Saturday 19 March 2011

Pretty!

Pretty colours!

Here's a sample from today's market. Early autumn produce - new season apples, plums, rainbow chard, a big fat leek, and more. Even bananas! These ladyfingers from Coff's Harbour were selling for only $7 a kilo, excellent value at the moment. This is actually a small collection I've put together for B1, who is back in Canberra at last but couldn't get to the market today. I've also got a couple of slices of very fine leg ham from Balzanelli - smallgoods people from Fyshwick. They specialise in Italian style pork products, from pork & fennel sausages to pancetta and coppa. They slice to order, so I have nice fat slices. Yum.

I didn't buy any tomatoes or beans or figs, because last week I picked a good kilo of beans and 2kg of tomatoes from my minuscule veggie garden. I can highly recommend these "purple king" beans to any neglectful gardener. All my peas and snowpeas died, but these beans just kept on going. I put in four seedlings on a wire obelisk, added a handful of fertiliser, a dash of snailbait. Helped along by plenty of rain, they are now producing about half to one kilo of beans a week. They're a pretty deep purple, but they turn green when they are cooked.

And while the figs on my tree aren't ripe yet, there are hundreds of them coming soon - if the birds don't get them first. So much as I love figs, I'm not paying $1.50 each at the market.

2 comments:

Shari from GoodFoodWeek said...

What are you planning on doing with your figs when they do start to ripen? I too am living in Canberra and am harvesting approximately 2kgs of figs per day...and as much as a give away to family, friends and work colleges I still have an abundance...helpful tips would be useful.

Shari
www.goodfoodweek.blogspot.com

Cath said...

I'm not sure yet, it will depend if I can get any before the birds do. I think I may need to invest in a net.

Fig jam is a classic, and I wonder if you can oven-dry them like tomatoes. Perhaps I should experiment.