The only community event that we sometime participate for local fruit and veggie swap is held in West Croydon every first Saturday of the month. Today the host were James and Evie. I wanted to catch up with Evie so we went, although I don't really have many excess produce from my garden to share. Our host managed to surprise us with a very big pumpkin on the table from his friend that even 20 months old Rayyan can fit in the pumpkin. On the table to share today were lemons, eggplants, rosemary, seedlings, pomegranates, walnuts, jerusalem artichokes, seeds and of course big portions of pumpkin for everyone to bring back home.
We brought back many cut pieces of pumpkin for friend and neighbours. Lenay was excited of recieving the big pumpkin seeds and surprise me by counting it. She counted 64 pumpkin seeds and want to try growing it when she return back to her parents home. One of her wish came true today I reckon, because she always wanted to have big pumpkin seeds. Usually she likes to eat pumpkin and sunflower seeds but I don't see her doing it today. I was excited on something else, another plant that I wanted to try growing this year in my wish list have been granted ~ Jerusalem Artichokes/Sunroot. A fan of it, I am not yet. It is just curiousity of how the growing plants look like. Growing sunroot in Adelaide can make it forever not leaving your garden if you don't harvest them all, you will want to call it a weed after a few years, well that is what I hear from every gardener that grow this tubers. Since I am a novice at growing this plant, do you know whether this tubers can grow in partial shade/ or shade very well or not? How about the soil, will clay be a problem?
What did we managed to bring along?
Scooped some celery seedlings today to give-away at the swap and clear my conscious regarding their fate today. I planned to prepare the veggie patch that have hundreds of self-sowed celery seedlings for cool season vegetables. Happy we managed to complete the task today. At least some were saved from being green manure as I prepared the bed for other veggies. We also brought some seeds to share which is suitable to sow this month~ Red onion odourless, calendula sunshine, lettuce, coriander, lakspur (Making a note so I don't bring the same thing again for the next swap). Hopefully for the next swap, the self-sowed coriander are big enough to bring along. Lucky, at the last minute before we went, I managed to snip some ripe red chilies to share.
So many pumpkins on our kitchen table. But Hazel is having "The Pumpkin Challenge" which have many wonderful pumpkin recipe to try!
15 comments:
We grew Jerusalem artichokes years ago and they grew with hardly any attention from us in clay soil. They eventually formed a tall thicket and we dug them all out which took quite an effort.
Sounds like fun! You brought lots of fun seeds to share.
What a great idea - you reminded me that I put in some Jerusalem artichoke last year and forgot to dig it up. I can't remember what it looks like!
I wish I lived near you so that I could participate in your veggie swap...
You will have fun with the Jerusalem Artichokes! They are easy! Partial shade, full sun, clay, good soil, poor soil. They'll grow tall and plentiful, whatever the conditions. They don't need any special treatment. They also have pretty yellow flowers (like sunflowers) in summer. Have fun! :)
What a fun time! The Jerusalem artichokes looks great. That will be fun to try. My sister loves them. I don't think I've tried them before...
I also have Jerusalem artichokes.....I forgot about those. Oh well, next season! I love the idea of a veggie/seed swap.
Just like you, artichokes is a strange veggie to me. I have seen recipes using artichoke and always am curious to how it tastes like! Your community is very supportive of each other, that is really great.
Happy Mother's Day, Diana!
those veggie swaps are everything communities ought to be - it is so wonderful to bypass the world of commerce.
Sue~ It must be hard to find all the tubers so it won't sprout again like volunteer potatoes.
Holly~ It was nice to meet other gardeners and learn some new tips about gardening.
JGH~Hopefully, your J.Artichokes will make an appearance again this year and you can dig up some for the kitchen.
Mark~ There are a few other places in our western surburb that has veggie swap too but it is always the same day and timing. I always like to get some lemon from this swap because our lemon tree grown from seeds have not produce yet.
Veggie Gnome~I like this kind of vegetable that thrive in any condition without any TLC. What a treat it will be with the flowers.
Wendy~It will be a new fun adventure for us this year.
Daffodil~It must be easy to forget about them seems they don't require much attention.
Joyce~I have met so many generous gardener in our community here and willing to share so many gardening experience as well. There is another artichoke which is strange to me ~ globe artichoke.
Catmint~ It is good that in this busy world that we living nowadays that this veggie swaps help the community to get close and sustain each other.
I had the pleasure of eating for the first time fried "Angled Luffa". I had never heard of them before & would like to know if anyone can tell me where I can purchase them already grown. I am disabled & not able to garden as I once could. My Mother brought some that she had cooked & they are so "delicious". I would love to hear from someone on this. Thanks so much!!
rgibbs~ Angled Luffa is really delicious as it absorb flavour quickly like sponge when cook. I don't know where we could get them already grown. Never seen them sell as seedling in nursery. I used to grow them by seeds and they do grow fast like cucumber.
Thank you Malay...i don't know where to get them either but a friend of my mother gave her some already grown...someone gave the seeds to my Mother's friend & they did not know what they were so they planted them & then started to cook them...but they are so delicious but you have to eat them before they are grown since they are so fiberous. If someone out there knows where you can get them already grown I would surely like to know.
Rgibbs~ You have to harvest them when the fruits are young about 20-30cm like zucchini the fruits develop really fast in a few days.
thank you Malay for that info..i will get that out to the lady that gave some to my Mother...she really did not know what they were & i hope she can get me some seeds to plant..they are delicious!!!
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