I completely failed to photograph my most exciting harvest of the week. We had some ripe cherry tomatoes (Tiny Tim), but they were eaten before they could be captured for posterity. Regardless though I am pretty pleased to have ripe tomatoes before Christmas. The flavour was good but not great but given how early they are I will forgive them most things.
The tomatoes aside I did capture a sample of most of what is coming out of the garden at the moment.
I harvested the first of the Detroit Dark Red Beetroot. I didn’t plant heaps so I’m going to run out of beetroot soon but I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve had very much.
The beetroot went into a salad with rocket, mint, parsley and some roast cauliflower and pumpkin.
Pictured with the rocket is a Tamarillo, a very out of season Tamarillo that appeared about the time I was harvesting the normal crop last May and has steadily grown and ripened ever since. Its flavour wasn’t great but it was fun to have it at this time of the year.
Another fruit I harvested this week were a few Cape Gooseberries. Something is eating most of them – I find empty wrappers on the ground all the time. I suspect rats. At least they left these few. My daughter is very partial to them too so I was only able to prise one out of her grasp.
It was a good one though…I only wish the plants were as productive as my lettuces which continue to supply leafiness for our daily salads.
Also productive are the zucchinis which are coming through steadily. I’m not sure that they are my favourite thing to cook with but it has been nice to have them nonetheless. So far I’ve been grilling them on the bbq but I may need to branch out and try some new things with them soon.
I started harvesting from my main potato bed this week. Most of the plants are still going strong but there is one section in which they are dying back. I bandicooted enough Kipflers for a salad to eat with the grilled zucchinis and some haloumi.
I’m pleased with how my purple king beans are doing this year. The plants look happy and healthy and the beans are coming slowly but surely.
You may notice some parsley under the beans – the first from my new plants which are just reaching harvest-able size. Hopefully the plants grow quickly as I’ve missed having parsley on hand for the past month or two.
As always I recommend you head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions to see what else is being harvested around the world.
I bet the tomatoes still tasted nicer than anything you could buy from a shop, nothing quite like the taste of home grown. I think they’re the thing I enjoy growing the most.
i know what you mean – particularly the slicing ones, which i rekcon i’ll have ripe in about a month.
What beautiful harvests. Right now I’m in dreaming mode for next year.
I have a page on my blog
here
with some links to courgette recipes that I have used – they may be worth a browse.
I particularly like the look of the zucchini cake – first on my list to make I think.
We enjoyed it – it’s a very dense texture and the original recipe suggested to spread a slice with butter but we didn’t.
It is important to squeeze all the moisture out of the zucchini/courgettes before using them.
Well yes, that’s a pretty respectable harvest. My harvests have dwindled to a mere trickle now, so it’s over to catalogue-browsing and making plans for next year.
Your harvest is definitely starting to look like summer – it’s got me planning for next year.
The sight of those beans is making me long for summer again. I’ve still got tomatoes hanging around the kitchen but the last of the plants got pulled out yesterday, so I’m not quite into tomato envy mode yet. At least, not until I see your first photos of the season!
If you’ve never tried Scarpaccia then you are in for a zucchini treat. It’s an Italian dish that’s sort of a hybrid pancake and tart. Utterly delicious. There’s all sorts of variations to be found on the web and I’ve posted my favorite version on my blog. I’m also experimenting with zucchini that I dried and I’m really pleased with the results. Some day I’ll get a post up about that as well.
Right scarpaccia it is then – I’ve checked out your recipe and i will have a play as soon as the next few are ready.
Beautiful beets and varied harvest, I can’t wait for spring-summer to come again.
I have to admit I’m really enjoying it thus far.
Congrats on your first tomatoes! That’s always something worth celebrating. I am really glad your daughter likes the Cape Gooseberries.
She tends to enjoy sourish acidic type fruits which is exactly what they are I guess. I’m loving having tomatoes I have to say.
That’s the Holy Grail, isn’t it? Tomatoes ripe by Christmas! No chance of that for me, they will be more than a couple of weeks off but I will be patient. I always seem a bit behind. You asked elsewhere how much my temperature varies to yours. It would only be a few degrees cooler on average but with the particularly cold weeks we had not that long ago, everything seemed to ‘freeze’ in time. Things are moving again now, though!
Your potatoes look great! I don’t think the growing-them-in-a-bag experiment worked too well. The snails ate most of the foliage before I noticed and I expect that has set back tuber development. I tipped up one bag just to see and the harvest was pitiful. I’ll leave the others for a bit longer but I don’t have high hopes. Sigh.
Snails are such a pain. I hope your pleasantly surprised by the other bags – I do find that yields can vary wildly so you might still have a decent harvest. Your climate sounds similar to mum & dad’s which gives me a good reference point.
Your harvest looks like the makings of some yummy meals ahead! As for the zucchini, we treat them much as the Italians do, as the summer version of squash and interchangeable in recipes that call for either…
I have to admit to getting confused about what you mean by squash. some of the things you call squash we call pumpkin but others we call squash. Either way though I think that’s a good idea – I’ll have a look through my pumpkin recips to see which might be appropriate.
Oh the first tomato for the season, did little fingers enjoy picking them?
Your potatoes look pretty good too, were they planted early ? I’m trying really hard not to go digging in the potato patch too soon…….the thought of fresh tatties with butter and parsley is …………….maybe a Xmas treat !!
Earlyish (I’m starting to think I should have planted earlier as its getting a bit warm for them here now). the ones I’ve been digging are Kipfler which are pretty quick to crop – about 3-4 months.
Yay for pre Christmas tomatoes! I picked my first toms the other day – Broad Yellow Ripple ones. Given most things only went in to their patch two weeks ago, I have little to show for me efforts to date. I have just posted on the zucchini recipes I cant wait to make – maybe some of those will appeal to you?
I’m loving your zucchini recipes – they look fab!