Top 5 – Fruits & Veg for Christmas

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Liz

My daughter is learning about celebrations at school and looking at the list on the classroom wall I was stuck be how central food is to celebration.  Whether you celebrate Eid, Easter, Thanksgiving or indeed Christmas you probably associate food with holidays to a lesser or greater degree.  I can usually tell its Ramadan as the shops start selling loads of dates.  Hot cross buns appear in all the bakeries in the lead up to Easter, and the price of prawns and crayfish goes through the roof due to increase demand in the lead up to Christmas.

Christmas foods in Australia tend to be a strange combination of; European Christmas traditions and efforts to utilise the produce in season locally.  What this often results in is menu combinations such as: barbecued prawns to start followed by roast turkey with all the trimmings then finally plum pudding ice cream.     One day perhaps there will be a uniquely Australian Christmas dinner which takes into account our climate and the seasonal produce available in the meantime these are the foods that mean Christmas to me.

1. Brussel Sprouts – An English friend of my partners refuses to make roast unless he has a least 7 vegetables to serve alongside it.  This is particularly true at Christmas.  One of these 7 must always be brussel sprouts.  In fact Christmas (and even then only if I am celebrating it in England)  is really the only time I ever eat them – smothered in gravy and along with parsnip, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and of course potatoes done at least two ways.

Strawberries

2. Strawberries – Christmas falls at the height of the Victorian strawberry season and as a result they always form part of the Christmas day dessert in my family.  Temperatures here on Christmas day can vary quite a bit.  If it’s hot we often have meringues with strawberries and cream.  If its cooler we have brandy snaps with strawberries and cream.

3. Satsumas – This is a relic of my time in the UK.  I’m not sure where satsumas are in season in December but they sure sell an awful lot in the UK.  While fruit salads are very much a part of Christmas here in Australia in the UK I can’t remember eating much fresh fruit other than satsumas at Christmas.  I do remember eating  a lot of satsumas though.

Parsley

4. Parsley – In my family if the weather is hot we have ham and salads at Christmas.  If its cooler we have roast.  Either way parsley features heavily.  My mum makes a stuffing of bread crumbs, bacon, onion and parsley for the roast.  If we have salad then one of them has to be tabouleh as its my and my mum’s favourite.

5. Green Beans – Green beans are just coming into season in Melbourne at Christmas.  They are great hot with roast or cold in a salad and they go well with that other Christmassy ingredient – nuts.

I would love to know which fruit & veg you cook with at Christmas.

I won’t do a Top 5 next week but will try and return the week after with something new.

Share
Posted in Top 5 | 26 Comments

Monday Harvest – Dec 17th 2012

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Liz

I have this theory about zucchini – the main reason they get big is indecision about how to cook them.  You notice a few almost ready to pick then you start to wonder what you’ll cook.  By the time you’ve decided – ie a couple of days later, they have started to get bulbous and unruly.  Or perhaps its just me….

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

I harvested quite a few cherry tomatoes this week.  They are Tiny Tim.  They’re  coming in fits and starts.  A handful or two and then none ripe for a week.

Tiny Tim tomatoes

Also pictured are mint and thyme.  The thyme went into spaghetti sauce.  The mint went into a beetroot salad.  Unfortunately I forgot to photograph the beetroot.

I did manage to photograph some beans though:

Beans, potatoes, Lettuce

The beans are Purple King, pictured here along with more Tiny Tim tomatoes, some lettuce and some more Kipfler potatoes.  I think I’ve harvested most of the Kipflers from my bed which is annoying.  They’ve cropped OK but I just didn’t plant nearly enough of them.

Potatoes

The final crop for this week was some more lettuce and the first Summer Dance cucumber.  Thanks to Bek for the seed.

Lettuce and Cucumber

I’m not sure whether I will manage a Christmas Eve Monday Harvest post.  If not Merry Christmas to all Monday Harvesters and in particular to our host Daphne.  Head over to see who else is harvesting what this week.

Share
Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

Chillies, Capsicums and Eggplants

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Liz

This is the last in a series of updates on the state of my summer crops as at the end of November (which already seems a long time ago….).

This year I’m growing 3 varieties of eggplant – it would have been four except for the slugs/snails that ate the only two Thai green eggplant seedlings that germinated.  I will try these again next year as I still have some seed that Bek sent me.  What I am growing this year, and that are looking reasonably happy in the garden are:

2 plants of Bonica – which now have a couple of flowers on them.

Bonica Eggplant

2 plants of Lebanese eggplant and one plant of Listada de Gandia (also coutesy of Bek).  The Listada de Gandia was sown about a month later (in August rather than July) than the other two and is about a quarter of the size.

Listada de Gandia

And that is about it for eggplants – they are growing well, are a long way off fruiting but I don’t usually get eggplants until the  end of summer at the earliest and most of them come in Autumn so their development is absolutely fine for this time of the year.

As you will have noticed I am growing my eggplants in the ground.  My peppers however I am growing in pots.  This is partially for reasons of space and partially because I want to overwinter them and it saves the hassle of transplanting them.  I have gotten a little excited with the number of pepper varieties I am growing this year.

Pepper seedlings

From last (and previous) year/s I have 2 mature Scotch Bonnet chilli (known by different names outside Australia – cardinels cap being one such name) plants which are now in their 3rd year.  1 mature long cayene chilli also in its third year.

Long Cayenne

Incidentally I thought this plant was dead it took so long to come back in Spring but it definitely came back which I thinks justifies a lazy approach to clearing out my pots.  Finally, in its second year I have a mini Mama capsicum.  The mini Mama has flowers all over it and fruits developing as of mid December.

Scotch Bonnet

I also have a large range of capsicums and chillies that I sowed this year:

  • Birdseye
  • Alma Paprika
  • Tobago Seasoning
  • Cayenne
  • Hungarian Yellow Wax
  • Californian Wonder
  • Golden Californian Wonder
  • Capsicum Cherrytime
  • Purple Beauty
  • Marconi Red
  • Sweet Mama (which I bought as a seedling)
  • Peperone Topepo Rosso
  • Poblano/Ancho
  • Pimientos de Padron
  • Tree chilli/Rocoto (capsicum pubescens) (which is perennial and frost tolerant – or so the packet says.  It also says it grows to 2m so goodness knows where I’m going to put it but still….)

The first three are all courtesy of L at 500m2 in Sydney.  The Cherrytime & Golden Californian Wonder seed were from Diana.  Thankyou to both of you, as well as Bek for the eggplants.

Now the number of peppers I’m growing is entirely ridiculous of course.  I have nowhere to put all these plants, and I’ve been banned from adding any more pots (do you think he counts them????) so goodness knows what I’m going to do when they need potting up again.  I currently have them all (except for a couple of well developed ones) in 15cm pots which is way too small to expect them to crop in so I will have to do something else with them soon.

Cayenne Chilli

For the moment I’m watching them happily develop a flower or two and I’m dreaming up chilli and capsicum dishes to use them all in.

Share
Posted in Autumn Harvesting, Chillies, Capsicum & Eggplant, Summer Harvesting, Winter Planting | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Top 5 – Seeds to sow over Summer

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Liz

It has felt lovely and summery here for the last few days and the forecast suggests that the nice weather will continue for a couple more days at least.  Its great weather to be out in the garden but not necessarily the right weather to being doing anything too strenuous.  That combination of; a desire to be outside, but not heavy lifting,  sees me drawn to seed sowing.

Melbourne’s climate means that we can grow productive crops all year round so seed sowing in summer is about a combination of; replenishing crops that bolted in Spring, sowing quick growing crops to eat in late summer and early Autumn as well as getting started on winter crops.

1. Brassicas – I generally sow pretty much all my brassica crops in January.  In theory I should succession sow but in truth that January sowing is pretty much it.  This means sowing Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Kale, and this year – Brussel Sprouts.  A January sowing means you should get crops in winter, but you will need to protect the seedlings from rampant green caterpillars.

2. Lettuce – To ensure a year round supply of lettuce I tend to sow in all seasons and particularly in late Spring and early summer as the lettuces tend to bolt a bit quicker as the weather warms up.

3. Spring bolting crops – For me this means Silver beet and parsley in particular if I haven’t already sown enough in Spring.

4. Celery – I’m rapidly reaching the conclusion that mid to late summer is the best time to sow celery as the weather is cool when it is at its growing peak.

5. Summer crops to extend their season –   Beans, Cucumbers and possibly even tomatoes can be sown in early (and sometimes mid to late summer) to extend their season.  Seed sown now should be ready to crop in late summer and during Autumn/early winter.

That’s what I will be sowing over the next couple of months.  What about you?

Over at the New Goodlife this weeks Top 5 is….well I’m not sure yet – head over to check it out.

Share
Posted in Summer Planting, Top 5, Uncategorized | 23 Comments

Monday Harvest – 10th Dec 2012

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Liz

I completely failed to photograph my most exciting harvest of the week.  We had some ripe cherry tomatoes (Tiny Tim), but they were eaten before they could be captured for posterity.  Regardless though I am pretty pleased to have ripe tomatoes before Christmas.  The flavour was good but not great but given how early they are I will forgive them most things.

The tomatoes aside I did capture a sample of most of what is coming out of the garden at the moment.

I harvested the first of the Detroit Dark Red Beetroot.  I didn’t plant heaps so I’m going to run out of beetroot soon but I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve had very much.

The beetroot went into a salad with rocket, mint, parsley and some roast cauliflower and pumpkin.

Pictured with the rocket is a Tamarillo, a very out of season Tamarillo that appeared about the time I was harvesting the normal crop last May and has steadily grown and ripened ever since.  Its flavour wasn’t great but it was fun to have it at this time of the year.

Another fruit I harvested this week were a few Cape Gooseberries.  Something is eating most of them – I find empty wrappers on the ground all the time.  I suspect rats.  At least they left these few.  My daughter is very partial to them too so I was only able to prise one out of her grasp.

It was a good one though…I only wish the plants were as productive as my lettuces which continue to supply leafiness for our daily salads.

Also productive are the zucchinis which are coming through steadily.  I’m not sure that they are my favourite thing to cook with but it has been nice to have them nonetheless.  So far I’ve been grilling them on the bbq but I may need to branch out and try some new things with them soon.

I started harvesting from my main potato bed this week.  Most of the plants are still going strong but there is one section in which they are dying back.  I bandicooted enough Kipflers for a salad to eat with the grilled zucchinis and some haloumi.

I’m pleased with how my purple king beans are doing this year.  The plants look happy and healthy and the beans are coming slowly but surely.

You may notice some parsley under the beans – the first from my new plants which are just reaching harvest-able size.  Hopefully the plants grow quickly as I’ve missed having parsley on hand for the past month or two.

As always I recommend you head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions to see what else is being harvested around the world.

Share
Posted in Summer Harvesting | 22 Comments