Food Gardening

[manticle]

Got plenty of yellow, blue and purple flowers.
Lavender is for grandma's undies though.

 

[Bribie G]

I love it when you talk dirty.

 

[sponge]

I prefer to think they'd be clean..

 

[Bribie G]

I prefer to think they'd be clean..

You are thinking of great grandmothers. Grannies start in their 40s nowadays and from personal experience I can tell you that.....

Anyway back on topic. You can't buy a decent rockmelon anywhere so I've got my own patch coming on.
How do you tell when they are ripe? They are currently about the size of grapefruit.
I've got bees but will do some hand pollinating as posted above.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

How do you tell when they are ripe?

When they look like ripe rockmelons.

Have you planted Rockmelon or Honeydew ? one is Light yellow skin, the other is green ish skin

 

[Bribie G]

Rockmelon or Canteloupe as the foreigners call them.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Lavender is good for all types of bees (as mentioned), I just hate the smell of the stuff, personally.

And native species of bee have a special liking for blue flowers, apparently.

Didn't you start a thread on bees, I would like to read it again,what was the title? Hardly seen a bee around my garden saw them late winter though but none this summer, and have even been leaving water to get them interested.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

How do you tell when they are ripe? They are currently about the size of grapefruit.
I've got bees but will do some hand pollinating as posted above.

Last time I grew them about 4 years ago, I used the knock and listen if it sounds hollow method, but must have been sounding hollow for some time, when I cut it open it was full of water.

 

[niftinev]

You are thinking of great grandmothers. Grannies start in their 40s nowadays and from personal experience I can tell you that.....

Anyway back on topic. You can't buy a decent rockmelon anywhere so I've got my own patch coming on.
How do you tell when they are ripe? They are currently about the size of grapefruit.
I've got bees but will do some hand pollinating as posted above.

they will change colour from green to lightish brown as they ripen and when you give them a light tug ( no pulling) will just fall away from vine.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

they will change colour from green to lightish brown as they ripen and when you give them a light tug ( no pulling) will just fall away from vine.

There is a joke in there...but it may require keg lube for it to work

 

[manticle]

So along the same note - I have golden nugget pumpkins looking round, big and orange. Reading a few sites suggests waiting till the plant dies off before harvesting.

Is this true? Means I'll have a **** ton all at once rather than being able to keep up my consumption with the growth rate.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

It wont hurt, but just remember to keep the water up as fruiting plants use the fruit as water storage, so if you let them dry out the fruit can get dry as well

 

[manticle]

They get a good dose daily.

 

[Dave70]

So along the same note - I have golden nugget pumpkins looking round, big and orange. Reading a few sites suggests waiting till the plant dies off before harvesting.

Is this true? Means I'll have a **** ton all at once rather than being able to keep up my consumption with the growth rate.

Boil up (or bake for more flavor) the surplus, puree and freeze it in portions. Use it for soup for those chilly Tassie summer nights. Cream, perhaps some beef of chicken stock and chilli flakes served with croutons lightly fried in home made roasted garlic butter. Fab..

Or make 500 liters of pumpkin ale.

Or sit in your front yard carve Jack O' lanterns.

 

[manticle]

No shortage of recipes for pumpkins in my head or experience but my freezer isn't large enough to contain 3 months worth of soup. As well as the nuggets, I've got Japs starting to flower and butternuts making their presence known. Figure I've got enough nuggets of a decent size to do a test on one or two - oven roasted with some chicken or spit roasted lamb.

On the good side, I've bought bugger all veges over the last 2 months or so and the corn, tomatoes and cucumbers have yet to mature, not to mention the 3 types of melon. Picking stuff straight out of the garden for the plate is marvellous. I look forward to getting back into some smallgoods this autumn. Wild fennel is flowering at the moment (wouldn't plant it in my garden - thankfully no need) and the dried flowers are a great addition to pork sausage.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Chicken & Roast pumpkin fettuccine with cream and mushrooms....very nice :icon_drool2:

 

[shaunous]

You need sweet potatoes to make the good pumpkin soup. So much better. Twice the amount of pumpkin to sweet potato and spice to likeing.

 

[Danwood]

Didn't you start a thread on bees, I would like to read it again,what was the title? Hardly seen a bee around my garden saw them late winter though but none this summer, and have even been leaving water to get them interested.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/88480-beekeeping-discussion-pics-tips-and-tricks/

I've been meaning to post a few bits and pieces from recent trips, involving a monster move of bees from Mildura to Warranambool chasing Mesmate flower (including, amongst other things, 4 round trips over 4 days, a sting on the right hemisphere of the ballbag and a very foolish owl which decided to attack the centre of the Volvo 500C truck windscreen at 3am whilst we cruised at 100ks).

Anyway... how 'bout them pumpkins, eh ?? Roast them every time, personally... much better flavour. Those crispy, caramelised bits are the best.

 

[manticle]

Well despite being told golden nuggets have no flavour and despite being told to wait till the plant dies, I harvested and roasted one last night in a pan under a roasting chicken with home grown garlic and rosemary.
Yes.
Will do again.
Also tried a small corn cob whose silks have dropped off. Unbelievably sweet.

Such a great hobby.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Getting close to a kilo of toms a day, green house toms almost finished, definitely only going to grow hydro toms next year, hybrid cherry red and black the black are so sweet, and I am impressed with Mr Fothergills Tiny Toms, only supposed to be grape size but most are pigeon egg size.

I am starting to get a few egg plants showing even though I haven't seen any bees something must be pollinating them.

Never grown the Nugget purely on reviews made about the taste are you getting plenty manticle?
I am getting loads of Butternut but the Crook Necks are a failure loads of male flower no females, the Butternuts that I pollinated from the Crooknecks are heaps bigger than those pollinated with Butternut male flowers.