Tonight’s stew ingredients
Having a newborn is clearly more demanding than I remembered. Despite Baby T’s good nature I am struggling to keep the house in order, let alone get out to the garden. I haven’t been cooking as much as usual, so I’ve missed a few Harvest Mondays due to meagre pickings.
This week I’m getting more on top of things and I’ve harvested quite a reasonable amount for this time of year. Tonight for example I harvested quite a bowlful of veggies for a lamb stew.
1 Daikon (radish)
These are huge! So huge in fact that they are trying to escape from the ground. Despite a circumference of 4-5 cm, the daikon I picked was almost 50cm in length. They are also very versatile. I use them in Japanese hotpot dishes, in salads, pickled, raw (sprinkled with salt) and tonight in the lamb stew.
1 Lettuce
A bunch of these lettuces popped up under the roses (along with countless weeds) after I spread compost around. I weeded, but kept the lettuces.
1 Turnip and 2 Swedes
Also in the lamb stew.
5 celery sticks
In various dishes over the week, including the stew and some bolognaise yesterday. I’ve found that the celery is improving as the weather cools – far less hollow stems due to lack of water.
2 Tomatoes
I picked the first two of my winter tomatoes this week. As usual with my tomatoes they were a bit underripe, but I’m always afraid that they will be stolen by a cheeky rodent or insect before I get around to picking them.
My next door neighbour says that there was frost the other morning, but for some reason the tomatoes have survived. They are loaded with fruit, so I hope they survive despite a touch of blight and my appalling staking.
3 Passionfruit
I’ve given up trying to work out what variety these are. I thought they were panama gold, but they clearly are not that. They may be panama red, but they seem too purple. These should ripen up quickly in the fruit bowl next to the bananas.
There is plenty happening in the garden that didn’t make it to harvest this week.
The womboks have suffered from my neglect – covered in slug damage.
I cut the asparagus down to ground level as the foliage had mostly died off. I should probably spread some manure over before spring.
The strawberries are in desperate need of dividing and repotting.
I repotted the blueberries into bigger self watering pots with new potting mix.
They are setting fruit like crazy.
The kale is ready to harvest once I work out how to cook it.
The onions are coming along nicely.
And the rhubarb is flowering. I need to keep cutting the flowering stalks out, but they are persistent.
I hope everyone else has been harvesting successfully this week. For more harvests from around the world, visit Daphne’s.
500m2 in Sydney 
Goodness you have a lot going on in your garden! The harvest looks great, and what’s waiting to be harvested even better. As for life with a newborn, I have heard going from two to three is much harder than going from one to two, something about being outnumbered. I’m sure you’ll hit your strides soon and have it all worked out. Glad to hear Baby T is so easy going – I won’t mention anything about Miss One starting out like that and then everything change at around the 6 month mark. Well actually she is still perfectly good natured and smiley during the day, just hasn’t worked out the sleeping thing yet (or rather lost the knack 8 months ago).
Oh I hope he doesn’t change on me! Baby Good looks like such a happy girl – hard to believe that she causes you so much trouble at night 🙂
The garden is really just taking care of itself at the moment. I guess it’s coming up to seed planting time soon for the spring crops – I hope I get on top of things before then.
I’m positive you will be all over it by the time seed planting comes around and put my attempts to shame. I also hope that Baby L doesn’t take the turn Miss One did, I’m sure he won’t.
By the way, I nominated you for an award here http://thenewgoodlife.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1181&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2
Not sure how you feel about them, but responding to it might be absolutely the last thing you need to be doing. If so please just take it as a compliment on your great blog and think nothing more of it.
oop, wrong link, try this one http://thenewgoodlife.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/tuesdays-top-five-about-me-and-some-awards/
Thank you so much Barbara – that is very kind!
Do you have a lamb stew recipe – or are you like me and just throw stuff in and see what happens?
I follow the same recipe that my mum always did:
Brown the lamb pieces (whatever cut you have, but must have bones in), then add roughly chopped winter veggies (onion, carrots, celery, swede, turnip, parsnip etc) and a bunch of parsley. Fill the pot with beef stock (or water and stock cubes) and a large spoon of vegemite (more than a tablespoon for a large pot). Sounds weird, but adds a rich colour and a great umami taste. Boil the stew for at least a few hours, or pressure cook for 45 minutes. I then take some of the soup liquid out into a separate casserole dish and cover with dumplings (I use Delia Smith’s dumplings recipe http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/lamb/a-bit-of-the-irish-stew-with-crusted-dumplings.html). Then cook in the oven for another 30 minutes.
What variety of tomatoes grow in winter?
I grow Stupice. They aren’t much in summer, but unbeatable in winter!
Thanks, can i get seeds from
diggers?
Yes, definitely.
I love your womboks, the picture reminds me of the Cabbage Patch Kids. I too grow things before I try to figure out what I can do with it, it can be a challenge but it forces you to try new things!
Totally agree!
My tomatoes survive the first frost or two too, usually. I’m not sure what makes a killing frost, but it must have something to do with the temperature, maybe just a light frost doesn’t hurt them.
Oh, good to know – thanks. They still seem to be going OK.
I added some kale to a lentil braise I made this week and it was absolutely delicious. It does take quite a bit more cooking than silver beet though. Really, really impressed with your winter tomatoes – damn fine stuff!
I have to be more adventurous – I’m impressed if I get anything on the table at the moment. I’m committing myself to using the kale this week though – thanks for the suggestion.
Babies always take so much energy. But you got a nice daikon there. I grew them one year but haven’t since. I think I like the taste of regular radishes better.
I like it that they are not so fiddly – peeling them is so easy, and you can easily grate them too. It seems strange to cook regular radishes, although I’m sure you can.
Babies take a lot of time and energy! But it looks like you are beginning to get back into the swing of things. kale is good in salad, stir fried, steamed, cooked up with bacon and onion or added to quiche like spinach. Great looking harvest this week!
Thanks Mary. Sounds very versatile, so I’m sure I won’t look back once I get the hang of it.