Things are growing

There has been a bit of rain here in the last couple of weeks and it is making things grow quite fast. It is busy work now trying to keep up with it all.

The first cucumber was picked about 6 days ago.

Then a couple of days ago I got the first of the zucchini and a couple more cucumbers.

These two were eaten with dinner just before.

My barren basil patch that I posted about at an earlier time is still struggling. So I am planting my basil in pots for now. I have about 6 pots going around the yard.

Zucchini plants. With a sneaky self sown tomato in the bottom left.

About one quarter of the cucumber plants that are growing.

The Butternut pumpkin patch.

Some of the sweet peppers. Store bought as I had a bad germination rate with mine this year.

And finally. Some tomatoes. These are Juanne Flamee.

 I really need to post up my growing list and I am really going to try in the next post.

Here is the end result of the garlic.
I have been advised to not braid it up till the stems dry so tomorrow I will unbraid it and leave it dry naturally. A couple of years ago when I got a garlic harvest i did not braid them and they dried well.

Anyway, the weather has been really cool. I don't think it got over 20C today. Everything continues to grow.

Here is the main patch with potatoes in the fore ground and tomatoes in the background.

First cucumber. I nearly picked this today and sneaked off somewhere to munch it all by myself. Here's hoping for plants laden with fruit like last year.

The lazy housewife beans. I am also growing Blue Lake and another variety that grows purple. Pics of those at a later date.

Eight more days....

and summer is here.
I'm looking forward to some warmer weather as our spring has been rather cool. Not too unusual for us as it can go either way in our part of the world.
Anyway....I have not been well hence the lack of posts. That and my trusty camera died and I a having to use two other ones that I am not too happy with. So some of the pictures are not the best.

Onto the greenery.
My basil patch this year is looking like last years one. It was a hard slog getting basil to germinate in this patch and it's looking the same again. Stay tuned in the next couple of months for lush green basil plants. (I hope).

Where's the basil?

Some new Swiss Chard. That's a fancy way of saying silver beet, and some fresh endives next to the ever expanding potatoes. Also some leeks and cucumbers.

The main potato patch.

The main Tomato patch.

Still need to post up my final list.

I have four different kinds of dwarf tomatoes growing. Three varieties are in pot like this one and one is in the ground.

Egg plants.

Butter nut Pumpkins and capsicums. the pumpkin vines will be trained to grow the other way. That's the plan anyway.

And finally some cantaloupe plants. Here's hoping there is a harvest this year.

Todays stuff

I promise this will be the absolute last picture freshly harvested of tomatoes for this season. I finally got a chance to pull the last two plants out late this afternoon. There are no more.

Surprisingly I still have a few more smallish cucumbers around. Every other year they would barely last till late February. I knew this and one more were about but I found about three more today. It was yummy to eat.

Of course there was a mini harvest for part of tonights dinner. The bulb is from a spring onion.

One of my 7 pot chilli plants. You may have noticed by now how much I like chillies.

And finally. The bug eaters were let out for their daily scrounge. I know they found lot of yummy things to eat.

Old Friends

Heard from old friends yesterday and they ended up coming around for dinner. It was good to catch up as it has been a couple of years.
My, how some people have grown.

I warned them before they came over that I would be busy all afternoon in the yard as I had a lot to catch up on.
I am now at the pulling plants out stage. Cleaning of all the ripe and green tomatoes. Not sure if I will make green tomato pickles this year. Made it last year and it was a huge success with everyone that got a jar. We are not big eaters of it. I can assure you it is delicious. Just that eight 600ml Fowlers jars can get a bit much.

Pulled about five plants out and harvested a lot more ripe fruit from a few others. I know that when I made my first post I said that most of my tomato harvesting was done but I have once again underestimated.
Lots of peppers coming on that should last a few more weeks and one lonesome dried up corn that I had totally missed. I'm toying with the idea of drying it and trying to make popcorn. It may not be the right variety but what the heck.

Had a bumper cucumber crop this year. Best ever, and there are still more to come. Also still have a few potatoes hiding around the place.

And of course some eggs from my lovely girls. The chooks.

As you can see there will be more tomato salsa making in the next couple of days.

Brandywine alert bottom left hand corner.

After having a great time catching up all afternoon and having a nice dinner, old friends departed with a big bag of home grown produce. I know they will enjoy it.

Time

...is of the essence when the crop comes in fast. Harvest at the right time and the rewards are great. I really had to rush around earlier this evening harvesting this lot. As you can see they are ready to be eaten. As I will be very busy the next two to three days it had be done immediately or there was the risk of loss. It is very bad losing any part of your crop after months of hard work.

This is most of what I harvested today. There are about 7 different varieties in this photo. Way too much for us to eat in the next few days. So about half of it was blended up to be prepared for freezing tomorrow.

Brandywine alert bottom left hand corner in the above photo. Top left hand corner in the photo below.

I quickly cleaned and chopped the ones to be blended.

I believe this one is a Red Pear.

The Brandywine did not escape but was munched away. Here it is below.

And finally ended up with a lot of tomato goodness for processing tomorrow morning.

As you can see I really love tomatoes.

Green

This pumpkin is self sown and has nearly been pulled out a few times now as it takes up a lot of space. It has finally produced 2 good size pumpkins so hopefully I will get to eat some of it. It is spilling out of the main vege bed in this picture.

And another picture of tomatoes of course.

One of my all time favourites. Brandywine. Just picked these 3 not long ago.

Todays Lunch

Here is what we had for lunch today.

The tomatoes are from top left. Arbuznyi, under that is red pear and the last one is an unknown beefsteak variety that has been grown in a backyard in the inner city for at least the last twenty years.

The cucumber are burpless and Lebanese. They are rather overgrown as it is getting towards the end of the season. Still good eating. Nice and crunchy when freshly picked.

The peppers are Jimmy Nardello and the smaller orange one is an unknown sweet variety that was donated to me. It is unknown because I lost my paperwork. Maybe now I have a blog I will keep better records.

Our family is by no means vegetarian. This was just a light lunch with produce we had on hand. There is a good chance that you will see pictures of giant meat cook ups in the future.

Frozen tomatoes

All my excess tomatoes are made into a sauce and put into the freezer for later use. Nothing beats the flavour of your own produce.
I am thinking of purchasing a pressure canner so I can make proper sauce.

Currently the tomatoes are blended into liquid and simmered till reduced by about half. After they cool down they are bagged and frozen.

More goodies

This is the last of my corn for this season. Most of them were a bit too starchy as they were left too late. Only the one in the bottom right hand corner was sweet.

And here is another picture of eatable goodness picked over the last few days.

I also have a few chooks. That is why the eggs are in the picture.(more about them later).

I also try and preserve what I can, for future eating.

My favourite.

I love growing as much of my own produce as possible. This isn't about saving the world or anything like that, even though it all helps.  I just like to grow stuff to eat.

I'll start with a picture of a recent harvest. My favourite thing to grow.

 Tomatoes.

I hope to keep updating as much as possible. Most of this summers harvest is done, but I should get a few more tomatoes.