Harvest 2014

Now it is mid-March, the harvest from our garden is not a lot but good enough.  We had harvested some fruits; one of them was nectarines, they were not many but well consumed.

We enjoy them fresh, and also we like cakes.  I baked mini and jumbo muffins, and they were soft and delicious.  I am so pleased that we managed to share the nectarines with friends too.

I did not plant a new seedling in the vegetable patch this year, but the herbs have been growing well there.  Once a week at least I pick the fresh herbs for my cooking.   Harvesting the herbs seems ongoing throughout the year.  Two self-seeds potted tomatoes did not do badly.  The Roma tomatoes yield about a kilogram and the yellow cherry tomato is still going even though there are not a lot of fruits on it.

The spaghetti squash, asparagus that I have in the backyard don't do any good, I harvested about ten asparagus and a few baby asparagus for special cooking, and only two harvested squash and they were so small.

Pastry baking with a new flavour, cheese and baby asparagus on the pastry to make a plate for serving another vegetarian dish.  It was an experiment with an excellent result.

Potted figs never let us down, the harvest was not a lot, but the fruits are there for us, mind you that we have to be vigilant with the birds.  One time they picked one of the fruits which I intended to harvest, but the bird got it first.  No, not any more, and this is what I did to the potted fig, I covered the plants with cloth (old curtain) since then the fruits are well protected from the birds.  It does sound very selfish, but there are about two dozen also out of the two plants.  No, I am not willing to share.

So far, I harvested about eight, and I am so proud to serve this fruit for my family.

Fresh fig from the backyard for the meringue topping.

The fig is not ready at the same time, in a way, it is good that we can extend the enjoyment of harvesting the fruits.

Strawberry

The strawberry has a different story, the plants are there, and I use them as ground covers now.  If they are fruiting, I shall be happy to use them.  This morning I found about 16 red strawberries.  I shared the vine with friends, and they thrive well at their garden, and they have good harvests when it is in season they can pick them and enjoy the fruits for breakfast.  Unfortunately, there is no regular harvest at our place.  The potted strawberry plants don't do any good either.

Rayner just told me then that he wanted to harvest the apples, but the fruits practically were no longer there, the birds had collected before him.  The fault was that he did not cover the tree to protect from the birds.  Now you can tell that both of us are not farmers, true!!!.  I started gardening seriously in later life, I did try, though when the children were small, but it was not good.  Now  I enjoy gardening and am keeping on learning.

I could not rely on my harvest, and sometimes I go to Farmers Market to get vegetables and fruit, the last time I bought some vegetables and the cabbage was one of them.  The cabbage was so hard, I suppose because we had not enough rains.  The cabbage salad was not very crispy and tough, not enjoyable to eat. It's only one of those things, but usually harvests from the Farmers Markets are always fresh.

It may be not the best year in my garden, but I am so lucky to be able to have shared harvests from friends.  Last time we got blood plum from Geoff, fresh basil, squash from Anne and Max, freshly harvested tomatoes from Irene and Oliver, also zucchini from Liz.  Thank you all.

Now the weather is cooling down, I may be able to start planting lettuces, I love salads, and almost every day the mixture is there on the table.

The coming winter we will harvest the citrus, lemon, lime and pomelo, not the mandarins as the tree is having a rest this year.

I am sorry now that I did not take some of Sheila's cumquots harvest, I remember she shared boxes of cumquats with the club last time.  I don't make marmalade, but I could have preserved them in brandy.  Maybe next time, thank you.  

I hope we will have a better harvest from our garden next time.

Thanks For Visiting

Until Next Post

Susy