Harvest Monday

Well wont you just look at my lovely harvest. The corn, the pumpkins, the apples, the potatoes.

Ok so that's just the latest jigsaw. It took me 3 days, not bad for 1000 pieces.

But wouldn't that be just a wonderful harvest. No balcony garden harvest this week, only because I am not there!!! Good old Mr M is looking after my place while I am off in Adelaide visiting the parents. But just because I am away doesn't mean there was no harvest. From this garden we have had all sorts of goodies from eggplants

to rockmelon

and chillis

I cooked the eggplant and chilli in a pasta sauce for the family the other day which was yummy. The rockmelon you see here actually fell off the vine so I am not sure it is ripe which is a shame. I will be checking later today to see if it is salvagable. How was your harvest this week? Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions for more harvest posts.

Harvest Monday

I am so so so close to getting the first full draft of the thesis done, but yet so far from the end goal. In the meantime here is what I have been harvesting of late ...

There have been cucumbers, plenty of cucumbers, enough that I have to eat them every day to keep up, but here is just one. I am going to post soon about the world's funniest cucumber which is shaped like a piggies tail but for now it is normal cucumbers.

The seeds were a little big, maybe I left it on there too long, but it is hard to keep up with them. Tasty in a salad.

That was my lunch, these little red lovelies went in something else,

my breakfast!

I have been going through a phase of eating fruit salad in the morning, usually blueberries and rockmelon with whatever else is affordable at the markets. It was lovely to be able to supplement it with my own home grown strawberries.

In the garden harvest there were eggplants and beans, both of which made it into curries.

I am planning on trying salt and pepper eggplant with some of the rest. I have been harvesting chillis to give to friends, basil leaves for lasagnes and silverbeet as needed. Even in this strange weather it seems to be putting out some good food. With more eggplants, the crazy corn possibly beginning to come good and the figs turning colours it might be an interesting harvest next week. For more harvests from around the world pop on over to Daphne's Dandelions.

A Berry Little Harvest Monday

Bit of a smaller harvest this week, with only a few staples left in the sun scorched garden. Beautiful berries of the strawberry kind went into my breakfast this morning. There were both wild versions of this little red wonder and some Hokowase strawberries. Usually I just snack on them as I garden but this time there were enough to go in my breakfast fruit salad.

Silverbeet is continual, even though I cut it to the ground just a month ago! It goes in many dishes and adds extra nutrients.

Eggplants, well I showed you them the other day and here they are harvested. These went into a wonderful little pasta dish.

Speaking of pasta, the last of the pumpkins I harvested a while ago was used up in a delicious pesto pasta dish.

And that is pretty much it for the moment. If you want to see other harvests pop on over to Daphne's Dandelions. I looks forward to harvesting chillies this week and int he future some figs and some more eggplants. The corn, the new corn that is, is a fair way off but I will post about that little experiment soon.

And on slightly different matters, if you can solve my friend's mutant tomato dilemma I posted about yesterday please, please, please add your advice. :)

Fairytales in the Balcony Garden

I love eggplant. Be it cooked up in sauces or in pasta or turned into a dip, I find it such a treat. I even grew it over winter last year in the balcony garden and it did well. This year I went with a different variety of eggplant, fairytale eggplant. While these did not grow as large as their bonica mates, they certainly made up for their lack of size with prettiness. Just look at those purple and white stripes!

The taste is a bit milder but a bit crisper if that makes any sense. I'll certainly grow these again next year, in bigger pots if I am feeling nice. They like a fair bit of water, and the bugs get into them and cause damage but for the colour and taste alone I am smitten.

Harvest Monday Extravaganza

I finally found my camera cord and uploaded the goodies so here is a parade of recent harvests and this week's harvest. It even has some golden globes! These harvests date back to just before Christmas, even so this little balcony garden has produced a lot.

Here was the pre-Christmas harvest and it saw the last of the snow peas. I actually picked a lot more tomatoes than that, several punnets worth, all from 2 little tumbler bushes. They died once I got back from Adelaide, as happens each year from some disease, but not before producing one large crop. I will certainly keep growing these.

And the New Years harvest which was massive (a.k.a. bye bye tomatoes) Most of this went into various salad dishes for a little new years eve shindig I had at my place. It was 42 degrees that day, so salads were all we needed. I was just glad that the garden survived my 10 days away, but with the wonderful garden sitter I have it was no wonder it was bursting with goodies when I returned.

And the most recent harvest which included 3 pumpkins, who were too infested with white fly to reach complete maturation. If only I could find more seedlings I could do a second crop :( I also thought I planted leeks, to my utter surprise turns out they were white onions!.

If you would like to see more harvests from around the world head on over to Daphne's Dandelions. A lot of these plants got ripped out of the garden yesterday in a big white fly control clean up, so harvests may be a little lean for the next few weeks, but we will see.

Harvest Monday

Sorry I have been away for a bit and the blog has fallen silent. I spent Christmas in Adelaide with the folks, and have begun the new year by getting on with the thesis (which is due in August.) Despite the business the garden has not been neglected and it has been awash with a bountiful harvest. Wild strawberries, sweet corn, zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, eggplants, a pumpkin and more. They helped make new years eve a tasty evening and continue to keep me eating healthily. Problem is, you will just have to imagine them, because my camera cord has gone AWOL! If it reappears I'll add some photos, but for now here are some oldies to represent the harvest.

For more harvest posts visit Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday

The harvests have been coming in thick and fast. They consist of quite a few things, zucchini, snowpeas, tomatoes, eggplants and more. Garlic is all out of the ground and drying on the window sill.

For fruits there are the last of the red currants and some strawberries, both wild strawberries and Kurawase strawberries.

and best of all the first tomatoes!

Zucchinis are a constant harvest and in two different colours. Eggplants are small but tasty and just as constant. Four different days, four different combos.

Snowpeas are at their end, as you can see these two got left on the bush a little too long.

For more harvests pop on over to Daphne's Dandelions for harvest Monday

Harvest Monday

Oh it has been a busy week or two, but the balcony garden waits for no postgrad. I've been harvesting quite a bit recently included in this is:

1. A bunch of oddly shaped purple carrots
2. 3 full sized zukes weighing in at over half a kilo and 3 small baby zukes which went in salad

3. lettuce almost every day (I love my salads)

4. Several strawberries of various kinds

5. Two little stems of red currants!
6. Sage for various pumpkin dishes
7. Three small eggplants which went into a curry

8. 1 head of garlic which went into a risotto (yes all of it) and 2 small heads of poorly formed garlic.

Harvest Monday looks set to be even better from here on in. Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions for mnore harvest monday madness.