In this basket there are French Beans, Runner Beans, Chillis, Peppers, Beetroot, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Tomatoes and more Tomatoes. Naturally I am especially pleased to be able to show off some tomatoes, since with all the issues I have encountered it seemed at one stage that I might get none at all this year.
The big tomatoes are "Dynnye", (the orange one) and "Larisa" (the pink/red one):
This week also saw the harvesting of my first Runner Beans - hooray!
Actually, I picked two lots:
Jointly it was enough for us to eat in the way we normally celebrate the arrival of the first beans of the year. We have them as a Starter, plain boiled, served with butter and black pepper, with a piece of bread - in this case some of Jane's home-made Juniper and Thyme focaccia. Having them this way allows you to appreciate their flavour without it being confused by flavours of meat etc.
I picked this "Predzvest" cabbage too.
Unfortunately, when we cut into it, the centre had been extensively nibbled by caterpillars and the cabbage had to be thrown away. However, I immediately cut another just like it, so we still had cabbage for dinner. I found this chrysalis on the underside of the cabbage, so I guess the guilty party was inside. Does anyone recognise it?
The French Beans are my old favourites "Cobra", a decent quantity this time - about 325g:
The two pale-coloured peppers seen in the next photo are "Ohnivec". They will supposedly turn red when ripe, but I just wanted to pick a few early on, to see what they are like when green. A taste-test is in order, I think.
Last thing for me to mention this week is another 420 grams of Blueberries:
This is my contribution to Harvest Monday, and I expect lots of other people will have been harvesting nice crops this week, so why not drop by and take a look...?
A great harvest, as you say, it's wonderful when an array of different things can be picked on the same day. My runner beans are producing really well, we've already eaten some, have more waiting to be eaten, passed some to my mum and dad, so I've frozen the rest. Plenty more to come too. Unfortunately, my Cobra plants got eaten by slugs, but a couple survived so I got a very small harvest from them this week, better than nothing I suppose. Great news about your tomatoes, I thought you might end up without any this year, what a disaster that would be, so I'm really glad that your plants are producing.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe it, I have just posted a similar post to my blog. A great harvest, Mark. I am only sorry that tomato crop would be very small this year. How nice it is to pick up such a colourful basket of one's own vegetables.
ReplyDeleteThat harvest basket full of such varied veggies is wonderful. You would be hard pressed to tell that there had been an issue with contamination in your garden!
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful colors you're seeing from the garden! The rainbow of produce one can grow really is the best, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteLove the color in your baskets.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, that's a beautiful and colorful harvest. Nice to see the tomatoes finally rolling in.
ReplyDeleteThat is a lovely basket of goodies. I've been resorting to buying my blueberries at the farmers market. For some weird reason they just don't seem to like growing here which is weird since they grow wild in our state.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a beautiful harvest! Love the variety. And your tomatoes look SO GOOD!
ReplyDeletewhat a terrific colouful display nobody does it better than you Mark your attention to detail..... well it is legendary
ReplyDeleteThat first basket is a work of art.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing - chrysalises can be varied - that a small white butterfly will be assembling in there.. No doubt a lazy caterpillar that didn't want to travel too far.
I love your simple treatment of the beans. I often fix them the same way, and like you say you can really appreciate the flavor that way.
ReplyDeleteNice harvest Mark.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely colorful basket of veggies. It's so good to see that you're enjoying a respectable crop of tomatoes. You are so right about how good fresh beans are prepared in such a simple way, I love to prepare them in a similar way, braised in just a little bit of water and plenty of good sweet butter.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and colorful harvests this week! I like how your basket is wide so that none of those pretty veggies get hidden.
ReplyDeleteSuch a colorful and beautiful harvest this week! You do have a lot of variety coming out of the garden. I love the way you enjoyed your first bean harvest. I like to prepare a lot of the garden harvest simply so the true flavor shines.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely harvest!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harvest! It's unfortunate about the cabbage. Mine were devoured this year as well. I need to be much better at netting next year. Your tomatoes look delicious.
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