Experimental Veg - Final Update for 2018

After the last post we were still waiting for the first frosts and the wait for 2-3 weeks to harvest the New Zealand Yams. The Frost duly arrived in November, and we dug a couple of the plants up to reveal a small, but none the less pleasing result. We have decided to leave the other 8 or so plants in the ground for a further couple of weeks to see if the tubers continued to develop (we believe we may have been a little anxious to see the results).



Following the instructions carefully and leaving them on the windowsill for a couple of days, we then roasted our small crop for about 20 minutes in olive oil, dusted with salt and pepper. I can confirm we will definitely be growing more in 2019; the Yams proved very tasty.

Once we have harvested the remaining plants, we'll post a further note and anyone who is interested in trying them or even growing these vegetables please can contact Karen or Ray. The tubers chit in the same fashion as Potatoes, and have proved reasonably straight forward as an experiment for this year.

The other burning issue on hand was the amount of Sharks Fins Melons we managed to produce, and how on earth were we going to eat so much soup. Equally our first attempt at the soup was only really appreciated by the author and son, and consequently, about 20 squashes remain untouched on our conservatory floor.

Our Neighbours on the other hand, knew exactly what to do with these rather large squashes, and taking a couple off our hands promptly produced an excellent 'Poor Man's Shark Fin Melon Soup' which went down and treat in our household. It turns out these vegetables are quite the favourite, and having owned and run an Oriental restaurant for the best part of 25 years, cooking them up was not going to prove an issue for them.



Our neighbours gracefully passed on the cooking information as follows

- make a basic stock or broth using pork ribs (boil the bones with bits of meat on for approximately an hour. Add a piece of ginger and a few peppercorns and coriander seed.
- add a mushroom or vegetable stock cube, or cube of your choice
- Peel the sharks fin melon, scoop out the inner centre and use the outer flesh diced the sharks fin melon. Cook for a further 25-30 minutes until the melon starts to shred or string
- add black pepper and chopped chives just before serving and season with salt to taste.



This simple dish proved a hit all round.

If anyone is interested, there is a surfeit of sharks fin melons on hand at project 63, and if you would like to try out, please ask Karen or Tony at the trading hut.