Monday, June 27, 2016
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.
Labels:
garlic scapes,
harvest monday,
kale,
kohlrabi,
lettuce
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Beautiful blossom on the snow pea; I didn't know there were any other colors besides white. The cabbage, kale, and scapes are really nice too. Good job!
ReplyDeleteYou're getting tons of good food from your garden. Your greens and crisphead lettuce look amazing. I'm jealous of your kohlrabi, mine are still tiny things and just starting to bulb up.
ReplyDeleteYou've sure got lots of goodies coming in from the garden. That crisphead lettuce is a beauty. My lettuce will likely be done by the time I have tomatoes to go with it. I'm growing the Spigariello liscia too but I haven't cut any leaves yet. I think it is pretty enough to grow for an ornamental. That looks like vetch blooming in the one photo. We had some come in with the mulch and it has proven to be a tough weed when it's in the wrong places. And I'm always behind with weeding so you will never hear me talk about anyone's weeds!
ReplyDeleteYes, that is vetch and it is indeed invasive. It grows in the paths around the raised beds and the rhizomes made their way in under the sides of the beds and above the weed barrier. In the Spring when I prep the beds, I like to fluff up the soil and run my fingers through to feel for the rhizomes. I get a lot of wire worms and grubs that way as a bonus.
DeleteOof, my yard is full of vetch, nasty stuff it is! I can manage it in the raised beds but not as successful with my main dug garden where it won't let go.
DeleteBeautiful harvests, and am especially impressed by that head of lettuce. A lovely section of kale you are growing - I'm quite impressed with Red Ursa too. Surprisingly, I haven't grown the very popular Cavalo Nero yet, but I'm sure it will be added to the mix at some point.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea to plant the extra onion seedlings for use as green onions - I always end up with more seedlings than I need. So obvious, but I had never thought of that! Oh, and that last comment about you being an expert at growing broccoli leaves made me laugh!
Or use Dave's idea and plant some in a container on the patio. Same for the left over, too small garlic cloves in the fall. Then you have green garlic in the spring.
DeleteI like your attitude towards growing broccoli! Re the Webbs lettuce - because it is quite firm it is good for making Chinese-style Lettuce Wraps, filled with spicy chicken or minced pork. Looks like you are pretty expert on the Kale, Dave!
ReplyDeleteNever thought of using them for lettuce pockets. That def goes on the menu this week.
DeleteReally great kohlrabi, I'm envious for sure. And I hadn't noticed before, but you are right about the scapes - my smaller sized Red Russian are much smaller in the stem but the scapes seem to be similar in size to the larger Porcelain varieties.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely pea flower and your Webb's lettuce is awfully pretty. I've never been talented at growing head lettuce- they always bolt on me. I've never heard of Spigariello liscia, does it do better in warm weather than kale? I'm always on the lookout for heat tolerant greens.
ReplyDeleteLove the Green Beauty snow pea blossoms, unfortunately the plants are too susceptible to powdery mildew for my climate so I don't grow it any more. I battle vetch around my garden also, thankfully not in my veggie beds, yet. Webb's Wonderful does indeed look wonderful! Nice haul of veggies this week.
ReplyDelete