It is finally starting to warm up here. We’ve had the odd warm day here and there, but the forecast for this week is for mostly warmer weather which is nice. Hopefully it will get the late Spring and Summer moving, in the meantime I have early Spring crops like coriander.
I have been using a lot of coriander of late, in curries and salads mostly, but many of the plants are starting to bolt. Those that look relatively healthy I will use to collect seed from, the others I am pulling to use their roots in Thai style curry paste.
I had Indian style curry for dinner tonight and for that I needed a big bunch of silver beet.
Most of my silver beet is bolting at the moment, I have new plants but nowhere to put them. Their designated bed is currently full of potatoes which aren’t at harvest-able size yet – I relocated a compost bin to the end of the bed and in the process dislodged a plant but as you can see the potatoes (Pink Fir Apple) are still tiny:
My wild rocket is getting nice and big though, I ate this rocket, along with the spring onions and mint in a beetroot salad today.
My kids were demanding tea yesterday, so I made them some with lemon balm. One was very pleased with it, the other a little nonplussed and demanded I go out and pick some mint for a mint version.
Although its still a month before I will harvest most of my garlic crop I have a few plants that aren’t looking great so I’ve been pulling them to use green.
Next week I hope I’ll have broad beans to eat it with.
In the meantime head over to Daphne’s and see what people are harvesting all over the world.
I’ve never used coriander root in cooking though I know it is used-must give it a try next Summer-lucky you Liz now enjoying warmer weather and bounty from the garden!
I hope your potatoes get bigger fast so you can plant your chard. I have trouble like that in the garden sometimes. It is always a balance when to pull something to put in something else.
How nice to be getting warmer weather and looking forward to summer bounty. Can you freeze coriander roots?
I’ve never tried so I’m not sure whether it would lose its flavour or not. I have quite a bit in the garden at the moment so I may give it a try this year though.
Oh I always forgot that I can also harvest the coriander root. Is the coriander plant with seeds, the roots are still ok to use? Lovely colour garlic you have there. I have never tried chard in curries. I have to try.
I haven’t noticed much in the way of flavour change in the roots after flowering that I can recall, although I often harvest prior to that stage. I’d definitely give them a try.
Those potatoes may be tiny but they sure look good! As does your chard! I have never grown coriander, but I have heard it can be difficult. Yours looks just perfect! I’m happy you are getting the warm weather to enjoy!
Those fir apples look very smooth – when we grew them they were really knobbly and much pinker.
Coriander is tricky to keep growing it usually flowers far too quickly.
The seed potatoes were pinker and knobbly too – I’m thinking it might be an age thing as some of the larger ones were starting to look pinker.
I love that you are going into your high season while we are moving to our dark days of winter – it means I get to enjoy beautiful garden goodies in your posts in the months ahead. Can you grow the beet root in large pots? I do a lot of “spill over” gardening in large containers on my decks. Right now they are full of lettuces. 😀
I have grown beetroot successfully in large pots before so yes.
Your potatoes may be small but I bet they are delicious, especially with that garlic, mmm… good combination! Coriander is one of my favorites and so difficult to grow here. I bolts before it can get to a decent size. 🙁
What a lovely harvest! Your photographs are very appealing.
Your PFA potatoes look a lot smoother than normal. They are usually very knobbly. You are obviously very “refined” out there in Australia! BTW: I will give serious consideration to your suggestion that I should put spuds into that new raised bed of mine.
Hmmm not sure about the refined. I reckon they are probably young and brash ones (much like Australia) who have yet to develop the signs of age you see in Europe. He, he, he.
I’m with the picky child. It is a pretty herb and I have lemon balm in the herb garden and volunteers are now growing here and there around the yard. But to me it smells like citronella and I have no desire to try a hot cup of insect repellent. Maybe it would work in a blend. I will have to try that. And I will have to save my coriander roots next time and try those in cooking. Thanks for the idea.
I quite like it used as tea with mint or spearmint.
I always say I want to try coriander roots in a thai recipe but they’re always too small and I discard them. Maybe next time…
I love your silver chard, is really shining!
Seems like ages ago we were digging up potatoes and harvesting broad beans. But I’m enjoying sharing in your harvest – even if it is at a distance! I’ve seen recipes that call for coriander root, but have only used the leaves and seeds up to now – another one to try next year.
I’m looking forward to cooking with a lot of coriander this winter, if the birds and rodents don’t wipe out all the seedlings that are popping up right now. I’ll have to remember to harvest some of the roots and try a good fresh curry paste instead of the jarred stuff I usually use.
I do like using the roots, I now just need to convince the kids they like Thai style curries as much as they like Indian style ones – so far they have been unimpressed…
Your chard looks so shiny! Everything looks so good, I hope you get the nice warm weather you are hoping for. We have turned quite cold here this week! Uhg!
A tea garden would be very nice! I have mint, I should think about planting lemon balm next spring. Coriander (we call it cilantro) is my nemesis. I love it but just cannot seem to grow it. While we enter into winter I’ll just live vicariously through your spring garden. 🙂
There is a relatively short coriander/cilantro growing season here from the later part of winter until late Spring, outside of that it is difficult in my experience.
The potatoes look so sweet all tiny. They would make a great salad left whole like that. And yes, I know the feeling of having things to plant, but nowhere to put them 🙂
Very nice harvest! I also liked the tip of using coriander root. It previously went into the compost but now I’ll be cultivating it!
If you are going to be harvesting broad beans next week, I’m a quite few weeks behind you but some are sizing up nicely and they are prolific so I will try to be patient, hard as that will be.
My late-planted broccoli is producing really well and has been delicious – hopefully the much younger broccolini will be equally so.
I’m sad to report that my transplanted capsicums (from the garden to pots to over-winter) have been a failure but the two I left in the ground look like they may have survived. Go figure!
I took armloads of silverbeet, spinach, broccoli, parsley and other herbs to my daughter over the weekend. It hardly put a dent in anything! I’ll need to freeze the rest of the silverbeet very soon, like yours, it’s bolting.
I’m very excited about our warmer weather!!
I’m wondering if transfering them to pots upset them, or even if in transfering they put on new growth that suffered with the cold. Regardless though its an interesting experiment. Glad the ones in the garden look like they got through.