Monday, August 25, 2008

harvest time is delicious

i know you've all been wondering, "how is little gumtreefid farmer's garden going? what has she been farming lately?" well, wonder no more!

first i have to say "WHEE! summer is fun!" harvest time, baby. harvesting is delicious and easy.

the coriander has done what everyone said it would do; exploded and gone to seed. i have planted a bunch of new seeds around the edges, so i have two generations of plants in the window box. not that they'll survive winter, i suppose, so was that a silly move? hmm.


the lettuce, likewise, boom. there's also spring onions hiding in there, though i've eaten most of them. home-grown sandwich material, yum!


look! look what the cucumber plant made! i am so proud of it! there's another three on the way. woot!


and the tomatoes, oh lord, the tomatoes. there's easily 20 or 30 little tomatoes out there, all slowly ripening. here's a selection of the different shapes and sizes on the plants:



so that's where my garden is at. oh, and me showing itchy the brussell sprouts at the allotment last week, photo by itchy. if you look closely at the stems you can see the beginnings of tiny little sprouts. the plants have a bit of a tough run. first they were attacked by cabbage moth caterpillars, then they got aphids. i have been vigilant with removing the caterpillars by hand, and squirting the aphids with this weird soapy stuff. we'll see how the fruit turns out.


now, if i may indulge in a bit of food porn, here's what proper grownup farmers in the area have been harvesting:


delicious heirloom tomatoes, local raspberries, peaches from the okanagan and the first apples of the season. below is five pounds of blueberries (2.2 kilos), most of which i've frozen for winter, basil, a funny purple and yellow capsicum, which i bought purely because it's beautiful and i've never seen such a thing before, and squishy local brie.


this is what happens when i go to the farmer's market myself instead of sending miriam. stuffing all this lot into my bike panniers was a bit of a challenge . . .

love
gumtreefid farmer

ps. here's where the adorable gumtree is at, with a back-drop of my newest addition - a monstera:

6 comments:

Gauri said...

you are SO CUTE in your hat. those tomatoes are also cute. i want to eat them, but i expect they'd be yucky in their current state.

Anonymous said...

blueberries! oh how I miss them.

Anonymous said...

i think that heritage tomatoes are beautiful.
BBB

gumtreefid farmer said...

gauri, you can chew on my hat anytime.


itchy, yes, they are delicious. you should try find some frozen ones. it's how i intend to survive the long blueberry-less winter.



bbb - aren't they? i am so taken with their different shapes and colours.

Anonymous said...

an inspiring gallery of fruitfulness, and vegetablness

i have considered concreting the entire yard - in the last few weeks

a grey kangaroo (I've seen it twice) has ripped the fronds off the fern on the back verandah

a pair of wood duck have eaten all the lettuce seedlings

something with a curved beak (probably cockatoo) has snapped off 6 out of my 9 broccoli and a few of the spring onions

something (cockatoo?) has pulled my livingstone daisy plants out by the roots

something (rabbit or wombat) has chewed the cyclamen in a tub out the front to a stub

something else has chewed my hardenbergia vine to a stump

there are probably other chewings I've suppressed the memory of (which)

I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!!!

tho I nearly was, but today i have bought $40 worth of vegie seeds as it is very springlike and i am encouraged again


thank you for listening

gumtreefid farmer said...

aw, grotty, that's such a sad story, but also beautiful. i would like to make a satiritical picture book from it. something like the hungry caterpillar, you know.