Monday, January 31, 2011

January second-half harvest

From Mid-January till this end of January, we harvested several first harvest warm-loving vegetables for this summer season. Since we are into Mid-Summer, the tomato harvest is reducing due to too hot weather for them to produce proper blooms. Although it is still enough for our kitchen used. The yellow cherry tomatoes seems to like this very hot weather compared with other tomatoes. I am glad we planted several variety of tomatoes this year to determine which does well with the climate here.First capsicum harvest for this year, but the size were less than half size of last year. We freeze all the lady fingers (okra) and beans harvest. Button Squash has been one of the big producer in the garden constantly supplying the kitchen table its produce.
Not a really suitable time to grow Pak Choi's. I harvested most of the Pak Choi's before I lose the leaves to the heat waves. Our newcomer for this warm season, Green Gem Cucumber is also helping us to keep cool with constant supply, an early producer and long harvesting season. Green Gem Cucumber is suitable to grow here in Adelaide, it is heat tolerant and grow quickly even in cooler weather. I need to decide what cabbage to grow next autumn. I won't but any earliball cabbage variety, not a reliable producer.
I tried growing turnip in spring but it grow so slowly. After 4 months, turnip still does not produce fat root. I will attempt to grow turnip again this autumn. Any tips for growing turnip?

Harvested potatoes, red onions and brown onions that were grown from supermarket which sprouted shoots before we can cook it.
We cut the come again vegetable leaves~kang kong and amaranth before they got sun-burned since it will have to endure 40 degree Celcius for several days. We also harvested our first apple cucumber.

Which vegetables has been you main supplier in the month of January?

19 comments:

cikmanggis said...

Masyallah..seronoknya :)suka sangat baca n3 ni.Cm baca dan lihat gambar sayur sayuran ni berkali kali sambil berangan angan nak tanam sayur seperti Diana:)tapi hanya angan angan sebab rumah yang akan kami duduki selepas suami cm pencen nanti hanya ada tanah se jemput je hehe.

Sue Garrett said...

Brilliant Diana - especially considering your heat wave! Turnips are best picked as small roots no bigger than tennis ball size so you aren't far off!

takaeko said...

I'm facing an opposite problem against yours, a severely cold winter in Japan.
My pak choi, spinaches and komatunas are waiting for warm days for germination bearing with chilly days.

Mr. H. said...

What a fine harvest you are having in this month of January. I like that you grow and use amaranth for its leaves, I do not know many others who do...the leaves are very nutritious. You might have better luck with your turnips in the autumn as they do like growing in cooler weather, but the ones you harvested look pretty good to me. Our vegetable of the month is also turnips, but we grow them for their leaves this time of year...very cold hardy vegetable, perhaps the hardiest plant we grow. I saw one stray plant the other day popping right up through the snow.

Anonymous said...

This must be the prettiest January harvest I have ever seen! Your pictures bring back memories of our summer 6 months ago...
Here we are harvesting mostly kale and some winter greens (mache, arugula). Kale is becoming one of my favorite vegetables.

rainfield61 said...

Lenggang lenggang kangkung (2x)
Kangkung tepi telaga
Balik dari menyabung (2x)
Makanlah nasi sahaja
Lenggang lenggang kangkung (2x)
Kangkung di tepi paya
Malam ini kita berkampung (2x)
Esok berpisahlah pula
Lenggang lenggang kangkung (2x)
Kangkung di tepi muara
Jangan duduk termenung (2x)
Mari kita bersuka ria

Carolyn ♥ said...

Your pictures are so inviting. Nice to know somewhere in the world someone is harvesting delicious food. We are freezing in my Winter gardens, but I am finding beauty here.

One said...

Your harvests are a lot more impressive than beautiful flowers. My okra got out of hand. I didn't think about freezing them till I read your post. I usually harvest only what I need to cook. The beetles thought I left the okra for them so they gladly build a huge family there.

Your first evening sunflower bloomed today. It's yellow. The rest of them are very tall, taller than me.

CathJ said...

wow..... what a great harvest!!!! I am so excited looking at all your hard work....

Stephanie said...

Sorry about the heat there. Although 40 degree C (hot!), your harvest looks fresh and nice! Love the many colours I see in your basket ;-)

Sorry I have no tips for you. But I have a question on the red and brown onions. Were the onions in the pic multiplied from the original bulb you planted? Or it is the same one you planted in July?

Alison said...

Your enthusiasm about growing and harvesting vegetables is so wonderful, it really comes through in your writing! Right now we are in winter, so we don't have much out there. I did harvest some leeks last week, the last of mine, and I have some lettuce limping along through the cold, wet weather.

Sorry it's so hot there, hope you have somewhere to go to get some relief from the heat.

Patricia said...

Wonderful post! I am growing winter vegetables now, but this makes me want to start planning my summer garden. I have amaranth just because I think it is such a pretty plant. I didn't realize I could harvest the leaves. Do you prepare them like a braised green? Lovely photos.

Unknown said...

I would like so much to have such beautiful vegetable in my garden, but we have to much snow. I must wait.

Hafiz said...

Wow what a great harvest you got there. My most harvested plant in January is lettuce and Broccoli. Right now my cherry tomato, butternut pumpkin, baby corn and button squash is growing. Can wait to harvest them this month!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

CikManggis~ Kami pun tanah sempit kat sini. Boleh tanam dalam container keliling rumah CM nanti.Kami pun curi-curi tanam kat tanah kosong belakang. Tengah berangan-berangan juga bila balik ada tanah luas sikit nak tanam berbanding sekarang.

Sue~ Some of the roots don't grow round but long like radish I wonder why.

Takaeko~ Yes you did mentioned when you have very hot summer the winter will be chilly. In your part of Japan do you have frost?

Mr. H~ In our culture it is said that amaranth help cools the body. How do you use the turnip top? My mother tried with stir fry but it was bitter maybe the leaves were too mature when I harvest them.I can imagine how pretty turnip leaves look with snow white.

Vrtlatrica ana~ Kale is so reliable in winter. I have to plan kale in our autumn sowing time.

Rainfield61~ Wah, I only remember half of the song.

Carolyn~ There are many beautiful things in the snow and it gives you a promising spring with showy display later.

ONE~ I used 6months freezed okra to cook asam pedas before and it taste fresh from the garden. Yes, it can be frozen straight from the garden. My okra not doing well this year with the day and night temperature fluctuating and extreme hot weather. It won't grow tall, and less than 30cm tall. It looks very funny bearing fruit with that height.

CathJ~ Thank you.

Stephanie~ Yes it is from the onion bulbs that Ilhan and my cousin planted at the back of our backyard fence in July. If the growing onions are average sized or small they multiplied a lot like 5~7 bulb from the original bulb. However, if they are growing very big bulb for you like the red onion in my photos, you get only 2~3 onion from the original bulb.After half a year growing them we can start harvest the onions.

Alison~ Lettuce always help to give a fresh produce from the garden in winter. If it is too hot, we pay a visit to the library.

Patricia~ I think you can braised them. We usually stir fry the young leaves or cook it in soups.

Ellada~Your snow photos are very beautiful. I would like some cold wind there to keep us cool here. Air-conditioning here is no used at all against this heatwaves.

Hafiz~My lettuce and broccoli are forming flowers.Several broccoli plants will help to keep the supply flowing to the kitchen as thay also produce many side shoots.We are not growing butternut pumpkin this year. We are groing JAP and Queensland pumpkin this year.

~TastyTravels~ said...

Wow! What an amazing harvest you've had! Your photo make me want to daydream of the season to come! Thanks for sharing!

miruku said...

Nah, i'm very sure my land is bigger than yours very much, but how come my harvest is so much lesser than yours? 2 batang bendi + 1 biji cili for yesterday,.. don't laugh!! Haha.
By the way, i've extended an award for you, please feel free to pick it up when you're free. Gong Xi Fa Chai!!

shaz said...

What a great harvest!! I had five little striped eggplants looking very promising in a pot, and one night I forgot to cover it and it was eaten by my resident possum! All my tomatoes are gone now, too hot, and celery went to seed. But at least we got to enjoy our salad leaves.

Tonight I just saw a bandicoot hop around on our terrace area. It's cool that wildlife like my tiny garden but not cool when they eat all my crops...sigh.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Holly~ You have many seedlings ready for transplanting when spring comes.

Milka~ Thank you for the award and Selamat Tahun Baru Cina to you too. Your bendi must look much nicer than mine. My okra plant stunted due to the fluctuating temperatures.

Shaz~Yikes certainly not cool if they eat all your harvest and won't leave some for you. Birds like to eat our strawberry before but we gave them lefover rice everyday so they don't bother the plants.