Sunday 24 November 2013

After almost 3 weeks with a lot of rain in between, we had a plenty of work to catch up in the garden as the plants never stop growing. It was delightful to see the season’s first harvest of garlic, red onions, purple climbing beans, daikon (Japanese radish proudly held by Peter) and just a few of Alinta variety of strawberries as well as red drum head cabbages, potatoes, leeks and bountiful spinach.

Some plants including fennel and heirloom radish have gone to flower and seed so I’ve kept some for drying and collecting seeds for the next season. A few heirloom radish of both white and black skin varieties somehow escaped our eyes and grown to become monsters during the rain. I took a couple of the black monster radish home and wondered what to do with them.

In spite of having grown so big as the size of a tennis ball, they were not as woody as I had imagined but tasted quite hot and peppery. So, I tried pickling them as per the recipe suggested by Deb.
http://www.bhg.com/recipes/how-to/cook-with-fruits-and-vegetables/how-to-pickle-radishes/
Overnight the aroma of radish became so strong as I opened the fridge but they tasted fine if you don’t mind the strong aroma!

Last Wednesday we planted approximately 10 seedlings of zucchini, both Black Beauty and Blanco Lungo Cylindrico varieties, in outside bed followed by several artichoke seedlings donated by Deb. We also planted seedlings of radish, lettuce, silverbeet and golden beetroot and sowed seeds of parsley and cucumbers, both Japanese and Double Yield varieties. Seeds of pickling cucumbers planted a few weeks ago are already growing well thanks to the rain.

In addition to a weekly donation of worm wee, Sandy brought a bucket-full of very rich humus from his and wife Susie’s worm farm. We look forward to using them as well as Wendy’s donation of Bokashi juice to enrich the soil further next weekend.

Thank you so much everyone for your enthusiasm and generous help! See you again soon.