"Self-sufficiency does not mean 'going back' to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food that is organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings... and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully." John Seymour ~ Self Sufficiency 2003

Friday 5 April 2013

Late season harvesting

I've been MIA due to 5 days of overcast / rainy weather.  It played havoc on our power storage, so blogging time suffers.  All the power we have is firstly reserved for the fridge / freezer combo, and everything else comes second - and, if there is rugby on the "box", then that takes precedence to anything else, especially even the laptop (plus internet connectivity box)... sigh  (Drat - and winter is rugby time.  Hmmm, going to have to do something about that problem...)

But I thought I'd share with you our latest harvested goodies :)

RMan and I have just eaten our very first home grown granadilla.
One  solitary granadilla -
sharing is caring, RMan :)
It's sour taste is one of the most refreshing flavours I know
I love granadilla (passion fruit)
It's a pity there was only one fruit on the two vines - half each doesn't go very far!  But, I guess that's not really surprising - the plants are still in their bags LOL  We need to find a spot for them to climb up, and it has to be a spot that will not encourage snakes to use the vine as a ladder to gain access to the house.

We also picked 5 pomegranates - the first our trees have ever borne.  Quite delicious :)
Yummy - delicious, healthy pomegranate
kernels and juice :)
Then, I shoved a couple of sprouting potatoes into some (recycled) tyres filled with sand, and, apart from watering them, left them alone.
The tyres that RMan scored at the auction
finally got put to use
Not a bad harvest, given that they went in late, and had to handle extreme heat this past summer.
1st potato harvest
My only complaint is that although I left them lying on the ground for a couple of days to "harden off", the last of those we haven't eaten have already gone rotten?!  Can anyone tell me why?  Is it something I have done wrong, is it the variety of potato, or didn't I leave them to "harden off" long enough?

Disappointing.  But I will persevere.  Maybe next time I will buy proper seed potatoes :)

4 comments:

  1. I don't think you should ever leave potatoes out in the sun or any light as it makes the potatoes develop solanine and can make you sick. For other harvest/storage info here's a good link.

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    1. Kris - I knew about hardening off potatoes, but didn't think about the sun... Thanks for the link - brilliant :)

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  2. You've managed to grow one more passionfruit than me! Three plants dead far and a new one in two weeks ago. So I'm very impressed with your one fruit!

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    Replies
    1. Linda - LOL - Believe that next (this) year WILL be better...

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Thank you for taking the time to comment - it makes my day and removes the "loneliness' of sitting at my screen blogging supposedly to myself ;) I try and reply as quickly as possible so please forgive me if sometimes my response is delayed.