… yes folks! It’s harvest day!

It’s a balmy (?) 28 degrees in Woody Point but because of the 68% humidity it feels like at least 30 degrees. So today, after our regular Saturday morning date of bike ride, coffee and backgammon, we donned hats and sunscreen and insect repellant and headed for the patch!

To say that the veggie patch and the aquaponics system is a bit overgrown is an understatement. Recently we have had various distractions: a relative from overseas, a conference in Canberra to attend, and the tail end of a cyclone that saw us delivered of 178mm of rain in one 24 hour period. This weekend was our first clear weekend and so that meant harvest time!

The above picture of our bounty, starting from the back (at around 12 o’clock) and going clockwise, features: butternut pumpkins, soy beans, cherry tomatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, a variety of chillies and eggplant. Right in the hey diddle diddle (middle 😀 ) is a small clutch of turnips! The gallery to the right shows some close ups of the various components.

All of the above, except for the tomatoes and eggplants, come from the soil garden, which while so productive, is strangely dry when dug over. Methinks we need to build up the soil profile a tad with organic matter and the like, so that the soil retains moisture. We will of course, continue to mulch, but given the above output, we are in no position to complain!

My last comment has to be about soybeans, and how I do love them 😀 Soybeans were a crop that we talked about for a while, but I have to say that from each planting we have had very successful harvests. My favourite thing to do with soybeans, of course, is to make them into a more-ish snack I first had in Hong Kong called edumame. Basically you harvest the immature pods, boil them for about five minutes, dry them on paper towel and then sprinkle them with salt. You then liberate the tiny green jewels (the beans) from their slightly furry pod homes either by hand or through sucking them out of the pods. They are delightful and go exceptionally well with a cold beer! What’s more, according to one website, edamame is naturally gluten-free and low calorie, contains no cholesterol and is an excellent source of protein, iron, and calcium. It is an especially important source of protein for those who follow a plant-based diet.

Win, win, win I say!