Monday Harvest – Apr 30th 2012

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Liz

After being lulled into a false sense of security by about 3 weeks of beautiful weather it now seems that winter has come early.  Its cold, its been wet – not lots of rain but the sort that appears just at the point that your washing’s almost dry.  Mr 2 has about 20 pairs of trousers and I was down to the last pair last week – the rest hanging sodden on the line or hidden in a increasingly large dirty clothes pile.  Remarkably in all this greyness I seem to have managed a reasonable number of harvest photos.

The first of these are tamarillos – I have cut these so that anyone unfamiliar with the fruit can see the inside.  They taste a bit like one of the sweeter tomato varieties, but the texture is quite different so the experience of eating them is quite different.

This weeks harvest was very much a mix of summer and autumn.  The chillies are still producing – albeit in decreasing numbers (there is a second crop of long cayennes forming at the moment though).  The rainbow chard on the other hand will last until Spring when it will eventually go to seed.

The eggplants are still cropping – in fact both the Bonica and the Lebanese eggplants are both still setting fruit.  This is fortunate as Mr 2 seems to like to play with them.  These ones did eventually make it to the kitchen where they went into a Penne alla Norma.   For anyone unfamiliar with the dish Diary of a Tomato previously posted a good recipe for it.

I spent a bit of time this week clearing sweet potato vine away from an area I want to sow broad beans in.  I found these mini sweet potatoes at points where the vine had come into contact with the dirt and then rooted into it.  For all you sweet potato growers out there is it good practice to try and encourage this to happen?  Or will it deflect energy away from other tuber formation?  I also found a few left over potatoes in this area too.

  

I have been harvesting a lot of lemongrass lately – the stems are really fat and well flavoured at the moment.  I have grown lemongrass for a number of years but I had a question on my blog this week that I wasn’t sure how to answer.  The correspondent wanted to know if they could harvest all their lemongrass before winter and if they did that would it re-shoot in Spring?  I have to admit I’ve never tried harvesting the whole plant – I usually leave a good few stems on there over winter.  Although I think it would probably work I couldn’t say for sure.  If anyone has any experience of this please let me know.  I am going to experiment with one of my plants this winter to see what happens but if you’ve tried and it killed the plant then perhaps I will rethink.

This week my recipe posts were: Chard and Ricotta Gnocchi and a Vietnamese Coleslaw.  The silver beet and oregano above went into the gnocchi.  The Chinese Cabbage below became coleslaw.

Finally very few days go by at the moment without my harvesting either celery, parsley or both.  Here they are pictured with the last couple of borlotti beans:

For other harvests then pleased head right on over to Daphne’s - you’ll see things from all round the world.

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What killed my mint?

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Liz

I know the answer to this question, but first I will explain the scenario.  One of my potted mints had been looking increasingly ill of late and yesterday when I moved the pot the foliage simply separated from the potting mix.  Something had eaten its roots, all of them.  Mr 2 and I investigated and all through the pot we found these white curl grubs.  I think some people call them witchety grubs but that’s not really accurate.  The grubs are grey and white in appearance with an orange head and they are usually found curled in a foetal like position.  Hence the name white curl grubs I guess.

There were close to 50 of the things in a 30cm pot.  This was high density larvae.  No wonder all the roots got eaten.   Mr 2 was exceptionally pleased with them.   They are currently residing – complete with dirt- in the back of Mr 2′s ride on Scoop (Scoop is a character from Bob the Builder).   I’m not sure exactly what sort of beetle these particular ones would have metamorphosed into (from what I have read they are most likely to be scarab or cockchafer beetles) but I wish I had some chooks to feed them too.  They are, apparently, very high in protein.  I have noticed quite a few of these grubs when I’ve moved pots sitting on the lawn but I haven’t thought much about them.  My understanding is that they are only really destructive in pots or when in particularly high concentrations in lawns or garden beds.  I think I will spend the next few days inspecting my other pots – to lose some mint is one thing, a dwarf citrus would be something else entirely.

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An Autumn of Salads – Vietnamese Coleslaw

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Liz

So far for Vegplottings Salad Days posts I have written a variety of recipes which incorporate salad leaves.  This is the first though to use a leaf as a primary ingredient, in my previous posts they have been there for flavour and texture.  Here they are the bulk of the dish.  I absolutely adore Vietnamese Coleslaw.  I only make it occasionally though as the kids are less enamoured by it.  Today was one of those occasions.  I planted out a couple of Chinese Cabbages about 2 months ago and today I harvested the first of them.

Whilst I like growing Chinese Cabbages, they heart up much more quickly than their European cousins which, for the impatient gardener, is something of a blessing.  I do find they tend to attract all manner of creatures though.  Inside the one I harvested today I found a number of slugs, a couple of worms and 3 immature snails.  When I last picked one at mum and dad’s it was harbouring a couple of frogs.  Cute by slightly disconcerting.  On the outside they look fine but pull back a leaf or two and you’re looking at a lot of slug poo.

  

Whilst I used this cabbage (after significant amounts of leaf disposal and cleaning) for today’s salad the only photos I have are of a Vietnamese chicken coleslaw I made last year with one of my red cabbages.  This recipe works well with all cabbage varieties – the flavour will vary a bit but the result should be equally delicious.  If you wish to make a vegetarian version simply omit the chicken and the fish sauce.  You will almost certainly need to add a little extra salt to compensate.

Vietnamese Chicken Coleslaw

  • 2 breasts of cooked chicken – shredded.
  • 250g cabbage – finely sliced
  • 1 very large (or 2 medium) carrots – shredded or grated
  • a handful of peanuts – chopped
  • a handful of crispy fried shallots
  • a handful of herbs including mint* – sliced.

Dressing:

  • 2 tblspn lime juice
  • 1 tblspn rice wine vinegar
  • 1.5 tbspn fish sauce
  • 2 tblspn palm (or brown) sugar
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1 clove of garlic – crushed
  • 1 hot chilli – finely chopped.

Mix together the dressing ingredients, ensuring the sugar dissolves.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Mix together the chicken, cabbage, carrot and herbs.  Dress.  Place onto serving plates top with peanuts and shallots.

* Mint should always be used, I occasionally add others like Thai Basil, Coriander, and Vietnamese Mint

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Silver Beet and Ricotta Gnocchi

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Liz

In my Harvest Monday post a couple of weeks ago I mentioned this gnocchi and had a few requests for the recipe.  I had a friend over for lunch during the week and took the opportunity to cook it again (Miss 5 was at school so I was spared her “I don’t like this” whinging).  I have made silver beet and ricotta gnocchi (sometimes replacing the silver beet with spinach) for years but recently noticed a recipe in The River Cafe Cookbook which included marjoram.  Not having any marjoram I added oregano to my recipe and think it works really well.

I use quite a mild silver beet for this recipe – usually I make it with my green stalked variety, but I also do it with rainbow chard as well.

Silver beet and Ricotta Gnocchi (Serves 4 as a starter or small main)

  • 250g silver beet (chard)
  • 10g oregano leaves
  • 30g butter
  • 50g Parmesan – finely grated
  • 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 250g ricotta
  • 1 egg – lightly beaten
  • 80g flour plus a bit more for rolling.

Cook the silver beet – until it has softened- I usually steam mine.  Remove from the pan, drain and press out any excess moisture.  Wait for it to cool a bit and finely chop.  Heat the butter in a pan and add the oregano and the cooked, chopped silver beet.  Saute for a few minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.  Once the silver beet has cooled gently mix together all the ingredients.  You should have a sticky dough that you can shape it balls.  Shape into walnut size balls and gently roll in a little flour.

Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil.  Add the gnocchi.  They are very quick and are ready when they float to the top – a couple of minutes is all it usually takes.  Drain and serve.  I like these served with either a tomato sauce or with a simple sage butter.

Sage Butter

  • 10 finely chopped sage leaves
  • 50g butter

Heat the butter, add the sage leaves.  Fry them on a low heat until the butter turns golden brown.  Drizzle over the gnocchi.

I’m sharing this recipe on The Gardener of Eden’s Thursday Kitchen Cupboard and Greenish Thumb’s Garden to Table.

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Top 5 – Pantry items for the Kitchen Gardener

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Liz

When I first thought of doing these Top 5′s this was pencilled in as one to do.  Then The
New Goodlife did a similar one so I put mine back a few weeks.

I am making a concerted effort this year to get the absolute most I can from my garden produce.  Although I have always used a lot of my harvest in my evening meals, last year I ate out at lunch-time a lot and as a result probably under-utilised what I had in the garden.  This year a change in my routine has meant that I am home at lunchtime most days of the week so I have been making sure I make something from the garden each day.  These are the ingredients I have in the pantry at all times to make sure I can make both lunch and dinner easily and using as much from the garden as possible.  Without these ingredients I would struggle to put together something edible from my produce, but with them I can make something appetising out of almost everything I grow.

 1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - I love good olive oil.  I usually try and buy Mount Zero’s Extra Virgin Oil which they sell at Melbourne’s farmers markets.  It’s a lovely full flavoured oil and works perfectly with vegetables.  Incidentally Mount Zero also sell lovely lentils grown in the Grampians and are definitely worth seeking out at the Collingwood Children’s Farm market.  I use Olive oil pretty liberally (as my bank balance will attest) and find it indispensable when making everything from salad dressings, through sauces to finishing stews.  With a bit of olive oil and salt, tomatoes and basil become lunch, a puree becomes a dip, and a soup turns from mundane to delicious.

2. Nuts – Nuts are a great friend of the kitchen gardener.  Nuts can turn a salad into a meal.  They can add crunch to a pasta dish and make fabulous sauces.  One of my favourite ways of using my produce when I just have a bit of this and a bit of that is to make gado – gado.  Gado-gado is essentially a salad (warm or cold) of either cooked or raw vegetables smothered in a peanut (satay) sauce.  But the favourite sauce of the kitchen gardener must be pesto.  Basil pesto made with basil and pine nuts.  Parlsey pesto made with walnuts.  Capsicum pesto featuring almonds.  The possibilities are really only limited by what you have in the garden and your imagination.

3. Anchovies – I am a big fan of anchovies.  Not only do they add depth of flavour.  Not only do they give a dish a lovely salty kick.  Not only do they taste great on pizza (a great kitchen garden meal).  But they are an excellent source of calcium (due to the fact that you eat the bones).  My two absolute favourite things to do with anchovies are to put them in a puttanesca sauce and to use them in a salsa verde sauce/dressing.

4. Spices – Too broad a heading? Well if I have to narrow it down I will.  As much as I adore; coriander, cinnamon, fennel seeds, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, mustard seeds, and cardamon, my favourite has to be cumin.  I use a lot of cumin.  Its indispensable in curries, but I also use it in a range of other dishes; scattered on roasted veggies, as a warm spicy note in soups, and along with mustard seeds, chillies and curry leaves as a tempered flavouring for most vegetables.

5. Salt- My friend Julie came over for lunch today and took a few photos for this post.  The anchovies, olive oil and this picture (which, as you can tell, my son helped with….) of my last, and to me probably most indispensable, pantry item for the kitchen gardener were taken by her.  Salt gets a bad press.  Sure its not particularly good for you, but it does have a remarkable ability to transform the taste of food.  Salt and vegetables are made for each other.  Salt preserves them, it helps them retain colour and it makes them taste delicious.  My personal (and very non-medical) view is that it is better to use a bit (and you don’t need that much) of salt on vegetables to ensure they are eaten rather than be looking at a heap of uneaten food.

Looking for more – The New Goodlife will hopefully have another Top 5 to sate your appetite.

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Monday Harvest – April 23rd

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Liz

This week I thought I’d bookend this post with my daughters favourite harvests of the week.  To begin we have her ‘helping’ photograph the vegetables.  She often ‘helps’ although this usually involves more of her and less of the vegetable.  On this occasion we have reached a happy medium.

Once this ginger’s use as a shadow puppet was exhausted it was used in a couple of curries.  As were the below curry leaves.  I’m making the most of the curry tree at the moment before the leaves yellow in the cool of winter.

We are still harvesting a few of the summer vegetables; the occasional tomato – its really only the Rouge de Marmande which is still cropping.  Some eggplants and a capsicum which I was sick of waiting for it to turn red.  And of course some chillies - this week scotch bonnets and jalapenos.

  

My latest plantings of lettuce and salad leaves are beginning to mature.  The basket includes: rocket, mustard, parsley, basil, lettuce, and baby beetroot leaves.  It also includes some fairly invisible beans.  My jade plants are still producing – they might not germinate well but they sure produce for a good long time.

As you will have noticed there was also a radish in the basket.  That one was harvested before my 2 year old son decided to make ‘soup’ with the remainder of my crop – here are some I saved from the pot.  A pot which also contained much mud, sand and who knows what else.

They went into salads.  The mint and spring onions below became a fresh chutney to serve with curry.  I am a big fan of mint chutney and made it twice this week.

 

I started harvesting my Tuscan Kale this week, that and the potatoes became the Caldo Verde I posted about last week.  I also continue to harvest beetroots – this one I went into spiced vinegar and into the fridge.

   

My final harvest – and my daughters favourite was something of a surprise as I didn’t think any were quite ready yet.  I found this beauty on the lawn under the tree and it was perfectly ripe.  Welcome to tamarillo season!

For other harvests from around the globe get yourself across to Daphne’s.

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Lumpy bits – Citrus Gall Wasp

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Liz

My citrus are under attack, I have found the dreaded lumps on my Eureka Lemon, Meyer Lemon, Orange and Lime.  Unlike many of Australia’s pests citrus gall wasp is actually a native annoyance.  Having lived for years in our native limes it is now more likely to make its home in backyard lemons and limes along Australia’s East Coast.  It has so far ignored my finger lime in favour of its imported cousins.  Citrus gall wasp is a tiny wasp which lays it eggs in the new growth of citrus trees and as the larvae grow bumps appear on the branches of the trees.

When the larvae emerge in early Spring they leave small tell tale holes in the bumps.  Citrus gall wasp has the ability to severely limit the growth of trees, so my understanding is that it is best to do something about it.  With my lemon, which is in the ground, and has been for a couple of years, I pruned off the affected branches and placed them in the garbage.  With my dwarf potted citrus – the Meyer lemon, Tahitian Lime and the Navel Orange to prune off the affected branches would be to decimate the tree completely.  With these I have tried a different tact.  I have taken a slice out of each bump which although it is damaging the tree it is also killing the larvae.  As you can see below – the larvae have fallen out of the little holes in each bump.  Whether this will have gotten all the larvae in each lump remains to be seen but I felt it was more likely to save the tree than radical pruning would.

Whether this will be a completely successful method of getting rid of citrus gall wasp remains to be seen.  At the very least it should limit the number of larvae hatching.  I will isolate the affected plants in late winter (you should act against the wasp by late August as they hatch soon after) to try and stop it spreading to my other potted citrus.  I do hope I get rid of it as I love my citrus and they aren’t cheap to replace.  Its always the tinniest creatures that seem to do the most damage, as my black aphid eaten garlic chives will attest.

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Caldo Verde

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Liz

The last few weeks have been unseasonably warm here weatherwise.  Not hot just lovely, lovely weather.  All that is due to come to an end next week with a return to more seasonal averages.  With that it seems that my mind is already turning to cooler weather.  My garden seems to be thinking the same – today’s harvests were potatoes and kale.

With that harvest Caldo Verde came to mind and consequently that is what we had for dinner last night.  Caldo Verde is a Portuguese soup which is sometimes served with meat, sometimes without.  I generally make it with chorizo, as that is easy to come by – although what is generally sold as chorizo in Australia is a very, very, very distant cousin of what you can get in Spain.  While I make it with chorizo my personal preference is to eat it without the meat – the same can not be said for other members of my household.  Now this version is probably not particularly authentic but it is how I enjoy potato and kale soup.

Caldo Verde

  • 1 kg potatoes (any variety other than salad type potatoes) – cut into a large dice
  • 100g kale – sliced as thinly as you can
  • 2 stalks celery – finely chopped
  • 1 large or 2 medium onions – finely chopped
  • 1 carrot – finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 250g chorizo – chopped into bite sized pieces
  • 1.25 litres stock ( I generally use chicken)
  • 2 tblspns olive oil*

Heat the oil in a large, soup sized saucepan.  Add the chorizo and fry until brown and it has released some of its oil.  Remove from the pan and set aside.  Add the onions, celery and carrots to the pan and fry on a low heat until softened.  Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.  Add the stock, potatoes, and bay leaves.  Cook until the potatoes are completely soft.  Remove the bay leaves, season and puree the soup.  Add the kale.  Cook for a further 5 minutes until the Kale is cooked.  Serve topped with the chorizo.

*If you don’t use any meat you may need slightly more oil.

I’m sharing this recipe as part of the wonderful Gardener of Eden’s Thursday Kitchen Cupboard and Greenish Thumb’s Garden to Table.

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Top 5: Things to grow more of next summer

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Liz

1. Drying beans – After the success of this years Borlotti crop I have definitely become a drying bean convert.  I’m calling them drying beans but the truth is I don’t have any left to dry having eaten them all while fresh.  I grew bush varieties this year but didn’t really leave enough space to plant the volume I would need to have enough for drying.   Next year that will change.  I plan to both devote more space to them and switch to climbers.  I believe you can get a climbing Borlotti bean (not sure where from but I will seek it out if it exists) and The Witches Kitchen rates Purple King (which I already have seed of) as a good substitute for kidney beans so that is what I will try.

2. Different capsicum varieties - I had very varied success with capsicums this year.  My overwintered plants were good early on but then stopped producing.  My main crop though still hasn’t turned red.  There is a reason for that – Sometimes it actually really pays to properly read a seed packet, that way you can avoid growing the capsicum variety that says:  The OUTSTANDING large green fruit is sought after by both the home gardener and commercial grower, when you want red peppers.  So next season I will grow red peppers.  I will also grow more small peppers for stuffing like the Mini Mamas I posted about last week.  I’m also thinking I could possibly find room for a long yellow variety as I think they look great.

3. Strawberries- I have loads of strawberry plants in the garden.  The problem is that all are badly sited, don’t get enough sun and are very vulnerable to slug attack.  As a result I hardly get any edible fruit.  Now I don’t have the space to grow as many strawberries as we get through each summer, but I would still like rather more than I got this year.  My plan is to try and grow them in hanging grow bags.  This will save on space and also keep them out of reach of the slugs.  The only downside is the kids wont be able to harvest their own as they will be too high up…..actually this is probably an upside isn’t it?  If anyone has  recommendations about varieties then please let me know.

4. Pumpkins-  My pumpkins failed completely this year.  Actually I think that should probably read I failed my pumpkins this year.  Not only did I not give them enough sun I pulled them out just as they were thinking about setting some fruit.  So really they shoudn’t be on this list as something to grow more of as I didn’t actually grow anything other than a few miserable looking vines this year.  Next season though I will put them in as much sun as I can and also switch varieties.  I was hugely jealous of all L’s posts about Golden Nuggets so I will grow them and if I have space I will try Ebisu.  Ebisu is a Japanese variety that my father grew this year and it tastes great.  Nutty, sweet (but not too sweet) perfect for roasting, even better for soup and it makes a great pasta sauce.  I think it is dry enough to make superb gnocchi as well but I’ve yet to try as the kids are not keen on either pumpkin or gnocchi so a combination of the two might really be pushing it.

5. Rouge de Marmande tomatoes – Now I have to admit that despite the name of this blog I’m not actually a particularly good tomato grower.  I seem to have endless issues with pests, growth rates, watering, fruit set etc etc.  Through all that though there is one tomato variety that seems to produce regardless.  It resists the pests, sets a good volume of fruit and tastes good, and for me that variety is Rouge de Marmande.  I think that part of my issues with growing tomatoes is that I keep getting seducing by the idea of different varieties.  Rather than growing a decent number of plants of varieties that I know will perform I’ll grow one plant and experiment with a whole heap of others.  All the changing varieties means that I never get to really build much knowledge around the perfect growing conditions for an individual variety.  Next summer things will be different.  I will grow mainly Rouge de Marmande and just a couple of other varieties to see how they do.  That way I should get a good crop while; enabling me to build my knowledge of growing Rouge de Marmande, and at that same time indulging my need to try other things.

Need another top 5, The New Goodlife is in the kitchen this week.

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Monday Harvest – Apr 16 2012

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Liz

This week’s Monday Harvest post finds me extremely excited.  I have at last answered the question: Can you grow sweet potatoes in Melbourne?  And the answer is….drum roll please…. a resounding yes!  Actually I should clarify that somewhat, you can grow one sweet potato in Melbourne, whether it proves to be potatoes plural, remains to be seen.  I bandicooted this 500g beauty yesterday.  (For anyone unfamiliar with the term bandicooted then take a quick look at the comments after last weeks Monday Harvest post and hopefully all will become clear.)  The little one next to it was an accidental harvest the result of digging for normal potatoes.  It appears the vine had set down roots when it had sprawled amongst the other potatoes and was starting to set tubers there.

For the record the big one became fritters (or pakoras – I used chickpea flour and garam masala) which were served with a fresh mint chutney and even the non Sweet potato loving kids enjoyed it.

When I was thinking about this post I was tossing up whether to start or finish with the Sweet potato harvest as a part of me thinks that after that the rest somehow pales in comparison.  Having said that the borlotti beans were pretty damn exciting as well.

Not a huge harvest but a really pretty one.  These I braised with some onion and tomato.

The cherry tomatoes are still producing in dribs and drabs – I’ll give the plants another week or so then pull them out.

This was the best week so far for Lebanese eggplant, I harvested these two and at least 6 or 7 others the same size during the course of the week.  The chillies are still going strong.  This long cayenne I will save seed from and was eaten in the sweet potato fritters.

  

I have given away a lot of basil lately, I really must make the time to make some pesto for the freezer.  The beans are still producing, not heaps, but enough for a small side dish.

As usual I ate a lot of salads, the harvests below included lettuce, celery, lots of parsley, mint, Spring onions – including one that had started to bulb, and French breakfast radishes.

 

I made roast vegetables one night last week, it used the above eggplants and the beetroot below.

Still in a autumn/winter vegetable vein, I also cut a fair bit of chard this week; this lot became Chard and Ricotta gnocchi.  I’ve been making Chard & Ricotta gnocchi for years but I recently discovered a recipe that includes oregano (actually it said marjoram but I have to admit I struggle to tell the difference some times) which is cooked with the spinach prior to incorporating in the gnocchi mixture.  It really works well.

And that was my harvesting week.  If you need more then head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for examples from around the world.

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