Spring seed raising

Quite a few weeks ago now, Liz from Suburban Tomato gave us a great run down of the tomatoes she was raising. Sadly I didn't have my act together then to make a similar post, indeed, I hadn't even started to raise my tomatoes or any other seeds as I feared a late frost -  I thought it was too early for our mountain slopes climate.

But now that the weather has jumped from maximums in single digits to ones in the mid twenties in the space of two weeks I feel like I am starting too late! Ah, gardening in a new environment!

 Here is what I am currently raising.

Tomatoes
Last year my tomatoes were a complete failure, mostly becasue it was scorchingly hot and also because we only arrived at Highfield in mid-November. This year I am hoping I will have much better fortune especially seeing as I have so many wonderful varieties with different shapes and colours. All these seeds came from Yvonne - thank you so much, I hope to do them justice.

• Juane Flamme 
• Red Pear
• Yellow pear
• Verna orange
• Green grape
• Oxheart yellow
• Speckled Roman
• Peach
• Purple Cherokee

Chillies/Peppers/Capsicums
I have gone completely overboard here with the encouragement and seeds from Nina and Bek. It's just that these plants seem to be able to survive the hottest of summers, and I do like a chilli or too and I have a secret desire to hold a chilli-based food festival... one day...

• Chilli - Long Cayenne
• Chilli - Padron
• Chilli  - Jalapeno - thanks Nina
• Capsicum -  Orange Glory - thanks Bek
• Capsicum - Hungarian Wax - thanks Bek
• Capsicum - 7 colour mix
• Pepper  - Merlin - thanks Bek
• Pepper -  Chocolate - thanks Bek
• Pepper - Absa - thanks Bek

Eggplants

• Listada di Ganda -  thanks Yvonne
• Prosperosa - thanks Bek
• Rosa Bianca

Greens

• Lettuce - Salad bowl
• Lettuce - Freckels Bunte
• Pak choi
• Fennel Florence
• Rocket

Beans and Peas

• Bean - Kentucky Wonder - thanks Nina
• Bean - Sex without strings
• Peas - Snow peas
• Peas - Pigeon peas

Onions

• Spring onions

Pumpkins / Melons

• Pumpkin - seeds from Pat Murray's pumpkins (Pat is King of vegetable growing at the annual Adelong Agricultural Show)
• Melon -  Minnesota Midget

Roots

• Beetroot - Crimson Globe
• Radish - Round Red

Zucchini

I have shared with you previously my obsession to enter the Gundagai Agricultural Show in the category, Three zucchinis under 18cms. I am hoping that I can grow three great specimens of different colours just to wow the judges. So I have planted the following varieties so far - I have a few other varieties held back for planting later in the season as insurance.

• Costata - thanks Bek
• Gold Rush - thanks Bek
• Greenskin
  
  
  

Don't you think a trio of green, yellow and speckled zucchinis would be a show stopper? If I am successful, perhaps  I can share my winnings  with Bek... but I am getting ahead of myself!

Herbs
I have put these seeds in but when they are up they will join my other more perennial herbs.

• Basil
• Thai basil -  thanks Yvonne
• Dill - thanks Nina

Flowers

• Marigold - French Bonita
• Marigold - Petite Yellow -  thanks Nina
• Larkspur - thanks Diana
• Nasturtiums - Red - thanks Nina -  the leaves are stunning, I am sure the flowers will be too
• Sunflowers -  Prado Red and Evening Sun, my usuals
• Zinnia
• my beautiful purple Holbrook poppies

That's it for the moment but I will be putting in some cucumbers and other things as the season develops.
What are you putting in?

Soon I will post on all the fruit trees I have put in over winter.

Zucchini Tuesday - This is the end...

That's it, I have had it with the powdery mildew on the zucchini. Greenskin 3, the last of the three zucchinis I planted in succession this year, is too mould and spotty and it is time for it  to go to the great compost bin in the yard.

With zucchini season over for the year, and the end of Zucchini Tuesday what can I say in summary?

1. Zucchinis are tougher than they look -  Greenskin 1 toughed out a  4 hour move and then being transplanted as a mature plant into a brand new bed with poor soil. Greenskin 2 and 3 coped with the hottest summer on record with limited water. That they survived is remarkable. That they produced any fruit at all is pretty amazing. I didn't get many fruit, it is true but surviving all that abuse proves that it is a bit wonder vegetable as far as I am concerned.

Greenskin 2

2. Zucchinis survive so well because they create their own shade - Well, that's my theory anyway...all those big shady leaves. They can wilt in the heat and bounce back when the sun retreats. I reckon it would be several degrees cooler under a zucchini, and therefore less evaporation.

3. Zucchini flowers are beautiful - Big, blousy, bright yellow with massive stamens and stigmas and then they shrink back to cute bulgy butter-coloured blobs. I really must go about stuffing flowers next season.  I have never attempted it, it always seemed too much bother, but I want to take it on, at least once.

Zucchini flowers are beautiful

4. I like eating zucchini - I really do. It just takes some thinking to make zucchini meals interesting.
I have really enjoyed reading about your zucchini recipes this season.

Here are some of my favourite ones that you have shared -  in no particular order...

Little zucchini babies

Powdery mildew on Greenskin 3

Stuffed flowers
Bek's Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

Salads
Bek's Raw Zucchini Salad

Hot Vegetable dishes
Jen's Moorish Vegetables
Jen's Italian Agrodolce Zucchini

Comfort food
Bek's Zucchi Pizza
Jen's Zucchini Burger
Liz's Zucchini Cake
Liz's Zucchini Pie
Liz's Zucchini and Haloumi Fritters

This season, despite the fact that I have had very few zucchinis, I have added to my own list of recipes which can be found here.

And my zucchini plans for next year?  I will have a go at growing three different colours of zucchini - yellow, dark green and light green -  for colourful salads and a multi-coloured crack at the class 'Three zucchinis under 18cms' at the Gundagai and Adelong Agricultural Shows.

Northerners - I hope your future zucchini / courgette season goes well and hope that these recipes from the south  help you deal with your glut.

Given the amount of cabbages I have planted, I might have to do a Cabbage Tuesday, I might need some inspiration in finding enough recipes for the potential glut.

Until next season -  love your zucchini.

Zucchini Tuesday - Powdery mildew

Time catches up with all good zucchinis. Mid-April it seems was time for Greenskin 2. You see, he got a bad case of powdery mildew with the shorter days, less sun and increased dampness.

The plant was still pretty healthy otherwise and still producing, but it is also time to make way for the winter crops - cabbages, cauli, broccoli, sprouts, leeks...

I picked the remaining fruit and flowers,

and gave Greenskin 2 to the chooky girls. They found the grass more appealing...a sad sight really isn't it?

Greenskin 3 is still going and I will keep him from the chooks for a little while longer.

How are your zucchinis? Sent to the chook house yet?  What do you do to treat powdery mildew in your zucchinis?

Zucchini Tuesday - Fritters

A whole week has passed and no posts - where has the time gone?  It must have been Easter - I will blame it anyway... I have been busy with Easter and family and friend visitors to Highfield and with building a chook house,  busy with alpaca pooh and citrus trees, with planting out brassicas and, and, and, so posts have gotten away from me.

In a few days I will post of my beautiful new chook house, the Lads that have built it and my new feathery girls but for now and much more important is badly photographed zucchini matters.

As those who follow this blog know, Tuesday is the day for zucchinis -  that veg that deserve special treatment given their glutability. Tonight we had Zucchini and Haloumi Fritters.

As by now you can see, the recipe comes from the Sydney Morning Herald - the paper of our capital city. As you can probably see  the recipe from the photograph, I wont repeat it here, in any case I am too exhausted to type it...too much chook house building.

Suffice to show, here are some photos of the delicious deployment of the zucchini surplus.

 Here be the mix...

here be the resultant fritters draining.

And it I had another photo to show you it would be the exhausted souls eating said fritters... they were yum with lamb sausages, home grown corn ( not my own, a gift from a visitor) and  my prize winning tomato and chilli jam.

(In the back of my head there is a memory of Liz from Suburban Tomato making a similar recipe to which I will link when I feel in possession of my body...)

I could go on about the state of my two zucchini plants, but we are all too tired here to elaborate.

May your zucchinis be still producing and may the culinary results of the glut be satisfying.

Until next week -  Love your Zucchini.

Zucchini Tuesday - Fritatta

I don't know about you, but one of my comfort foods is fritatta. It's a relationship that started when I first went to Spain where fritatta is a staple. Here is tonight's Zucchini and Chorizo Fritatta, inspired by  the flavours of this Spanish staple.

Zucchini and Chorizo Frittata
(* from the patch)

*2 zucchini grated
semi-dried tomatoes chopped
olive oil
1/2 red onion sliced very thinly
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1  chorizo chopped
4 eggs
250 gms ricotta
chipotle
parmesan cheese

In one bowl, mix zucchini, ricotta, semi-dried tomatoes. In a frying pan, lightly fry the garlic, onion and chorizo. In another bowl, whip eggs and pour into zucchini mix. When onion, garlic and chorizo mix is cooked on, lower the heat and pour in the egg, ricotta, onion and garlic mix. Sprinkle with chipotle and parmesan cheese. Cook on stove top until cooked at least half way through, then place frying pan under the grill to cook  from the top until cooked through. Cut fritatta and serve and eat. Yum!

I am afraid to say that all my photos of cooked food look horrible, but believe me, this was delicious.

My two zucchini plants are still producing and I an enjoying the produce and picking quite young. I am looking forward to a few more zucchini feeds this autumn before the frost nips the plants.

How are your zucchinis? What have you made recently with your zukes?

Until next week - Love your zucchini.

Harvest Monday - 25th March 2013

The beetroot that were grazed off by the Wallaby earlier in the season have managed despite their mauling to survive and their roots are now thickening.  This last week I decided to pick a few - they are small but I always deliberately over plant beetroot  and use the first pickings to thin the crop. As time goes on the roots will become bigger as more space is made for others.

I have also been picking zucchinis determined to get most from this crop before the frost shuts it down.

Other pickings this week have been peaches - lovely white ones,

loads of rocket, some radish, herbs and some chillies which are getting strung up to dry.

and the first four snow peas, only two pictured here as I quickly ate the other two -  they often don't make it inside.

I am contributing this to Daphne's Harvest Monday. My harvest is pretty meagre for this time of the year for Southerners. I am sure that others who occupy this half of the globe will have much more produce to show you.

Zucchini Tuesday - Tart

The days are getting cooler so enough of zucchinis in salads, its time to cook. Earlier this week I decided on a light zucchini tart.

This recipe is adapted from one I found years ago in a Gourmet Traveller.  I don't know which issue as I cut the recipe out.

Zucchini and feta tart with roasted cherry tomatoes (*from the patch)
puff pastry

*3 zucchini, thinly sliced
200gm feta crumbled
black olives, cut into pieces
*thyme
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed
parmesan cheese finely grated
cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Line a lose bottomed fluted tart tin with puff pastry (I used 3 sheets of frozen pastry overlapping) and blind bake in the oven at 200c.

Combine zucchini, feta, thyme, garlic and lemon rind in a bowl, season with black pepper. Spoon into pastry case, lightly sprinkle top with parmesan and bake until the mix becomes golden.

Roast tomatoes in the oven marinated in red wine vinegar and olive oil.  Remove tart from the tin carefully. Place tomatoes on the top of the tart. Eat.

I think you could do endless varieties of this recipe, indeed this is already an adaptation of the original which used dill  instead of thyme and I added parmesan and olives.

I still have two zucchinis in my patch, one is producing and the other is a little too junior still.  I am hoping to have zucchini for a little while longer. Southerners - has your zucchini made way for the winter brassicas yet?  Northerners - what  varieties of zucchini / courgette are you planning to plant for your summer crop

Until next week - Love your zucchini.

Zucchini Tuesday - Zucchini trifolati

Now I am sure that you will agree with me that 4 zucchini is not a glut, but compared to the productivity to date from my zucchini, 4 feels like inundation.

The slightly cooler weather (still in the low 30s) has been kinder on all my plants and the zucchini is finally comfortable enough to set a number of fruit.

Armed with 4 small home-grown zukes, I decided to make this side dish. The recipe comes from a Gourmet Traveller but which issue I have no idea, I cut the recipe out. I provide the amounts here I used which are  pretty much the same as in the original  recipe. It takes no time at all to make. The most time consuming part is slicing the zuke very thinly which I definitely recommend you doing - it's worth it. Indeed 'trifolati' in Italian (apparently) means to slice thinly as you would a truffle.

Zucchini trifolati  (* from the garden)
50mls extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves crushed
2 anchovy fillets
*1 tbsp chopped rosemary
* 4  small zucchini  sliced thinly across wise ( the recipe suggests two yellow and two green skinned)
* 2 tbsp oregano leaves

Heat the oil and add garlic, rosemary and anchovy fillets and cook until the anchovy starts to disappear. Add zucchini and oregano and stir until zucchini is just tender. Serve warm or at room temp.  It would be beautiful with a white fish or smoked chicken, I had it with some left over cold roast lamb because that's what I had hanging around.

How is your zucchini crop? Still going?  Contemplating zucchini preserves yet? Relish or chutney?

This week Jen from Digging up the Dirt has made a zucchini burger, I am liking it!

Until next week - love your zucchini

Harvest Monday - 11th March 2013

With the weather cooling (slightly) and with a little added rain, I have had a little more produce to pick.
Delights this week have been the Minnesota Midget Rock melons.

They have been such performers, dealing with the heat and the lack of rain, I have decided to 'harvest' their seeds to re-plant next year.

I am also starting to get a decent picking of zucchinis (about time). Here are three that I have picked just the last couple of days, the good news is that more are on the way.

Amazingly, the radishes that were almost completely grazed off by the Wallaby have started to produce their rosy little swollen roots.

Other than this, my harvests have been mostly rocket, rocket and more rocket. I am not very good at remembering to take photos of the things I harvest, especially when they are herbs and saladings, so you will just have to have pictures of my plants instead, you can see where I have picked the rocket at least!

Baby beetroot leaves also for salads.

Basil -  not huge quantities, just tip pickings for salads and parsley, chives, garlic chives and thyme.



I am contributing this to Daphne's Monday Harvest. A collection of great produce will be posted there soon, when the earth turns a little more.

Zucchini Tuesday - Carpaccio

Tonight I decided to love my zucchini raw in a simple salad. I can't claim the recipe as my own, it is adapted from  this recipe. If you like the bitterness of rocket, lemony flavoured zucchini  and the saltiness of peccarino then this one works. I really enjoyed it.

Zucchini carpaccio 

zucchinis cut very very thin - I used the veggie peeler
olive oil
lemon juice
black pepper
zested rind of lemon
* rocket
shaved peccarino

* from the garden

Toss the zucchini in lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil and black pepper. The the zucchini sit in this dressing  while you wash and spin the rocket.  Place rocket on your serving dish and top with drained zucchini and shaved peccarino. Eat.

What's happening with your zucchinis?  Contemplating preserves? Managed to make the zucchini the favourite vegetable of the household?

Until next week -  Love your zucchini.

Zucchini Tuesday - Best in Show

Being singularly inept at  my own zucchini cultivation this year, I decided to see how it should be done by visiting the zucchini exhibit at the Gundagai Show.

I know you are eagerly awaiting the results, but first the category for judging - Three Zucchini, not over 18cm (I am loving the length stipulation lest people bring in their  forgotten club-like fruit). Entrants pay a $0.50c entry fee and the prize - $3.00 for the winner and $1.00 for second prize winner.

There were 9 exhibits submitted and all but one of the exhibits were dark green skinned zucchinis. The exception was a mottled skinned zucchini. And here are the prize winners.

Mr Patrick Daley has bragging rites and is $3.00 richer.

Now I am not wanting to be critical of the judges but lets face it, when we go to the show we always sit in judgement don't we? So here I go with my own expert comments -  I am a little disappointed by the scratched skin and the less than straight third zucchini.

And here is the second prize winner -  D&D Bell.

Again I am disappointed by the skin of the zucchini and the less than careful trim of the cut end... poor presentation I feel.

Here is the only 'coloured' zucchini submission, just so you can get a sense of  some of the rest of the class.

I can't help thinking that some of you in blog land - yes you Bek and Liz and Jen and many others, should try your hand at a regional agricultural show. From your harvests I can see that you would be very competitive in a 3 zucchini under 18cms class.

Just in case you wanted to try your hand, here is the schedule of  the vegetable competition from the 2013 show, to get you preparing  ahead.

Until next week -  love your zucchini.

Zucchini Tuesday - Pancake Tuesday

Today is Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent and traditionally the day to both confess and to eat up all the rich food in your cupboard before fasting, at least that's what Wikipedia says. So naturally today I am using a zucchini to make a pancake and, to eat up the rich foods in my cupboard, I am adding bacon and avocado.

Where is the confession bit you ask? Well I don't think I should turn this blog into a confessional, so I will limit my small confession to the topic. So here it is - this recipe is not my own creative invention, I got the recipe from a website and provide the link below as well as my version. It seemed like just the right meal for the day. (Phew, feel better already after having confessed!)

Zucchini pancakes with avocado and bacon (* from the garden)

1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
*1 zucchini grated
3 bacon rashers
*cherry tomatoes
1 avocado
* basil leaves
1/2 red onion
1 clove garlic
balsamic vinegar

Make a batter with the flour, baking powder egg and buttermilk. Add  grated zucchini. Cook the pancakes and keep pancakes aside in a warm place. Cook bacon and keep aside.With the remaining ingredients, prepare a chunky salad. Assemble with pancake on bottom topped with bacon and salad.

I enjoyed this. It was light and fresh and could lend itself to many other flavour combinations.

Anyone else got a good pancake recipe that includes a zucchini? Did you make a zucchini pancake recipe today? If so tell all (but leave out the confessional). I have made plenty of fritters before with my zucchinis, a particularly nice one with dill and a fetta dipping sauce, but this is my first venture into zucchini pancakes.

What's happening with your zucchini?

Until next Tuesday - love your zucchini.

Zucchini Tuesday - I want cake!

As you know, Greenskin 1 has gone to to the great compost bin in the sky. Greenskin 2 has been doing very, very well and yesterday I picked my first zucchini from it. Yay!

Now one zucchini isn't very many is it! So the other day I bought a few zucchini from the green grocers so that I could make something. I decided I wanted cake.

As I had a large number of pilfered apples on the sideboard it had to be a zucchini and apple cake, but was there such a thing? A quick google and I found many zucchini and apple cakes so I got grating.

I amended the recipe quite a bit. It may be bad for my arteries but a cake isn't a cake if it doesn't have butter in it so one of the amendments was to substitute the suggested oil. I also reduced the amount of sugar  and made it the soft brown type instead of the recommended white. I also applied a spice and sugar mix to the top of the cake instead of mixing the spices thru the cake mix. Anyhow here is my version of the cake.

Zucchini and apple cake
2 cups grated zucchinis
2 cups grated apple (after peeling and coring)
1 cup soft brown sugar
150g butter
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sultanas

For sprinkling on the top
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie spices (this was given to me as a yummy Christmas gift on instruction to use it when I use cinnamon).
1 tsp raw sugar

Do the usual mixing - you know how to make a cake! This is a big cake so prepare a big tin with the usual lining.

I cooked it until I thought it was cooked based on the springyness, the skewer .... and well, it is a bit gluggy, especially down the bottom - I mustn't have put the skewer in far enough. I am not sure that it is a complete failure....it tastes pretty nice, perhaps I will serve slices hot and call it a pudding?

What would I do next time? Well, I'd reduce the amount of apple and zucchini - I'd only put in 1 cup of each, that would make it less dense and help it to cook thru better.

So if you are sick of zucchinis as a savoury vegetable, then try this with the amends I suggest. If you peel the zucchini then the kids wont know that it has zucchini in it.

Happy zucchini  growing and eating. Until next week, love your zucchini.