Butternut Pumpkin Ahoy!

Have I mentioned how much I love pumpkins? I don't know why I find them so fascinating. I just do. I love the flavour of pumpkins, love cooking with them, and it turns out I love growing them too.

This is my second butternut this year. The first one was 2 kilos, a good solid size and beautifully sweet. We had half as a soup and half as chunks roasted with vegeta seasoning, and it was lovely. This little... er... big honey is still whole. I've put it her away for future thought!

I've also been harvesting the Maximas too. One of our maximas was swinging from the vine, and eventually the pumpkin grew big enough that it was dropped. It was almost 19 pounds of pumpkin! We got enthused, and have now harvest the next three of similar size. I now have over 30 kilos of Maxima pumkpkin (a Queensland Blue from the look of things) sitting in my backyard... looking pumpkinny. I think I will give one of these babies to the woman who gave us the seedling! And there's still another ten smaller pumpkins growing! Good thing I love them so.

Anyway, on to what we are here for - the ROI of my garden.
:-)

So... what have I harvested since I last updated? Ihave been giving away eggplants left right and centre. There's been 11 good sized eggplants going now. Still beautiful. It looks like the eggplants will continue through winter, so next year I won't even lose any time to adolescent growth. Good thing I like eggplants!

So, 11 eggplants at $3 as they are bigger than the previous harvests. I cut some broccolli, but only one was viable. So we had that in dinner. Unfortunately, the aphids appear to have destroyed the rest of the crop. I could have eaten the stalks, on further reflection, as they are excellent stirfry vegies. I realised this after I have pulled up most of them and put them into the compost bin. Oops. And 3 kilos of butternut pumpkin. Butternuts are going for $3.49 a kilo at Woolies.


Eggplants: 11 x $3 = $33
Broccoli: 1 x $3.99= $3
Butternut Pumpkin: 3 x 3.49 = $10.50

So, together we have: $46.50

I'll tally the maximas up properly later.

Outstanding: $170.00
May the 14th: $46.50
Total Cost (still) : $123.50

So, we still haven't quite recovered costs yet. I think the maxima punkins will definitely put a big dent in the remaining money, and there's still tomatoes being grown, I have just failed to harvest them. I am thinking of planting potatoes where the broccoli were, to make sure of the next few seasons while the eggplants still produce.

We have a new bed in place now, so there's twice as much fun to be had in the garden!

Sarah P