Monday, March 1, 2010

A Very Family Harvest Monday

The holiday came to an end a week ago, and only half an hour after my plane landed I found myself back on the balcony garden which had been ably managed in my absence by my special housemate H. She had watered it well and tended to the sunflowers that were blowing away and ate plenty of veggies from it.


Seems she missed this lovely bit of produce - which I will share with you here. It was a week ago so it counts for my harvest Monday, if only just. On the night I got home I noticed two, very large, cucumbers! They went into some salads and a dinner, and some was intended to be grated as a side to currysotto (a strange mix of risotto and yellow curry, divine!!!) but it was all eaten up by the time I cooked that delicacy. Here is the rest of the haul, grabbed this morning after watering. Loads of chillis, and the habanero is loaded too, just waiting for it to ripen.




Beans, both purple and green and slightly over ripened but still edible.


Two eggplant, both a bit small and cracking were wonderfully tasty.


Tomatoes, kind of old and cracked and will be the last of the haul at this stage, but good cooked up in the currysotto sauce.



One small zucchini, probably not pollinated but taste nonetheless. Housemate H showed me she had learned well and can identify the boy flower and girl flower on the zukes but had the usual problem of them not appearing at the same time.


Now I also have some lovely cousins and an aunt and uncle with massive vegetable gardens. I visited them yesterday before heading to Hanging Rock Harvest Festival, a festival in which producers local (and not so local) to the region show their produce, and the rellos did not let me leave without loading me up with veggies. The festival itself was mostly stalls filled with wine and olive oil but I did find some lovely Yarrawonga fetta. I put it on my salad tonight.



along with a yellow carrot from the balcony garden,



tomatoes from my Aunt's garden,



and cucumbers from my cousin's garden! So not only is this a harvest post for the balcony garden, it is a harvest postfor my relatives' gardens!

7 comments:

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Wow! That's quite the harvest. I'm constantly amazed at all the goodies you're growing on that balcony. :)

Ottawa Gardener said...

That is a fantastic harvest. It's a testament to how productive a balcony can be.

michelle said...

The gardening bug seems to run in the family! That's a good looking harvest, I'm always amazed by what you can grow on your balcony. Currysotto sounds delicious, I love rice dishes of any sort and love curry also.

Daphne Gould said...

That looks like a wonderful harvest. The currysotto sounds really interesting. I've found curry a great way to use up all sorts of veggies in the garden.

Meredith said...

Yum. Impressive what you can do with a balcony space, creativity, and dedication. :)

PJ said...

Kate - I think it was larger than usual because of my absence and my house mate was too kind to eat all of it (and didn't realise there were any beans)

Ottawa Gardener - indeed. I bet even smaller places can get a pretty good harvest.

Michelle - your garden is looking so lovely this week! Gardening is definitely in the family, I love going to my relatives' houses if only to stare at their immense gardens (they do live outside the city so space is not a problem for them)

Daphne - Currysotto is a cinch to make. It is just like normal risotto with aborio rice and veggies of your choice and meat if you choose, except that you add curry paste (penang works best, yellow curry paste is good too) while you cook the veg from the beginning, then instead of stock you add coconut milk or cocnut cream (stock can be added too, especially if it dries out.) It's not light on the calories but it is so darn tasty and a great way to use veg.

Meredith - Definitely dedication, but I think most gardeners have to have some form of dedication, bugs, pests and diseases are in any area, the just get worse in small spaces.

ljd said...

Glad you're back. Vicariously enjoyed yr visit to Mum. Hi, Mum!Thanks for the lovely pics, and yr tasty food ideas...my pot garden got its start yesterday...[we had lovely weather for a change]. Wish me luck with the garden squirrels that live in my trees. ljd (once the eighty lady, who's had a b'day or two since then..)