I feel like I’ve spent ages composing this post. This is partially because my first draft somehow got lost in the cyberspace….damn you WordPress. It is also partially because I’ve done two silly things today. I’ve drunk slightly too much red wine with dinner and listened to altogether too much talk back radio whilst preparing dinner. I do find that both red wine and talk back radio have the uncanny knack of both numbing the brain slightly whilst adding a slightly anxious edge to day to day life. For me the anxious response to talk back radio is pretty immediate (do people really think like that????) but the red wine one is more delayed – generally striking sometime between 2:00 and 4:00am. So with the prospect of some wakeful hours in the early morning ahead of me, I bring you the totally unrelated topic of this weeks harvests.
I harvested much of the remaining tamarillo crop this week. I want to give the tree a good prune as I’m running out of washing line. Its winter and things can take days to dry so I need to liberate some line from the tamarillo branches. My spreadsheet suggests we’ve had about 200 tamarillos from the tree this year (with a few unreachable ones still remaining). Last years harvest was under 10 so I reckon 200 is pretty good.
Also on the fruit front I harvested another couple of oranges. My daughter decided one of them, along with a capsicum she picked, would be perfect in her camping chairs drink holder. Why not I guess….
She did eventually eat it and the capsicum was stir fried with some beef and black bean sauce. These spring onions went into that same stir fry.
Other greenery harvested this week included large quantities of parsley and a lot of silver beet.
This lot of silver beet went into a chicken saag which is the only dish I cook at the moment that the whole family happily eats. Arrrggggh I live with too many picky eaters……
3 out of 4 will eat broccoli though so its a shame this head wasn’t bigger – I was going to pretend it was then I realised the presence of my finger in the photo ( I really must stop biting my fingernails….) gives you too much of an idea of its scale. That is, pretty small really…
I also harvested a beetroot or two this week. This one I made into a dip which although it tasted fine I found it very weird as its flesh was white. My brain does tend to struggle computing a beetroot flavour with a white dip, no matter how good the flavour might be I still struggle with the concept.
My final harvest was to me my most exciting. Parsley always excites me and I do enjoy lemon thyme but its clearly the Meyer Lemons that I’m talking about. My first Meyer Lemons from my dwarf tree. Hopefully the first of many.
And that’s it from me for this week, if, like me, you want to see more veg then head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions where you’ll find harvests from around the world.
I love the photo of the veggies in the camping chair drink holder.
They were eaten not long afterwards.
Perfect meyer lemons and hopefully the first of many. Beautiful harvest as usual.
Thankyou, I’m willing it to flower again.
My parents had a large and productive meyer lemon tree. It must be 50 years old now and still going strong (I walk past our old home often as it’s just around the corner).
Many years ago the whole neighbourhood would come knocking on the door (or jumping the fence) for a few. One enterprising young fella took away bags full and we saw him selling them on a street corner.
And what’s your secret? How come nothing of yours ever looks nibbled?? That silverbeet is perfect!
Love the lemon tree story, especially the bloke selling them!
Its all in the camera angle…. Actually my silverbeet tends to not get eaten much. If I was to show you my Chinese Cabbage you’d be saying something very different…..
Oooohhhh…lemons! how wonderful! Congratulations! How old is your tree? We just purchased our first Meyer Lemon tree and it’s itty bitty with itty bitty lemons on it that aren’t good for anything (yet!) 😉
I’ve had the tree for just over a year and this was the first time it produced anything so I think you can definitely be hopeful about your itty bitty lemons.
Well, at least you are harvesting. All I’m getting from the garden at present is Asparagus (not that I’m complaining about that) some Baby Leaf Salad and the usual herbs. Everything else is “nearly” ready – waiting for some sun!
The lemons look perfect. Are they very sour?
The Meyer lemons are sweeter than normal lemons – so no not that sour at all – quite delicious.
I really need to give your chicken saag a go considering how much silver beet I have and if it goes down well with your kids maybe, just maybe, Miss Three might not turn her nose up at it. Congrats on the lemons, they look wonderful.
They say it takes 7 tries before you know if a child really doesn’t like something. Miss 5 is really looking forward to the next 5 meals of stir fried tofu – he he he…..
Love the recap of wine and talk back radio… I find that anxious edge comes from listening to that kind of stuff too. Your harvests were good this week, but the lemons are the real highlight. I really need to think about getting a Meyer lemon and keeping it indoors during the winter months.
I really love Meyer lemons and really value having a plant – if I didn’t grow them I don’t think I’d ever use them as I very rarely see them for sale.
I’m very excited about my first home grown lemons this year too. Let there be many lemons to come, so many uses for a tasty lemon. Chicken saag sounds yum, not much our whole family will eat either, I reckon I’d get 3/5 with that one.
3/5 is good, I quite often achieve 1/4 (ie me happy and the rest looking a bit sad and sorry for themselves).
Your lemons – and everythng else looks wonderful. Yahoo ont he tamarillo count. I bet you have more than you can keep track of next year!
I gave it a good prune today so it will be interesting to see how that affects our harvests next year.
mmm beets in a dip? New one on me! Wow you had lots of tamarillo, I have yet to taste one. Love the lemons, Myers are so much better than regular ones!
I make quite a few beetroot dips, beetroot humous is lovely and beetroot and mint is great as well.
Very nice harvest and fabulous photos! I often find some veggies hanging out in our chair’s cup holders :).
Great place for them, although beer is also quite nice when it gets hot.
I’ve just pricked out our replacement parsley
You can never have enough parsley in my book.
I love your photos. That is why I love your blog so much!
Your veggies do look perfect and the Meyer lemons too! I have do doubt that those are the first of many many more to come. My little tree is so productive that I can’t possibly use all of them. Enjoy!
Do you make preserved lemons, Michelle? It’s a great way to use up your lemons and I couldn’t live without them, now.
OOOOh too many to use – now that would be nice.
I’ve got two lemons on the lemon tree I planted in the front yard. I’m not sure when to pick them, though they’re looking very ‘pickable’ at the moment. Very exciting, seeing as none of the other fruit trees have anything much happening.
If they’re yellow then I’d go for it, but then I’m not the most patient of individuals…
Lucky it wasn’t the lemons you found in the camping chair…………………..maybe i would of heard the scream from here !!
Oh how I wish we could grow citrus in our area, but there’s not chance of that any time soon! So I will have to settle for the grocery store. You have a great variety in your winter time harvest, I’m happy with a few carrots and some mache when its winter around my place.
We are really lucky with our mild climate.
Ooooo Meyer lemons, jealous jealous. Nice color harvest this week.
They are great aren’t they? Love the flavour.
Great harvest! I love the sound of all the dishes you cooked too. Your meyer lemons look gorgeous. I should get a dwarf plant myself.
I bought my dwarf plant a year or so ago and I really like them, leaf miners aside it is doing well.
Ha! Love a post where you’ve drunk a wee bit too much wine. If only your pictures were slightly out of focus. My sister in law used to have a job where she was required to wake up and listen to all the early morning talkback shockjocks. Oh I think I’d be reaching for the bottle at 6am if that was my job.
Ah the benefits of photographing in advance…..I’m trying to work out what sort of job she had….something in politics perhaps? Seeing what X was saying about her minister?
Hmm, I know what you mean about talk back radio. I don’t listen any more, it makes me realise I rarely understand what ‘seems’ to be public opinion.
Yet again I have to look on so enviously on your tamarillos. 200 from 10 last year is extraordinary. And I agree with you on beets, they have to be dark red…
I think I too should give it up – both talk back radio and coloured beetroots (other than red that is).
Great harvest! The photos are so beautiful!
You have not seen picky eaters until you’ve tried to cook for my family. My son will only eat veggies if they are well mixed in the dish (like minestrone soup or curries). My husband won’t eat veggies at all. My daughter loves some veggies, but she hates sauces and will only eat anything plain. When they were younger I just made them eat what was in front of them (well not my husband). Now they are in their 20s and I cater to them when they are home. Such a pain.
Your husband sounds a lot like mine – he eats vegetables but very begrudgingly. If i cook anything vegetarian i often get a grunted “where’s the meat?” in response. your daughter sounds just like my mother in law – no sauces just plain food, the thing that always makes me laugh is that she’ll say “I just want something plain – i don’t want to be any trouble” like plain was easy to find – especially when eating out – arrrrrggggghhhhhh
I’m amazed you can grow both citrus and have thriving brassicas. It gets too cold here for citrus, but yet not enough cold for brassicas to be very happy. Odd.
Now that is odd – how cold do you get? It doesn’t really drop much below freezing here so I guess that is the secret of the citrus but I don’t understand the brassica thing – how cold do they need it to be?
I am glad to see your great harvest. 🙂
Everything looks great as usual.
Unfortunately, my garden fell apart this week. 🙁
Beautiful colourful harvest Liz!
Did you plant the tamarillo from seeds or tree originally?
Miss eating our fresh veggies at the moment.