Monday Harvest – 25th November 2013

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Liz

Monday seems to come around really quickly at the moment.  Another week gone as we move ever onwards towards the New Year, Summer and hopefully some exciting harvests.

Whilst the markets are starting to fill up with new seasons fruit and veg sadly my baskets aren’t.  Broad beans, watercress, mint and spring onions in this one.   The first two are coming to an end.  The latter are at their peak.

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Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the parsnips.  Despite this being my best looking parsnip it was ridiculously woody.  Couldn’t really eat it woody.  Shame but a reminder that crops don’t store well in the ground in Spring.

Parsnip

Time to head over to Daphne’s and check out what people are harvesting the world over.

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Top 5 – Reason’s to shop at Coburg Farmers Market

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Liz

Now I have been ridiculously specific in the title of this post.  Why Coburg Farmer’s Market?  Why not any Farmer’s Market?  This is for 4 main reasons:

  1. It is this Saturday (and indeed the 2nd and 4th Saturday of every month).  Unlike  the UK and quite possibly North America, Farmer’s Markets here tend to be comparatively infrequent.  It is not unusual to have only one market each month at a given location.  As a result I thought it best to post on one taking place this weekend.
  2. The Coburg Farmer’s Market is very close to my house.
  3. Some of my reasons for going are quite specific and may (or may not) only apply to Coburg.
  4. I have a personal investment in the success of Coburg Farmer’s Market.

Having said that there are plenty of good reasons to shop at Farmer’s Markets generally (fresher food, meeting the grower, access to local seasonal ingredients, paying the farmer a fair price for their produce, more organic produce and so on)  so feel free to delete the ‘Coburg’ and insert the name of your own personal favourite.

These are the reason’s I’m heading to Coburg North Primary School (180 O’Hea St Coburg) sometime between 8am and 1pm for the market this Saturday:

1.  Cherries:  The first of this years cherries appeared 2 weeks ago.  The Victorian cherry picking season often kicks off on or around Cup Day and so the first cherries appear at Farmer’s Markets in early November.  I bought a box 2 weeks ago from Smiths stall and they were absolutely sensational.  The growers told me that it has been a difficult year for cherries, lots of fruit spoiled by the rain, so I am definitely going to make the most of them while I can.

2. Having a peaceful breakfast while the kids play happily: Because it is held in the grounds of the primary school Coburg Farmer’s Market has the wonderful combination of a stall selling Dutch pancakes (cooked by the Primary School kids), next to a sausage sizzle, coffee vendor and a kids playground.  I can feed the kids, then send them off to play while I eat my egg and bacon roll and get my caffeine hit.

Farmer's Market

3. Seeing what Maria has brought.  There is a wonderful stall at the market run by the lovely Maria and her husband whose name I should be able to remember but can’t.  They sell home made pasta, which is fab, but more excitingly for me they bring produce from their garden to sell.   Their garden is situated in Northern Victoria, somewhere near to Swan Hill I think, and seems to be incredibly abundant.  In recent weeks they have had broad beans, leeks, and the last of Autumns pumpkins.  Last market they brought down the first of the peaches and some amazingly juicy grapefruit.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what this week brings.

4. Peas in a pod.  At my daughters school they have time set aside during their morning schedule for the kids to take a short break to eat fresh fruit and/or veg.  Usually she takes an apple, or strawberries, or blueberries or if we have run out of everything else, some carrot sticks.  Lately though the craze has been for peas in a pod.  Apparently a large portion of her class sit around shelling peas every morning.   Unfortunately my pea crop failed this year and they seem remarkably difficult to come by elsewhere.  Thank goodness for the market, and the lovely couple who sell peas in a pod along with other fabulous veg.  (I can also recommend their baby carrots – just delicious).

5. The bagel man  Bagels are remarkably difficult to come by in Melbourne’s Northern Suburbs.  Good bagels even more so.  As a result the bagel man’s monthly trip to the Farmer’s Market is much appreciated.  He only comes on the 4th Saturday of the month but as that is this Saturday I can start stocking up on the smoked salmon now!

Bagels

Do you have a favourite Farmer’s Market?  What do you love about it?

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Monday Harvest – 18th November 2013

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Liz

I would love to tell you how much planting I’ve done recently: lettuce, cucumbers, eggplant & capsicum but I won’t as today is supposed to be about what I’m taking out of the garden rather than what I’m putting in.   With that in mind I certainly wont mention the celeriac, parsley, basil or pumpkin being planted, and you wont hear about the celery and kale either.

What you will hear about are: broad beans, rocket and watercress.  broad beans, rocket and lettuce, broad beans, rocket and bay leaves, broad beans, rocket and tarragon, broad beans, rocket and mint……………basically it’s all broad beans and herbs here ……. and this lone garlic head.  It’s stalk was flopping over so I pulled it and found (to my surprise) that it had formed cloves.  It may be small, it may be a little pathetic, it may be my only one this year but at least there are cloves.

Garlic

And damn fine cloves they are too.  Perfect to eat with all those Broad beans and rocket….

Broad Beans and Rocket

For other harvests (almost certainly with greater variety than mine) head over to Daphne’s.

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Saturday Spotlight (On Sunday) – ‘Long Pod’ Broad Beans

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Liz

I have a large raised bed which is close to the rear of my North facing house.  In summer, when the sun is high in the sky, this bed is my sunniest as it gets shade from next door’s Eucalypts slightly later in the day than the other beds.  In winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, it is completely shaded by the house.  Once the summer crops finished last Autumn I was planning on resting the bed for the winter.  At the last moment however I decided to sow some broad bean seeds in it.

Broad beans floweringThe plan was: if they grew – great, if not then nothing ventured nothing gained.  I was hoping they would grow enough to become green manure but I wasn’t really expecting them to crop.  But to my surprise they have!  The plants were slowish to establish and haven’t grown as vigorously as they would have in full (or even part) sun but they still grew and flowered while still shaded by the house.

I think I accidently managed to time it perfectly as the plants started to get a little bit of sun as the majority of the pods were setting so in the end I have had a good crop of beans from a bed that I was expecting very little from over winter.

The variety I grew this year was called ‘Long Pod’.  They are a white flowering variety and in my shaded spot they grew to about a metre high.  I did stake them during our particularly windy early spring but otherwise they have been completely maintenance free.  The flavour of the beans is good, especially when combined with garlic, leeks and bacon and I have been delighted with their performance.

Broad Beans

The other big plus is that they have attracted bees to the garden – I had bees all through early spring and they mostly seemed to be drawn to the broad beans.   All in all an excellent experiment and one that I will definitely repeat next year!

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Monday Harvest – 11th Nov 2013

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Liz

I seem to be managing to post on my harvests every second week at the moment.  I’m not sure if this is:

  1. A reflection on my laziness
  2. Due to a paucity of harvests
  3. Life getting in the way of blogging
  4. A need to accumulate photos of broad beans
  5. All of the above

Personally I think number 5 is most likely – especially as the first four are definitely true and I have not one but two photos of broad beans to share:

Broad Beans  Broad Beans

I think I’ve probably got another few basketfuls left on the plants then that will be it for broad beans for this year.  I have already planted much of their bed with tomato plants and am gradually taking out the broad beans as I cut the last beans from each stem.

I also have a couple of parsnip harvests left for the season.

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As you can see in the above photos my parsnips are very variable in terms of size and shape.  They have been fun to grow.  I do like the anticipation you get harvesting roots crops – what will they look like when you pull them?

There’s less anticipation when harvesting garlic chives, but no less enjoyment eating them.  These went into some particularly good gyoza (if I say so myself…).

Garlic Chives

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve been making gyoza quite a bit lately and am enjoying experimenting with fillings.  My favourite’s at the moment are chicken, ginger and garlic chives and mixed veg and tofu.

I like them with Bok Choi too which I’ve been pulling quite a few plants of as they have begun to bolt.

The same can be said for the other crops in that basket – parsley and celery.  I’ve planted out some parsley seedlings recently and my celery has germinated.  Out with the old and in with the new.

Here’s hoping for some decent growing weather in the next few weeks.  In the meantime head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for the weekly Harvest Monday roundup.

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