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Thursday, June 7, 2012

End Autumn Harvest Note Wrap Up

Some of our summer crop season extends longer than previous year for this year. We seems to have longer warm weather this year. Furthermore this year, some of the summer loving plants were re-sown in mid-summer to replace the ones that were damaged by the summer heat. The photos will be like a note reminding me how to make the garden more productive each year. As I discovered earlier that for pumpkin/squash I can plant them twice a year but the rules must be that the first sowing I started them very early around mid-August (end winter). So pumpkin/squash plants will fruit before the extreme heat comes around early summer. Because by mid-summer most of the pumpkin/squash plants will be kill off by the extreme heat. Second sowing will be mid/late-summer and the fruits will hopefully ripen by mid-late autumn. We have many yellow currant cherry tomato volunteers plants fruiting. I am very amazed with this variety as it is very disease resistant, tolerates the extreme heat and our winter; and does well in partial shade. It just simply thrive with neglect in our garden. 
Second half of end-autumn goodies harvested from our garden.
Parsnips grown over summer in container did produce decent root size after about 8 months. I was not expecting much since the parsnip leaves got burn during summer.These parsnips were grown together with leeks and a purple skin sweet potato plant. Strange I found 3 potatoes also in the container, must have been from a volunteer plant that I forgotten. Never did I imagined that parsnip, leek and sweet potatoes grow well together in one container. One of the most productive container, as these 3 plants are plants that grow very slowly so they are a good combination.
Sweet potatoes that were grown in container.
Kangkung, leeks, chilli and white spine cucumber.
The white spine cucumber is our family most favourite cucumber. Its not bitter at all, nice flavour even in dry season. Because of this cucumber variety, Rayyan started to really enjoy eating cucumber. This means my portion will become much lesser or almost none because Rayyan will try to put all the cucumber slices on his plate.
Cherrytime capsicum has been the most prolific capsicum this year grown from our home-saved seeds. I had trouble when growing them first time from the seeds I bought, germination was very low. But germination rate was near 100% when we sowed our home-saved seeds probably the seeds has somehow adapted well with our garden climate. Baby lettuce or thinnings from home-grown seeds are generous now for picking often. Lettuce volunteers are also many living harmoniously together with weeds.
The last bitter gourd harvest for this year. Alpine strawberry has been flowering and fruiting this time around. The strawberry fruits are much bigger and sweeter compare during summer. It took half a year for this mini cabbage 'earliball' to form a 'small' head. I think I found more than 10 snails in the leaves
Our first home-grown Jerusalem artichoke (sunroot) harvest. We had only 2 plants growing in partial shade during summer growing without care. I was not expecting much tubers. I was so surprised of the yield from only 2 plants! The picture don't justify how many tubers were harvest actually because that is a deep basket. so you only see the top part. The Jerusalem artichoke tubers felt much heavier than our recent sweet potato harvest. I don't know what does Jerusalem artichoke taste like or the best way to prepare them. So I roasted some tubers together with marinade chicken for Rayyan lunch since I lack energy these days. The flesh near the skin tasted a bit salty and the inner flesh have mild sweetness. I thought it will be fun if I can think of a Malaysian dish that will go well together with these tubers. Next to the Jerusalem artichoke plant was a volunteer turmeric plants that only produce a thumb size knob of turmeric rhizomes. I don't have any home-grown potatoes in my pantry anymore and I have a craving for Malaysia ' Masak Lemak Cili Api' dish. I really don't know what this dish is usually call in English it is somewhat like yellow curry but the paste does not use any dry spices at all. The basic ingredients for this yellow curry paste are usually fresh tumeric rhizomes, shallots, garlic, onions, hot chillies, lemon grass, and add in shredded turmeric leaves, tamarind peels and coconut milk in one pot stir to mix. I made a veal 'Masak Lemak Cili Api' with Jerusalem artichoke tubers substitute for potatoes. One success experiment, Jerusalem artichoke goes well with this Malaysian traditional dish. Rayyan drop some tears after he stubbornly tasted the dish, he was warned several time but did not heed the warning due to strong curiosity. I did not realised he already dip his finger into the yellow curry. Poor boy his tongue was on fire. I used 5 chillies the one harvested in the photo.
Found some volunteer sweet potato tubers while clearing up one of the corner of our vegetable patch. We tried growing hybrid carrot for the first time (Purple Haze F1) and were disappointed with the result. It was supposed to be a dark purple carrot variety but most of the carrot roots were orange and smallish size after 7 month. Shockingly, some carrot plants did not even produce any roots.

27 comments:

  1. My brother grows Jerusalem artichoke too. He says he tosses the tubers all over the property, since they will grow nearly anywhere. They should be cooked like potatoes. Mashed, fried, roasted, baked... however you like. They can basically replace potatoes in any recipe.

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  2. I think your autumn has stolen some of our spring weather!

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  3. nice to see you posting. I hope you are feeling better now. I never tasted artichoke but nice to see that you're cooking it the way you do with potatoes. Take care, ya? hugs!

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  4. What an outstanding autumn harvest! Amazing!

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  5. Your satsumaimo(sweet potatoes) look great!
    I also planted sweet potato's sprouts and look forward to enjoying Yakiimo!

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  6. I'll remember about leeks and parsnips growing well together. I'm going to try them both in the Fall. I wish I liked sweet potatoes, they look fun to grow.

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  7. The jerusalem artichoke looks like ginger to me. I had no idea that they could substitue for potatoes. I am wondering about their nutrient content now, are these high glycemic index or less? Time for me to look that up...

    My 1st try with carrots were with F1 hybrids from the supermarket seed corner. I pretty much had same results as you, some had very skinny, Halloween-like roots, and a few had nice fat tubers. I still have about 10-15 of these in the garden, I am going through them slowly. I have this habit of pulling them out and stuffing them back in the ground if the tubers are too skinny, haha.

    Seeing your prolific container harvest has me itching to start some of my own. I see that you use styrofoam boxes as well, do you use other containers? Min 25 cm dpth for carrots, right?

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  8. god bless you with a cold hand ;)

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  9. I cant believe the quantity that you manage to produce in your little boxes! I see you got some colorful carrots! The amaranth seeds that you sent have all come up - you are very good at seed saving.

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  10. You certainly get the most out of your space. I continue to be amazed at the variety of produce.

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  11. OMG, the sweet potatoes are huge and nice. Tak ada serangan serangga atau kulat pada kulit.

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  12. Did you buy fruits and veggie from market? I don't think you need to buy, your home grown already enough supply for you, hehehe.,

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  13. Gald to see your post and your harvest! Good that you're feeling better too!

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  14. You have some really nice harvests this year. Everything looks wonderful.

    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  15. You have great harvests throughout the year.

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  16. What a beautiful harvest. I've never found the colored carrots to be better producing than the orange ones. They are pretty if they do color up though. I found that the ones that matured over the summer (and ours are cool maritime summers) to be so much smaller. And the ones in the fall got big and fat. So I'd guess they need cooler weather than you get.

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  17. great effort will lead to great reward!!

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  18. Your sweet potatoes look amazing. All your veg looks colourful and healthy. Enjoy!

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  19. I hope you're doing well. Your harvest looks wonderful! The sweet potatoes look huge and delicious. I'm so glad you gave them a try this year. Will you make french fries? They go great on the grill, sliced to look like small hamburger patties.

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  20. That's really a good harvest! Your chili and parsnip harvest have been great not to mention the sweet potatoes and the volunteer cherry tomatoes. That yellow cherry tomato plant will be a blessing in anybody's garden.

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  21. Your sweet potatoes and parnsips both look fabulous. Really impressive that they came out of the same container. I have some chilli seeds for you if you want them. If you do then email me:
    Liz@suburbantomato.com

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  22. Anywhere Eden~Yes I think I will now replace the dishes we often use with potatoes with Jerusalem artichoke now. Thanks for sharing.

    Sue~We started early winter now and the weather has changed drastically. So cold this week. Maximum is below 15 degree Celsius now.You must like the weather in June now in your area.

    Lena~Terima kasih. Just doing nothing at the moment is giving more depressing thoughts. So blogging helps me recover as well.

    Holly~Its almost time for us to part with warm-loving veggies now. Waiting for winter goodies to grow.

    Takaeko~I hope you have many home-grown yakiimo to enjoy during fall this year!

    Kate~It is much easier to grow sweet potatoes than potato at our place. They very care-free here. Our summer is too hot for potato to grow.

    Mama Pongkey~ First time I saw Jerusalem artichoke, I thought it was ginger at first glance. Yeah I use styrofoam box mostly because its free, good insulation for the extreme weather we have, and easy to move around. I do use plastic pots as well that I collect from hard waste. Yeah 25cm for carrot is fine just make sure the soil is moist.

    Mat Jon~ The sowing season time for different seeds does help make gardening much easier.

    Africanaussie~I am happy that the amaranth seeds have germinated for you. There is still many skill I need to learn with seed-saving.

    ~Gardener on Sherlock Street~I tried to squeeze in many plants in a container during summer. Playing match-maker which goes well together. Some does well, some not. Learn a lot from the mistakes.

    Sean L~Sebab sini kering kut susah sket nak ada jangkitan kulat. Tapi sweet potato first batch habis kena makan tikus dulu.

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  23. Sonia~We are not that self-sufficient yet. We still buy ginger, garlic, onions and other fruits that is not in the garden.

    Malay~I feel much better reading blogs rather than sitting and staring at the wall ;-).

    Cher~I wish I have more energy to explore cooking them. But at the moment I have to rely with the replacement chef@hubby to prepare the meals ;-).

    Rainfield61~ I think arranging the harvest and editing make it looks good...hehehe...Sorok yang nampak cacat sangat.

    Daphne~Yeah the colored carrots does not do very well in our extreme summerheat . It does seems to prefer the cooler weather.

    Bangchik and Kakdah~The garden has been generous this year, I guess letting several plants self-seeded last spring was worth it. It has been a relaxing fall as we had so many self-seeded seedlings around the garden.

    Kelli~Probably of the harvest arrangement everything seems healthy because the faulty one were hidden...hehehe...

    Jody~Thank for you the idea, will try to make french fries from the tubers. Small hambugar patties sounds good too.

    Sri Ranjani~I am trying to collect the yellow cherry tomato seed at the moment.

    Liz~Thank you would like to have your chilli seeds. Will send you a message.

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  24. I would love June weather if we were getting any - more like March at the moment.

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  25. hi diana, lovely looking harvests.. i am sure each harvest will bring lots of smiles to you.. Ryyan will grow up picking your hobby. ha ha.
    forst time i see that cucumber..must be delicious a s soup.. have a wonderful day dear and take care

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  26. Have you had a Chinese dish - boiled peanuts in a 5-spice/soy sauce? My mother adds slices of sun chokes to the peanuts/sauce and it's fantastic as a snack.

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  27. Sue~Hope it feels like summer in your place now.

    cookingvarieties~The cucumber does taste very nice in soup as well. Rayyan favourite!

    Wendy~Oh first time I heard about this thanks for sharing.

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