Picked
I also decided to try to do something about the massive aphid attack on the cucumbers. One plant - the older one - was too far gone. The other, a younger plant I deemed savable and used a technique I read once in a Jackie French book - hosed the damn things off from the underside of the leaves. This is something I wouldn't normally do... but I don't normally have such an aphid attack. Perhaps it is as a result of La Nina? Lots of sappy growth to tempting for aphids to resist? In which case then La Nina is the solution as well - use the plentiful tank water to give them a blast! Let's see if that improves things. Where are all the lady beetles when you want them?
The extra heat and sun of the day pushed 8 more eggplant into pickability. It will have to be a serious week of eggplant eating to get thru the stash that is occupying the crisper draw of the fridge.
The last of the season's zucchinis were eaten last night in a summer salad that I love. I didn't take a photo of it so you have to look at yet another picture of my eggplants! I cant resist their purple plump beauty.
Zucchini and fennel salad
This recipe comes from Gourmet Traveller Annual Cookbook 2011 page 171. I haven't put the exact amounts here for the vinaigrette, I rarely use them anyway going with my palate instead. * from the garden.
3 zucchini* (I used 5 small ones)
1 young fennel bulb
1 spring onion* (the recipe says two but I think one is enough)
fennel seeds
Ligurian olives (I have tried this with other olives but the Ligurian have just the right flavour for this salad)
parsley*
chilli flakes
olive oil
red wine vinegar
lemon* juice
Dry roast the fennel seeds and chilli flakes and then lightly pound in a mortar and pestle. Put in the salad bowl and make a vinaigrette that suits your taste with the oil, lemon juice and red wine vinegar. Add the vinaigrette to the bowl and mix. Take a mandolin and thinly slice the fennel bulb putting it in the vinaigrette as soon as you can, toss thru. (I am having a bad week with my hands - I manged to slice my thumb open while using the mandolin! That added to the chill burns of earlier in the week... I should be banned from the kitchen.) Thinly slice the zucchini and add it to the bowl along with Ligurian olives, torn parsley and spring onions. Toss and serve. This is yummy - enough to get enthusiastic about zucchini.
We had this with some fillets of my favourite fish in the world - Flathead.
 |
| some of today's eggplant pick |
- 8 eggplant
- 3 tomato plants
- weeds
- 1 cucumber plant that was too aphid-covered to save
- potted up the finger lime
- turned in the sugar cane straw that mulched the three tomatoes and added 1 bag of manure
- hosed off the aphids from the cucumber plant that wasn't so infested
I also decided to try to do something about the massive aphid attack on the cucumbers. One plant - the older one - was too far gone. The other, a younger plant I deemed savable and used a technique I read once in a Jackie French book - hosed the damn things off from the underside of the leaves. This is something I wouldn't normally do... but I don't normally have such an aphid attack. Perhaps it is as a result of La Nina? Lots of sappy growth to tempting for aphids to resist? In which case then La Nina is the solution as well - use the plentiful tank water to give them a blast! Let's see if that improves things. Where are all the lady beetles when you want them?
The extra heat and sun of the day pushed 8 more eggplant into pickability. It will have to be a serious week of eggplant eating to get thru the stash that is occupying the crisper draw of the fridge.
The last of the season's zucchinis were eaten last night in a summer salad that I love. I didn't take a photo of it so you have to look at yet another picture of my eggplants! I cant resist their purple plump beauty.
Zucchini and fennel salad
This recipe comes from Gourmet Traveller Annual Cookbook 2011 page 171. I haven't put the exact amounts here for the vinaigrette, I rarely use them anyway going with my palate instead. * from the garden.
 |
| plump purple perfection |
1 young fennel bulb
1 spring onion* (the recipe says two but I think one is enough)
fennel seeds
Ligurian olives (I have tried this with other olives but the Ligurian have just the right flavour for this salad)
parsley*
chilli flakes
olive oil
red wine vinegar
lemon* juice
Dry roast the fennel seeds and chilli flakes and then lightly pound in a mortar and pestle. Put in the salad bowl and make a vinaigrette that suits your taste with the oil, lemon juice and red wine vinegar. Add the vinaigrette to the bowl and mix. Take a mandolin and thinly slice the fennel bulb putting it in the vinaigrette as soon as you can, toss thru. (I am having a bad week with my hands - I manged to slice my thumb open while using the mandolin! That added to the chill burns of earlier in the week... I should be banned from the kitchen.) Thinly slice the zucchini and add it to the bowl along with Ligurian olives, torn parsley and spring onions. Toss and serve. This is yummy - enough to get enthusiastic about zucchini.
We had this with some fillets of my favourite fish in the world - Flathead.
I too am a flathead fan - yum! Its interesting your Broad Ripple Currant tomatoes didn't have that long a lifespan either.
ReplyDeleteUgly things, aren't the Flathead? But what a beautiful tasting fish. Strong in flavour, nice firm flakes and not at all soft and slimy like other white fish can be. And I told they are in pretty good shape nuymbers wise so it is a reltively 'ethical' choice. I think I might havew to write an ode to the flathead.
ReplyDeleteAs for the yellow currants - yes, I read about yours as well. My long stayers have been the brown berries. Still looking good and fruiting nicely.