Monday Harvest – 10th Dec 2012

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.