The thing I love about snake beans is that you pick all these today, and tomorrow there’s the same amount again. And the other thing I love about snake beans is cutting them into finger lengths, lightly blanching, and dressing with a garlic-olive oil-balsamic-soy-honey dressing while they are hot.
It’s still a bit early for brassicas. The cabbage moths will still be active for another four months or so here. Except for brussels sprouts. Shall I bother with brussels sprouts this year? I am in a very marginal climate for them at the best of times and it’s not the best of times. If I’m going to plant them at all, I have to plant now and nurse them…
Two years ago I posted Part One of Homegrown Coffee. If you ignore the fact that I skipped ahead a couple of years, we’re now up to Part Two! This year’s coffee crop has been drying on a screen door on the verandah for a couple of months now. The beans are hard and dry and ready for the final stages.
I am really loving tromboncino. Usually by this time of year, my garden is so full that I skimp on the sweet corn because I just don’t have room for it in my intensively fenced beds. This year though, I haven’t planted any zucchini, and it’s amazing how much space that saves.
We are coming up to the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere. It’s really a very noticeable change if you are in the mood for noticing it. Our ancestors did – all the traditional festivals in most cultures (Easter, Halloween, Groundhog day, Christmas, Mayday) are held on these day length marker points , and plants most definitely notice. Most garden crops are highly sensitive to this cycle of lengthening and…
This time of year in this part of the world it’s all about fruiting annuals. I have more corn and beans and tomatoes and eggplants and capsicums and trombochino and squash and pumpkins and cucumbers and zucchini in the shadehouse than I will have room to plant out. So it’s just another round of the regular, staple roots this time – carrots and beets.
Besides the corn, I’m potting up the tomatoes, eggplants, and capsicums I planted last month. They’ll grow on in pots for another few weeks before they need to be planted out and by then it might have rained.