Harvest Monday

Harvest Monday..... A great Blog Hop Hosted by Daphnes Dandelions a day where you are welcome to show off your Harvest , how you are saving or using your Harvest.


Last Friday the dark clouds finally rolled in and in true form there was lots of thunder and lightning which sounded fantastic but was a little scary as it started off a couple of grass fires. Our local fire crews were prepared and soon had everything under control, at the end of the day we had received a much welcome 15mls some areas were lucky to get up to 80mls............................

So enjoyable to head out to the plot the next morning, smell the fresh air and pick the days harvest in the cool ...................

  Basil which I promptly made into pesto, I put a little aside for one meal and then froze the rest in small portions to last through out the year.

 Last year I made the mistake of putting all the pesto into a couple of jars and was disappointed when once opened it went off to quickly and I had to throw it away. 

       Thin Chicken fillet , spread one half with pesto and then fold over , grill on bbq until cooked or dust with bread crumbs and bake in the oven.                                                                      

                                                                                 
                             Yellow and green peppers which were sliced and then pickled.                 

                                                    Cucumbers which were also pickled.
And last weeks box of tomatoes from the market turned into sweet spicy tomato sauce and also slow roasted tomato sauce.

Lettuce       400g
Basil           110g
Kale            200g
Zucchini     500g
Mulberries  250g
Peppers      300g
Potatoes     3 kilos

Sharing the Harvest

Last weekend my husband headed off to visit friends for a couple of days and as he drove down the driveway I think I may have yelled out "don't forget to pick a couple of lemons"......... 
Careful what you ask for some may say !!!!! Not only did I get a few lemons but also 7 wine boxes full of peaches, plums and nectarines.
So far I've made plum and mulberry jam, Indian spiced plum chutney, spicy plum sauce and baked honey peaches...........

                   An easy recipe I'm sharing today with VeggieGobbler and her new post Garden Gobblers.

Simply cut in half add a few small dobs of butter and lovely fresh honey(from my bothers hives) drizzled over the top............baked in a medium oven for 20 mins .
Beautiful warm from the oven and perfectly delish for breakfast with muesli and yogurt.

There's only so many plums and peaches a gal can eat and there's nothing like sharing the harvest so I made up a few boxes for friends and family and added some homegrown garlic and jam .
                                                                               

                                                                                
The boxes have been distrubuted , the kitchen's clean, bottles washed and ready...............
 Market tomorrow for tomatoes and a busy weekend to follow ....................

Only decision left is which market in Melbourne do I visit ?


                                                                           

Harvest Monday

Its been a dry start to this years Summer with only 6mls of rain falling but due to a strict routine of hand-watering via water pumped from our bore we are enjoying harvesting many things from our Orchard and veggie plot.

                                                                           

Today's post is the first Monday Harvest for 2013 for me so I've included what's ended up in the kitchen via the plot so far this year.

This year I'm going to TRY to remember whats been harvested and keep a tally.......

                               

Lettuce varieties 800gms

Basil 200gms

Eggplant 1kg

kale 1.5kg

Spring Onion 150gms

Zucchini 5.2 kg

Mulberries 4.5kg

Peppers 300gms

Plums 500gms

Potatoes 2.5 kg

Red & White Onions 3.5kg

 

A wonderful characteristic of the Mulberry tree is that the fruit develops and ripens over a period of weeks , kept netted to keep out the hungry birds there's plenty of berries to enjoy and share with friends. I have  frozen a couple of kilos while I'm waiting for my plums to ripen  as  together they make a lovely jam.     This weeks batch of muffins, banana and mulberry....................Delish

Head over to Daphne's Dandelions and Harvest Monday to see what others from around the globe have harvested this week.