Summer surfeit

Mid summer and my vege garden is finally coming into its own. After a late start I now find myself struggling to find enough space in the fridge or enough friends to give the excess to.
Lots of beans, cucs, zuchs, pac choi and tomatoes.
Then there are all the eggs that the girls I have for the summer, are producing. There are only 4 of them, but they rarely go a day without each laying an egg.

The perennial peppers are laden and they are all turning a lovely shade of yellow. The bushes are 8' tall and covered in what seems like hundreds of beautiful golden orbs of culinary fire.

The blueberries have been ripening steadily over the last few weeks.

We are just finishing the last of the avocados - a harvest that has been going on for about 2 months now.

Lots of jam in the works as the plums and peaches start ripening up.

I use my standard jam recipe of 1kg of fruit to 750 gms sugar. Boil gently til it starts to thicken- usually about an hour. I add the juice of 1 or 2 lemons to the peach jam as it needs the extra pectin to thicken up. The plums are fine alone if they are harvested just before fully ripe.

It has been a perfect summer. Lots of warm days, with enough rain that I only need to water occasionally. The calendar says we are coming to the end of the season, but I know we'll have a couple more months of great weather here in New Zealand, and I'll be getting lots more from the garden over that time.

Mid Summer

Here in New Zealand summer is marching on.
In spite of my late start here, my garden is starting to become productive, and we are enjoying the harvests from it.

The perennial peppers are 8' tall and the peppers are starting to ripen up. Time to start thinking about drying and freezing the surplus.

The cucs are starting to climb all over the place and the first cucumbers are starting to form.

Always lots of fruit. The plums are ripening, and already a batch of plum jam has been made. Yumm.

Lettuce and peas are fighting it out and the runner beans are reaching the top of the trellis and flowering.

Apples abound and the mid season peaches are days away from harvest. My tomatoes are just starting, but I have been harvesting from a friends garden that I water while they are away, so lots of tomatoes.
I am always a little late out of the starting gate here, but I do end up catching up. There are always fruit and herbs on the go that need no help from me, so between the eggs from my borrowed chickens, the fish from the river, and the food coming out of the garden there is almost no need to go shopping, except maybe to buy the odd bottle of wine or beer to wash it all down with.