Monday Harvest – 18th Feb 2013

Its been a warm week here with another one forecast for next week (albeit slightly cooler).  I do like to have a couple of proper heat waves over summer otherwise I feel a bit cheated.  I don’t always enjoy the really hot weather but I’d miss it if we didn’t get any.  The forecast for tomorrow though is mild so I’m hoping to spend a bit more time in the garden which is looking a little distressed due to; not just the heat but our complete lack of rain.

One advantage of the heat is that the tomatoes the rodents missed (they seem to have vacated my garden for the time being) are ripening:

Tomatoes

The above basket contains Tigerella, Rouge de Marmande, Yellow Boy, a number of Black Cherries and a couple of Burnley Bounty as well as some Mini Mama Capsicums.

My peppers seem to be enjoying the heat – provided I keep the water up to their pots.  They are all setting fruit and I am harvesting a few each week.  Below is an Alma Paprika, a couple of Hungarian Yellow Wax and a Purple Beauty.

Peppers

I finally bit the bullet this week and pulled out the zucchini.  I’ve loved having it but it was starting to smothered more and more of my other crops and I felt it was time for it go.  In the process of pulling it out I harvested a number of small zucchini’s and flowers which I later stuffed with a herby rice mixture.

Zucchini Flowers

My most prolific crops at the moment are beans, particularly the Majestic Butter, Bonica eggplants and Lemon Cucumbers.

Harvest Basket

I had quite a few very similar basketfuls this week but I’ll try and show restraint not post too many of them today.  Instead I’ll include a basketful of herbs which I haven’t photographed much of late.  At the moment I’m harvesting a lot of basil, parsley, mint, oregano, thyme, tarragon, chervil and spring onions.

Herb basket

As well as the European herbs I’m cutting quite a few Asian ones.  Below are a Kaffir Lime and leaves, some lemongrass and Thai basil.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Finally, a winter crop – the Cavolo Nero seems to thrive in all seasons here and I have to say I really enjoyed the quiche I made with this lot this week.

Cavolo Nero

For all things Harvest related head over to Daphne’s Dandelions and I will be back tomorrow with a Top 5.

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22 Responses to Monday Harvest – 18th Feb 2013

  1. Bek says:

    That is a great crop. Good to hear you are getting some tomatoes instead of the rat!

  2. Jodie says:

    Liz- Your Monday harvest is great! Glad to hear the rats have let up… my rats have also gone a bit quiet. Hopefully for long enough to ripen up a few more tomatoes.

  3. Our harvest was much more modest than yours

  4. Amber says:

    You must give us the rice mixture zucchini flower recipe! I love zucchini and flowers! Just hope the horrible squash vine borer doesn’t get all mine again this year. Thinking of planting them outside the garden in large pots near the house and see if I can keep them longer! Beautiful harvest!

    • Liz says:

      We are very lucky not to have vine borer. As for the zucchini flowers I didn’t write it down but basically it was a mixture of rice, feta and egg with loads of herbs (mostly parsley, basil and Spring onion) through it. I then baked them with drizzled with olive oil. Worked well.

  5. mac says:

    Beautiful and varied harvest. I bought some zucchini flower seeds this year and hope to eat more flowers than squash, I’m aiming for late summer and early fall harvest.

  6. alyse says:

    Very nice, I’m a bad successive gardner and have run out of spring onions!!. I’m glad you have finally gotten some ripe tomatoes – I know just how you feel when it comes to rodents.

  7. Daphne says:

    Beautiful harvests. And I’m glad your pesky rodents are leaving you alone now.

  8. Oh my goodness, those tomatoes look wonderful. It’s pics like those that have tempted me into thwarted attempts at growing heritage varieties up my Cotswolds hill previously. Had just decided that we just don’t have enough sun to ripen them in time before winter starts and I’m going to concentrate on veggies that grow easily here. How amazing to be able to grow limes and asian herbs too, must admit I have garden envy! The only thing I can grow well out of that harvest is my trusty cavolo nero. Lovely blog.

    • Liz says:

      Thanks Andrea. It might be worth seeking out Black Cherry tomatoes – great flavour, and relatively quick to harvest plus fairly cold tolerant. We are pretty lucky with our climate I have to say.

  9. Sarah says:

    Great to hear that the rat(s) have moved on! I love the photo of your basket of herbs – hope we get a summer warm enough to produce a harvest like that.

  10. Andrea says:

    Great Harvest Liz, good to hear the dreaded rats have taken a hike lets hope they have found a new home! I really should try stuffing zucchini flowers I have so many of them………

  11. kitsapFG says:

    Oh I am so jealous of all those lovely summer vegetables! The tomatoes and basil in particular. 😀

    Maybe the rodents are hiding to keep out of the heat for the time being? No matter the reason, glad they are giving you a break for a while.

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