JANUARY HARVEST

It's been a slow start to this years harvest, with a very cold start to Melbourne's summer, saw my plants take a very slow start. Mid January brought scorching heat, which didn't help the matter, add to this a failing watering system is making it hard for the plants to grow and for me to find the time to stand there and water the plants, in between caring for a toddler and newborn baby! But we have had a harvest, not as much as I would have liked, but hopefully things will pick up soon!

1/1/14 - 31/1/14

39 eggs
Cabbage 2620 grams
Strawberries 42 grams
Peach 125 grams
Bay leaf 181 grams
Chili 35 grams
Sage 78 grams
Tarragon 80 grams
Rhubarb 840 grams
Apricot 135 grams
Nectarine 45 grams
Lemon 65 grams
Parsley 65 grams

TOTAL 39 eggs and 4311 grams of food

2013 PRODUCE TALLY

Well I finally have put my butt into gear and getting back onto the blogging horse after having my second son! I thought I would start off with a tally of 2013's produce. I will also be updating on my birth story, renovation goals and our upcoming 3.5 week holiday!

Artichoke 507 grams
Bay Leaf 79 grams
Beetroot 3361 grams
Bok Choy 54 grams
Broad Beans 10506 grams
Broccoli 714 grams
Cabbage 5161 grams
Capsicum 2964 grams
Carrot 383 grams
Cauliflower 4008 grams
Celery 654 grams
Chili 735 grams
Corn 201 grams
Eggs 653
Garlic 3010 grams
Kale 879 grams
Kumquat 15 grams
Leek 2631 grams
Lemon 846 grams
Lettuce 771 grams
Loquat 295 grams
Marjoram 237 grams
Marrow 30853 grams
Onion 676 grams
Parsley 3125 grams
Peas 171 grams
Pumpkin 37902 grams
Rhubarb 2052 grams
Rosemary 4 grams
Sage 502 grams
Silver Beet 11843 grams
Tarragon 443 grams
Thyme 131 grams
Tomato 60732 grams
Zucchini 25671 grams

TOTAL 653 EGGS AND 212.116 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD

one of my favorite harvests, These guys lasted for 9 months throughout winter and were super easy to grow!

NO SHOW AND A TALLY CATCH UP

Sorry I have been a no show on here! The last few weeks of pregnancy were an exhausting few, with many chores that needed to be completed before we brought our new little man home. And then when I thought I had at least a week to go, my waters broke 1 week before my due date! I will post our birth story in the coming weeks.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD JIREH SAMUEL BORN 14TH NOVEMBER AT 2:37AM WEIGHING 2980 GRAMS OR 6 POUNDS 9 OUNCES AND MEASURING 49.5CM IN LENGTH

23/9/13 - 1/12/13

64 eggs
347 grams onions
1235 grams leeks
2315 grams silverbeet
344 grams parsley
10506 grams broad beans
113 grams capsicum
11 grams thyme
295 grams loquats
507 grams artichokes
163 grams chili
2082 grams rhubarb
337 grams celery
321 grams carrots
947 grams beetroot
3010 grams garlic

TOTAL 64 EGGS AND 22.533 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY HARVEST 35 & FOOD SWAP

Spring has definitely sprung! The garden has become lovely and productive. I have been able to go out everyday and pick something to include in that night's dinner. I am looking forward to summer so that we can have more variety and more volume of produce! This week I also went down to my local food swap so I could swap some of my excess greens for things that I haven't grown.

16/9/13 - 22/9/13

12 eggs
279 grams onion
1396 grams leek
161 grams sage
319 grams parsley
56 grams thyme
9 grams chili
47 grams broccoli
742 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 12 EGGS AND 3009 GRAMS OF FOOD!

To the food swap I took, parsely, sage, thyme, chili, and

yellow silverbeet.

In return I took home this lovely aloe vera plant.

This huge fig tree.

Some oranges.

A large bunch of lemon myrtle. This is an Australian native - bush tucker food. I searched high and low for some earlier this year and it was only when we were in byron bay on holiday that I found some at a little organic shop. So I am thrilled to have some in it's natural state and not pre ground. The great thing about lemon myrtle is that it has anti microbial benefits. Much like tea trea except this is edible and not just topical. 

While we were in the garden we went on a snail hunt and this is half of our bounty. Squiz had a lot of fun helping collect and squash the offenders. 

WEEKLY HARVEST 34 & GARDEN SNAPSHOT

The weather is turning and we are starting to see some gloriously sunny warm days and cool but not cold evenings. Oh how this motivates me to get out in the garden!

9/9/13 - 15/9/13

626 grams parsley
14 eggs
221 grams celery
667 grams broccoli
810 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 14 EGGS AND 2324 GRAMS OF FOOD!

The cabbages are coming along nicely, and I just spotted a sneaky snail hiding!

The broad beans have come along nicely from last week, they should be ready to pick within the next week!

Looking forward to harvesting my garlic in early November when the leave start to turn yellow.

At the end of the tomato season I had a couple of seedlings spring up, I left them in over winter and this is the sole survivor. I wonder how it will perform this summer?

My tomato seedlings are coming along nicely, hopefully I will pot them up into bigger pots in the next couple of weeks. 

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 33 & GARDEN SNAPSHOT

I have been slowly cleaning up the winter garden to make room for my spring seedlings which I will start to sow at the end of this month and early next month. It's been a slow process as it's been getting harder to bend down and stay bending down, so something that would usually only take me a couple of hours, need to be spread over a number of days 15 minutes at a time. I am hoping to keep up with the garden this summer, even with a newborn! And those homegrown veggies are going to be even more important as bubba Will starts his first foods!

2/9/13 - 8/9/13

24 eggs
509 grams silverbeet
989 grams beetroot
98 grams capsicum
31 grams carrot
11 grams chili
93 grams peas

TOTAL 24 EGGS AND 1731 GRAMS OF FOOD.

Now for a look at what my garden is doing!

I'm starting to get baby broad beans after months of flowering!

Still so many flowers!

The celery has taken off!

And the silverbeet bushes are getting larger leaves after a trimming! Excuse the massive weed!

The chili somehow continued to fruit throughout winter, even though the chilis are smaller and the leaves sad. 

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 32 & GARDEN SNAPSHOT

The garden is going wild! A combination of lack of energy and lack of time is really resulting in a jungle! But with the beautiful weather Melbourne has been receiving over the last few days I have started to tame the wild, and hope to head out there after this post and clean up the rest of the beds!

26/8/13 - 1/9/13

10 eggs
14 grams chili
1 gram thyme
187 grams capsicum
1154 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 10 EGGS AND 1356 GRAMS OF FOOD

This is where my purple cauliflowers once grew, I still have some cabbages growing nicely in there, Hopefully they will be ready before the dreaded white moth appears!

I have my tomatoes in as well as some brassica. 

An overgrown bed with a lovely lime green broccoli surrounded by garlic growing nicely

The jungle! A mix of weeds and lettuces that have overgrown and gone to seed!

One of the cleared out beds.

Another overgrown bed full of garlic.

The beautiful lime green broccoli

My herb bed being taken over by parsley.

WEEKLY HARVEST - NUMBER 31

The garden has been neglected this week, as I prepared for my son's third birthday party. Nothing was picked, nothings, but eggs were collected, which were gratefully used to bake some yummy goodies for his party.

19/8/13 - 25/8/13

23 eggs

TOTAL 23 EGGS

WEEKLY HARVEST - NUMBER 30

It wasn't super productive in the garden this week but I had a great time supplementing our harvest by swapping my excess greens for citrus of all sorts at my local food swap.

12/8/13 - 18/8/13

14 eggs
255 grams of lettuce
28 grams of thyme
375 grams cauliflower
125 grams parsley
874 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 14 EGGS AND 1657 GRAMS OF FOOD

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST & A FOOD SWAP.

And so another weekend is here, and my hubby is required to work it, so there will be yet another week of no progress *sigh* I think that makes 3 weekends in a row now! The drainage is still half done, but at least the flooding issue has been resolved. And the house is still upside down, when everything is going to get finished I have no idea, lets hope it is presentable in a couple of months time!

But this is not all bad news, it means I get to go to another food swap. It's been hard for me to get to one lately as I have been so wrapped up in house renovations, I just haven't had the time to spare, a couple of hours is a big deal when you are trying to get stuff ready and renovated around the house and only have one or two days to get it done in. I am looking forward to being able to attend in summer when the weather is glorious and the produce is varied. In winter there just isn't the same amount of variety, but it is still lovely to catch up with fellow gardeners who are passionate about growing their own food.

This is the produce I took to swap:

A couple of bunches of Rubin Lettuce.

A couple of bags full of Lollo Bionda Lettuce.

Three bunches of Lemon Thyme

Four Bunches of Flat Leaf Parsley.

Five bunches of yellow silverbeet.

This is what I brought home:

A lemon

Yellow Limes

Some oranges

Some kumquats

A couple of kiwi fruits.

Some grapefruit.

Some kaffir lime leaves.

A couple propagated grape cutting.

Some seedling trays.

And some large trays to house the smaller trays.

All in all I think I did pretty well swapping my excess produce for things I don't grow or have!

WEEKLY HARVEST - NUMBER 29

This week was quite a successful one, I had a bit of a clear out of some of my greens, as they were  getting overgrown. Hopefully they can get some more light and produce bigger leaves. I picked nearly a kilo of leaves from one silverbeet bush and it didn't even look like it had been touched! 

5/8/13 - 11/8/13

11 eggs

2616 grams silverbeet

431 grams parsley

155 grams capsicum

68 grams peas

19 grams chili

1 grams bay leaf

TOTAL 11 EGGS AND 3290 GRAMS OF FOOD!