Veggies for kitchen 1st half May

Bean...bean...bean...chili...chili...chili...daikon...daikon...daikon thinnings, da cheong chae and yellow tomatoes are the main harvest for the first half of May. Yellow tomatoes plant were looking sad in end summer but now it is lush again with many fruits on it. The cooler weather makes it longer for the green ones to turn yellow though. Yellow cherry tomato seems to be more hardy in our veggie patch. Mrs Bok asked me does sweet potatoes grow well in clay soil? We only got one small tubers from each plant of sweet potatoes that were growing in clay soil about 5 months. Total harvest was less than what we got from growing a plant of sweet potatoes in container which we harvested last month. Sweet potatoes not suitable to grow in clay soil in temperate region where we don't have warm weather all year round like in the tropics. Sweet potato roots did go deeper into the soil but perhaps it will take longer to form bigger tubers.

I was tidying up some container last week and harvested most of the carrots that were growing with melon plants sowed in early January. This is New Red Kuroda carrot variety, I should have let them grow more but well Rayyan not happy on having daikon thinnings for a week everyday. He missed carrots.

Harvested the last kangkung and bonito eggplants from our veggie patch last week. I am going to miss fried kangkung with chili and shrimp paste. It will be another 5 months I reckon we have another kangkung (water spinach) in our kitchen.

There are so many farewell in the garden this month.Last cucumber and snake beans were harvested last week for this year. However, there were also many exciting and new things comin in our kitchen this week, the first snow peas of year 2011 and full kernal of fresh sweet corns! My other-half said I never had success growing sweet corns in Adelaide that look almost perfect. Our sweet corn usually have so many gaps that you can count how many kernals is on the cob. This time I don't even help with pollination and mulched because I always feel dissapointed with the result. Now, I feel more motivated to grow sweet corn. Sweet corn is a heavy feeder and drinker. Feeding them with enough compost and manure is not a problem but water is something we can't give that much. Summer evoparation is so high here which is the time when sweet corn starts to produce after sowing them in spring. I think it is best to sow sweet corn end of February and early March because we have more water in autumn when they are producing cobs.

Not much time and creative in the kitchen this week as I was busy in school and Ilhan and Lenay were sick for days. Vegetables were fresh but instant pasta sauce were famous in our kitchen last week. Here is all the ingredient ready to be cook with instant carbonara pasta sauce.

Did not have much appetite on the weekend, so exhausted after a hectic week being a mother, student and temporary nurse. So I made my own appertiser to eat with Nasi Goreng Tuna (Fried Rice Tuna) ~ Sambal belacan. The photo look like cherry tomato mud bath because I got overboard with belacan (shrimp paste). In the mortar, put in shallot/red onion, shrimp paste, garlic and chillies and grind. Add a bit of sugar, salt and squeeze in some lemon juice. Mix well. You can add in dice tomato and coriander if you like. Since we have many yellow cherry tomatoes, I add these tomatoes in this sambal belacan. Hazel asked how we used okra, sometime we blanched okras and dip in sambal belacan as well (Cat-from-Sydney reminded me). Wendy is hosting Garden To Table Challenge.

See what other garden around the world is harvesting at the moment visit Harvest Monday with our fantastic host Daphne.