Monday, June 22, 2009

Monday Harvest Tally

Life can really mess with the harvest tally, not to mention the frequency of posts. I didn't pick any greens and decided they could just sit in the ground for another week. I gave away excess chard and peas that I didn't have time to cook. I only picked what needed to be picked and did the bare minimum that needed doing in the garden.

I did get to pick some carrots, in fact I picked twice. The first batch was pretty small. They are just thinnings. The size may be a bit deceiving but these are tiny little thing. Note the broccoli sitting on the carrots. It is also tiny. It is the only broccoli harvest this spring which is sad. The root maggots got under the row cover somehow and the others died. This one was starting to go too. Sigh. Maybe I'll get broccoli in the fall.

The second batch I had to pick because they were starting to shade out the eggplants. They had grown huge in just a few days of wet weather. The Sugar Snax are the ones on the left. They are my attempt to grow long pretty carrots in my clay soil. I think they are doing OK. I picked four and two were horribly stunted. Two were very long. They obviously could use a bit more time in the ground to beef up. I really ought to shift my soil before growing carrots. That would get all the numerous little rocks out. The Danvers which are the stockier carrot did great. Danvers was bred for clay soils. It is more fibrous and can power down through heavy soil. They had one stunted one too, but all in all not too bad. The taste was the telling part though. Danvers was a tad bitter. I need to water more. Sugar Snax was sweet even with my poor watering habits. Hopefully with all the rain we are getting the Danvers will sweeten up a bit.

I'm into picking peas every couple of days now. I won't bore you with multiple photos of the same thing over and over again. This was the first picking. The second was much larger.

I tried picking edible flowers. They picked well but I forgot them and they never got eaten. They also never got into the tally. I really don't know how to tally them. They don't weigh anything. I suppose I could count them in the flower area, but really how much are they worth? I haven't a clue. So for now they aren't tallied. Hopefully I'll get to try some this week. I probably should pick them right before I eat them instead of my usual which is to pick in the morning.

I picked and dried some dill because it was starting to shade my cucumbers. The cucumbers could handle it when the dill was little, but the dill was shooting up with all the rain. I left a few scattered in the bed, but the thick forest of dill is gone.

Sadly there aren't any really stunning flowers to pick right now. The summer flowers of black-eyed-susans, cone flowers, and coreopsis haven't really started yet and the pretty spring flowers are all gone. All that are left are my double feverfew and the ox-eyed daisies. So that is the bouquet that is sitting on my kitchen table. It is a little boring with just white flowers, but still pretty.

So here are the totals:

  • Carrots 0.63 lbs
  • Herbs 0.41 lbs
  • Broccoli 0.09 lbs
  • Peas 1.48 lbs
  • Flowers 43

Weekly total: 2.6 lbs
Weekly spent: $14.61 (bamboo poles - and I need to buy more)
Yearly total: 19.04 lbs
Yearly earned: -$73.22

10 comments:

  1. Hi Daphne! Greetings from sunny northern Wyoming!

    Your harvest looks wonderful... your bouquet is just beautiful!!!

    I'm anxiously waiting for my black-eyed susans and daisies to come up. Just got them in the ground last week.

    Would love to see a photo of your whole garden!

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  2. Interesting, I grew Danvers Half long last year, I didn't realize they were bred in clay soil. I also noted a bitter, overly strong carrot taste, they were okay in carrot cake though. I've had zero luck with my carrots this year, they were all mowed down by rabbits! I'm just a little jealous.

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  3. I hear you about infrequent blogging! Right now, anything I'm doing is just a repeat of last week. Plus, I've been busy with garden shed insulating and helping to put up the inside walls and building site cleanup...not particularly interesting blog material! I do think I'll get one in today though...about "Daphne's Pumpkin". The one that is trying to take over the north plot! I must say, your pumpkin and dill are the giants of my garden :-)

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  4. I am not having much luck with carrots this year, last year they were great, go figure.

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  5. I love the white flowers! My daisies are not blooming yet (along with just about everything else that's not blooming yet). Like you, I've been wondering what the native Americans did on a cold year like this. It's awful to see how much the plants are suffering (or maybe I'm projecting my suffering onto the stunted plants).

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  6. I just love the cuteness of little carrots (aka, thinnings)! Too bad about your broccoli...I have given up planting anything in that family...

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  7. Those daisies are lovely...certainly one of the 'happiest' flowers ever! Kim

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  8. Toni, thanks. I do show overviews from my dining room window. I had one on Saturday and will probably have another one this week or next.

    Lzyjo, I think the carrots will be fine in cooking, but I might quit eating them fresh if they don't sweeten up with all the rain.

    Annie's Granny, I loved the photos of my pumpkin. I think I will just have to grow pumpkins that way. They don't grow here, so I'll grow them on the west coast.

    keewee, you never know what will be the star of the garden until it is all over. I want to have lots of salsa this year so I'm hoping for tomatoes, onions and peppers.

    June, thanks. I think the plants are suffering a lot. I was reading somewhere I forget where now, that this year in Maine (and I'm thinking Massachusetts too) it is the least sunny June for the last 50 years. I forget which day I saw the sun last. It was last week though. It had come out for just a short time as the sun was setting. I need more sun.

    islandgardner, I won't plant any brassicas unless they are under a row cover. There are so many brassica pests here, from root maggots to flea beetles to caterpillars. Without the row cover they just don't grow. With the row cover they occasionally have issues.

    the inadvertent farmer, thanks. They are a very happy flower. I always think that daisies are smiling at me.

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  9. Your carrots looks very nice. I have yet to like a carrot out of the garden. They always seem to be bitter to me. I am going to try and leave them all in until after a hard frost this year. I will have to look for 'Sugar Snax' next year for an early picker, any other sweet varieties that you know of?

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  10. Your harvest is really shaping up for early summer! Nice. Your potato cage is looking really cool! I want to build one of those for next year. For your edible flowers, go into a spiffy grocery or check out a farmers' market stand that sells them sometime - I bet they'll up the plus side on your $$ tally, they are usually pretty pricey! I've seen violas packaged with nasturtiums and maybe a few others, for maybe $5 a tiny pack. SO much cheaper and tastier to grow your own!

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