My harvest baskets are finally starting to look a little more summery. This week I harvested my first Yugoslav tomato, along with quite a few more Tigerella and a few unknown cherries. Whilst we are getting enough tomatoes to meet our salad needs, there certainly aren’t enough to even consider making sauce. And given that quite a few of the plants seem to have stopped growing I suspect that I may end up having to buy quite a few cases to preserve.
Cucumbers on the other hand I should have plenty of. The one in the middle below is Summer Dance (I think – label mix up), Bek sent me the seed for them last year and the others are Catalina Pickling. Miss 7 loves the Summer Dance so they are reserved for her salads but the others will probably end up as Bread and Butter Cucumbers.
I wish the beans were as prolific as the cucumbers but sadly the odd handful is all that they are producing. They dropped a lot of flowers during the heatwave and whilst they are setting again they have quite a bit of work to do if they are going to be anything more substantial than part of a mixed veg stir fry.
Otherwise my main harvests are all unphotographed but for the record they include: Russian Red Kale, Mint (lots of it), Parsley (not as much as I’d like), Tarragon, Curry Leaves, and these Kaffir Lime Leaves:
I did some pruning to try and rid the tree of citrus gall wasp. More about that later this week. Most of these will go to my parents as they don’t have a tree and the leaves freeze well so these should last them a good few months.
As always head over to Daphne’s Dandelions where you’ll find posts from gardeners both enjoying summer and dreaming of it.
Looks great! I did think this morning when I picked several cucumbers that it is time to pull out your lovely pickled cucumber recipe. Same here with the tomatoes, so frustrating seeing the flowers and young fruit but not a lot of progress. Used my first kafffir lime leaf in curry tonight, hope we don’t have to deal with gall, been lucky so far.
My tomatoes have suddenly started ripening, I hope they start setting some more fruit though.
I am having the same problem in Adelaide with my tomatoes. We have just enough for our daily needs but nothing to put aside for preserving. I guess we should be greatful that they even survived the heat wave!
It sounds like the terrible heat really set your garden back quite a bit. I hope your veggies recover. What you’ve harvested so far looks tasty.
I hope your weather is kinder to you for the rest of the summer. I can only imagine the heat you get there. We never get so hot as to slow summer plants down. Usually our hottest summers are our most productive in the garden.
I can’t wait for fresh cukes again. I’ve set out nearly a dozen plants this winter and they keep freezing back. 🙁 Looks like I’ll have to wait with the rest of the South for our turn to garden. Hope your temps regulate soon!
Nice to see summer colors in the winter. I don’t have luck in freezer curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves, they seem to lose their fragrance after a while.
We had a small glut of tomatoes a few weeks ago, which I turned into a small batch of tomato relish. I always have to rely on purchasing boxes to make sauce and preserve whole tomatoes though. But that’s looking doubtful this season as most crops have been wiped out in the heat. My cucumbers are struggling as are my beans. All in all very sad in my garden at the moment. Wish I had your crops 🙂
At this time of year I am so glad to have you as a blogging friend, Liz! Your posts and pictures of summery fruit and veg inspire us here in the soggy wet UK, and make sure we don’t forget what summer can be like.
Totally agree with Mark. I’ve just been out in the sogginess to grab some purple sprouting and chicory and certainly didn’t linger in the drizzle. How uplifting it is to see tomatoes and cucumber thriving in sunshine. Kale and parsley are the only things I can do a vegetable snap with you on at the moment!