Suburban Tomato

The first harvest post of 2013 and its a big one.  This is partially because I have photos held over from last week and partially because I have quite a few different things producing at the moment.  One of these things is potatoes.  I harvested a few from my main bed during the fortnight and I also harvested a large tub of Dutch Creams – pictured below.  I probably harvested them a bit early but the foliage was looking a bit diseased and so I thought it best to get rid of the plants before any issues spread to other crops.  I got 3kg of lovely new potatoes from my large pot so it wasn’t too bad a haul.

My shallot harvests continued this week with a few more bunches of small brown shallots being harvested.  I think I will pull the remainder of the shallots – a larger red unknown variety- this week.  The shallots pictured below spent much of their life in shade (either from the house during winter or from the tomatoes I planted around them in Spring) so I think they’ve done OK considering the trying circumstances.

My Black Zucchini plant is doing well, churning out the zucchinis regularly but not so many that it has got too overwhelming….yet.  I made fritters and pickles with the ones pictured below.

Behind the zucchini’s you can see a couple of cucumbers – Summer Dance (thanks to Bek for the seeds) and Lebanese.  I’ve been really pleased with the Summer Dance in particular – nice long crisp fruit.  Miss 6 loves cucumber with salt so any I harvest usually end up in her stomach.

The cucumber in the basket below is ‘Catalan Pickling’ and I have managed to preserve a few of these as gherkins (I suspect the pictured one was eaten by Miss 6 though).

My mint is doing particularly well at the moment and I have been eating it a lot in salads.

What is doing less well are my beetroot, the remainder of my Detroit Dark Red crop was eaten by the marauding rats but I managed to salvage this one.  I don’t know where these rats have been prior to about a fortnight ago but I’m really not too happy that they’ve decided to invade my space.

Although the rats have been eating my larger, and still green, tomato varieties they have left the Tiny Tims alone.   They are providing us with a  of handful a day which is nice but not really keeping up with my family’s needs so hopefully the larger ones will ripen soon (if there are any left…).

My one other tomato variety which has ripened to date is also a small one – I’ve had a handful of Broad Ripple Currant Tomatoes.

I like the flavour of this variety but I find the plants a little heat sensitive.  We’ve had a few days lately over 38C (100F) and on a day which reached 43C its new growth died back.

I don’t think carrots like heat much either.  Not so much the plants themselves but I think the flavour suffers so I pulled the remainder of the crop and ate them.

Another crop which I associate more with winter but which is doing very well despite the heat is my Cavolo Nero.  Andrea at Harvest with Glee kindly dropped off 3 plants back in about November and they have established themselves really well.  I have been eating from them regularly – mainly in omelettes.

I’ll finish this post with a basket which represents the things I am harvesting most from the garden at the moment.  My ‘wild’ rocket is living up to its name and has colonised a good portion of my bed.  The Purple King beans are providing a decent handful or two every few days.  The Red salad onions are eating well.   The tarragon is putting on heaps of new growth and the spring onions are being used in lots of potato salads.

Thanks again to our host Daphne for Harvest Monday’s – head over to see what else is being harvested around the world.

I had some lovely harvest photos this week – or at least I think I did, but as a result of leaving my camera lead at Mum and Dads I can’t download them to see.  I’ll post them with next weeks harvest post but in the meantime: Happy New Year and here are some shallots (taken with my phone).  The first of my shallot harvest – pulled a little early but frankly I was sick of them looking bedraggled in the middle of my main bed.

Come back next week for the remainder of my harvest but before then head over to Daphne’s Dandelions and see the final harvests for 2012.

I feel like my harvest this week should be a nice festive mix of red, white and green.  However, the closest I get to either red or white is this onion –  The first of my onion harvest for this year.  I would have left it in the ground for longer expect I ran out of onions at a vital stage of dinner preparation.

I’m  not sure how pleased I’m going to be with this years onions.  I’ll give them another few weeks before I pass judgement though .   What I am reasonably pleased with is the zucchini which is producing well although I am getting a few rotting from the flower end after the flowers drop off.

I guess salad bowl red lettuce is kind of red, in a purpley sort of way.  It is the best performing lettuce in my garden at the moment.  My wild rocket is also doing very well.

My final picture for this week (I have been out a lot, hence minimal pictures) is mint.  I have been making a lot of salads lately and using mint in most of them.

Those were my harvests for this week – for more head over to Daphne’s.  A very happy holiday season to all.  Merry Christmas!