Suburban Tomato

Firstly apologies for my lack of Saturday Spotlight this weekend, I have a lot on at the moment so my posts might be a little sporadic over the next few weeks.   Dave at Our Happy Acres did do a spotlight though so head over and read all about Tasty Jade Cucumbers. 

Winter has definitely hit Melbourne, bringing with it cold but beautifully clear sunny days and cold (almost) frosty nights.  We had frost on our nature strip this morning but my back garden, where I grow my veg, has remained frost free.  Nonetheless some of the over wintering chillies are looking pretty sad and sorry for themselves.

The harvests this week look pretty wintry compared with my recent baskets.  Some spring onions, garlic chives and, pictured below, one of a few handfuls of calabrese broccoli shoots.

My most noteworthy harvest though came in the form of this lovely celeriac.  I have to admit to being pretty proud of it.  I have another 3 still growing in the garden but I chose to harvest the biggest one this week.  Annoyingly I forgot to weigh it but it was a decent size.  I used half of it in a Stephanie Alexander celeriac and lentils dish and the other half I plan to mash with potato later this week.

Otherwise my harvests this week were mostly unphotographed green leaves: silver beet, sorrel, mint and parsley.

I will try to get out the camera more this week and hopefully will have some more things to show next Monday.  In the meantime head over to Daphne’s to check out some fabulous produce.

It has been a wet week this week.  Melbourne has been uncharacteristically damp and as a result my family is running out of clothes due to an inability get anything to dry.  I feel bad whinging about rain as we have decent amounts of it comparatively rarely but I would be a lot happier if it came in short bursts rather the daily drizzle we have been getting of late.  Having said that at least the garden is enjoying it and has rewarded me with some lovely harvests this week including some firsts for this year.

One first was these Turnip De Nancy that I thinned after sowing them too close.  I don’t usually grow turnips but L from 500m2 in Sydney sent me some seed and I have to say I enjoyed eating these two raw with a little salt.

Also a first this week was this cauliflower.  Unfortunately the heads aren’t dense and it isn’t as lovely and white as I would have liked but I forgot to peg the leaves over the developing head.  The variety is called “Year Round”.

Also a first, of sorts, this week is this Scotch Bonnet/Bishops Cap chilli.  I have been harvesting them since February from my mature (about 3 year old) plants but this is the first from a plant grown from seed sowed in late winter 2012.  Interesting how much longer they take to fruit in their first year.

This week saw me harvest the last of the finger limes.  Here they are pictured with a Tahitian Lime and a Kaffir Lime.  I love limes and I particularly love how different limes are used in quite different ways.  I use the juice of the Tahitian Lime (and occasionally the rind).  The leaves and rind of the Kaffir Lime and the flesh of the Finger Limes.  All have a unique flavour and yet all are definitely limey.  All fruit predominantly, but by no means exclusively, in winter and all are generally considered ‘tropical’ fruit.  Despite that all grow really well in Melbourne and, attacks from citrus gall wasp notwithstanding, all are relatively easy to grow and achieve good harvests from .

My final harvest photo this week is this lovely basket of goodies.  As you can see my broccoli continues to produce nice heads, although this is the last ‘main’ head I will cut for a while.  It will be side shoots from here on until the next plants mature in a couple of months from now.

Also in the basket, and not previously commented about, are some Long Cayenne and Tobago Seasoning chillies, a few Bonica eggplants, Purple Beauty and Cherrytime Capsicums and a Tigerella tomato.

I’m not sure what to do about my eggplants.  They are taking up a lot of space but they are still setting fruit, albeit very few that are very slow to ripen.  I’m in two minds.  Should I pull them to free up space for plants that will crop better over winter?  Or should I leave them in hoping they produce the occasional eggplant?  The latter option has the possible benefit of much earlier eggplant crops next year if (and I do mean if) the plants survive the winter.

And that’s it from this corner of a not so sunny Melbourne.  To see what is coming out of other climes head over to Daphne’s Dandelions.