Harvest Monday 6 July 2015

 

I had to clear out some of the beets shading my cucumber plants, resulting in this. Finally, a harvest the wife actually likes, and so do I . Greens get boring after a while. These are Touchstone Gold and Shiraz.

 

 

Next some turnips and the first Azur Star kohlrabi. The white turnips are Hakurei and the others, according to my planting map, are Boule D’Or, but clearly are not. Hmm, where did I plant the Boule D’Or? These are Royal Crown, a purple top F1 hybrid from Sakata I purchased from Pinetree. They look very nice compared to the typical dried out store-bought turnip. Besides being good roasted or mashed, they are a good low-carb substitute for potatoes in some recipes.

 

 

Finally, I picked some lettuce. I was very bad about planting lettuce this year, but these two did get in the ground. These are Winter Density and Marshall, both Romaines. Unfortunately, they are showing signs of bolting, so I have about a dozen heads to harvest soon. Why did I plant 6 of each?

 

 

More peas, and plenty more where these came from. This is 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg). So my plan to trellis them rather than grow them in a block seems to be paying off, and they are much easier to pick. Next year I only need to plant half as many.

 

 

The onions are starting to size up, so I need to start pulling and using some of the ones I want fresh (and there are a lot of them). These are Red Candy, Tropea, and White Candy. The White Candy went into the lemon risotto for our Fourth of July salmon. The foliage on the Copra storage onions is already showing signs of falling over. The leaves are very tall and at first I thought it was wind from one of the storms that pushed them over. I think I will be harvesting them soon.

 

What I also noticed is that many of the onions are showing thrip damage. Onions for me have been pretty trouble free, but last year I figured out I had some apparent thrip damage and even some purple blotch. Thrips are hard to control. They are hard to see, being about a millimeter in size, and they produce 8-10 generations a year. The rapid reproduction means they can quickly develop resistance to whatever you spray them with, so you have to alternate sprays. Apparently spraying Surround clay on onion foliage repels thrips and they can’t build up a resistance to what is a mechanical control. Maybe I will try that next year. I have to find some more uses for my 40 pound bag of Surround.

 

That is what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are doing, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

2015 Planting List

 

What a winter! Historic snow amounts and low temperatures. We have had 7 feet of snow in about three weeks (a foot of that this weekend) and are expecting another 1.5 feet Tuesday. Tonight it is supposed to be –6 °F (-21 °C) with high winds and –30 °F  (-34 °C) wind chill factor. Brrr.

 

All of  the seed orders are in and mostly delivered and safe inside. For those of you unfamiliar with suburban snow storms, mailboxes on the street are subject to being blown up by the town plows going by at high speed, throwing a plume of heavy snow that rips mailboxes off their supports and deposits them who knows where. The mere fact that my seeds have been safely retrieved and secured inside is a major accomplishment. The hell with the bills, my seeds are safe.

 

I am now working on the seed starting schedule, which is keeping me positive with all the nasty weather. Meanwhile, here is the planting list for Spring 2015, whenever (if ever ) it arrives. Seed vendor legend: BC=Baker Creek, DF=Dixondale Farms, F=Fedco, HM=High Mowing Seeds, J=Johnny’s, PT=Pinetree, R=Renee’s, SESE=Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, T=Territorial

Harvest Monday 21 July 2014

As a little reminder of how nasty last winter was, the local paper says that the selectmen are dealing with a budget deficit from last winter when the highway department had to treat roads for 45 separate storms, the most in Bolton history. We are now having a spell of great summer weather. It did rain Tuesday and Wednesday , but except for that daytime temperatures have been in the 80s and overnight temperatures in the 60s. The garden has responded by putting on a growth spurt. The warm weather vegetables are close to yielding large amounts of veggies while the cool weather vegetables have bolted or shut down. Tomatoes and peppers look very healthy and the summer squash and beans are about to deliver.

 

 

I harvested the first Soloist Chinese cabbage. After removing chewed up outer leaves and de-slugging it, it weighed in at 2.5 pounds. This was supposed to be a miniature cabbage. Half of this went into an Asian Cole slaw for the Sunday BBQ. Since I have garlic chives in the garden, I’m thinking the rest goes into dumplings.

 

The last broad beans were harvested and I pulled out the plants, along with the peas. I got about a half cup of shelled beans total out of the effort. They were tasty but I am inclined not to waste the space next year. I also pulled a few of the Jaune Boule d’Or turnips which were ready. The freed up pea/fava bed was planted with beets and spinach. The only trouble with seeding raised beds this time of year is I now have to water the seed beds every day or risk getting nothing, the beds dry out so fast.

 

 

The first of the warm weather vegetables are making their debut. I picked a handful of Provider bush beans, a few Sishito and Jalapeno peppers, and a Y-Star patty pan. This is first time growing Y-Star and I am not sure what to expect.The catalog pictures show it a golden yellow with a green spot on the blossom end. Mine started out dark green and then gradually turned yellowish. No green spot on the end, and this one was already pretty large for a patty pan so I harvested it. Eating quality was good but I think I’m back to Sunburst next year. I didn’t photograph it but I removed the rest of the Green Wave mustard, which was starting to bolt, and planted escarole and endive in the freed up space.

 

That’s what happened in my garden this week. To see what other gardeners around the world are doing, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday 7 JUL 2013

I was gone for the last week of June and knew I was leaving garlic scapes, turnips, radishes, chard and mustard to be harvested when I got back. My son watered and kept up with the scapes for me. Fortunately, most items held, but that left me with a lot to harvest when I got back.

 

 

Half of the white Hakurei turnips were ready for harvesting and I pulled the batch above with more to harvest next week. These turnips are far superior to the Tokyo Cross variety I used to plant. The lavender Boro King radishes from Territorial were also ready, which was good because their foliage was shading the squash that is going to replace them. Note that one of them was white, not lavender. Also pulled  a few stragglers of Cherry Belle and Zlata.

 

 

I cut the kale to reduce its volume and allow my cucumbers some sun to get a start up the trellis. The kale went into Portuguese kale soup with some of the Hakurei turnips, half for dinner and half was frozen. Another Win-Win choi was harvested and used in a Asian-style slaw for the Fourth of July BBQ that was delayed until the 5th by the rain on Friday. The snow and snap peas are now starting to come in.

 

 

This a sampling of lettuces I have been picking from the Citypicker on the deck. I planted my lettuces in a self-watering container on the deck so I can pick them when I need them. The lettuces on the top are Jericho on left and Merlot on right. That is New Red Fire on the bottom. I also have my usual Buttercrunch but mistakenly planted it in the garden, so I have to drive 2 miles to harvest it.

 

 

The chard is finally mature and  producing well. The Orange Fantasia on the right obviously has some variability in its selection, with some white stems. That is Magenta Sunset on the left, not nearly as striking as it was in the Tower Hill Kitchen Garden last year. All of this and more was blanched and frozen.

 

 

More chard and some Green Wave mustard, plus more scapes. The chard and mustard was frozen.

 

 

Finally, Sunday I pulled some more of the Hakurei turnips that were throwing themselves out of the ground, just hanging on by the tap root. I guess they were telling me they were ready. I’m going to try freezing most of the snow peas. They will likely be used in a Thai curry or stir fry, so hopefully texture will not be an issue.

 

That’s what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting from their gardens, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Roots, both Edible and Incredible

How do you know you are getting a bit behind in garden chores? When the 2014 seed catalogs start arriving and you have not completed cleaning out the garden beds! I was enjoying the newly arrived Pinetree and High Mowing  catalogs when I realized I have not finished my chores with this year’s garden. We already had a garden work day but I spent more time helping put a wood chip border around our deer fence to protect the fragile plastic mesh deer fencing fabric from the town’s mowers than cleaning up my own plot.

 

We always recommend gardeners pull disease-prone plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers and dispose of them in the trash, the task I had yet to finish in my own garden beds. So today I headed to the garden with a black plastic trash bag. My first discovery was a pleasant one. I had left some Golden Ball turnips in the ground after pulling the larger ones and they survived nicely. I now have a nice batch of turnips to use for Thanksgiving dinner.

 

 

Next I pulled all the dead solanaceous and cucurbit plants. The plants were dead brown stems, the leaves long blown away. The biggest distinguishing characteristic was the roots, and how easy or hard it was to pull the plant. Particularly interesting to me was to compare the root structures of the grafted tomato plants to the ungrafted control plant. I have already declared the grafted tomato experiment a failure, and I won’t be planting them next year. Looking at the root balls, you can see why. Below is a photo of the Juliet tomatoes. The ungrafted tomato is the one at the top.

 

 

Alright, maybe I should have removed the fabric from the grafted tomato, but roots are supposed to grow through it and actually did. Also notice the size of the stems. The ungrafted Juliet at the top was grown in a 4 inch pot by a neighbor and was a beautiful transplant with a thick, stocky stem flushed with red. The grafted tomato was a mail order plant and arrived as a small, spindly plant and was never going to compete effectively with my locally grown ungrafted plant. Next I pulled the Big Beef tomatoes, shown below.

 

 

Again, the ungrafted Big Beef is the plant on the top. The Big Beef grafted plant was a bit more successful than the pathetic Juliet grafted plant, but did not compare well to the ungrafted Big Beef. So much for the theory that the rootstock used for grafted tomatoes is far more vigorous and  produces huge root volumes. In my case, that clearly is not true, but there must be a reason. Commercial growers are huge consumers of grafted plants, so it must work in the right conditions. For the time being, I will sit out the grafting experiment and go with ungrafted plants next year.

Harvest Monday—29 July 2013

 

I finally cleaned and trimmed the German Extra Hardy garlic that was hanging in the shed. Given the torrid weather we had, like Daphne I wonder if I cooked my garlic. It seems OK. I used a small bulb from this batch and the cloves were rock hard and very flavorful. From a half pound of seed garlic I harvested exactly 2 pounds of dried and trimmed garlic. I don’t know if that is typical but I am pleased with my first effort growing garlic. The Red Chesnok was harvested a week later and will hang in the shed for another week. I set aside a half pound (5 bulbs) of the German for seed garlic.

 

On the subject of alliums, the Copra yellow onions are falling over and I have pulled some of them. It is not the best conditions for harvest since we just received over 2 inches of rain the past week and the beds are wet. I started to pull some of the onions and let them lie on the ground to start drying. The size of them is underwhelming, but I use more small onions than large so I guess that is OK. The Red Bull onions are starting to look like they are ready as well.

 

 

The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, although some of these first tomatoes are suffering from blossom end rot (BER).  My first Gilbertie was rotten and dissolved in my hand when I tried to pick it (gross!), which I don’t think was BER. My first Pineapple has BER on the sides but I was hoping to be able to salvage part of it. Unfortunately, the rain last week caused it to split in multiple places. The photo below shows the Pineapple (upper left), my first Big Beef (lower left), and Juliet, Sungold and my first Black cherry tomatoes (a few of those didn’t make it home).

 

 

More chard and kale. These will appear weekly for awhile and probably are not worth a photo every week.

 

 

A couple of good sized turnips, finally. These have to be Golden Ball turnips, even though they do not look that golden. Finally enough to actually try them. I will be replanting these for a fall harvest.

 

 

The mustard greens are finally producing! I seeded these twice and they failed to germinate. I finally started them indoors and these leaves are from the transplants. That is Red Giant on top and Green Wave underneath. both great varieties. Pictured with one of the last lettuces (New Red Fire), some Broccoli shoots and a few Padron peppers.

 

 

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

Harvest Monday–9 July 2012

This was still a transition week between spring and summer crops. Almost all the tomatoes have set fruit now, along with some of the peppers and eggplants. The pickling cukes are starting to flower along with the first planting of bush beans. Some of the summer squash have flower buds. But with all the promise, there is nothing to harvest except the remaining spring-sowed vegetables.

This is the second picking of Tokyo Cross white turnips, and a lone radish. The rest of the radishes have bolted and were pulled. A few of the turnips show tunneling around on the surface of the bulb but no apparent penetration. I don’t know if this is the cabbage root maggot or nematodes. Anybody know?



The endive and escarole are getting crowded in their beds. I harvested two very large heads of endive which I cleaned up and placed in the refrigerator. Even though I was too lazy to tie up the heads to blanch the, the hearts are nicely blanched just from being cramped in the beds. There were a lot of small slugs in the heads so cleaning them was a chore. We already have had one salad, made with a warm bacon dressing and sprinkled with bleu cheese crumbles at Mark Willis’ suggestion.



Finally, another cutting of chard and mustard. The chard still looks fine but the mustard is thinking about bolting. This mustard along with a previous cutting provided us with a large pot of greens fixed Southern style with bacon drippings and served with pepper vinegar.



That’s what I harvested from my garden last week. To see what others have harvested, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for Harvest Monday around the world.

Harvest Monday - 2 July 2012

This week’s harvest is a little more varied. The snow peas are producing large amounts of pods. This pile weighed in at a pound and a half. And I am starting to get some side shoots from the broccoli.



Most of the salad bed is bolting and turning bitter. I cut a large bag of leaf lettuce to use in wilted lettuce salad, made with a hot bacon dressing.



I also cut a large amount of the lettuce for salads during the week, but this is probably the last of it until fall.



These are Tokyo Cross turnips, along with a few radishes. The roots were beautiful and free of cabbage root maggots. I don’t need the extra protein in my diet..The turnips are wonderful, sliced up and braised with a little butter. They were mild and sweet, but the greens need to be stripped off the stems which were too fibrous.



Another picking of snow peas yielded another pound of peas. We will have plenty of snow peas for the Fourth of July. Instead of the traditional New England dinner of poached salmon with egg sauce and peas, I do a variation which is a concession to my Midwestern instinct to barbeque on the Fourth. I slow smoke the salmon (a whole one if I can find it) using apple or alder wood. We serve it with a creamy lemon risotto and this year, with a large serving of steamed snow peas. The best part is the leftovers. Cold smoked salmon for breakfast for a week, with the left over crumbs going into scrambled eggs.



Finally, the mustard and the chard continue to grow prolifically and fortunately, the mustard does not look like it wants to bolt yet. And flea beetle damage is still minimal although the pests are back with the warmer weather.



That’s what came from my garden last week. To see what others have harvested, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions for Harvest Monday around the world.