After a slow start (those pesky earwigs), the garden is now full of produce. Each day Country Boy is harvesting boxes of tomatoes, eggplants, zucchinis, and corn.
The tomatoes started later than they have in previous years. The plants took longer to get established with all those earwigs trying to eat them. They may have started later, but we are now picking several kilograms each day. We’ve massive, fleshy brandy wines, purple cherokees, that are beautiful on a sandwich or perfect for making Italian tomato pasatta, golden sunrise (yellow golf ball sized ones – lovely in salads), little red camp joys that you pop into your mouth straight from the bush, orange jaunne flamme, green zebras (my favourite), lemon drops which are little yellow ones that have a citrus taste to them (delicious), round red legends, romas that I have been cutting into quarters and drying, red colossus, napoli paste, and yellow pear. We have several other varieties as well. The different colours and sizes all look beautiful in a salad and taste amazing. They are part of every meal. The kids snack on the little tomatoes straight from the bush when ever they feel like a snack.
Have you ever seen so many chillies? They look so beautiful standing up along the stems – like little candles.
We’ve planted a few sunflowers each year. They add a happy yellow pop to the garden, and the chickens love the seeds when the flowers have finished.
The watermelons are going really well. We picked our first one last week, and I taught the kids how to spit the pips and see how far they can go – I’m classy like that! These watermelons aren’t like the huge ones found in the supermarkets. They are smaller, and taste amazing. So much more flavour that the shop bought versions too. There are another 8 or 10 still on the vine.
The corn is still just starting. The cobs are starting to form but the silks are still green. They go brown and dry when the cobs are ready to be eaten. Country Boy
After the earwigs, our zucchinis took a little longer to get started, but they are well and truly on their way. I’m making all kinds of zucchini dishes to use them up.
The carrots are also finally emerging. We won’t be picking them till winter, but there are feathery little leaves peeking out through the mulch.
You can bet that we will be harvesting a lot more vegetables over the next few months.
What’s growing in your vegie patch?
