Harvest Monday – 16th Jan 2012

It has been significantly cooler this week – bordering on cold even (a relative thing I know but cold for summer….).  As a result the tomatoes have seemed less happy to produce fruit.  I did harvest a few though:

The trouble is that by the time the kids have eaten their fill there’s none left for me.  These plants had really better get a move on with production otherwise I might start to get quite upset with them…..

Fortunately though summer is not just about tomatoes.  Its also about cucumbers which continue to produce one every day or two.  Most of the cucumbers are going into salads or dips – Tzatiki being a personal favourite.

This week brought the first red capsicum of the year, pictured here with some mint, sorrel, a cucumber and some cayenne chillies.  I have been really pleased with the chillies as the heat is good and they have a good number on the plant which is now in its second year.

All these ingredients went into a salsa, which was nice but frankly lacked coriander which naturally enough has bolted and is no use to anyone any more.

The best thing about this weeks harvest was beans.  More Beanette and Jade beans and a lot more Royal Burgandy.  I don’t get enough to freeze but I do get some most days (this is one days harvest) which is enough to cover our needs over summer which is lovely.  These beans, and a few others, went into a South Indian dish called Green Beans Poriyal which is beans spiced with brown mustard seeds, cumin, chilli, urid dhal, asofeotida, coconut and curry leaves.  I served it with dhal and I plan to post the dhal recipe later this week.

Even more exciting were the first Tongues of Fire beans:

Very similar to a Borlotti bean and like them you only eat the inner bean; these were lovely with some onion, garlic and chilli.

I am really pleased with how most of my herbs are doing at the moment.  The Vietnamese Mint and Thai Basil are doing particularly well.  This week they, and some spring onions, provided last minute flavouring for a noodle soup.

Lastly we had another potatotastic week as I started harvesting from the large bed.  So far I’ve only dug up a few Kipfler plants from one end and have about 2kg of potatoes to show for it.

 

I think I could have left them a bit longer, but I needed some space for lettuce, so……well that and I can be really quite impatient.

Whilst I will reserve judgement on the bed for another post when I’ve dug it all up I would say that I’m pleased with the outcome so far, but I would say I think it could have done better if I’d layered the straw and manure a bit higher.

Want to see more harvests?  Head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for fabulous harvests from around the globe.

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26 Responses to Harvest Monday – 16th Jan 2012

  1. stacy says:

    what a wonderful blog you have. you look like your going to have a wonderful harvest, I love Borlotti Beans such a nutty taste. Last year in the UK was a bad year for us to grow tomatoes not enough sun to ripen the fruit hope you have more sucsess.

    • Liz says:

      Thanks for visiting. The forecast for this week is much warmer so hopefully they will be nice and appreciative and produce more fruit!

  2. L says:

    Yay! Dhal recipe – you’re so lovely 🙂
    And I’m seriously jealous of your red capsicum.

    • Liz says:

      I do try….soemtimes…..its very nice of you to be jealous but I suspect if you knew it was only about 10cm long you’d be a little less so…..

  3. Phoebe says:

    Wow Liz! What amazing produce. I think I’m going to have to stop blogging, I’m too jealous of all the things you are harvesting! Great photos too by the way!!!

    • Liz says:

      Thanks Phoebe, Please dont stop blogging though – the blogging community would never forgive me as they and I would really miss your beautiful posts. Also i imagine that if it weren’t for the hail all this (and probably more…) would be yours too….

  4. Cold? Where are the frost and ice photos?

    I’ve never eaten Thai basil as it looks very much like a weed we get on the plot! Does it taste like ordinary basil?

    • Liz says:

      Well it wsn’t quite that cold….although I did get goosebumps on a couple of occasions….Thai basil tastes quite different it has quite a licorice, or aniseed taste to it. Its used a lot in stir-fries and curries.

  5. Mark Willis says:

    Liz, don’t discard the bolted coriander. If you can afford to leave it, let the seeds develop and then harvest them. Home-grown coriander seeds have so much more flavour than bought ones. Luckily I can eat the seeds OK, but the leaves usually make me pass out!

    • Liz says:

      I do usually leave it for seed but lately the plants have been dying before the seed develops – I’m wondering if its carrotfly or something similar attacking the roots. Can you eat the roots? I use them for curry pastes and they’re great but I’m guessing if the leaves are a no go then the roots wont be much better….Interesting thing to have a reaction to.

  6. Norma Chang says:

    Bountiful and lovely harvest, your shelled beans are so pretty. We are experiencing single digit temp.

  7. Veggie PAK says:

    All the veggies are very nice, but the beans are beautiful! Very nice harvest!

  8. Wilderness says:

    Liz nice harvest. It appears your garden is doing very well. I love seeing fresh harvests this time of year when I am sitting here in the cold just starting to plan my garden which is 4 months away from planting.

  9. Bee Girl says:

    Well now…ditto to what everyone else has said 🙂 I am very jealous of your red capsicum! So gorgeous! I might just try tog row some this year…

  10. kitsapFG says:

    All the harvests look soo good to us in winter right now! Enjoying tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers is only through our preserved items for the time being. Fresh sounds so much better!

  11. Funkbunny says:

    Lovely, and beatifully photographed harvests. I especially like the tounge of fire beans!

  12. leduesorelle says:

    Wonderful harvest and variety, makes me think of all the delicious things that can be done with them!

  13. What a wonderful harvest!!! I can’t wait until summer! Alas, I have awhile to wait. lol!!!

    Lynn

  14. Rick says:

    What a great harvest. It super refreshing for me to see your summer harvests. All we have in our cold winter weather is carrots!! Thanks for posting.

  15. Julie says:

    I’m drooling over your tomatoes! Now I want summer to be here… guess I’ve got awhile to wait. Those Tongues of Fire beans look nice, I think I had a similar one called Dragon’s Tongue. Unfortunately I didn’t know you were suppose to eat only the inner bean and I tried eating the whole bean- fuzzy and tough!

  16. Liz says:

    Thanks all for the lovely comments – I have to say í’m really enjoying it being summer and I for one will be trying to hang on to it for as long as I can…..I do hope it warms up for those of you experiencing winter though.

    Julie, Funkbunny & VeggiePak – I am currently unable to leave comments on your blogs – I have the same problem with some but not all other Blogger blogs – instead of the comment form coming up I get a white page. Apparently I’m not the only one with this difficulty so you all may be missing comments from both me and others.

  17. Barbie says:

    Beautiful post. You’ve gotten a lovely harvest this week!

  18. Leanne says:

    Jealous, jealous, jealous. I have had one tomato, no idea what the problem is. There are plenty on the plants, but they won’t ripen. I don’t know what I am doing wrong.
    On the other hand I picked 4 Lebanese cucumbers today, and getting that many nearly every day, so have to start giving them away.

    • Liz says:

      My cucumbers are doing far better than my tomatoes too. With the tomatoes I will give you the same advice I’m sure my motherwould give me which is: ‘patience dear, patience’ which frankly is a bit rich coming from her as she is a fairly impatient person generally but I suspect in this instance she’s probably right (unless of course you have planted a green variety of tomato and they actually are ripe now…..)

      • Leanne says:

        oh no, how would I know? I do have some that seem to get darker and never seem to be getting red, though I did pick a couple today that sort of went red, but still very green, and they feel like they are past it.

        • Liz says:

          If you don’t know the variety then the best thing to do is taste it. If it tastes like a ripe tomato then yours are ripe when they are green. Alternatively photograph it and write up a blog post and either me or someone else might be able to tell by looking at it.

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