Episode: 3
Title: Bountiful Autumn Harvest
Broadcast: 2 April 2016
Presenter: Melissa King

Autumn is a bountiful time in the vegie patch. It’s time to plant but also time for the late season harvest. In this segment Melissa takes us to the Kitchen Garden at Heide Museum of Modern Art to see what’s ripe and ready.

• Zucchinis are good croppers and the fruit develops quickly, so you could be out in the vegie patch picking them a few times a week.
• You can judge whether zucchinis are ready to be picked by their size. They are best harvested when they are around 6 inches long, while the skin is still tender and the seeds are small. If you let zucchinis get too big they’re not as tender, but still good for stuffing.
• When harvesting use a knife or secateurs and cut the stem about an inch or so above the fruit. Don’t try to pull it off the vine or you could damage the plant.
• You can stuff zucchini blossoms and eat them too. The best time to harvest the flowers is when they have just started to open. But if you pick the flowers you wont get the fruit.
• There are also lots of different varieties of tomatoes that ripen late in the season. Wait for the crop to change colour on the plant before picking to maximise sweetness.
• To prevent birds from eating the tomatoes first, try growing green varieties, which are less attractive to hungry birds, or pick them a little earlier and allow them to ripen off the bush. If you’re growing heirloom varieties, don’t forget to leave a few ripe tomatoes on the vine so that you can collect and save the seed.
• Another plant, the Grain Amaranth, is sometimes called Prince’s Feather because it displays unusual feathery flowers in summer and autumn.
• After the Grain Amaranth flowers it produces grains - like round seeds - that can be cooked like couscous, ground into flour or popped like popcorn – even the young leaves can be eaten in the same way as spinach.
• Pumpkins are ready to be picked if they sound hollow when knocked on. Keep the fruit on the vine until the skin is richly coloured and the stems are brown and brittle. Pick the pumpkin with 5 cm or so of stem attached to avoid rotting.
• Most varieties of pumpkins can be stored for months in a dry airy spot.

Contact:
P: (03) 9850 1500
W: https://www.heide.com.au/