National Pickling gherkin; this name sounds rather grand to me. I’m not sure which nation they represent, but they were a lucky selection for our garden as they have yielded well and are different enough from salad cucumbers to be a separate crop for the kitchen. I planted two types of cucumber this year; a salad type and a pickling one, to hedge my bets. The first picking of the gherkins was a bit of a worry to me, as they were not only insipid but also bitter. Fortunately the…
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Edamame soy beans
Edamame soy beans are a large-seeded cultivar bred for the green beans. They are a rewarding crop, and another one that I had no experience of growing. In Sydney I usually had a bag of frozen edamame in the apartment freezer, ready for snacks, and had wondered how they compared with fresh ones. How do they compare? Fresher, greener, and I know how they’ve been treated.
Read MoreSandpaper fig
This attractive tree is growing on our driveway, decorated with its red fruit. There are a few sandpaper figs locally, but this is the rainforest (upland) species Ficus fraseri. The creek sandpaper fig, Ficus coronata, has edible fruit, but these ones just taste recognisably figgy – thats as far as I’d go for palatability, although the fruit bats love them and land for a feed every evening. By the way, the name is for real. The leaves are very finely rough and can be used for sanding wood. I think…
Read MoreSunflower harvest.
This week I started the sunflower harvest in earnest. I’ve grown sunflowers before but harvesting them is new to me. Sites I visited said that they are harvested earlier than I would expect, some say as soon as the heads turn down or turn brown on top.
Read MoreThai Pink Egg tomatoes
Thai Pink Egg tomatoes are great for the home garden, especially in areas with warm wet Summers. The fruit is about 5 cm long, egg shaped, and ripens from a pearly grey to pink. Cut, the flesh is contrastingly orange, and the flavour is good, not at all acid, so excellent for salads. I selected this from the seed catalogue for two reasons; it is suited to our climate, and the shape and colour make it ideal for mixed tomato salads. Growing Thai Pink Egg tomatoes As the name suggests,…
Read MoreRed Aztec maize
Red Aztec maize is worth growing just for the wow factor. The deep red cobs look great, and I couldn’t resist them from the seed catalogue. I had everything to learn about growing maize, and it’s been an interesting crop, but the first lot of cobs are mature now. From the main picture you can see that they’re not the big, full cobs one might hope for, but with this lot I would at least recover my seed.
Read MoreCleomes
Well these have been worth waiting for! Cleomes were on my wish list of plants to grow, but they have taken a bit of trying. This morning they were catching the early sun so brightly I had to stop and take a photo. I first noticed cleomes in Basel, when I was living there, and was enchanted from first sight. They are not a standard flower in Perth, perhaps they don’t cope with hot dry summers, but in Basel they were in bloom on the path in to the swimming pool in…
Read MoreAcerola
This sweet little tree has just started to rain ripe fruit on our driveway. The acerola is one of those fruits like loquats and cape gooseberries that is suited to eating as you walk past the tree, rather than picking for later. The acerola, Malphigia emarginata, is also called various types of cherry, and I think around here is often called a brazilian cherry. The fruit is juicy and the skin is so thin you don’t need to peel them, making a quick bite a treat The flavour is sweet, aromatic, sharp, and…
Read MoreJanuary harvest
The second half of January has seen the picking season move from just a few items to plenty. My parents were visiting for a couple of weeks and Mum made me this arrangement of a day’s takings.
Read MoreGrowing okra; tough and super productive.
I’m so impressed with okra! They are extraordinarily hardy and bear a consistent yield of pods, they have a long season, and best of all the freshly picked fruit is much better than shop bought pods.
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