Monday, January 28, 2013

Fruits of my Labour

The first full season in Rushworth has been one of excitement, anticipation and finally, prolific production.  Zucchinii were the first of my many vegetables to begin producing and have provided me with such numbers that I have made a stack of zucchinii pickles as seen above.
 
 
 
                                    
I planted a number of Lebanese cucumber seeds but only one of the plants survived to production stage and I am now picking 3 at a time.  In one day I managed to pick 4 and as that was just too many to consume fresh, I pickled 3 of them, along with sliced onion.  First tasting session was rather funny as a friend became voracious and ate a few slices in one hit.  Within minutes her face was red, tears ran down her cheeks and her throat was on fire from the chilli that I used in the pickling process.  NOTE TO SELF:   Don't use chilli next time.

 
My two varieties of tomatoes, grosse lisse and gourmet trusse, are both prolific in bearing fruit. So what to do with all these lovely juicy tomatoes,  make sauce of course.  The next batch of tomatoes to ripen will be made into relish and then the third will be another batch of sauce.   I have used a sneaky ingredient in this sauce,  I grated 2 granny smith apples into the mixture just prior to cooking.             

My beetroot plants are finally big enough to cook and bottle, so I have picked all of the biggest ones and done just that.  Still quite a few in the garden that are not quite mature enough yet.   Love the  smell of them as they bubble away on my stove.