round shape.
I don’t know what gado-gado is, very curious to see your post about it!
The mini mama’s do stay that size – they probably are cherry peppers but sold under a snazzier name. Mine are always sweet though. I find my broccoli heads are often small but as long as I get decent amount of side shoots I don’t tend to care.
I like the bite of mustard greens, but then I grew up in the Southern US and we always have mustard greens, collard greens or turnip greens in the winter time.
Ahhh interesting, how do you cook your mustard greens? Or indeed your collard greens?
Beautiful harvest, dirt and all! When you mentioned gado-gado my ears perked up. Haven’t had that in such a long time, so now the idea is planted in my head. Your broccoli and cauliflower look much healthier than ones I’ve grown, but I’m sure my problem has something to do with the soil.
It could be, I find broccoli heaps easier that cauliflower. The cauliflower might just be being fussy but if the broccoli isn’t happy either then perhaps you do have an issue with the soil.
Oh i bet those potatoes tasted good…………broccoli and cauliflower look great too, we enjoyed a sunny day too, first time in a while I could eat lunch on the veranda !
Not today though -it was really cold again here.
I never grow cauliflower as it is so fussy and almost never turns out looking as nice as yours are. Well done! The broccoli is gorgeous too. I was also enjoying the look of those chili peppers. Growing chilis in my cool growing climate is just not practical – so I always appreciate what others can grow even more.
Thanks kitsap, although I have to say my cauliflower often doesn’t turn out as nice as this either.
what a great harvest; your broccoli and cauliflower are looking good!
Nice potatoes. I am envious of your broccoli and cauliflower. I which mine were somewhere near that size. This is the worst year I have had for them in a long time.
The broccoli is a bunch of side shoots as I’m growing a sprouting broccoli variety, which I have to say I’ve been really pleased with.
That photo of the broccoli and cauliflower is just beautiful. My broccoli won’t win any beauty contests. And I’m always amazed at what you can grow in the winter. I so think of winter as icicles and snow.
To me icicles and snow are in the Antarctic where penguins not people live…funny the images we have isn’t it?
Great harvest for a winter garden. We’re getting to the burned-out, late August stage here so it’s nice to see what you’re growing.
Ah as much as I look forward to summer I don’t look forward to how the plants tend to look towardsw the end of it.
Never heard of gado-gado – look forward to the recipe. Great photography on your harvest. Everything looks beautiful.
Its an absolute favourite of mine – I just wish it was a little lighter on the calories…
Those brassicas are beautiful. Hope mine do as well. If you are in winter right now, how are you getting these beautiful peppers? Do you have a green house?
They’re just grown outside, we are frost free though. These are all fruits that they set in Autumn and have gradually ripened over winter. The plants that survive the winter will start to produce new fruits in early summer and continue to produce through Autumn with the remainder ripening in winter.
Beautiful. Your photos are as always inspiring. 🙂 I can’t wait to be eating fresh broccoli again. I don’t think I’ll be lax on getting enough planted this year!
Thanks Barbie, I will definitely plant more next year, I’ve had just enough but there’s nothing as reassuring as a bit of a glut I find.
How beautiful everything looks! Especially that broccoli and cauliflower, would love to have some that look so nice (and I’m sure they taste even better!)
I have to say I really enjoyed it and given the rest of my families general ambivalence about both of them I got to eat most of it.
Those little capsicums are really cute – they look frighteningly like chillies though.
Don’t they? but they have absolutely no heat whatsoever.
You always amaze me with your harvests throughout the winter! Your mustard greens, peppers and radishes are incredibly lovely! Great week 🙂
Thanks Bee Girl, I think sometimes I undervalue them especially compared with our summer bounties but you’re right they are good.
An other great winter harvest. I love the cauliflower, we never have cool enough weather to get decent heads.
We love lettuce too, we can only grow it about 5 months out of the year (2 in spring & 3 in fall) so we suffering without it right now. But I checked today and the seedlings for the fall crop are up!! 🙂
Yay for your autumn lettuce. Its funny to think that you don’t have enough cool weather but I guess that is the distinction between cool and cold isn’t it?
Variety. That’s what you have; variety. It is so different to having loads of the same thing. It gives you much more flexibility in the kitchen. How many different versions of curry do you have in your repertoire? You have all the ingredients, I think!
I make a fair few different curries but they tend to either revolve around a vegetable or chicken and occasionally seafood. Chicken because my family wants meat and I can’t stand the smell of stewing lamb or other red meats. The veggies because that’s what I enjoy and have available.
That cauliflower and broccoli look so good!
Yummy pickings, am especially enamored of the cauliflower! This array makes it look like the season is starting to pick up again there.
September is when the weather starts improving but this is the main winter harvest season now.
Great variety. I especially like the broccoli. Fall gardening prep is underway here. Just started broccoli, cabbage, collards, and kohlrabi. The tomatoes and peppers go in the ground this weekend.
Its really interesting how you have two seasons when you can grow much the same plants – fascinating.