25 September 2023 Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres.

Guavas:

Look I know I got a few guavas, but they were in one’s and two’s; and mostly went into the compost. I was done with guavas for this year. I mean – 18.46kg for the months of winter 2023 is pretty impressive!

Cumquats:

My partner let slip that he had been eating “those little orange things” straight off the tree, and they were delicious. So I harvested the last four, so I could have a taste. I think I had ten in total this year. Granted, my cumquat tree is in a pot, but I have seen some enormous cumquat trees in the past – one was at least 6m tall and provided incredible harvests!

Parsley:

The parsley in the south facing garden bed is getting big and starting to form flowerheads before going to seed. With a run of hot weather upon us (records have been broken), I figured that making tabouli was the answer. Two bunches (48g +170g), and two batches of tabouli made to the recipe from Moroccan Soup Bar cookbook. I couldn’t find my bulghur wheat, so I used quinoa.

Landcress:

42g this harvest. I haven’t weighed it when harvesting in the past but I have an entire 2 x 1m garden bed filled with landcress. Planted once to distract the white cabbage moth from targeting my brassicas, It appears that I will have landcress every winter, whether or not I try and grow broccoli again. It tastes peppery and spicy, much like rocket/arugula.

Asparagus:

14g. I have ignored instructions about not harvesting when thinner than a pencil, I keep forgetting to fertilise. I hardly ever water. So my asparagus bed – which should be in its prime, gives me about 4 spears each season. I am a bad asparagus-bed parent. I think I’ve harvested two fat spears before this, but I didn’t weigh them.

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? Have you had any success in foraging in your local neighbourhood?

28 August 2023 Harvest Monday

Like sands through the hourglass, August just ran away from me.

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres.

Guavas:

This is the last of the guavas, but the photo is not all the guavas harvested in August 2023.

Most have been turned into fruit leather “chips”, and some were frozen in slices with the intention of making a “guava pie”. That bit hasn’t quite happened yet. Also some are slowly desiccating in my fridge because I haven’t gotten to dealing with them yet.

7.025 kg in 5 lots.

Mandarins (foraged):

Near one of the places I visit is a whole block of houses that is slated for demolition so that the developer can build some apartments. One of these houses had a mandarin tree that I have been cooing after, so one day when the top of the tree had been felled, I went and collected all of the mandarins (360 g + 1340g = 1700g). These were terribly sour – probably not yet ripe. So I ate a few and then swapped the rest “to make marmalade” for a loaf of homemade sourdough. I also grabbed a few cuttings of an unknown grapevine that was also destined for landfill – the stump was quite thick, so I think it was quite old.

Passionfruit:

One passionfruit, 62g, sharp and delicious.

Cumquats:

Last year, I decided that I would bite the bullet and buy my own Nagami cumquat tree. Lucky, because this year there doesn’t appear to be that many of them up for swaps in the crop swap group this year. Two cumquats (18g), but I’m pretty sure I ate another two without taking a photo – let’s say 36g.

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? Have you had any success in foraging in your local neighbourhood?

31 July 2023 Harvest Monday

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the origin of Harvest Mondays, please visit our happy acres.

Guavas:

The guava season was slow to start this year, and then it hit with a vengeance. This is the first year I haven’t netted or protected my guavas, because *effort*, and I still have many prior years worth of guava related products which I still haven’t eaten. So of course the lorrikeets have been having daily parties in my tree. The photo above is not all the guavas, only one day’s worth!

Of the guavas that I managed to collect and process (removing seeds, bite marks, bad bits and fruit fly larvae), I weighed a whopping 11 kg worth (taking into account 19 x 20g plastic containers).

The majority were cut and processed into a guava “fruit leather” disc, some was eaten fresh, some was turned into a guava cake, and some cut up and frozen because I didn’t have any other time to do anything else (and food waste annoys me). For my guava fruit leather, 50/50 apple sauce and guava puree appears to be the winning combo, otherwise it is too gritty and the discs crack during the drying process. In terms of eating them fresh, I have actually turned into a bit of a guava fruit snob – I only like to eat the centre seeds, the sweetest part of the guava!!

Pumpkin:

I told you last month I was waiting on a pumpkin to cure. Unfortunately I left it on the vine for too long, and the worms decided to reclaim it as benefits. When I cut it, half was liquid ooze which cascaded out (gross!). I then painstaking cut out the rest of the soft mushy pumpkin into wedges and then put the wedges into the fridge.

The pumpkin was mostly turned into a coconut pumpkin curry, with a few wedges roasted with miso and honey glaze. 1300g, accounting for container weight.

Passionfruit:

One passionfruit, 99g.

Bananas:

Second of three bunches/stalks of bananas. I left this on the tree for too long, and although I cut out the bad/overripe ones whilst the bunch was on the tree, I couldn’t get the whole piece of fruit. So then the vinegar flies and ants started hanging around. 4.6kg of edible fruit, but I had to compost at least another 2kg of rotten fruit. Most of this fruit was dehydrated, eaten fresh, or baked into a cake. I am now watching the third bunch of bananas very closely to ensure that they don’t suffer the same fate.

So dear reader, have you harvested anything from your garden recently? How does your garden grow? How about foraging in your local neighbourhood?

Monday Harvest, August 2021

It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. 

I’ve been quiet because busy busy. Not much happening in the garden because most of my down time has been spent lying on the couch in a lot of “cannot be bothereds”, and my work day is book-ended by walks in the park. I really need the walks to separate my “work from home” life from my “life at home” life, and it helps keep me sane.

Sydney is currently under various stages of lockdown to try and contain the delta variant of covid-19, and my area is under one of the strictest orders. Now I must wear a mask when outside my house/property, and cannot go more than 5km from home. I tell you, I tried playing badminton today wearing a mask, and I was overheating!

But let’s talk about my winter harvest.

Firstly, guavas:

I haven’t actually weighed my harvests, but this year has been really productive. I’m getting (probably) 5-10kg worth of fruit on a weekly basis, and it’s been about 7 weeks so far. In non-covid years, I would have swapped these beauties for other goods. This year, because of restrictions of travel, I’ve been turning most of these into rather disappointing fruit leathers. Two years ago, I made the most perfect guava fruit leather recipe. This year, I cannot replicate it. So instead I’m getting gritty guava chips. I have tried up to 50% apple sauce/50% guava puree (de-seeded), and I cannot get the texture that I am looking for. Combos include with apple sauce, bush lemon juice (& zest), pureed pear, banana, and even the fruit from a monstera deliciosa (foraged). Nope. Fruit leather does not want to cooperate with me this year.

Secondly, Macadamia nuts:

I haven’t actually got a macadamia tree*, but I have found a street tree in my travels. As they fruit in winter, I have been busily collecting and de-husking the nuts. I think I like foraged macadamia nuts much better than bunya nuts, because the return on investment is much better, almost 1:1 versus 1:30 chance in getting an edible nut!

* I have a macadamia nut seedling, which sprouted in the compost from a discarded 2020 nut. I shall try and grow it.

I didn’t take a photo, but I did a huge harvest of my silverbeet. Mainly to clear my planter box so that I could plant garlic before the winter solstice.

So dear reader, how are your winter harvests going?

Nine Weeks until Christmas 2020

The local farmers markets restarted in June 2020 after the first* NSW Covid-19 lockdown, and I have been visiting regularly, almost more regularly than pre-covid. There’s a little fence around all entry points, and you need to have your temperature taken and grab a squirt of hand sanitiser before heading into the outdoor venue.

It’s good to see all of the farmers and producers again.

Anyway, for my most recent visit, there was a sign up saying: “Nine Weeks till Christmas! Order your hams now!”

What the? Nine weeks till Christmas? What happened to 2020? How has it both managed to drag on interminably, and suddenly be near the end?

In other (garden) news, I thought I would get no guava crop this year. They normally crop around June-July. When I had nothing then, I thought my pruning mid-summer had snipped off all of the forming fruit. But it seems it was a combination of odd-weather and poor pollination. I got fruit in October. So very very late. The poorly pollinated fruits were smaller than golf balls, and instead of the rock hard “normal” seeds inside, I got little brown dots, a bit like rosehips. Because it is so warm, the guavas are almost rotten by the time they drop off the tree. What’s left I have been pureeing with apple sauce + tumeric + black pepper + cinnamon, and dehydrating. Sort of a guava chewy.

Over winter, I splurged a little and bought two fruit trees – prunus mume and a calville blanc d’hiver apple tree. Then I found out this new apple tree isn’t compatible with the current lot of apple trees that I already have, and not only that it is a triploid. Gonna be difficult to get apples unless I get another pollinator ….

Have also planted corn “seeds”, from last years crop. Germination rate is pretty good, nearly 100%. Hoping to have a break from the cherry tomatoes, but the seedlings sprouting from my compost have other ideas.

Have you discovered this too, dear reader, that your year has been both super fast and super slow? Have your fruit trees also cropped this year at an unexpected time? Let me know your thoughts.

Harvest Monday, 10 June 2019

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the background behind Monday harvests, please visit the Our Happy Acres blog.

Guava season has started. I have recently found out that my variety of guava is the hawaiian guava.

I pruned the tree back quite hard after the harvest in Winter 2018, so the crop this year is not bending the tree in half. It has also been a really warm autumn, so my laziness in not bagging the fruit this year means I have had some fruit fly.

This is 1-2 days worth of crop:

I don’t have the quite the quantities I have had in the past to make such amazing swaps as I did in 2017, and the crop is compromised by the fruit fly. Any takers must be “willing to cut the bad bits out”. The smell is so heady and intense though, and the edible bits of fruit are still quite delicious.

I have recently acquired another dehydrator after my last one went on permanent holiday to a friend’s place (reluctantly!).

So this year, I thought I would try dehydrating the unswappable guavas to a “fruit leather”. I remember reading somewhere that guavas need to be blended with another fruit to make successful fruit leather, so I sort-of-but-not-really-followed this recipe from thorseby cottage, except with apple instead of pear and no thermomix. Oh, and I didn’t measure my ingredients.

Cooking down the fruit:

This might be 10-20 good bits of guava, with the seeds scooped out, and one apple. No additional sugar, but a little lime zest and some citric acid to assist preservation.

Ta da!

Hmm. Not quite what I was after. This was dehydrated at 50 deg C for 12 hours. I spread the mixture thin-ish, but in a continuous sheet. I wanted a “leather”, but I didn’t want to have to dehydrate for longer than 12 hours. This clearly hasn’t worked.

Oh well. I have had some suggestions on facebook to blitz this to a powder, and then use as a muffin or icecream flavouring ingredient. I’m not sure. I may keep it as a “crisp” for now. Anyway, I have a little more mixture to play with – I’m going to add some more apple, and try again!

Crop and Swap Feb 2017

I haven’t attended a crop and swap in quite a while; one because they’re an 80km round trip for me, and secondly – I’ve run out of honey! I haven’t harvested honey since November 2016. The season has been a bit odd and a lot of colonies have failed around the Sydney basin due to infestation of small hive beetle overcoming them, or not enough pollen/nectar due to the funny weather.

Up until now, I have just been doing one-on-one swaps, and racking up an incredible number of kilometres on the car.

But for the last crop and swap for February 2017, I figured that I would make an effort to head to the proper event in Lane Cove.

Crop and swap – out:

This is what I brought with me to the swap event. Two pots of thyme. Two jars of preserved guava – from 2015. I didn’t think it would be safe to bring or subject anyone else to my jars of unset seville marmalade (5 years ago), or various guava jams and guava jellies, made even longer ago! Two jars of kombucha scoby “jerky”.Two packets of native frangipani seeds, collected from my own tree. Beeswax (of course), some rendered as cupcakes, and some as it had come out of my solar wax extractor.

Crop and swap – in:

1.5litres of worm wee. Kale. Warrigal greens. Genovese Basil. Armenian cucumber. 2 cloves of garlic. 2 finger limes. 1 lime. Lemon balm (plant). 3 chilli peppers – one of them was a scotch bonnet. I love getting chillies, I love their shape, but I can’t eat them!

I had put in a special request for bee friendly plants, so I ended up with several kinds of salvia cuttings (black knight, hot lips, something with bluish flowers, one with lilac/blue flowers); Fruit salad sage cuttings and indian borage. There was a shopping bag filled with chocolate mint. I was debating whether or not I could try and and get a curry leaf branch to take as a cutting (since I had failed earlier in the month), and then another crop swapper offered me a seedling from her garden, I just had to pop past on my way home.

For the seeds I got some for crookneck squash, kohlrabi, dill, and ‘warpaint watermelon’ – which were a wonderful iridescent blue colour. With a name like that, I thought the watermelon would be similarly coloured, but a search for information on the seeds says not.

My drive home was in a scented lemon-ish, chocolate mint haze.

I then spent the afternoon potting my newly acquired cuttings in the glorious, glorious sprinkling rain, and playing “identify this cutting”.

I stir fried the warrigal greens as a side dish to dinner

I turned the fruit salad leaf cuttings (which I had had taken off to reduce transpiration loss) into a iced tea tissane:

Preserved Guavas

.. or guavas in syrup.

My usual method of dealing with the guava crop gives you a giant zip lock bag of frozen guavas, and no easy way to use them. Because they haven’t been individually frozen, the only way to get at them is to kind of whack at the bag until bits fall off, and then use it in a fruit smoothie (which I don’t do).

I had such success with the guava pie, that I have also frozen rectangular takeaway containers of guava pieces, already dotted with butter, sugar and cinnamon. I had planned to premake pies, and freeze them for a later day baking, but it was too much effort and time consuming to do so, what with holding down a full time job, studying, and trying to have a life. I then thought that I could use lay out the guava slices in the rectangular takeaway containers, so that I could pick up individual pieces later for cake making and such. That turned out to be much too fiddly and time consuming – not doing that one again.

Then I discovered the Guava Producers’ Association website, and in particular their recipe corner.

I had already quartered and deseeded a bunch of the better looking fruit, with the vague idea that I would bottle/can it somehow. I guess guavas are a bit of a rare fruit, because it was really hard finding any information on what type of sugar syrup to pair with the guava. Is guava a more acidic fruit, so can I use a light sugar syrup? Or is it less acidic on the ph scale, so I have to use a heavier sugar syrup? At last here was a solution – 250g in 500ml water, to me is equivalent to a medium sugar syrup.

Here, instantly, was a recipe.

I actually ended up using apple juice (Do you know how HARD it is to find actual apple juice that has been produced in Australia at the supermarket?!!) which I had already purchased (10% sugar solution) – 7 cups of which I then added 1/2 cup of sugar. So that’s ~um ~ 15 % solution. Okay. So it ended up being a very light sugar syrup then. Probably not the best if you’re reusing pasta sauce jars for your preserving.

1 x 2 litre ice cream box of guava quarters
1750 mL apple juice (only 1000mL seems to have been used)
100 g sugar
= 4 small bottles of preserved guavas.

These were then hot packed into their jars, and boiled in a water bath.

I tried to leave enough headroom in the smaller jars for water bath processing, but the fruit is not fully covered with the syrup. I think that I’m going to have to open these jars, either remove some fruit/add extra sugar solution, and re-process. I’ve had some green tomato relish go nasty because there wasn’t enough liquid in the jar. Although, pickyourown – preserving peaches seems to indicate that not enough water is OK.

“If fruit is not covered by liquid it may darken during storage (but does not necessarily mean it is spoiled, as all fruits will darken somewhat).”

I later on found the Technical Manual of the FAO of the United Nations (whew, what a mouthful!):

“The packaging medium may be constituted by the juice of the guavas, obtained by squeezing the pulp that contained the seeds. Add sugar to the juice to obtain a certain Brix°, according to the final degree of sweetness desired (usually, the syrup should be of about 30-35 Brix°.”

but I had no idea what a brix was. It turns out that it is a fancy way of saying “percent”; so 30-35 brix means a 30-35% sugar solution.

Apparently a guava in syrup is a totally different beast to fresh guava. So I can’t wait to try it!

Megan Pie

When I was visiting the USA, I had a friend make an apple pie from scratch. I was so keen to go and taste it, I kept chanting MeganPie MeganPie MeganPie. The pie was very good indeed. Homemade pie crust, slices of apple dotted with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Any good pie now is deemed a MeganPie.

So when I returned home to find that the guava season was still in full swing, I made my very own MeganPie.

I had a pie tin souvenired from a lovely pie restaurant in the Berkeley area.

Shortcrust recipe was from the Italian cookbook The Silver Spoon*.

It was quite simple – By weight, One measure flour, half measure sugar, half measure butter. Zest from a lemon.

This made a crumble like breadcrumbs. The recipe omits cold water, of which you add tiny droplets just until the breadcrumbs combine into dough, but not too far such that it becomes sticky and that you need to add flour to compensate in the other direction. I think that it actually uses less butter than the shortcrust I made using The Cook’s Companion (yes – 50g less).

Here are my ingredients that go into making the pie. I forgot to add the butter in the photo, but it is there.

For the filling, I just used sliced deseeded guava, dot with butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, repeat.

The lid was made up of several bits of crust that I had rolled out, but was not able to make into one large piece. Amazingly, when I cooked this, it looked like I had done this on purpose to give the lid texture and make more crispy bits.
My slackness with the pie crust meant that there were steam release holes designed in.

I baked this at 180 degrees for 30 minutes, as per Stephanie Alexander directions for a rhubarb pie.

It filled the kitchen with a wonderful lemon smell whilst baking.

The pie was so very good when eating just after baking, the crust retained its crunch even the next day. My neighbour rated it 10 out of 10. My mum said that it was “nice”.

I then saw a recipe in the newspaper for apple pie with tahini filling and cardamon crust. The timing was perfect – I would use cardamon in my next pie crust, but not the additional fiddly filling – I want to make sure that the guava flavour is prominent in the pie, without being masked by other flavours.

The cardamon didn’t smell as good as the lemon shortcrust whilst baking, however, it added a nice contrast to the guava filling.

I think that this year’s guava crop stars in the Year of the Pie. I’ll definitely be making this one again. Perhaps a lemon and cardamon crust?

*I think this makes a grand total of three recipes that I have made from this book so far. Grilled Whiting, Cauliflower with green sauce, and now shortcrust pastry. A search of my blog says I’m telling furphies, and I also used the book for the chestnut and rosemary cake. That’s a 0.2% recipes used so far.

Harvest Monday … a little bit late

This years’ guava harvest is early.

But I’m now fighting a battle on ***three*** fronts, up from one last year.

Bats eating the fruit when raw.
Fruit fly laying little grubs whenever they feel like.

And these guys:

Bloody lorrikeets!

They like to knaw on the fruit just as it has ripened and about to drop to the ground. They are then scattering the seeds all over the place so it looks like a cat has vomited copiously on my lawn.

Bits of uneaten fruit fermenting in the sun then attract the fruit fly, who lay grubs.

I have been trying to collect the fallen fruit and bagging it to minimise the spread of the fruit fly. But there is so much fruit! 80% of the stuff is affected by fruit fly I can’t give it away. Plus I am so busy at the moment, I don’t have the time to make jam/jelly products.

I have been ‘processing’ as much as I can: seeding and degrubbing the fruit then placing it in ziplock bags in the freezer. Apparently freezing may reduce the amount of pectin, but I’ll deal with it when I get there.

So! This week the harvest is:
6kg guava (3kg processed)
1 tomato
Bayleaf, Parsley and Vietnamese mint leaves.