Harvest Monday 27 June 2016

The Green Beauty snow peas are blooming so I should have peas soon.



And sometimes the view of your neighbor's weedy plot is actually pleasant. This bee definitely likes it. And speaking of weeds, just ignore any that slip into my pictures. By the time you read this the "gardener" will have removed them.



There are still a lot of greens coming from the garden, although the spinach is about done. The onions are some of the excess Copra seedlings that I planted closely together along the edge of the onion squares.



These two small heads are the first of the Natacha escarole to be harvested.  I could not remove one without the other, so two. They were pretty nice with no slug damage.





I harvested my first Webb's Wonderful crisphead and it was very nice, just a little tip burn and a few baby slugs. It is a little tougher than an Iceberg lettuce but still nice and much fresher. I saved some of the outer leaves that weren't slug damaged and found they go well with a sandwich. I just need some tomatoes now for my BLT.



The kohlrabies are sizing up fast now. I am saving these to try making kraut. I may add a few of the radishes to the kraut for color.



A second crisphead was harvested later in the week. It is getting hot here and remains dry so I do not want them to bolt on me.



Finally, the rest of the garlic scapes were ready to harvest. The German Extra Hardy, a large garlic, was first a week ago and had nice sized scapes. This week harvesting the other varieties, I found it interesting that the size of the scape has nothing to do with the eventual size of the bulb. The German Red, my largest garlic by far, had smaller scapes (both length and diameter) than the other varieties. But the stems on the German Red are huge, indicating a large bulb is going to await me at harvest. I guess it is putting its energy where it does (me) the most good, into the bulbs.

That was the harvest for the week, but I did take a few kale leaves from each variety just to compare them. They will eventually wind up in a beans, sausage and kale dish this week.



Nero di Toscano or Dinosaur kale. The leaves are a dark green/gray color. This is a good kale for use in salads and is supposed to be very cold hardy (although that is not my personal experience).



This is Nash's Green, a selection of Nash Huber from his farm in Washington state. It is described as a tall kale but it is the shortest one of three in my garden. The color variation is interesting. Some leaves are lime green with a yellowish stem, while others show some of the blue shades found on the rear of all leaves.



The Red Ursa kale is a knockout, a beautiful, vigorous plant. Leaves vary from green to blue, all with purple stems and veins. I think this one is going to be a favorite of mine.



OK, this is not actually a kale, or is it? This is Spigariello liscia, a plant that doesn't know what it is. Technically, I think it is a broccoli, but a broccoli where you eat the leaves. Brilliant, because in this climate I am expert at growing broccoli leaves but not so good at getting broccoli heads I can eat. So to heck with the heads, lets eat leaves. And it is looking like I will get a lot from my four plants.

That's what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting, visit Dave at Our Happy  Acres, our host for Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday 20 June 2016

A little more diversity in the harvest. I pulled a couple of the kohlrabies and after chilling them, I peeled and sliced them for a lunch with hummus. I added some sliced radishes to pad out the meal. My wife actually liked everything. Both the kohlrabi and radishes were sweet and juicy and the hummus tamed any spice in the radishes.



A  bunch of radishes picked last week, but not all. I found half as many still in the harvest bag. The lone whitish radish is Zlata, one of the two I will harvest this year. I didn't purchase new seeds and found just a few seeds left in the packet, of which two germinated. Oh well, more room for Champion red radishes.




















I got a large cutting of spinach. Several of the plants look like they are ready to bolt but the rest are still putting out new leaves. I am happy with anything I get. We had a spinach salad with strawberries and balsamic vinaigrette Friday, and I finally had enough left to just have steamed spinach with the steak tips I grilled on Saturday. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.



The garlic is finally starting to produce scapes. This cutting is mostly from the German Extra Hardy. Next will be the Chesnok Red and German Red. The tiny scapes are from some of the volunteer clusters of garlic around the garden produced when gardeners failed to harvest scapes and dead head the flowers. I consider it my civic duty to prevent further profligate behavior by their garlic.



Around the garden, the Flash collards are starting to put on some growth and I may have a harvest soon.



The Golden Acre cabbage is still looking good and has not yet been assaulted by flea beetles, cabbage caterpillars or slugs. Still looks like it is not quite ready to form heads but is thinking about it. Saturday I did see a white butterfly floating around the garden so I need to keep an eye out for caterpillars. We had a few butterflies in the spring but none since until the new one showed up. Maybe they won't be so bad this year.



The Minuet Napa cabbage is definitely starting to form heads all by itself. With the Soloist cabbages, I had to use twine to tie up the heads so they would blanch, but Minuet is doing it on its own. It has interesting ruffled leaves.



This is Webb's  Wonderful crisphead, looking like it is getting ready to be harvested. I have never grown a crisphead so I have no experience with when they are ready and when they are bolting. I probably will cut a head next week to see what I have.



The Winter Density Romaine lettuces are are also forming nice sized heads. The escarole behind them are also getting quite large and should be ready to harvest soon.

That is what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners from around the world are harvesting, visit Dave at Our Happy Acres, our host for Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday 15 June 2015

 

More chard, Magenta Sunset on left, Orange Fantasia, and Pink Passion. The chard and mustard were overhanging the squares where the cucumbers were to go, so they got trimmed.

 

 

The mustard greens are finally large enough to harvest.  Keeping them covered prevents flea beetle damage but I run the risk the higher temperature inside might cause them to bolt. Oh well, they are going to bolt anyway.

 

 

The squares in the foreground are needed for the cucumbers.

 

 

More radishes, Zlata and Dragon. I definitely have to try making radish pickles. For Michelle, I tasted a bit of the Dragon leaf and it was fairly mild but a little fuzzy. I would eat it, some bacon grease and a splash of pepper vinegar would make it quite tasty.

 

 

The garlic scapes have started to form and I got a first picking. The really fat ones are from the German Red garlic I picked up last year at the Mt. Desert Island garlic festival. The stems on this large garlic are at least an inch in diameter so I am hoping for some good size bulbs.

 

 

Finally got the last of the peppers planted, the spice and chili peppers that were so slow to germinate. On the left above are the spice peppers, Aji Dulce and Arroz con Pollo. The lighter green peppers on the right are the Lemon Drop chili peppers. All of these went in the raised beds.

 

 

As an example how crazy the variance in pepper seed germination is, the picture above shows two of my Jimmy Nardello peppers, a variety that I really like and really want to grow. The large plant was the first to germinate and one of the first seedlings I had to pot up. The rest did not germinate and/or I killed them, but I scrambled and used the paper towel in a baggie method and eventually got 6 peppers, 5 like the one on the left and one like the one on the right. Naturally I would like to be planting 6 peppers like the one on the right. I need to do something better, but at least it is not like last year where I killed just about all my pepper seeds that decided to germinate.

 

 

The Soloist Napa cabbages are heading so I tied them up to help, and to get the leaves off the ground so they don’t provide a convenient ramp for the slugs to get inside the heads.

 

 

I also tied up the heads of endive to blanch the hearts, which makes them more tender and less bitter. I should be harvesting some of the endives in a few weeks.

 

That is what I harvested from my garden last week. Check out what other gardeners around the world are doing by visiting Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday 23 June 2014

 

Last week I complained of no garlic scapes for poor  me. Then the  Mass Extension newsletter arrived Friday with the news that farmers across Massachusetts were harvesting (or sadly in some cases, composting) garlic scapes. Sure enough, a trip to the garden showed I do have scapes, shown above, which appeared almost overnight. I will be enjoying my scapes and not composting them.

 

The Mass Extension newsletter had some more advice on garlic culture:

• Garlic is forming bulbs now and needs adequate moisture, at least equivalent to 1” per week of rain.
• Likewise, removing competing weeds now is vital to maximizing bulb size.
• Removing the scapes also helps increase bulb size.
• It is way too late to fertilize garlic now, after the summer solstice. That should have been done in the spring.
• Finally, remove any runt, deformed or discolored plants now, since they may be diseased and even if not, they will not be producing useable bulbs. The garlic above is a stunted plant removed from my Viola Francese row, so I will have some green garlic to add to a dish.

 

 

So, the garden goes from promise to bounty in a week. Above are, left to right, Green Wave and Dragon's Tongue mustards and Beedy’s Camden kale  These were blanched and frozen.

 

 

The Win-Win choi is doing well and I harvested a couple of heads, which will be used in a stir fry. I also pulled more radishes, Zlata and Cherry Belle, some of which were starting to bolt. I also pulled a few Hakurei white turnips which I didn’t photograph. And I have also been picking lettuce which I didn’t photograph.

 

Of course, just as the garden decides to pick up and needs attention, we are leaving for a week. My son is going to water for me and harvest the garlic scapes. Hopefully it doesn’t get real hot so things can hold until I get back. I have never figured a good time to be away during gardening season.

 

That is all from Bolton this week. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting from their gardens, visit our host for Harvest Monday, Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday–24 Jun 2013

Today I am on the road, driving to Missouri to visit family (so I will be a bit out of touch for over a week). I will be travelling from Monsoon Alley to Tornado Alley, and I’m not sure that is an improvement. We continue to have a lot of rain, but at least we are getting some sun and warmth now. Last week, as of Wednesday, Bolton received another 5.6 inches of rain in the previous 7 days. Add that to the previous week and we have received 16.3 inches (41.4 cm) of rain in just two weeks. At least we now have some sun and heat with an occasional thunderstorm, so plants that didn't rot are now perking up a bit.

 

I still don’t have an ID for the fungal disease contracted by my peppers, but in one day it spread down 15 feet of row to affect all 22 of my pepper plants. I was worried I would lose all my peppers (most of which are special choices I started from seeds back in March and have babied all this time). I had some leftover copper spray I used on Saturday and went back on Monday with a fresh gallon of spray. I found the peppers much improved after the initial spray. So I decide to give the plants a chance. I removed the disease leaves and then sprayed heavily with copper. Looks like I may save my plants and even get a few peppers.

 

 

You can see the lesions on the lower leaf but all of the grey-brown blotches are gone.

 

 

The Aconcagua peppers, which were badly affected, stripped of their infected lower leaves. There are lots of tiny leaves emerging from the leaf axils which will replace the lost foliage.

 

 

Meanwhile, I was still harvesting produce from the rest of the garden. Broccoli and a few scapes and snow peas, above.

 

 

The last of the Choi and the first of the Flamingo chard.

 

 

New Red Fire lettuce and the first big batch of snow peas, with a few of the first snap peas.

 

 

Broccoli, more snow peas, and a few small fava beans We tried these tossed in olive oil and grilled, but the jury is out on whether we liked the favas that way. Oh well, I’m gone for over a week just as the favas start maturing. Hopefully the backup crew is up to monitoring them and picking them as they mature.

 

 

Four large heads of escarole. Three are given away and one is for me.

 

 

More lettuce and a large pile of scapes from the Red Chesnok garlic.

 

That’s all from here. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting from their gardens,please visit Daphne's Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday–17 June2013

 

Despite all of the rain (12-14 inches) the past 10 days, the garden has been hanging in there. I do think the plants would really, really enjoy seeing the sun again. At least the raised beds have kept them from being submerged in the puddles, see here. The community gardens are officially in a wetland, about 30 feet from Great Brook and the water table is maybe 2 feet down. With all the rain the soil is super-saturated and the least amount of rain will just puddle if it can’t run downhill toward the brook. So the Girl Scouts and I are high and dry in our raised bed gardens, we just have to garden in our galoshes. And you do have to be careful when stooping not to dip your posterior in the water (don’t ask how I know that). Our neighbors in the garden are not so lucky.

 

 

I did harvest quite a bit last week, enough to overfill the refrigerator. I didn’t cut any lettuce because I still have bags in the refrigerator, but I am going to cut some this week so my wife can take it to work. Other things did have to be harvested. The tatsoi below came from squares where my eggplant is going to go this week. The flea beetle damage on the older leaves is obvious.

 

 

A pair of Win-Win pac choi were looking like they might bolt so I cut them. They are destined for soup and stir fries.

 

 

I got a nice pile of garlic scapes, my first ever, and a pile of herbs, The broccoli is a tiny head of Purple Peacock which was starting to open, so I harvested it.

 

 

As I cut the purplish head from the very green Purple Peacock below, I was surprised to see it had already started to send out a bunch of side shoots. You can see at least three side shoots in the photo. This is my first year growing this variety so I have no idea what to expect from it. The leaves are also supposed to be edible just like kale.

 

 

There were some other surprises in the garden. Below you can see the only kohlrabi in 4 squares that actually germinated, and it is actively growing now and starting to form a bulb. So it looks like I may actually get a kohlrabi this year, although I do plan to plant more for the fall. Since the kohlrabies didn’t germinate, I put some radicchio transplants in their squares. The one below is now starting to form a head. So far they have been completely resistant to flea beetles and slugs, maybe too bitter?

 

 

Another radicchio making good use of the square forfeited by the kohlrabies, below. The spinach in the adjacent squares are not happy, not bolting but not the deep green they were. Maybe lack of sun or a foot of rain washing nutrients out of the soil? Time for some fish emulsion fertilizer, and some sunlight, please.

 

 

That is what is happening here in Soggy Bottoms. To see what other gardeners are harvesting from their gardens around the world, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.