Monday, February 28, 2011

2nd Half of February Harvest

Yellow cherry tomatoes have been the main produce for the month of February. Cucumbers have bounce back from the 40+degree Celcius heat-stress we had some weeks ago.We feel lucky that we can at least harvest one cucumber almost everyday. Some of the most exciting things about harvesting this month were many selection to choose from and different variety of vegetable to harvest. Furthermore, some summer vegetables that we were waiting for it to produce has also rewarded us it goodies like~ angled luffa, snake bean and cucumber white spine. We had rain in mid-summer! This has made kangkung (water spinach) very happy and grow new leaves very fast after we cut them. This time from my husband fishing trip we got some fish.
We grow 3 different eggplant variety ; Early long purple, Lebanese and Bonica and managed to harvest all 3 of them at the same day. Okra has start to flower again but will struggle again when the weather is cold at night. Capsicum this year are smallish compare with last year. Purple bell capsicum looks like eggplant when they are in the same container.
Our zucchini and pattypan squash are starting to loose its shyness, male and female start to bloom almost synchronously and we were able to harvest some decent size of produce. With the rain and cooler weather we managed to get an average sweet corn. Chives are abundant and I even take some division to grow on another veggie patch instead of keeping them just in pots. Spring onion that were grown probably 10 months ago with a very fat bulb look like white onion. We still have some leeks growing in the polystyrene container to harvest.
So so so happy that our angle luffa plant gifted us with one very sweet fruit for the first time. It is our first time growing them in Adelaide and I am glad that this warm loving vegetable are suitable to grow here. It has been years since I ate angle luffa, never buy angle luffa here even though we can find it is Asian grocery shops.
Some Australia brown onion grown from seeds were also harvested because they were completely dried.
We harvested our first cucumber white spine and okra burgundy for the first time this summer. Cucumber white spine takes a long time to produce compare with the other two cucumber that we currently have in the garden; Green Gem and Apple cucumber. I like cucumber white spine (heirloom)very much and the seeds are not found in any of the Australia seed company catalog anymore. This is my second year growing this cucumber, I hope I can managed to save some of cucumber white spine seeds this year. Although I have harvested some sweet corn, I have not even have a bite on it as it is reserved for Ilhan and Rayyan. Ilhan will eat it raw fresh straight away after harvest.
All the variety of beans that we are growing is producing prolificcally. We are keeping harvested beans in the freezer except for snake bean.
What have you been harvesting this month?

Visit Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.

23 comments:

Mr. H. said...

Just look at all of that wonderful food your garden has produced.I can't wait until our spring and summer weather finally arrives so that we can once again grow fresh cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes. I love the healthy balance of garden vegetables and fish that you eat. Of all the books on nutrition that I have read over the years this combination of fish and veggies seems to be on of the most benificial to ones health...good for you.

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Happy for you to see bountiful (or basketful) harvest... I am waiting for small cucumbers (timun tikus) to grow taller. They are now having 6 leaves... but no sign of tendrils yet...

takaeko said...

Great harvest! I'm overwhelmed with your varieties of vegetables!
They would be able to survive the hot summer without your care.

Alison said...

Love seeing your harvest photos! Your corn is beautiful! Can't you save just one for yourself? There's nothing edible growing here yet, just tiny seedlings. I am looking forward to my veggies growing later this year though.

Mark Willis said...

I have hardly harvested anything this month - which is unfortunately normal for February. :(

I have had some chicories, some Land Cress and some herbs (Rosemary, Sage and Thyme). I have also used the beans I dried last Autumn. That's about it!

Can't wait for Summer. Perhaps I will get as good a harvest as yours?

littlekarstar said...

Such a wonderful harvest! Can you please post some new pics of where you grow all your vegies? I need new inspiration! I don't have a lot of room for vegies because only part of the garden gets sun. Such a waste of space having a lawn everytime I look outside but at least the kid and the chooks enjoy it even if it doesn't get sunlight.

How do you cook your angle luff? It looks intriguing! My apple cucumbers this year were so bitter I just couldn't eat them :( The green ones were fine but not the apple ones, not sure why. Any ideas?

rainfield61 said...

I must be very happy and talk a lot if I am you, just because of the harvest.

almutarjimah said...

Bountiful :)

One said...

A cucumber almost everyday? I don't get that since I don't grow cucumber but I do harvest a papaya almost everyday. :)

miruku said...

So far i only have 1 fruit hanging on my cucumber plant and that was the one that i hand pollinated (yeah). The plant is still flowering but male and female flowers have different timing, that's the problem im facing :( Wah your corn grains are neat and full!

~TastyTravels~ said...

What an amazing harvest!!

Kat said...

Wow what a gorgeous harvest, you must be really happy! How do you eat the angled luffa? I don't think I've ever seen it before.

Stephanie said...

Everytime I see your basketful of vege... I will also think what vege to get this week. I will see if I could get few of those pattypan squash here... the squash looks cute... like gasing he he...

Lrong Lim said...

Congrats on the angled loofah!

Sue Garrett said...

Great harvest - we are low on things to pick fresh at this time of year.

Never had much luck with aubergines (egg plant)

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mr. H~ Seafood are so expensive here in down under. I am glad that my husband made fishing as his favourite past time.

Bangchik~Looking forward to watch your tikus timun growing.

Takaeko~I was surprised myself this summer we managed to grow more than double vagetable variety compared to previous summer.

Alison~ We sowed new batch of sweetcorn this month hopefully it will be enough for the adults as well.

Mark~ How wonderful you have some beans that is home-grown still in your pantry. That is still a lot of harvest considering it is cold there.

Mrs. Bok~ I will try to post new photo of my garden soon. Angle luffa~ stir fry or in soup dishes. We also have some trouble with the apple cucumber. We had to harvest them even when it is still smallish size because they were turninig yellowish colour quickly, a sign of maturing.

Rainfield61, almutarjimah,Holly, Lrong~ Thank you, I feel very happy with this month harvest.

One~ One of your papaya for 3 of my cucumbers;-). Tried to plant papaya here but not growing well.

Milka~ I hope your cucumber will have male and female synchronously bloom. I received a suggestion before to keep male in the fridge while waiting for female to bloom.But I have never tested this myself whether it works or not. My sweetcorn not all full ;-).

Kat~ I usually stir-fry them or toss them in soup. Angle luffa soak all the flavor like sponge.

Stephanie~They do look like gasing yeah, happy hunting pattypan squash.

Sue~This summer is a cold one considering previous years so our aubergines not doing well along with peppers. Last summer we had abundant harvest of aubergines. On the other hand, tomato and cucumber do well this year.

Robin said...

It is so so nice to see all of your wonderful vegetables!! It's still winter here...so I will just admire your veggies for now!

michelle said...

What an amazing abundance and variety of vegetables! It's a beautiful sight.

Kelli said...

Beautiful veg and so nicely displayed. Thanks for visiting my blog. I'll be back to visit yours, it's great!

Barbie~ said...

Beautiful harvest! Really makes me crazy for my little bitty plants to grow faster! :-D

Anonymous said...

What a harvest!!! Everything looks beautiful. Great pics too.

Dirt Lover said...

I love summer produce pictures! So nice to see that during winter here. Beautiful colors, thanks for sharing.
~~Lori

Daphne Gould said...

That harvest really makes me dream of summer. I know that luffas are edible when small, but would never have thought about eating them myself. Our season really isn't long enough to grow them well. But I'm intrigued.