Monday, July 25, 2011

Mid-Winter Fresh Food

Every day as August come closer, I get a bit worried that the amount of vegetables that can be harvested from our garden decreases. Well, that would be expected its already middle of winter. Moreover, I sowed and transplanted cool season vegetables rather late this year compared to previous year. But we should count ourselves lucky as we still have fresh harvest flowing to the kitchen as we have not even rely on our frozen vegetables as yet. We still have peppers slowly ripening for us which is a nice treat. Little Rayyan broke one of our capsicum branches so we had to harvest 3 green capsicums. Cherry capsicum managed to mature, although it hardly received any suns at the moment. We got to harvest some sprouting broccoli too this week. There are still some yellow cherry tomatoes from the garden.
Some of the greens that were harvested last week~Baby kailans, purple mustards, loose-leaf lettuce and self-sowed cos lettuce. I did not noticed at first that some of our garden containers had self-seeded lettuce seedlings popping out. I thought it was weed at first until those seedlings grow bigger. Harvested some tatsoi, but it look really bad almost bald without leaves. We inter-planted tatsoi with cauliflowers. Those cauliflowers were saved from having the same fate as tatsoi which has been sacrificed to pest.
I got some mandarin from my backyard neighbour who grows vegetables and have some olive trees in his garden. He makes his own olive oil and every fall I watched him gather olives with his family from inside the house. Sometime, if he is alone I worry he will fell down from the tree. I was surprised last week he invited me to see his garden. We are usually shy and won't go out to garden at the other side of our backyard if anyone is there. But I have overcome my shyness a little bit and greet him whenever he come to visit his garden.  When I visited his garden, he offered me some mandarin and at first I was too shy to accept. Since he insisted and I was curious (malu-malu kucing) how fresh mandarin tasted like, I took some back home. Those mandarin was so juicy. We harvested our last wong bok (Napa cabbage) that was grown in container last week.  It was about to bolt.
What vegetables is popular in your kitchen at the moment?

24 comments:

Unknown said...

Another great harvest - congrats :) And those Mandarins look delicious!

kitchen flavours said...

Your veggies are all looking great! Love your capsicums and broccoli! And so "geram" that your neighbour has mandarin oranges and olives in his garden! I wonder how he made his own olive oil, whether is it the same method we made our own coconut oil?

Bee Girl said...

What a gorgeous harvest!

tina said...

That's some harvest! All that lettuce looks soooo good.

kitsapFG said...

Your winter harvest is gorgeous - particularly that broccoli! You are lucky to have such a neighbor and I hope you continue to overcome your shyness and become friends in gardening.

Cat-from-Sydney said...

MKG dear,
Your neighbour's mandarin is very late. We usually have them in May/June in Sydney. Our neighbours plant olives too, they pressed the fruits to get the oil. The first press is the "virgin" and is green. The subsequent presses yield is thinner and less intense in colour. Oh, did he give you some olives in brine too? Lovely in salads...yummm.... Rindulah our life in Sydney.... har har har *evil laughs*

Thomas said...

Peppers in Mid-winter? I could never get used to that. What do you grow during the summer months? (Or is it too hot then?)

Mark Willis said...

Your cool season harvest is (unsurprisingly!) like my Summer harvest! I wish my chillis would ripen. I have lots of them, but they are all still green.

Sue Garrett said...

Mandarins from the garden and in winter too - double Wow!

Robin said...

What a wonderful winter harvest! You are so lucky to be getting such a nice variety in the winter!

~TastyTravels~ said...

I can't believe your variety of harvest despite it being mid-winter! Wonderful!!

Sherry said...

Diana, your winter harvest continues to amaze me! They look so wonderful, especially the peppers and the sprouting broccolis.

I'm always late on planting my cool season vegetables. I'm trying to be better this year, but it's not looking good.

Gardening is a good way to make friends. Those mandarins look nice. How does your neighbor turn the olives into olive oil? Does he take them somewhere to process?

Malar said...

Very good harvest in Autumn! mandarin oranges and olive? WOw!

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

Such a colorful harvest. You really have an amazing variety. I'm glad you met your gardening neighbor. It can be so rewarding to share your garden and learn from someone elses. Those oranges look wonderful.

MaDiHaA a.k.a Ratna said...

hi...
sayuran tu semua nampak sangat segar!!

Graziana said...

chilies and peppers are amazing, I also harvest them since winter (dec-feb in italy) and sometimes they decorate my christmas tree!

Suburban Tomato said...

I love your harvest, its looks beautiful. I'm very impressed with the tomatoes - I had a look through your previous posts and I guess these are the yellow pear and the yellow currant tomatoes? I will definitely give these a try.

shaz said...

Beautiful and abundant harvest dear. Hope you enjoyed those yummy mandarins.

cikmanggis said...

"Lumayan" betul hasil tanaman kebun Diana ni:)..sayur kegemaran kat dapur Cm adalah Sawi dan brokoli..oh ya benih bunga matahari yang Diana kirim hari tu dah mula tumbuh.Tak sabar nak tunggu pokok tu membesar:)dan nak tayang kat Diana hehe.

miruku said...

Nothing is popular from my garden to the kitchen, they are all too little to fry to make as a dish (malu-nya~). I think i'm too greedy to plant so many type at once.

Wendy said...

gorgeous stuff!!

JGH said...

Beautiful- so colorful. I'm thinking those mandarins would be so good mixed into a green salad.

My big harvest right now is cucumber and squash. Time to start planning my fall garden!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Allison~Those mandarins were so juicy and I think pack with vitamin C :).

Joyce~I don't even know how to make coconut oil. I think I must learn how since my parents backyard has many pokok kelapa. One of these days, I will ask my neighbour how he make his own olive oil.

Bee Girl, Wendy~ Thank you.

Tina~We finally had lettuce in July since last spring. At last we have something green for my boy pack lunch to school.

KitsapFG~I am looking forward to see my neighbour again when he comes to his plot.

Cat-from-Sydney~Oh now I know what Virgin oil is. I think my neighbour has other mandarin trees that he grow on different land that he own. Because he is not harvesting his mandarin at all.

Thomas~Our summer is too hot to grow anything. Peppers and eggplants can not set proper bloom in our summer. So its like a gardening break for us.

Mark~I did have a thought that your summer is like what we are growing here in winter. Maybe I should grow celeriac in winter Mark. I have been so curious on what it taste like.

Sue~All the citrus trees in our neighbourhood are full with ripe fruits at the moment. Make me wish we have any citrus tree to look forward too.

Robin~Our winter is mild and so far we have no frost that we can grow almost all year round.

Holly~We are trying many new varieties that is tolerant with our winter here this year. So far some of it works well.

Sherry~Always sow plenty with the brassicas. Better excess which you can give-away rather than none. Succession sowing is good to practice too. My neighbour takes those olive to process somewhere else so I am not sure how he process them.

Malar~We are lucky to have generous neighbours.

Gardener on Sherlock Street~A very rich reward indeed :).

Madiha~Hehehe...baru je petik.

Graziana~Your Christmas tree must be very gorgeous every year and edible too!

Suburban Tomato~Yes, there are yellow pear and yellow currant tomatoes. They are very tolerant to heat waves too. They still flower despite we are in mid-autumn. Does well in partial shade as well.

Shaz~Yum Yum mandarin:).

Cikmanggis~Seronoknya dengar bunga matahari tu dah timbul. Saya pun tak sabar nak tengok.

Milka~You get the momentum soon. I also had many errors in my gardening journey.Hey...those were nice harvest you posted today.

JGH~Good luck with your fall garden plan. Wish we have some cucumbers.

Daphne Gould said...

Beautiful harvest. I always have to remind myself where you live. You have such colorful harvests during the winter.