Monday, July 18, 2011

Mid-Winter Harvest

Two of our dragon carrot tops were almost bald so I harvested them and made it our official first harvest of dragon carrot.  Harvested the last batch of Da Cheong Chae which some were badly infested with green caterpillars. This week the garden provide us with some sweet corns, pink radishes, chillies, yellow cherry tomatoes and snow peas. This is the first winter season that we managed to have continues harvest. I am just keeping a record so I can make a note and plan for next year vegetable growing plan for continuous harvest in the cool season. Visit Daphne and watch around the world what other gardeners are harvesting at the moment on Harvest Monday.
Purple mustards.
Different colour shade and interesting looking Afghanistan carrots. The best carrot we ever tasted. In soup, this carrot tasted so creamy and different from the usual carrot taste. It does not smell like the orange colour ones compared with different variety of carrots that we grown so far. I am letting a few to bolt after this winter season to collect seeds. Lenay even put a ribbon on the biggest carrot plant at the moment so I remember not to harvest that plant.
Rainbow Chards.
Spring onions, capsicum, lemon grasses, white sweet potatoes and sweet potato shoots which we used up yesterday for cooking meals.
Cut the sweet potato into chunks and wash the sweet potato shoots to cook into coconut milk.
Can't have enough of this dish. Rayyan favourite dish.

28 comments:

Sunray Gardens said...

Good harvest for winter. Hopefully you'll be able to determine the best things for you to grow next year too.
Cher Sunray Gardens

kitsapFG said...

Extending the season and harvest is very rewarding and well worth the effort. It sounds like you found a keeper carrot.

Unknown said...

Another nice harvest again this week! I love your carrots!

cikmanggis said...

masyallah..puas makan sayur jika begini lah hasilnya:)Suka tengok karot yang ada anak tu...pelik

Thomas said...

Great harvest! I'll have to look for some of those carrot seeds. I've heard that you can eat sweet potato shoots but have never tried them. I think I'll try growing sweet potatoes next year.

Barbie~ said...

That one carrot has gone insane! Your harvest is always so full of color. Beautiful!

tina said...

I am totally amazed at how much produce you are getting from your garden. To harvest all winter is a sign of a great gardener-and smart too. Those carrots are so pretty. I've never been successful with them here but am trying.

Emily said...

Glad you're having success with extending the harvest into your winter. The sweet potato dish looks wonderful.

Sue Garrett said...

Love the carrot with all the little baby carrots attached!

Robin said...

What a beautiful and bountiful winter harvest! I really like the purple greens. I have never heard of Afghanistan carrots...sound great!

Mark Willis said...

Those Afhganistan carrots may taste good, but they certainly look ugly! How come they have so many side-shoots on their roots? Do you have very stony soil?
I think you do a brilliant job with keeping the harvest coming all year round. I wish I could do the same.

Daphne Gould said...

Sweet potatoes and coconut milk sound really good together. Yum. It looks like you had a good harvest this week.

Shawn Ann said...

Beautiful harvest! Especially for going into your winter season. I would definitely be proud if I had a late season harvest like that!

Kelli said...

What a great harvest and your sweet potato dish looks really yummy! I hope to expand the varieties of carrots I grow next year, like the idea of different colours, shapes & taste. Kelli

rainfield61 said...

There must be great satisfaction: good harvest, good food. . .. ...

Sue Catmint said...

amazing - you are amazing Diana! a friend has been giving me oranges and mandarins from her garden and they taste a million times than the bought ones. The sweet potato recipe looks fantastic, and the pale carrots look a bit like parsnips.

Malar said...

handful of harvest!
Rayan must be lucky boy to have all fresh vegetables right from the garden!

Aishah said...

oh what colours, you live in a winter place yet the dish is so tropical and traditional. i now have the craves for it, sincerely, but where can i go to find it:)

Cat-from-Sydney said...

MKG dear,
I wish I have a genie that grants my wish: to live next door to you. har har har *evil laughs*

One said...

Your harvest and your dishes look good. I have never cook such a dish before. Cooking ABC soup right now. Coconut milk with sweet potato sounds like Bubur Cha Cha.

Lisa said...

That's a good harvest.
I am just amazed with those african carrots because the usual color of the carrot in the Philippines is color orange.

Lisa from Acoustic Guitar Lessons

littlekarstar said...

That coconut milk dish that Rayyan loves sounds interesting, how do you cook it?

Your garden is very inspiring, it produces so much.

Here it's so cold...just the broccollini, snowpeas and chard are surviving

Jody said...

Your harvest leads the way for us all. It looks wonderful. We're hoping we can harvest year round soon too. Before we can do, we'll need to build a good cold frame and raise our greenhouse. It will be a lot of work.

Sherry said...

You get corns for your mid-winter harvest? Interesting...

Those Afghanistan carrots sound great. I need to look up some seeds!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Cher~ I know what to plant more and what to plant less next year. The sowing time as well hopefully got it right next year.

KitsapFG~Afghanistan carrot is a keeper allright tasted very differently from other carrot variety.

Allison~We finally got some carrot to harvest in winter after 3 years of gardening.

Cikmanggis~Tanah kalau berbatu atau terlampau subur buat karot macam tu kadang-kadang.

Thomas~Nothing come to waste with sweet potatoes. Root and shoot are edible.

Barbie~It seems like the carrot is pregnant and giving more babies.

Tina~We never grow straight looking carrot.But that the fun when you pulling the root out you never know what shape it is.

Emily~The dish is very creamy. Warm comfort food for this winter.

Sue~I think the carrot was trying its best to give us more baby carrots as a bonus.

Robin~The mustard was supposedly to be harvest much younger before its become hotter. But I always forgot them.

Mark~I think it will be much more beautiful carrot, if the gardener give its optimum environment with loose soil and nutrient. Those carrot was growing in hard clay soil that have stone. So I was really surprise how determined some of the carrot were growing that big.

Daphne~Very healthy dish.

Shawn Ann~We are lucky this year. We begun to understand how to try to extend the season.

Kelli~Its fun growing carrots which you can't get from the market and taste so much better. Good Luck and hope you have heaps of fun.

Rainfield61~They bring joy into our house.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Catmint~My neighbour just gave me some mandarin this morning.He just pluck from the tree for us and was I surprised too how different it tasted. Wish I can grow fruit trees as well. I gave him our Chilean Guava tree to him from a friend. Because I know he will grow the tree much better than I ever could since we are renting at the moment.

Malar~He is eating fresh carrots everyday in this week now. We do freeze some of our produce just in case when there are absolutely nothing to harvest in our garden.

Aishah~A lovely friend was very kind to teach me how to prepare this dish.

Cat-from-Sydney~Maybe you have overused your 3 wishes ;-).

One~Oh yum bubur cha cha.

Lisa~Ah yes we usually only see orange colour carrots in south-east-asia. But carrots actually have many colours.

Mrs Bok~ The purple colour font in the post links to the recipe how to make it.

Jody~That is a very good investment. hard work at first but you will see many returns from it.

Sherry~We were trying our luck whether the corns will mature or not in winter. They managed somehow but takes a long time to wait compare to summer sweet corn.

Rosie Gan said...

I know I missed this post of yours, but glad I found it. That dish would go perfectly well with sambal belacan!
Rosie

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Rosie~ You are right sambal will give more kick. But it is a bit dangerous with sambal as I will not be able to control how much I eat...hehehe...