This month came with some big wins and some big loses. We managed to get a full table of spring seedlings started earlier than we ever have before. Which hopefully means we are getting into the groove of this dance called gardening. But on the sad note, we had fox trouble and lost some hard working employees. The fox problem turned out to be quite a costly one. Not only did we lose some pets close to our hearts, there was financial cost in their replacement, a disruption in egg production, a set back in soil preparation, and allot of my time consumed coming up with a solutions to the problem. So majority of this months time and money was spent on this one issue. Hopefully resolved now (as I touch wood), I will post more on that when I know it's solved.
Despite focus on animal over vegetable, the garden kept on producing and provided 37% of the families vegetable consumption. I was hoping we had passed the winter lull and production was on the up. So it was very rewarding to see the figures confirm my hopes.
Grown (g) Purchased (g) Grown %
Avocado 1600 0%
Beans 2,325 0%
Beetroot 765 0%
Broccoli 1,080 100%
Capsicum 2,205 0%
Carrot 120 1,470 8%
Celery 1,785 100%
Cabage 670 100%
Cucumber 1,030 0%
Coriander 85 100%
Coliflower 955 100%
Eggplant 135 0%
Fennel 495 100%
Garlic 185 0%
Ginger 75 0%
Herbs Fresh 100 150 40%
Kale 175 100%
Leek 500 0%
Lettuce 360 100%
Lentil 2,450 0%
Onion 2,700 0%
Parsley 15 100%
Pea 800 0%
Potato 3,130 0%
Pumpkin 1,430 0%
Rocket 195 100%
Spring Onion 800 0%
Sweet Potato 1,255 0%
Spinach 110 100%
Tomato 1,535 0%
Zucchini 2,025 0%
Total 6,145 26,565 19%
Average 37%
Total Time 15 person hours
The two newly harvested vegetable for the month were cauliflower and fennel. Fennel is not a vegetable my family are accustomed to. When I brought the harvested fennel indoors, holding it up like a fisherman would with her/his prized catch, Melanie looked at me with disappointment and said "Why did we even bother planting those". Keen to have this beautiful specimen of a vegetable win the hearts of my family I searched for a winning recipe. Upping the stakes even higher I decided to also server it to my visiting mother. And yes, it was indeed a winner!
The recipe: Fry together an equal amount of fennel and carrot, sliced into sticks. Once they start to soften just a bit, add the juice from one squeezed orange. Keeping cooking until the juice disappears. That's it.
How did your garden fare this August?
37%, that's awesome. I've done well with potatoes, carrots, oranges, lemons and leafy green stuff. Cauliflower about 40% but broccoli was disapointing and no red cabbages. Love the new stickers that I saw on Celia's blog.
ReplyDeleteWhen did you plant your potato? I planted at beginning of winter and are far from ready yet. Never had much success with carrots, I'll keep trying. Broccoli on the other hand always a big winner in my garden. Aren't the greens just great over winter. Glad you liked the stickers.
DeleteThe first potatoes went in in April. I can usually dig some up after about 3 months and 4 months thy're all finished. I covered the carrot seed with some shade cloth and watered through that.
DeleteWell done! I'm yet to calculate my August totals, will most likely post about it this weekend. But I've been pretty pleased with the end of winter garden - lots of broccoli here too, carrots, radicchio, lettuces, purple sprouting broccoli just around the corner and the first of the peas.
ReplyDeleteI like the sprouting varieties with their prolonged harvest. I wonder if they produce more in total. I am sure I have said this to other people, I am very jealous of your peas. I look forward to reading your post.
DeleteAt this rate I think you'll definitely make your 2105 target. And your vegies look awesome too. I love fennel and it goes well baked with beetroot too!
ReplyDeleteI hope you mean 2015 target? ;)
DeleteMaybe your own healthy organic vegies will keep you alive until then!
DeleteCool! Our celery hasn't done as well as yours, and I never thought to grow fennel, even though I love it (the rest of the tribe are ambivalent). They will however, eat very finely sliced fennel (we use a mandoline) on top of a pizza. Yours would have been so fresh from the garden that I suspect I would have eaten it raw! So sorry to hear about the fox, hope you sort something out..
ReplyDelete