Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Daikon thinnings

I was a bit worried during the second half of April whether the garden will have any fresh vegetables for the kitchen. Fortunately, daikon seeds that were sowed around middle of March were growing really fast. Daikon seeds were sowed very closely, I have been putting root vegetables seedlings thinning task at the bottom of list to do in the veggie patch. As daikon grows really big root compared with other radish, our daikon thinnings were already the same size as white icicle variety radish. Daikon thinnings have been the main fresh harvest in the kitchen together with chilies. Okra is loving the warm weather we had last week and we spied many promising pods that can be harvested this week. Once again, I forgot to harvest bittergourd growing in the front yard, some fruits have over ripen.
Glad I did not gave up on the white spine cucumber plants that have been growing since spring but were only producing male flowers. As the day is becoming shorter, it starts to produce female flower. Now, it is the main cucumber variety that is producing for us in fall. After second year of growing this cucumber variety, I now understand that this is a very sensitive day-light hours cucumber plant. Some cucumber variety don't produce female when the days are getting longer but the shortening of day-lights will trigger the female fruits to form. Some carrots that were growing in containers sowed in January were harvested.
I was clearing some veggie patches and harvested leeks that were planted in spring. Using some of this harvest (leeks, cucumbers, capsicum, chinese celery cut in bite sizes), prepared Sweet and Sour Tempura coated Salmon dish.
Different variety of capsicum plants are producing in our garden. However, it makes us wait a long time for it to ripe. I am so tempted to harvest these capsicum when there are green several times. Results of waiting until last weekend got to harvest 2 purple bell and banana capsicum. Spied some banana and golden bell capsicums which is ripening and might be ready for picking this week. Lenay fried the eggplants with tempura. Probably this was our final chance harvested 3 varieties of cucumbers (apple, green gem, white spine) in one day this fall.
We don't have much luck with melon family this year compared last year. Last year we have many big honeydew melons and watermelon to harvest. This year we only had some small melon harvest. The biggest melon this year did not even matured to the size of smallest melon harvested last year. Honeydew, Rockmelon and Turkish Leopard melon plants were fruiting but I discovered too late last week that cucumber beetles have make a grand nest on one of the veggie patch. The plants died when the fruit were half-way developing . Although the ripe melons were small this year, it tastes much sweeter than the big ones.
What is your most favourite melon?

23 comments:

cikmanggis said...

salam Diana ..lama tak singgah ke kebun diana..sibukkk sungguh.Kebun Cm pun dah kering kontang kerana tuan kebun busy...masakan tu nampak sungguh yum yum:)

Mark Willis said...

You always have such a variety of crops in your garden! I like that. It sort of "hedges your bets", in that if one crop doesn't do very well, another probably will.

rainfield61 said...

You have surprised me with so many varieties of vege in your garden.

~TastyTravels~ said...

Wowzas! What a wonderful harvest! I love daikon sprouts! I didn't have any success with a store bought melon starter last year. I sowed 3 melon varieties this year. I hope they make it to harvest!

The Sage Butterfly said...

You have such a bountiful harvest...lots to eat! It looks yummy....and so healthy.

Robin said...

My goodness, what a wonderful harvest and quite beautiful too! I am a bit jealous since it is still spring here :)

JGH said...

That looks fantastic and yummy! Wow. I have tried growing daikon without much success. I know there is some secret to them that I haven't figured out yet.

I'm trying melon again this year. It's a short season, so I grow the little ones.

Katie M said...

Wow, the melon in the front is beautiful, looks like it's been woven into a basket.
Your harvest is very impressive, and after reading what you wrote about Tumeric the other day I am inspired to try it. I didn't think I could grow it here in Adelaide, but you have shown me you can!

Cat-from-Sydney said...

MKG,
Daikon stir fried with ikan bilis and little bit of chili...yummmy! It's almost time to cook for lunch now. purrr....meow!

Stephanie said...

I hope you will get plenty of juicy and succulent melons later. I especially love rock melon ;-)

Unknown said...

The best food, it is the one you grown in your garden. Bravo.

Malar said...

That's good harvest of vegetables! Your Daikon look good! Mine was very thin! hahahhaa...

Phoebe said...

I can't believe all that came from your garden! I just can't believe it! Its amazing.

Daphne Gould said...

What a wonderful harvest. Cucumbers are one of my favorite plants. I love having cucumber salads all summer long. I'm going to try to grow melons this year since I have room in my garden now, but melons don't grow well here at all. We are just too cool.

Sue Garrett said...

We harvested the last of our leeks last weekend. Interesting about the white cucumber. Hope we are successful with melons this year too

littlekarstar said...

Your arrests are always so amazing!!!! All this from containers, it's incredible. Good on you! You definitely have green fingers!

Bom said...

Wow! That is an impressive harvest. Your children are very lucky that you are bent on providing them with organic, healthy and from the looks of it, absolutely delicious food.

kitchen flavours said...

Your harvest as usual, left me drooling! Your daikon looks so nice! I just moved six seedlings to the veggie bed, hopefully they will grow! Your melon, "geramnya!" Your sweet and sour salmon looks yummy, salmon is so expensive over here! I like all the different varieties you get to harvest each week! So envious! :)

CathJ said...

wow.. beautiful harvest... :D

Kelli said...

Such an amazing and impressive harvest! You're so talented to grow such an array of wonderful varieties. Kelli.

tina said...

Gosh you have a bumper crop of so many vegetables! I tried my first daikon last summer-a friend grew it and gave me one to try. Loved it! Enjoy yours-it looks so good!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

CikManggis~ Tahniah dapat ahli keluarga baru!

Mark~ It is difficult to predict what kind of summer or winter will have everyyear. I think it is much safer to plant variety of edible things. This summer we had luck with tomatoes and cucumbers which previous year was a failure. But eggplants and capsicum were not as abundant as previous summer because this summer were cooler and the nights were cold for the plants to have proper blooms.

Rainfield61~ It is still fall we might have a variety of vegetable to harvest but come winter might be just green.

Holly~ I am dreaming of nabe ryouri with the daikons. Hope you have many melons to harvest this year.

The Sage Butterfly~ At the moment we still have some to harvest but I am not sure a few weeks later. Starting to freeze some of the vegetables.

Robin~ Soon you have many harvest in your garden and we have to rely on fresh frozen vegetables.

JGH~ We tried to grow daikon last spring but it bolted. Last spring weather was strange, temperature everyday keep on fluctuating might be the reason they bolted. This is our second attemt at growing them, early fall which seems they like the weather very much.

hearts-in-asia~ We used turmeric leaves in cooking. It is possible to freeze the leaves and rhizome.

Cat-from-Sydney~ Belum cuba lagi.Thanks for the tip. I do need a lot of idea using daikon. Asyik sup je...hehehe...

Stephanie~ I hope next warm season will be good for melon:).

Ellada~ Nothing beats fresh home-grown veggies. Thanks.

Malar~ Ya ke. I think yours was bigger, it is just the angle I took nampak besar!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Phoebe~ I would swap our chilies for your beautiful tomatoes;-).

Daphne~ This year might be a good year for melon perhaps. I think there are some suitable melon variety for short summer season.

Sue~ Here I am contemplating whether I should harvest all my spring planted leeks or not. Only several left. Over-wintered leek must taste sweet isn't it? Hope you have many melons this year.

Mrs Bok~ Not all of them from containers. This time I think only 30% from containers. I am clearing up my containers at the moment for winter veggies.

Bom~ My family tries to eat what is in season. We freeze some of the vegetables as well for winter. But we don't grow fruits as we don't have space and renting at the moment.

Joyce~Salmon expensive here too. But I buy the ones that left over small chunk bits which is cheaper rather than fillets.I got spoilt when I live in Japan, salmon in season was cheap. Since I got addicted to salmon, buy when only craving-loh.

CathJ~ Thank you dear.

Kelli~ I have many failure attempt too. I tried growing wong bok (Chinese cabbage) for 2 different season never successful.

Tina~ Daikon although are big, it does not taste hot like other radish than can be.