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

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!

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 28

I am a bit behind posting this week, as we started off with some computer issues. But things are picking up in the garden and this week marks the start of tomato sowing season. I think I will start to sow some on the weekend and pop them in the green house, so we can get ready for the bumper summer season, and the arrival of new life. This summer is set to be a busy one. The renovations will hopefully be over by the time bubba Will arrives, but the veggie patch is a daily task with the warmer weather, encouraging things to flourish! Hopefully I can garden when bubba sleeps, and lets hope he sleeps like his brother did (sleeping was NEVER an issue for us!)! And Israel will as always love any excuse to get outside and get his hand dirty. We are thinking about our summer vacation, keeping in mind we will have a one month old. I don't want to go somewhere too hot, but the reality is that it will be an Aussie summer, and it's always hot. So I was think Tasmania as the averages there are always 10-15 degrees lower than mainland Australia. But by then we would have spent all our saving on renovations so it may be unrealistic in us getting there. So I think the verdict is somewhere closer, and possibly in the hills where it is a bit cooler. But I digress and onto the tally we go!

29/7/13 - 4/8/13

7 eggs
684 grams cauliflower
20 grams parsley
2 grams bayleaf

TOTAL 7 EGGS AND 706 GRAMS OF FOOD

Israel loves to collect snails when we go out into the garden! There was no shortage on this day! 

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 27

Things are slowly picking up in the garden, with a decent amount of produce being picked from the garden this week. I have decided as the beds empty that I will leave them that way, as we are due to have a baby mid to late November. I want to get my summer crop in before baby Will comes along so I don't need to worry about it heavily pregnant or with a newborn. I am hoping to have all my seedlings sown by late October, so that means I will set my seeds in mid to late September. I don't want my beds to be occupied by the time I am ready to get those seedlings in. I am surprised my chili bush is still producing. I have some flowers on it and new chilis growing. It hasn't been affected by the frost this year, as last year it lost nearly all it's leaves. I am even more surprised that the chilis are ripening on the bush, I was always under the impression that the chilis needed heat to turn red.

TALLY 22/7/13 - 28/7/13
336 grams cabbage
7 eggs
1487 grams cauliflower
21 grams chili

TOTAL 7 EGGS AND 1844 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 26

Life continues to be hectic around here. Time is slipping by way too fast! We only have 17 weeks until bubba Will graces us with his presence. That means 17 weeks to finish half a house worth of renovations. I also want to get all my summer veg in before November. I think by then I will be too big and too tired to get out and garden as I would be 38 weeks pregnant! We still have my son's 3rd birthday and our BaByQ to host in those 17 weeks as well (after my husbands 30th this weekend)! So I am taking advantage of this cooler weather where my veggie patch has slowed down to completed my kilometer long list of chores. This is how my harvest has been this week.

TALLY 15/7/13 - 21/7/13
7 eggs
1298 grams cauliflower
42 grams parsley
397 grams silverbeet

TOTAL 7 EGGS AND 1737 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 25

This week has been a slow one in the garden, with a glut of cauliflowers about to happen!

8/7/13 - 14/7/13

13 eggs
164 grams cauliflower
51 grams capsicum
23 grams chili

TOTAL 13 EGGS AND 238 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - 23 & 24

The garden is growing nicely and has welcomed the winter rains over the last couple of days. Life is still hectic renovating our tushies off, and unfortunately the garden has been put on the back burner. Luckily it's not growing great guns like it would if we were in summer so it can go days and days without me popping my head in. This week I will be harvesting my first purple cauliflower of the season, so I am very excited about that!

24/6/13 - 7/7/13

26 eggs
31 grams lettuce
441 grams silverbeet
96 grams celery
2 grams bay leaf
114 grams parsley

TOTAL 26 eggs AND 684 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 21 & 22

My small winter harvests are seeing these weekly tallies actually being fortnightly. Although things have picked up over the last few weeks with more and more silverbeet and parsley thriving in this cold wet yet sunny weather. I also have quite a few purple cauliflowers that are starting to head and in a few weeks they should be ready to harvest. Looking forward to some more cauliflower puree, which we use instead of mash potato when we have too many cauliflowers. It is lovely and sweet and lower in calories which is  always a bonus.

10/6/13 - 23/6/13

50 eggs
360 grams capsicum
15 grams chili
579 grams silverbeet
201 grams parsley
10 grams peas

TOTAL 50 EGGS AND 1165 GRAMS OF FOOD

One of my purple cauliflowers growing nicely! 

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 19 & 20

I haven't meant to be slack - really!!!! Life has been full and busy. We are preparing for the arrival of our little one in 23 or so weeks and have half a house to renovating so we are getting busy preparing and finishing off a few little jobs before the big stuff happens. So all that has taken away from my free time to blog, even though I have wanted to keep you all updated on my garden's progress. I haven't been able to spend much time out there, just every now and again having a wander through seeing if anything is ready to harvest and pulling out the odd weed. So this harvest is a couple of weeks worth of harvesting...

27/5/13 - 9/6/13

30 eggs
148 grams lettuce
222 grams parsley
2 grams bay leaf
4 grams rosemary
2 grams marjoram

TOTAL 30 EGGS AND 178 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 18

There has been a little more variety this week, but still a small harvest compared to what I was getting in summer. At least the chickens are laying again, not as much as they were in summer but at least I am getting a couple of eggs a day. The winter veggies are coming along nicely which you can see here. Hopefully the beautiful sunshine today gives them a nice little boost before the rainy week to come.

20/5/13 - 26/5/13
12 eggs
239 grams lettuce
464 grams parsley
54 grams bok choy
7 grams bay leaf
421 grams capsicum
3 grams chili

TOTAL 12 EGGS AND 1188 GRAMS OF FOOD

WEEKLY TALLY - NUMBER 17

The garden is picking up slowly, with hopefully a few more thing starting to ripen and grow in the next few weeks. The chooks are still on strike with one dedicated hen laying an egg for me every other day. I went to go get some lemons and found an abandoned bush of kumquats that is growing very poorly. It was planted too close to our lemon tree and receives no direct sunlight. I didn't even know it existed until I saw some little orange fruit on it. It seems to have a lot of buds on it so hopefully we will get some more, but the tree is very scraggly... My 2.5 year old son loves them even though they are incredibly sour.

13/5/12 - 19/5/13

4 eggs
7 grams bay leaf
846 grams lemons
15 grams kumquat
174 grams beetroot
161 grams baby zucchini
78 grams capsicum
43 grams chili

TOTAL 4 EGGS 1.324 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD

NOVEMBER HARVEST 2012

I had tallied up all my harvests for November but I misplaced my book. I recently found it so I thought I would share what I gathered from my garden 6 months ago :D

67 eggs
1492 grams celery
1229 grams carrots
5 grams bay leaf
4 sprigs rosemary
117 grams strawberries
462 grams cauliflower
1284 grams loquat
504 grams broccoli
1386 grams leek
567 grams potato
1215 grams silverbeet
199 grams lemon
1026 grams broad beans
handful thyme
2 handfuls coriander
90 grams beetroot
25 grams turnip
64 grams snow peas
47 grams parsley
16 small heads, 18 medium heads, 48 large heads and 1 extra large heads of garlic

TOTAL 9.712 KILOGRAMS OF FOOD IN NOVEMBER NOT INCLUDING THE 67 EGGS, 83 HEADS OF GARLIC AND HERBS!