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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Harvesting the Winter Crops

Some of the vegetables I planted over winter this year (around the shortest day) have taken until now to be ready for harvesting. Over the last few weeks I’ve been harvesting my beetroot and cauliflowers (as and when needed).


Beetroot are pretty easy to grow and I love them. They’re high in iron too so they’re really good for you. I gave some to my mate Bruce who boiled his and sliced them up much like the way you buy them in a can. We usually roast them like potatoes.


This year there were a couple of strange white root vegetables amongst the crop which had all green foliage. I thought they were radishes that somehow got mixed up with the beetroot but my wife reckons they’re white beetroot. Huh? I’ve never heard of that before.


This year was the best year I’ve ever had with Cauliflowers. We must have grown about 8 or 9 of them altogether. They seemed to really love the winter garden I built which catches more sun than any other part of the garden over winter. It got to the point we couldn’t keep up with eating them so there was plenty to share with friends. 


One thing I learned was that they take twice as long to reach maturity than brocolli, but they can grow to twice the size too. That probably also explains why they’re usually more expensive than brocolli at the shops — if you have to buy them that is.

5 comments:

  1. Good Friday morning from S.W. Florida-USA.

    Nice looking beetroot and cauliflower crops, you got; Dave.

    My chili peppers and husked tomatoes finally have baby sprouts, but still in plastic cups not big enough to transplant yet.


    Have a great weekend.

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  2. Funny how we're encouraged by the slightest hint of growth. I've been watching my Frangipani/Plumeria this year since I repotted it, hoping to see some flowers forming. My wife and I go outside and check it every day.
    Anyone would think it was one of our kids.

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  3. I've never heard of white beetroot eithr. Awesome size cauli's Dave. I love cauliflower & tried growing them a few winters ago. For some reason none of them grew any bigger than a medium size tomato. Never tried again. I got the last of my veggies planted last weekend. Everything has taken off as we've had a good combination of rain & sun the past few weeks. I'm gunna take some photos this arvo to post during the week sometime.

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  4. I just pondered what you said: "twice as long to reach maturity than broccoli" & am now wondering if I simply didn't wait long enough...

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  5. I find with Cauliflowers you have to be a bit patient. They seem to just stand there doing nothing for quite a while and they're all leaf. Then, when you're just about to give up on them, thinking they're never going to amount to anything, they surprise you by doing what they're supposed to.

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