The Olive Harvest

A few weeks ago I finally harvested the olives from our back yard trees. It was tricky this year, with loads still green and unripe when the first ones were ready, and we had perfect, sunny days. Then there was a long run of rainy weather where ladder climbing would have been reckless. So frustrating! Birds made off with the biggest, juiciest olives whilst I looked on, crossly.
Finally we had the perfect olives coinciding with the perfect weather, but not before much of the booty had been pilfered.

Finally! The perfect day for harvesting.



Beautiful luscious fruit, ripe for the picking.

 Last year, a lovely lady from our dog walking group suggested I give it a go, and even brought me a recipe for preserving olives. I'd never even considered it. Preserving your own olives seemed to me something only experienced Greek or Italian Nonas should attempt. I felt like a fraud.
I faced my misgivings and had a go anyway. We had 4 spindly, young trees that had been planted no more than 3 years previously, in our tiny courtyard along the fence line to screen out next door's house. They were laden with fruit. I picked an incredible 9.5 kilos of fabulous, enormous kalamata olives, followed the recipe to the letter, and was rewarded by the most delicious olives we'd ever tasted. I was unbelievably excited and proud. You should have seen me strutting about - veggies, eggs and now our own olives. It made me disproportionately happy! Mr.B was putting them out on platters whenever anyone dropped by - garnished with sprigs of thyme from the garden. I think he felt like the gentleman farmer for a moment. There was even a nano-second where he thought getting our own bee-hive was a good idea!
This year the harvest wasn't nearly as bountiful, but they were pretty big and juicy. I harvested only 3.5 kilos this time - those birds must have been pretty happy with the bad weather!

3.5 kilos of the finest Kalamata olives from The Urban Nest Estate! ; Washing; Slitting down each side of each olive.

So we have 12 jars of treasure sitting in a dark, cool cupboard. They'll be there for a while until they're ready for the next stage, and then I'll break open the extra virgin olive oil, herbs, chillies, spices and any other fancy, gourmet trappings I can think of. I can't wait. Why don't you drop by in a few months, and we'll open a bottle of wine and try them.

Olives slit both sides; Last year's harvest being bottled; I can report these olives with lemon, fennel seeds, garlic and chilli were amazing!

The Garden - The Off Season.

Today is dreary. Yesterday was also dreary. I can see these dreary days stretching miserably into the distance. It's most definitely autumn now. Not the crisp, clear, sunny autumn I love, but the dull, flat, drizzly season that makes me want to stay under the covers.
The garden desperately needs my attention, and I have found any number of excuses not to go out there. The tomatoes that suffered in the heat have still not been cleared away, and the ongoing battle with powdery mildew has been resoundingly lost. I feel defeated by this garden nemesis. I've been fighting it off since the early spring when I treated everything with anti-fungal spray almost constantly until the dry weather of summer gave some respite. So far this year I've lost entire crops of peas and broad beans, and the cucumbers, zucchinis and pumpkins have been pathetic. Honestly, I've had 1 butternut pumpkin, 3 cucumbers and a handful of zucchini - hardly worth the effort.

One lonely butternut pumpkin; Powdery mildew - my gardening nemesis.

This gardening year has been a struggle, but I'm determined to make next year better, so I'm facing my fears today and I'm going to clear all the rubbish away. That'll surely make me feel a bit better. Next week will be a new start. I'm going to give the soil some much needed TLC with cow manure, compost, worm castings and a lot of digging. I'm thinking of giving some of the beds a rest and plant with clover, a green manure crop, which will then be dug back into the soil later.
I've already planted seedlings for a gigantic silverbeet variety called Fordhook Giant, which I'm planning to grow in pots to feed the chickens over the winter months. I'm hoping they're going to be abundant to keep my girls healthy and happy. Poor chooks, they've started their annual moult and are looking about as dreadful as everything else out there.

Pathetic tomatoes; Poor Selma - not the prettiest chook right now.

I mustn't get too down though, as there are still a few things doing nicely despite it all. Those capsicums are still making me smile. Quite apart from their amazing juicy crispness, they are just so cheerful. Like baubles on a Christmas tree. I've been amazed by the chilli plants, free from the spring garden festival, an unexpected bonus with long red chillis all over the garden. No idea what to do with them, but they are pretty. And I'm looking forward to harvesting my one pumpkin. Maybe I'll make a fragrant pumpkin, lentil and coconut soup to warm us up a bit.

Thank god for the capsicums; There's loads of them - 11 fruits on this plant; Chillis everywhere.

However, the excitement is mounting in the other garden, where olives are ripening now and I'm anticipating a few weeks of preserving coming soon.
I suppose life is like this. I feel better now I have a plan.

Olives ripening in the other garden.

Oh Well . . . .

Those beetroot I raised from seed and planted an age ago - you know, those beetroot that I've been watching and waiting and watering and wishing . . . . Well, I vowed that I would give them a couple more weeks and then that was it. Well . . . . someone else has started harvesting them without asking. I'm not happy. I found little shrivelled beetroot corpses dug up and carelessly tossed on the ground twice over the weekend. I suspect the pair of charming (hmmph) blackbirds that have been visiting the garden and scratching up all the mulch in their quest for bugs. Not so charming as it turns out.
Reluctantly I decided that I would pull up the lot yesterday, a little prematurely, rather than lose them all.
It seems that good things come to those that wait. It was with surprise and whooping delight that I found buried treasure. OK, it's not exactly an abundant crop of harvest festival proportions, but it's actual beetroot that I can do something with. I am as proud as if I had given birth to them myself.
I prepared them soooo carefully. Precious, like gemstones. We had an absolutely delicious and super healthy beetroot and lentil salad with rocket and goat's cheese, with pan fried salmon fillet for dinner tonight. Yum. Food does seem extra special when you grow it yourself.

Looking skanky - not much happening here; Shrivelled discovery.

Good things come to those that wait.

Look at the colour!

Roast beetroot and lentil salad with goats cheese

 

The Garden

After a boring day of chores I just went out to the garden to breathe in the  afternoon breeze and found there were loads of tomatoes that had ripened since yesterday.
Since it's now summer proper, and after the scorching hot spell, the poor tomato plants are looking crisp, brown and somewhat naked. The lush green foliage is a distant memory, but the tomatoes are abundant. This is what happens in my garden every year. I just can't keep the foliage healthy and have good tomatoes. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be - the plant gives up on its leaves to concentrate on the fruit. I have no idea, but it's a theory.

After having picked a bumper tomato harvest, I poked around to see how everything else was going.
The zucchini plants are enormous, prehistoric looking things now, and have just about taken over the raised planter bed. Now that's lush foliage. Underneath, umpteen tiny zucchini were reaching up to me. I cut a few thumb sized ones whilst they're still tender. I could use those in a salad.
A butternut pumpkin that was planted at the same time as the zucchini, is having a hard time standing it's ground. I've trained it up onto the top of the chicken run so it can have full sun, but it has different ideas and has run along behind the salad greens and is setting little pumpkins there. I hope they set properly this time. Last year they came to nothing when they lost out to another pumpkin variety that took over the whole yard.
The chilli plants and capsicums are finally starting to set fruit. I've not managed to grow either before, so fingers crossed.
The beetroot that I planted at the beginning of Spring have only just started forming. They're all foliage. All mouth and no trousers. They have been in the ground so long now I'm tempted to give up. I'll give them another fortnight and then it's curtains for them.
The rocket I planted just a few weeks ago has run rampant all over the more delicate salad greens, and is bolting in the heat. I should have a go at making rocket pesto so it doesn't go to waste.
The herbs are all looking healthy, and there's tonnes more tomatoes to still to come.
I think I'll make Jamie Oliver's tomato chutney over the weekend. Move over CWA, I'm going to start the WCWA (The Wannabe Country Women's Association).



Baby zucchini; Capsicums; I'd better get my pinny on - more tomatoes than you could poke a stick at.

Roast Tomato Pasta

Everyone has a few quick and easy favourite meals in their repertoire. My go-to meal is roast tomato pasta, especially in summer when I have plenty of tomatoes in the garden. It's so easy, pretty quick, and a complete no-brainer. We eat this on a weekly basis and it's always the meal I choose if I need to feed a crowd. I cooked it for my extended family in the UK when we were there last year - they absolutely loved it. Funny, one of my sisters asked me for the recipe when I'm sure I got it from her in the first place. Anyway, it's a crowd pleaser, and cheap and easy, which is always a plus.
Here's how I do it. You can make it your own.

About 500g ripe tomatoes - I use cherry tomatoes when I have to get them from the shops - halved width ways, otherwise, whatever oddly shaped ones you have in the garden, chopped to about that size, will do fine.
2 red capsicums de-seeded and cut into about 5 x 2cm pieces - no need to be very precise.
2 red onions peeled and cut into eighths lengthwise.
A few garlic cloves, unpeeled -  more or less depending on how much you like garlic.
1 cup pitted kalamata olives - cut in half if you can be bothered.
100g Greek Feta - I use Dodoni brand.
Fresh basil leaves torn - if you have it on hand.
Olive oil.
Sea salt flakes.
Pasta - I use penne - enough for 4 people

Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees fan forced.
Pour enough olive oil into a large roasting pan to pretty much coat the bottom.
Do all your cutting and prepping and then throw tomatoes, capsicum, onions and garlic into the pan and turn to coat with the olive oil until glistening. Season with salt.
Put a pan of water on to boil, for the pasta. When boiling turn down to a simmer so it's ready when you need it.
Roast vegetables in the oven, on a middle to high shelf position, for about 15 minutes.
Check that the vegetables aren't burning, turn them about in the juices with a spatula.
The tomatoes should have collapsed and will become the sauce.
Return to the oven for another 10 minutes or so, or until the juices have reduced a bit and become more saucy and sticky.
Meanwhile, put the pasta on to boil, for whatever time the packet says - usually 8 - 10 minutes.
Once the roast tomato mixture is ready add the olives to the pan, with the crumbled feta and mix to combine and for the feta to melt a bit into the sauce.
Drain the pasta well and add to the pan. Mix everything together to coat the pasta. If it's a bit dry I add a bit of extra virgin olive oil, or a splash of the pasta water and mix through.
Serve with torn basil leaves on top. Yummy!
Sometimes I add a few bacon rashers to the pan at the 15 minute mark, which gives it 10 minutes in the oven and then I break it up into the mixture when it's done.
Sometimes I add a few sprigs of thyme during roasting, and then take out the stalky bits at the end - also yummy.

A Thing of Beauty . . . .

I harvested tomatoes yesterday, and they were so sumptuous it brought to mind a quote from the poet John Keats; A thing of beauty is a joy forever. They were a joy whilst I looked at them, and breathed in their special home grown tomato smell, but they did not last forever - only until we ate them.
They say Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and though they were just tomatoes, readily available at any supermarket, they were incredibly beautiful to me, in that moment, like jewels. That colour, so, well, so tomatoey, for want of a more descriptive adjective. The texture, so smooth, the shapes so outrageous - they'd have never made it to the supermarket shelves. Only a mother could love them. But it's the smell that gets me every time - fresh and earthy and difficult to describe. It transports me back to childhood days spent in my grandpa's greenhouse. The memories of English summers at my grandparent's place. A thing of beauty undoubtedly.

Time to say goodbye . . . .

It seems that what we had most of in the garden for the last few weeks was beans. We had crisp green 'Bonapartes', tender yellow 'Sex without Strings', magnificent climbing 'Purple King', and 'Crimson Flowered Broad beans'. Beans are the gift that keeps giving. We've feasted for weeks now, and they just kept coming. I've tossed them into salads, risotto, and dressed up left-over Christmas ham with them.
The broad beans were a bit tricky. This was the second crop as I had no luck at all with the first - planted too early and came to nothing. I persisted and was rewarded with a lovely crop this time. I made the most fantastic lunch of Stefano's Smashed Broad Beans from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion. Unbelievably delicious. Broad beans are worth growing if only for this recipe, and if you don't have the book, go out and get it immediately.
If you've never grown beans before, they are easy, quick and gratifying. Give them a go. You don't need much room - all mine are in containers and pots.
Sadly, I'm going to have to say goodbye to them now. I think this very hot spell we're having in Melbourne this week will do them in, and I'll probably pull them up at the weekend when the cool change comes. I'm going to be disappointed to have to buy beans at the greengrocers again. Humph. Oh well, the tomatoes are ripening now, so mustn't grumble.

Lunch

Do you eat lunch? I have to admit that I'm a serial lunch skipper. I just get so busy and involved in whatever I'm doing that lunchtime just goes by unnoticed. If I do consider my stomach rumblings then it's usually peanut butter on toast. Suddenly the girls are home and the rush is on. Homework, taekwondo, choir, dinner . . . . and the day is over.
Today is different. The sun is out, I'm not in a rush, and I noticed herbs looking enticing in the garden. They smelled good, fresh, summery.
Tomatoes on toast with herbs,3 ways, was on the menu. Delicious with a pinch of sea salt and a dribble of extra virgin olive oil, with home cured olives on the side. Beats peanut butter.


Oregano, basil and mint

 



The Garden

The most miserable of Mondays greeted me on waking this morning - overcast, gloomy skies and the forecast of heavy rain and possible thunderstorms both in the morning and afternoon. That's just not reasonable. So I pulled on my parka, and Annie and I headed off for our daily visit to the dog park, thumbing our noses at the sky. Well, of course, right on cue the heavens opened as we pulled into the car park, and we huddled in the car until the heaviest downpour had passed. We emerged to discover all our chums, human and canine, young and old all braving the weather anyway. Melbourne dog walkers have no regard for weather forecasts.
So today I'll show you what a glorious weekend we had in the garden. Saturday was all sunshine and cheerfulness. I'll store it up for the week. Only rain for now.

'Rouge de Marmande' tomatoes just setting; Beetroot; Broad beans

Salad and seedlings

Mixed salad seedlings just sown last week; Mint by the back door.

Today's Harvest

Freshly picked peas from the garden.



The first crop of crisp yellow beans.

I was so excited to finally get a crop of broad beans. I've probably picked these too young, but I couldn't wait.

Everything in the garden has exploded into life. After the heavy rain that seemed to fall for weeks, the sudden hot spell has caused an abundance. Spring vegetable risotto for dinner tonight! 

Post by The Urban Nest.