Harvest Monday – 30th January 2012

The summer crops are really coming along now.

5 Golden Nugget Pumpkins

The pumpkin harvest continued this week, although the plants are suffering with untreated powdery mildew. I picked 5, and chose a lucky one to be my seed donor for next year’s crop. I didn’t specifically hand pollinate this one, but I’m willing to trust the bees this time. I hope they chose a good ‘daddy’ pumpkin and not one of the zucchinis or rockmelon.

20 Lebanese Eggplant

These are producing a bumper harvest. I could have picked another 10 or so today, but I’ve held off for later in the week.

1 lettuce + extra leaves

400g Green Dwarf Beans

The beans are still producing, but slowing down a little I think. I’d like to get enough from them to make a few jars of dilly beans shortly.

2 Cucumbers ‘double yield’

Still not producing with the vigour I hoped, but another 2 fruit nonetheless.

3 carrots

I always have a supply of carrots in the garden. I store them in the ground and just pull them as needed. We are blessed with a climate that allows year-round production and very few pests. I’m eternally grateful that we don’t suffer the horrible carrot fly that many of you in the northern hemisphere seem to struggle with.

1 onion

I found an onion hiding under the beetroot that I have let go to seed. Not big, but I’m sure it will be tasty.

3 tomatoes

The tomatoes are finally getting there, although the frequent (sometimes torrential) rain neccessitates picking the fruit under-ripe. It is so disheartening to have near perfect fruit split just before harvest because of a sudden downpour.

2 cobs of corn

The corn is finally here! The kids and I picked 2 cobs this afternoon for dinner tonight. It was totally delicious and visually close to perfect in a way that home-grown corn rarely is (for me, anyway).

As soon as we brought the corn in from the garden Little D started begging me for it. More corn please Mummy! More corn, please!!I eventually gave in and gave him his half-cob before dinner, but that spelled disaster once everyone else started eating. I tried to salvage the situation by giving him a small can of corn kernels from the pantry, and that just made it even clearer how superior freshly-picked corn is to the canned variety.

Other happenings

On inspecting the garden this afternoon I noticed that the apple tree I just harvested from (Dwarf Tropical Anna) is in full flower again!

Its pollinating partner (Dwarf Golden Dorset) doesn’t have a single flower so if it sets any fruit it will be lucky, but it just shows how strange our cold summer has been. I’ve been disappointed that the Granny Smith / Pink Lady (multigraft) tree hasn’t flowered for me this year, so I guess my faithful Anna is trying to make up for it.

Happy harvests everyone! Head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions to see what other people are harvesting across the world.