August top & flop CROPS

Lynda Hallinan’s regular report card on the best and worst seasonal edible crops from her Hunua garden.

TAHITIAN LIMES:

You learn something new every season as a gardener, so here’s a random observation from my plot: Tahitian limes begin to ripen from green to yellow just as the first daffodils start to bloom!

Although limes are commonly sold as green fruit, they are far juicier once they turn gold. Unlike lemons, mandarins and grapefruit, which hold well on the tree for months, limes seem to all ripen at once and then drop; by next month, I’ll have none left to pick.

You can freeze limes whole (pop them in a freezer-safe plastic bag with a twist-tie) or squeeze the juice into ice cube trays or silicon muffin trays to freeze in convenient amounts. Once frozen, pop out of the trays and store in freezer-safe plastic bags. Thaw as required.

PRETTY GREEN SALADS:

I eat more leafy salads in winter than summer, and those salads are more interesting in terms of flavour, texture and appearance. In summer, I’m quite content with a classic tomato, cucumber and shredded ‘Iceberg’ salad (how oldfashioned does that make me sound?) but in winter I mix it up with baby kale, peppery perennial (wild) rocket, Japanese mizuna, baby nasturtium leaves, herbs such as mint and parsley, plus handfuls of edible flowers. From alyssum to violets, pansies, nasturtiums (I’m harvesting my second generation of self-sown ’Orchid Cream’) and calendulas, it’s a pleasure to pluck petals from the potted colour I have in containers on our deck.

SILVERBEET:

In late autumn, one of our brown shaver hens, Big Bertha, produced a single chick (now known as Chicken Little) but the rest of the flock took exception to it. For their own safety, I had to evict them from the chook run and let them free-range. In recent weeks, however, they’ve started pushing their luck by sneaking indoors whenever my back is turned (and leaving piles of poop). Then they hopped into my vege garden, spied the silverbeet and shredded it down to the stalks.

’Fordhook Giant’ silverbeet and ‘Rainbow Lights’ chard are by no means my favourite winter vegetables, but they are dependable. As a good source of iron, calcium and the vitamins K, A and C, these leafy greens are a nutritious addition to soups and stir-fries – although I prefer to add them to quiches and omelettes after, and not before, the eggs are laid.

CARROTS:

Like silverbeet, carrots can generally be relied upon to crop well with little supervision. If I sow two lots – in late October and early April – they generally get on with the job. But not this year. The roots of my October sowing of ‘Samantha’ are only 2-3cm wide and 10cm long, despite being in the ground for more than eight months. Granted, ’Samantha’ is a so-called baby carrot variety, but surely even baby carrots grow up (or down) eventually? I suppose

I should be grateful that at least she hasn’t bolted to seed. Small carrots are better than no carrots, even if they take twice as long to scrub and peel! ✤