Taste Test

I roasted the first of the Golden Nuggets and, well, they're pretty good. I wouldn't say more than that. Nowhere as sweet as a Butternut, but still ok. The skin adds to the taste and cooks well so should definately be left on. Because of their size once you cut one you can get through it pretty quickly. Pumpkins, once cut, lose quality fairly fast so if you can eat one in a couple of days it's a big advantage.  Because of this they may get another chance next summer.



First Pumpkins

I picked the Golden Nuggets yesterday as the vines had died down. I had four plants and they were a bit haphazard in their fruiting, probably half of these came from one plant and there was another with no pickable fruit at all. This might be due to the bed being new and the distribution of nutrients being a bit haphazard on my part, so the one plant that produced may have hit a good bit of manure. Also they seemed to suffer badly in the heat, which is always going to be a problem in a Perth summer. The taste test, really the only test that counts, is yet to come so if they're really good they might get another shot.



Tommy's last stand

The long hot summer has taken it's toll on the tomatoes. They've finally given up and have been pulled up. I still picked quite a few Romas and a few Grosse Lisse from the dieing plants.

Next year I'll spread them out a bit more and be a bit more regular with the feeding. The Sweet Bites also got completely out of control so I'll be a bit more vigilant with my pruning.


Romas



Sweet Bites



Passata

I collected 3kg of tomatoes the other day to make some passata, (tomato sauce). It's a combination of all the tomatoes I've grown, Roma, Mortgage Lifter, Sweet Bite and Grosse Lisse. My poor tomato plants have just about had it. I really did cram too many into the beds. Never mind.
I kept the passata very simple, I can add other ingredients when I use it depending on that use. Here it is

3kg tomatoes
15 peeled and roughly chopped garlic cloves
1 tbs salt
1 tbs ground black pepper
2 tbs sugar

All ingredients in one big pot and cooked for adbout 25mins. I cooled it down then passed it through a food mill. Back into the pot and reduced until thickened slightly. I ended up with about 1.2 litres of passata which I divided up then froze for use during winter.



Christmas Corn

I've started picking the corn and despite my fears so far the cobs are all fully filled. They're a bit smaller than I'm used to but still a good size. The picking time for these only lasts a few days so I'll have to freeze some and give plenty away. The sweetness of corn just doesn't last in the fridge so I'll be pigging out.
The secret to growing sweet corn? Plenty of food and plenty of water. Once they have reached just under a meter tall they could live happily in a swamp. Also at this time mulch up high around the stalks with straw and manure and they'll send out more roots into this rich mix.

Merry Christmas!



Eggplant overload

I was right, I'm a bit overloaded with eggplant. My neighbours and friends are the benefactors which is cool, and part of why I grow veggies. It's also the nature of growing in the backyard patch, a feast and famine thing. I might try to pickle some if I get the time.



Monsters in the patch

Every now and then I'll miss one of the zucchinis and they turn into monsters like this one. It seems such a waste to chuck these out but with the pithy centres they make pretty ordinary eating. There are some recipes where you dig out the pithy seeds and stuff them with savory mince or sausage meat. Maybe I'll try it with this one. That's a 400g tin of tomatoes next to it to give the scale of the thing. I might let one of them go at the end of the season to see how big it will get.