Suburban Tomato

A number of weeks ago I mentioned having some particularly over-sized spring onions and when commenting on this a regular contributor – Nina – mentioned having a recipe for Spring Onion and Potato bhaji.  I insisted she share it and here it is:

Potato and Spring Onion Bhaji

• 1/2 kg potatoes
• 2 bunches spring onions
• 2 small whole red chillis
• 4 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp tumeric powder
• salt to taste
• 5 tbsp cooking oil

Peel potatoes and cut in four.  Heat oil in pot and fry spring onions.  Add spices and fry for further 3 minutes.  Add a little water to prevent burning.  Add potatoes and cover pot and cook on low until potatoes are tender.  Remove lid and reduce liquid if necessary.

I finally got round to making her recipe on the weekend and I absolutely loved it.

A most delicious lunch.  So thank you Nina and I hope anyone else who makes it enjoys it as much as I did.

I grew zucchini for the first time in ages this year and I have to say I quite enjoyed the experience.  So much so that I think I will grow it again next summer.  Now I have to admit to not being a real zucchini connoisseur so my selection of variety is perhaps a little pedestrian.  Having said that it did really well for me; it grew easily, provided lots of zucchinis and a reasonable number of flowers.  All in all it was definitely worth growing.  I’m sure there are named varieties of ‘Black zucchini’ but mine was called simply that.

I sowed my seed in July inside moving the seedling outside into a cold frame when it germinated.  I sowed the seeds direct into herb pots, one seed per pot.  From the two pots I sowed one germinated which was enough for me as I only really wanted to grow one plant.  And frankly one plant was enough for our needs providing a zucchini every other day during the main cropping season.

My first zucchini harvest last season (pictured below) was in late November, which is pretty quick for a summer crop – if only my July sown tomatoes were cropping in November….

I had comparatively few issues growing zucchini.  I had reasonable fruit set although the occasional one didn’t pollinate properly and rotted at the flowering end rather than growing on.  The fruits weren’t attacked by anything, unlike my other crops, and although the plant was eventually overwhelmed by powdery mildew that only happened within the last couple of weeks.  All in all a very positive experience.

I think I enjoyed eating the flowers more than the zucchini themselves but I did make some lovely dishes with the fruit as well.

What variety of zucchini do you grow?  Would you recommend it?

Saturday Spotlight is a series of posts highlighting particular varieties of edible plants.  If you have a favourite, or even a less than successful variety of a plant and would like to include it in the series then please leave a comment with a link below.    I have created a page (above, just below the header) with an Index of all the Spotlights to date.   I will add links to any new posts below and in next weeks post as well as ensuring they appear in the Index.  

New Spotlights last week were:

 Pea Eggplant – Kebun Malay-Kadazan Girls

Cream Garlic – My Little Garden Project

And from this week:

Spearmint ‘The Best’ – Our Happy Acres

 Autumn Raspberries – Bek’s Backyard

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the, then upcoming, Coburg Farmers Market.  Well the second one is this Saturday: 8:00am – 1pm at Coburg North Primary School, 180 O’Hea St Coburg.  It occurred to me yesterday that I have yet to post on the first market so I thought it was to time to remedy that and perhaps give you a taste about what the next one will be like.

The first one was held on a beautiful sunny day and our the forecast for this weekend suggests the weather will, once again, be perfect.  I do think that weather helps a market immensely.

Personally I will still go even if it is raining but wont necessarily enjoy it nearly as much.  I suspect I’m not the only one who enjoys a market in good weather as the first market was pretty busy.

I stayed for quite a while (the market is at the primary school which means there is lots of play equipment to entertain the kids) and during the time I was there a lot of the fresh produce sold out.  This week I plan to shop early.

The stalls at the market were nicely varied, a few offering preserves, honey, fresh pasta and that sort of thing as well a good number selling fresh produce and basics like bread.

There was a stall selling the most amazing looking bagels but as yet I haven’t tried them as they had sold out by the time I did my buying round of the stalls.  Sigh…. Produce wise there was a nice selection including hard to get seasonal things like chestnuts as well as more common produce like: pumpkin, apples, greens, potatoes and so on.

All in all it was a great market.  I just hope the coffee maker gets their act together this week, although having said that the wonderful O’Hea St bakery is just a stones throw away and they do great coffee there.